The wheel turns again and summer has come!
So yes - I celebrated the Beltane festival in kind.
Lighting a candle, sitting round a fire in a bit of a
But the seasons are not really set to dates. Those dates are loosely set around moon phases or astrologically affected times as well as seasonal weather. Our long ancesters didnt have the gregorian calendar to work out the seasons. They planted by the moon and sun. They watched the signs of the birds, the trees, the animals and the weather. Wind and clouds. A friend recently said on social media she had heard her first cuckoo of the year. Lucky living in a rural idyll, shes more likely to hear such things. It was often a feeling of anticipation and then a sudden awareness of the changes and movement that amalgamated in knowing the seasons had moved on.
I live on the edge of a town and many of the signs of the countryside are swallowed up by traffic, train and car noises. Im lucky enough to live on a cul de sac without the constant drone of car engines passing by, but near enough to main traffic routes to hear the far away constant hum of it. Im also fortunate to have a garden now though I have been without at other times and found ways round growing in containers, allotments and shared gardens.
Having said this however, when working with the seasons - even in the midst of an urban sprawl, one does begin to have a synchronising of personal energy with the earth energy being worked with and with encouragement you can feel the changes yourself. My work in my garden to plant my flowers and vegetables. My personal touches of honouring the earth energies and ancestors.
Clumsy attempts at crafts and art, incorporating seasonal symbols that open up memories of ancestors and a developing relationship with the Old Ones.
All these things matter and increase my acknowledgement of life in all its cycles.
Some years ago when my youngest child was a toddler, I wrote a book with ideas to celebrate the seasons within a pagan family. My children are now grown and do their own thing. But I still enjoy the childlike crafts, ideas and projects I shared with them. The Craft is best approached in a child like awe and fascination. Nothing wrong with tying wishing ribbons (loosely so as not to damage the branch growth) on a tree. Or decorating your door with a wreath of flowers to welcome in the Summer May Queen. Poppets filled with herbs and small stones or crystals for love and protection hung in the home.
Dancing round a maypole if you can - or even making your own and getting family or friends to dance with you.
Hopefully I will have felt my usual connection with the seasonal changes and can celebrate the summer's beginning. Until then, I will encourage with my crafts, my spells and my songs.
Sing Cuckoo!
