Beltane

Whew...I'm a bit late with this, but I have a terrific excuse - we went up to Mum's, and I couldn't load photos on to her computer, and I couldn't manage to get my phone to let me write a post.

So we celebrated Beltane today. This is the holiday wherein the Goddess leaves the Maiden phase of the year and enters the Mother phase. This is where the God moves towards the fullness of his power, moving from Youth to Hunter. Today, he planted the seed for his rebirth, wedding the Goddess and (to use the vernacular) getting her with child (the child that will be born at Yule, himself come again into the world - dizzying, huh?). Lots of folks like to go "greenwooding" on May eve, and on Beltane. What's "greenwooding"? Hmm...how to put this...delicately...

Pagans. In the woods and fields. Celebrating fertility. Get it? Cool...save me from embarrassing myself.

As for myself, Someone, the Evil Genius, Sprout, and Mum? We celebrated with another tradition; we lit the balefire.

Lucky for us, Mum has a small parcel of dirt she calls her own, lives outside her town's limits (where there's a burn ban), and constantly has brush, deadfall, and various other burnables to...er...burn. Bonfire twice a year, at least, woo-hoo! Happy (not at all)naked Pagan dance!!

So, our fire:

It was a nice burn. We placed a bit of food and a libation on the fire, an offering to our Gods. We passed cakes (ok, ok, so they were Robin Eggs) and wine (eh, water, wine...it's all about the symbology)(that one was for you, Sir)(symbolism) and offered each other the blessing "May you never hunger. May you never thirst". I collected some of the ash, which I'll use year 'round for various blessings.

When we got home, Someone played in the new garden bed (he can tell you 'bout that some day), Bird played in the sprinkler, and I did dishes and kept Sprout from taking over the Internet with her cuteness. It was a close shave. You're welcome.

So how was your weekend??