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Here we will talk about simple ways you can celebrate Bealtaine (Beltane) by taking from old irish traditions and incorporating them into modern practices! Bealtaine typically falls on May 1st.

On Bealtaine Morning

Give a bowl of fresh moon water or sun water (preferably created on May eve) to your pets or drink a glass yourself if you don’t have pets. This sacred water drunk on Bealtaine is associated with success, strength and health. (Make sure tap or bottle water was used to make it safe for drinking)

In ancient times on the dawn of Bealtaine, cattle and other farm animals were brought to a sacred well to drink. This sacred water would ensure the cattle would produce much milk for butter and cheese during the summer months and that they’re calves would grow strong and healthy.

Gather dew from the grass and plants and wash your face or hands in the droplets. The dew on may morning is said to bless you with beauty if you wash your face, and bless you with creativity if you wash your hands.

In ancient times, The dew on the fields was considered very potent on May morning and young women would bathe in the droplets for lifelong beauty and men would wash their hands to become a skilled craftsman. Goddess Brigid is associated with the sun and morning dew, and as the sunlight blesses the dew, it is said that those who consume it will be touched by poetic inspiration. Brigid’s guidance was often called imbas gréine or wisdom from the sun.

On Bealtaine Afternoon

Find a Hawthorn tree and bring home May Blossom flowers or any wildflower like Marigold you find outside. Use them to decorate doors and windows. (Hawthorn blossoms attract the fae, so keep the blossoms outside of your house if you don’t want the fae to come in)

It was said that the Hawthorn tree was free from otherworldly punishment on this day and many people took advantage of this to decorate the outside of their homes. The Hawthorn is associated with fertility and young women would take a sprig of blossom and keep it close as a way of attracting a husband.

Make daisy chains and wear them!

It was common as part of may day festivities for girls to decorate themselves in wreaths of daisies, marigolds and buttercups.

On Bealtaine Evening

Light two candles of any size, place them on your floor and walk between them. This ensures health and blessings for the coming year. (General fire safety applies here. Be careful!)

Cattle were driven between two bonfires on Bealtaine to ensure health and blessings for the coming year. Cattle in particular were very important to the celts as milk was a vital source of food. The stronger and healthier their cows were, the more likely the celts were to survive and thrive.

If possible, light a bonfire in a safe location. If not, light the biggest candle you have to represent and honor the beginning of summer.

Fire has always been an important part of irish paganism and lighting a bonfire marks the beginning of summer and represents the sun. Once bonfires were lit, festivities of feasting, music, games and other celebrations would begin.

Food for Bealtaine

Nettle soup

Irish stew

Dandelion Jelly

Scones

Soda Bread

Full irish breakfast

You also can’t go wrong with any food that includes milk, cheese, cream, beef, pork and seasonal fruits and veggies!

If this little book should see the light after its 100 years of entombment, I would like its readers to know that the author was a lover of her own sex and devoted the best years of her life in striving for the political equality and social and moral elevation of women.

White Shamans & Plastic Medicine Men [1996]

You really don't need all the fancy bullshit every tumblr influencer will ever tell you to use. Here's my countdown ofaxtually useful shit.

A pocket knife, preferably with a wood handle. Use that bitch for everything, enchant it, carve symbols in it. It will absolutely be your best friend.

A good bag or backpack with a couple of plastic or ziploc bags in it. If you ever run off into the woods to find minerals, bones, plants, etc. A set aside bag and some things to store your treasures in becomes a necessity.

Basic divinatory sets. You don't have to buy fancy shit, learn to divine with playing cards and dice, or learn geomancy, lithomancy, or rune casting with homemade sets. A tarot deck is nice, but it isn't necessary when you've got so many other divinatory aids available.

A nice sized chunk of scrap cloth. When you process dried plants or sort new ones, that shit can and will get everywhere. A scrap piece of muslin or linen can help contain all of that mess and make clean up way easier.

A stash of good rocks. Draw sigils or symbols on those babies and leave them in the garden, the windowsill,property boundaries, under the stoop, etc. You can never have too many good rocks.

A pendulum, for fucks sake. The cards are going to be vague as hell when you're trying to figure out yes or no questions, and using a candle to communicate with spirits is really fucking hard outside. If you can't afford one, find a nice chunk of pointy quartz and learn to macrame.

A workspace. Everyone talks about having big fancy altars, but no one mentions that you need a good surface to do all your work on.

Storage, so much storage. I'm not talking about mason jars and pill bottles, I'm talking about where you put all the things you put in those jars. Having a workspace with drawers is immeasurably helpful.

A broom and water source. You're going to be cleaning up after yourself a lot, it's helpful to have a jug of water and a broom that stays by your workspace.

A mode of cleansing. I make a salt concoction to scatter around my workspace on short notice and store it close by.

On that note: SOMETHING TO CANCEL SPELLS WITH. Eventually, something will go wrong. You'll want to end that spell immediately. Have something to do it with.

A strainer. If you don't have a blender, rub dried plants across it to get a powder. If you do have a blender, you can strain that powder with it. Either way, if you intend to powder shit, get a strainer.

Small trays. It makes drying flowers so much easier if you have a small metal surface to contain them with- then just stick those suckers in a southern window and let em go.

Yarn/string scraps. Having a box or drawer of scraps makes trying this up to dry easier and a bit less wasteful.

A stash of offerings for whatever you work with. Honey for fae, coins for graveyard gatekeepers, alcohol for ancestors, etc.

Protective talismans or charms. Once you're into all of this stuff, you'll likely stick your nose in something you shouldn't. Having basic protection with you or in your workspace is incredibly important. A key and hagstone with red string is simple and effective.

A lighter- so many people forget the most basic shit. You're going to want to light shit on fire if you're a witch.

these are some old ass weirdly pagan yet catholic cures/rituals, some of which i was told and some of which i sourced from dúchas.ie (they are local to my area specifically) and tbh i just wanna make a record of them. both to pass on the information and also because some of them are just so bizarre. i’ll probably update this as i find more. these are for entertainment and education purposes only

warts:

steal a piece of meat and rub it on the wart. bury the meat and as it decays the warts will vanish. 

go to a bridge on a friday morning. wash the wart in river water found in the hole of any stone in the river.

cut a potato into 9 parts. place them in a parcel with a penny and bury the parcel at the nearest crossroads. the person who picks up the parcel will have the warts passed on to them.

king’s candlestick (mullein plant) rubbed on the wart while saying a rosary.

put a snail on the warts and then put a thorn in the snail.

mumps:

put a horses’s haltar on the afflicted and lead them across a stream 3 times.

heat salt very hot in a pan and then put it in a woolen stocking. tie it around your neck before you go to bed.

gargle a glass of hot water with salt and baking soda in it.

whooping cough: 

make the sign of the cross over the afflicted’s back, and then lie under the belly of a donkey. repeat 3 times.

if two unrelated people of the same surname marry, anything given by them such as bread or jam will cure whooping cough.

give milk from which a ferret drank to the afflicted. repeat 3 times.

rheumatism:

carry a small new potato with you in your pocket.

wearing red flannel on the areas affected.

eating raw celery and plenty of garlic (solid reasoning tbh)

sting yourself with nettles on the affected areas.

tooth and mouth pain:

throw each tooth you lose over your left shoulder as they fall out. you will never suffer from toothache.

go to the funeral of a man who died of toothache (interesting approach…)

a person who has never seen their father (usually born after the father’s death) can cure mouth ulcers by blowing on the ulcers and praying.

colds:

quarter an onion and place them in the four corners of your room before you go to bed. 

a bowl of hot buttermilk or buttermilk gruel with plenty of butter and sugar while having a hot jar/water bottle to your feet.

a glass of punch made from mountain dew (real mountain dew not that american drink) and a mustard footbath.

flaxseed boiled and strained with lemon juice, honey and liqorice laces taken as a drink.

sprains:

wrap the skin of an eel as tight as you can around the affected area as tightly as possible

get a posthumous child to rub the sprain and pray. (what in the goddamn????)

misc:

to cure a stye, get 9 thorns from a gooseberry bush and prick the style with each thorn while making the sign of the cross.

for cuts and lacerations: get a dog to lick the wound, place a clean cobweb over the wound or chew some slanlus (a type of weed) and apply to the wound.

rub ringworm with a gold wedding ring.

if you are stung by a nettle, find a dock leaf and rub it on the sting while repeating “dock in, dock out, take the sting of the nettle out” (i can 1000000% confirm this works)

nettles, bogbean, and rosenoble (scrofula family of plants) turned into tea or used in food helps to purify the blood and improve circulation. 

soot can be used to whiten teeth.

This is one of those neat things where you can see the evolution and change of witchcraft. Traditionally, in Scottish workings, you would see the carline or spaewife blow out an egg and use the empty shell to store disease or a curse that had been cast on a person.

When crossing over to the Americas early Scots had some people who actually brought hollowed out eggshells with them, so that if any evil spirits or diseases attacked the boat, they could be ‘sucked into’ the eggshell and then thrown overboard to ensure that they made it to land safely, something which was not guaranteed in those days. Most of the early settlers of Appalachia were from Anglo-Scots territory, and the tradition shifted, to where eggshells were an active part of hedgework or trancing, where the shell would be filled with tallow, lard, or wax, mixed with herbs, and a used wick from a consecrated candle was used to ensure safe travel and return from spirit work. 

It also shifted in egg shells became used in actively cursing people as well, especially if the eggshell was from one the mark had eaten, or from their henhouse.

A LOT OF PEOPLE GET CAUGHT UP ON THIS IDEA OF MAGIC ATTEMPTING TO DESCRIBE SOME FUNDAMENTAL HIDDEN TRUTH ABOUT THE WORLD AND THAT ONCE YOU KNOW IT YOU CAN CAST FIREBALL IN REAL LIFE

THINK OF IT LESS LIKE MATH AND MORE LIKE COOKING HOWEVER MAGIC IS A PROPERTY THINGS HAVE AND IT IS AN ACTION YOU CAN PERFORM SO WHILE YOU CANT REALLY *MAKE* NEW FORMS OF MAGIC YOU CAN SORT OF CREATE A NEW CUISINE A NEW THEORY AND PRACTICE OF HOW THE ELEMENTS FIT TOGETHER