Korè

Beltane comes next, that little threshold holiday between late April and early May, the “spring fling” of our year. Mayday festivals have been around for centuries. Mentions of similar celebrations date back to the Roman Floralia and the Greek Maiouma, which is recorded as far back as the 2nd century BCE in the reign of Emperor Commodus. We also see similar festivals with things like bonfires, dancing, sweetheart rituals, and Maypoles all over Europe, and particularly in the British Isles. In some places, it’s connected with the Feast of St. Walpurgis (most notably the German Walpurgisnacht), and in others, it’s evolved into a kind of warm-weather romp that celebrates the month of May and the full flower of springtime. So there’s a lot of room for interpretation and a lot of activities to choose from if you’re celebrating this holiday as a secular witch.

The overarching theme of the day is definitely love. Love magic, sex magic, love divinations, marriage predictions, renewing of vows...it’s all there. There’s a reason besides the weather that May is the most popular month for weddings, and this might be part of it. So if you’re of a mind to work with any of that, DO IT. Cast spells to find love, attract a sweetheart, reconnect with your current partner, or if you’re single, maybe have a fling. Bring a little extra romance into your life. Just make sure you observe consent and common sense, and practice safe SEX as well as safe hex.

If you’re not interested in any of that, you can also work magic for self-love. Often in our conversations on love magic, we leave out that all-important relation with ourselves. Beltane is a great time to rediscover this. It can be a celebration of yourself and your own power and your own journey. Pamper yourself a bit. Have a home spa day, take a ritual bath, do whatever it is that makes you feel strong and gorgeous. Because spoiler alert - you ARE strong and gorgeous. A-bip-bip-bip...yes you are. Yes. You ARE. Even when you don’t feel like it, you’re an amazing person and the world is a better and more interesting place because you’re in it. So celebrate all the things you love about yourself - your mind, your creativity, your skills, and particularly your body, even if it’s uncooperative or a work in progress. Celebrate your strength and your ongoing metamorphosis into the person you want to be. Whether that journey is mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical, you are not the same person you were last year, and your progress deserves recognition.

Celebrate your communal and familial bonds as well. Connect with the people who make you feel loved and cherished and uplifted. If you can’t attend a party, maybe have a virtual game night or a socially-distanced movie marathon. If you’re working on coming out of your shell, this is a good time to maybe take a step in that direction, even if it’s just a small one.

This is a festival of flowers and fire, fertility and fun, so anything you want to do that involves any of those things would be appropriate. Have a bonfire, if you can do so safely, or light up some candles. Make flower crowns or garlands. Add greenery to your home decor. If you haven’t already planted your garden, or if your starter sprouts are ready and the final frost has passed, get them in the ground. Do some growth magic to help them along. Dress in something that makes you happy and comfortable. Put on your favorite music, dance around the house, and sing like you’re on your very own Broadway stage. Make your favorite foods, maybe experiment with making wine or beer or short mead if you’ve ever wanted to give that a shot. Make candied flowers or candied fruit peel.

Go on a picnic, if the weather allows it. If you’re partial to wildcrafting, gather wild herbs and flowers for your magic, always observing permission to harvest and best practices for your local ecosystem. That means whatever you want to pick, make sure you’re allowed to do so, whether on a spiritual level or on a practical one. Don’t go raiding state parks or your neighbor’s flower garden; you probably don’t have permission to take plants from these places. Take only what you need and don’t pick anything you can’t properly identify or anything that’s endangered. Make sure you label everything too; it saves time later and helps you remember what you’ve picked. I suggest bringing a pocket field guide to local flora to help you out. And while you’re out there, hug your favorite tree. If you have trees or shrubs on your property, decorate them with ribbons and streamers, give them a good drink of water, and thank them for all the oxygen. (Just make sure you take these decorations down and dispose of them properly before they become litter.)

Meditate on your passions. Think about your causes, all the things that put a fire in your belly. Think of what makes you feel happy and fierce and free. Rededicate yourself to the things that matter to you, whether in your witchy practices or your personal life, or the social and political causes that you feel most passionate about.

-from Hex Positive, Ep. 011 - Secular Celebrations (Nov 01, 2020)

Other Posts In This Series:

Imbolc

Spring Equinox

Beltane

Midsummer

Lughnasadh

Autumn Equinox

Samhain

Yule

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Family, friends, colleagues all weave various stories, judgments, and feelings into a cohesive perception—your identity as they experience it.

Most people also create their own narrative around themselves. Personal history, future ambitions, chosen identities.

We might conform to the narratives put upon us, maybe because we like a particular narrative or because we feel pressured to do so. Or, we may subvert a narrative and even change others’ perception of us.

Yet all narratives have no inherent, absolute meaning.

Your actual existence is not and cannot be summarized or reflected by any narrative.

At the same time, the nature of those narratives do have relative implications in the social world of humans, such as prejudice, privilege, and the like.

To realize deeply and thoroughly that narratives and the identities derived therefrom have no inherent reality will free you from countless traps. There search for validation, for crafting more interesting identities, and for pursuing various life storylines are just a few examples.

By freeing yourself from narrative fixations, you shift from being a character in someone’s story to being a storyteller. Not only are you inwardly free from the perceptual judgments of others, you are outwardly free to self-manifest in whichever manner your spontaneous, self-created existence feels so inspired.

While this doesn't mean that instances of prejudice and privilege suddenly vanish, it provides inner equanimity and outer flexibility.

Be reminded:

"You cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it."

their life expectancy went

up thanks to divorce.

Batman: Fine. Did you get all that, Commissioner? Commissioner: Indeed I did, Batman. We’ll set up the tape telecast and have the dummy package of money waiting. See you at eleven tonight. Commissioner: Two fine men. So dissimilar in many respects and yet… yet so similar in others.

✨ I do not need to be healed to be worthy of love.

✨ I gently release that which makes me feel unsafe.

✨ I explore and embrace my sexual desires.

✨ I yield control and step into trust.