Happy Beltane
My boys were toddlers when I heard about the ancient Maenads - women who had become disenchanted by house work and childcare who could take a year sabbatical and run wild in the woods with sexy Dionysus. They drank wine until the frenzy of inebriation overtook them and the orgies began - the women made passionate love with the God of wine, tearing at his flesh and tasting his blood. Then returned to their lives without guilt or shame. It was okay for women to have a wild hair! Oh how that intrigued me.
Some scholars say that Dionysus is the prototype for Christ’s Eucharist. Although a different form of elation and exaltation, so much of paganism is alive and well in our churches. Even our beloved Easter that just celebrated always falls on the first Sunday after the full moon after the Spring Equinox. We cannot extricate ourselves from being attuned with nature and the wildness inherent in our free spirit. Beltane celebrates our fearless, feral nature with wild abandon - if only from dusk to dusk.
Beltane on April 30 is celebrated through May 1 and marks the end of winter by releasing the necessary “hoarding” attitude of colder months and blessing fields, crops and animals in hopeful anticipation.
This year we need this exuberance of LIFE, JUICY LIFE more than ever!! Plus we had a New Moon last night and eclipse. It's not easy being human these days, so let loose! Letting go is sacred. On this holiday, the bonfires are lit and the Faeries fly. A tree is felled, stripped of its branches and adorned with flowers and ribbons.
Merrymakers weave the ribbons around the pole in a dance that symbolizes nature's bounty. The erect pole is a phallic symbol that represents the Divine Male. The ribbons represent the Divine Female who wraps herself around the pole like Mother Earth covers the seeds. The resulting child is an abundant harvest.
Celebrating this lusty holiday makes me smile because we’re often told we need to be stoic and serious when we approach the Divine. I do not agree. I believe we were made to be free. I believe that when we laugh a good bawdy laugh in full joy that is as sacred as clasping one’s hands in prayer on bended knee. Your joy is as holy as your devotion. Dive into your life.
