Beltane: Flowering

Pilgrimage to Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau

This weekend marks the pagan celebration of Beltane, meaning a time of flowering.  Celebrants in past centuries often danced around maypoles (like the one pictured above) in the Rococo painting by Watteau, and groups will recreate this ritual today as well.  Rococo was an eighteenth-century style of art, very popular in France, that emphasized exuberance.  The adjectives I use for this genre are fun, frothy, and frilly.   Venus is often invoked in this art and the major theme is love and sex. Beltane too is all about love and sex.

Now that the ground has begun to warm it is time for life to spring forth with energy and zest.  As humans in the natural world, it is our time to enjoy the forcefulness of life around us and to engage in our own primal instinct to bloom and grow.  Beltane provides us with an opportunity to explore our sensuality, sexuality and regenerative urges.  This doesn't have to take the form simply of sex, of course.  Dancing, creating, engaging with nature, all of these fit the bill as we enter into the heart of spring and open our own hearts too.  

Suggestions for embracing Beltane:

• For the birds!  Explore birds in your own backyard or on nature trails.  In particular listen to their songs.  One of my greatest joys of the year is when I can once again awaken to birdsong. Below find two links to sites where you can learn about bird conservation and birdsong.  Think about buying an identification guide too. https://www.audubon.org/birds http://www.birds.cornell.edu/onlineguide/
• Buy fresh flowers and a lushly scented floral candle (think rose, jasmine, or lilac).  Drink in the colors and scents.  Feel the texture of the petals.
• Enjoy a big colorful salad with a homemade dressing that incorporates a fruity vinegar.
• Buy some silky nightwear.
• Buy a floral perfume, or rediscover one you already have.  
• Make some homemade chocolates with a splash of orange flower water or rosewater.
• Drink some green jasmine tea and breath in the sweet steam.
• Rejuvenate your skin with a yogurt/honey mask (just plain yogurt with a teaspoon of honey added). Follow up with a spritzer of rosewater or rose-scented witch hazel.
• Dance, informally, or perhaps attend a contra dance in your region, they can be found online.
• Trade massages with your partner, enjoy the magic of touch.
• Add some lovely pink or purple to your wardrobe.

Most importantly, think about how you can blossom and grow during the spring and summer.  Now's the time to look into retreats, vacations or summer study. Allow yourself to indulge that urge.  Should you care to study, remember Your Art of Living offers a ten-week Healing Traditions course that explores five health and wellness traditions. http://www.yourartofliving.com/our-courses.html

Go forth and frolic!

Lisabeth