Are you old enough to remember dancing around the Maypole in elementary school, holding ribbons hung from the flag pole and winding them into a pretty pattern? Or maybe you just held hands with the other five year olds and were happy to be outside, even if you had no idea why.
You were dancing around the phallus of the Oak King to encourage him to do his magic with the Great Mother Earth as Spring turned into summer and the fields and gardens started to bud. If only your elders knew!
May Day
A tradition on the first day of May is giving your friends nosegays: little posy bouquets. I remember the most Christian person I ever knew leaving me pots of dug-out spring flowers such as wild violets on May 1st morning. She was welcoming the Goddess without realizing. She’d be horrified to know.
Beltaine Ritual
I usually have a ritual for you but today, all I have to share is this:
Go outside. Anchor your feet into the Earth and feel around. Beltaine is a fire festival, so light a bonfire some time this week. Feel the earth, feel the heat.
Something’s changing. There is an eclipse coming at the full moon and it’s going to be epic. Revolutionary. Or evolutionary. There’s a lot of prognostication about what massive cultural, personal and planetary shifts we can expect in the coming months.
A lot of things will “happen.” We only have control over how we respond to it. What we tell ourselves about it. How we let it evolve us. Or how we resist and declare how unfair it all is.
Let’s keep it personal for now. On the other side of the eclipse or the full moon (or both) who do you want to be? What do you want to be different? Who will you be by the Solstice or Lammas (Lughnasadh?)
Make an Intention
Remember the apocalypse event from March? Apocalypse means “unveiling.” What’s being unveiled? Well, you of course. It’s the curtain you’re hiding behind that’s being ripped away.
Lots of things might fall with these cosmic changes. Biggest of all won’t be the political system. It’ll be your facade. Who you thought you were and who you presented to the world.
It’ll be our illusions about ourselves: our masks, shadows and ego. Sounds painful, but remembering who you really are (God/dess made flesh, master of the illusion, creator of reality, dancer of energy and vibration,) means it’s the best possible thing that could happen.
It won’t be any more painful than losing a tooth. Remember when you were five dancing around the Maypole? You probably were also wiggling a loose tooth with your tongue then too. Just like now. So go in with intention.
MAYbe this time
If you are sad, tired, agitated, frustrated, feeling lost or over-indulging… Sleeping, weeping, doom-scrolling, give yourself a break. The changes are upon us and it’s not just you. Something is going on cosmically, planetarily, astrally, socially. It’s shifting. You’re not crazy, lazy, wrong, broken.You’re part of the reinventing that’s been going on from time immemorial.
Run out and meet the changes. Become who you’re supposed to be (the possibilities are infinite, so pick one.) Follow your ancient calling or truth. If you really think you have no idea, go check under the cravings. I bet a few interesting truths are hiding under there. No cravings you say? Look under the certainties.
When I think about the ancient callings I ignored for years I want wine. The smell of Old Vine Zinfandel in a fish-bowl sized glass. I haven’t had a drink in nearly 7 years, so that regret really supports me in my sobriety, and in my wish-fulfillment plans. Maybe all your cravings would go away if you listened to your gut, and to the Goddess and the pull and tug of your ancient dreams.
(Oh, yeah, and there’s no badge of honor for “having no regrets.” Regrets, like everything else, are doorways.)
Heaven’s Cross and the Apocalypse (Unveiling)
Remember the Age of Aquarius is now. The Consciousness shift has happened (read about it in my March posts). There’s nothing else you HAVE to do and maybe the thing you think you MUST DO is the doorway to your true destiny or next iteration.
You’re on the path. Don’t wear the old shoes. (Follow your gut, feel the nerves and curiosity. Those feelings have led women to riches, breakthroughs, massive changes, heart-pounding love, twinkling possibility and deep into the forest for herbs and fairies and the magical selves they’ve left to go to moss. Go dig her up, put her in a pretty cup, bring her home.
Let every blooming thing remind you of who you are even if the world caves in during these next tumultuous months.
You are incarnate for this moment as a woman.
That’s big. It’s enough.
Thankfully Wicca gives us plenty of spots on the wheel of life to remember who we truly are and how we fit and what we’re called to do. We can shift every couple months or so – or every day. Just like Her.
Sharing Love and Blessed Be,
Diane
