The Spring Festival of Beltane and our Right to Start All Over
Happy Beltane to friends in the Northern Hemisphere (and of course Happy Samhain to friends in the Southern Hemisphere)! As today falls halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, we celebrate the peak of the spring season and all things related to rebirth.
Flowing with Nature on the Wheel of the Year
Long before the Christian, Gregorian calendar was established, our ancestors lived according to solar or lunar cycles. In fact, many Asian, Islamic, and Jewish cultures still follow a lunar calendar, but those of us who hail from countries rooted in the European paradigm have largely lost our ancestral rhythm (which is nature’s rhythm). Our bodies haven’t fully adapted to the modern system of waking up in the dark, spending our daylit hours indoors, and going to bed long after the sun has set. While it’s not possible to reject this way of living entirely (without going off grid), trying to reintegrate nature’s cycles into our daily lives even a little bit does wonders for our wellbeing. Having been on my healing journey for nine years now, I can hand-to-heart say the single biggest benefit to my mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing has been my effort to live seasonally.
The way I do this is by observing the Wheel of the Year in addition to the Gregorian calendar (it’s not like I can tell clients their session will be held as the sun reaches the zenith on the Summer Solstice…). The Wheel of the Year is the ancient, nature-based calendar utilized by the Celtic and Germanic tribes of Europe. It’s comprised of eight festivals that mark the turning of the seasons - therefore the turning of the earth, and thus the wheel - namely a Winter and a Summer Solstice (otherwise known as Yule and Litha, respectively), an Autumn and a Spring Equinox (a.k.a. Mabon and Ostara), and four cross-quarter fire festivals called Imbolc (1 February), Beltane (1 May), Lughnasadh (1 August), and Samhain (1 November). Note these dates are applicable in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere experiences the festivals in a mirrored timeline. While the solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year, the equinoxes see a parity of daylight and darkness (hence ‘equinox,’ or 'equal night’). They also initiate the four seasons while the cross-quarter festivals all mark seasonal peaks, or half-way points.
These festivals are observed throughout most cultures and religions, just by other names. In fact, many of the world’s famous monuments were built specifically to facilitate these seasonal rituals including Stonehenge in England; Angkor Wat in Cambodia; Chichen Itza in Mexico; and Abu Simbel in Egypt. My own lineage hails from northern Europe so for me, the Wheel of the Year is appropriate but I encourage you to find out how your own ancestors celebrated these festivals.
Working with nature’s cycles instead of against them is a beautiful way of reducing resistance in our lives. It’s an easy way to go with the flow and surrender. As our bodies acclimate to flowing with nature’s rhythm, our nervous systems slowly start to feel safer letting go of hypervigilance and allowing a more easeful pace. Our bodies can rest when they were designed to rest and be active when they were designed to be active.
The Meaning of Beltane
One of the cross-quarter Celtic fire festivals, Beltane was a celebration of the period when our food supplies were secure so people could focus the new cycle of growing crops and raising livestock as well as the lustier activities of life. Beltane is also known as May Day in some places, which is celebrated with the phallic symbol of the May Pole. Much of Beltane is about sex, really, given the fertility of the season. Pagans believed that on Beltane, the feminine and masculine, the God and Goddess, were equal in power and therefore could be united in ritual. Those rituals usually revolved around bonfires. In fact, the etymology of the word Beltane is from the Celtic sun god ‘Bel,’ meaning bright, and ‘teine,’ the Gaelic word for fire. The Celts would drive their cattle through the bonfire smoke and purify the livestock to ensure their health throughout the forthcoming summer. Fundamentally, Beltane is a celebration of life, pleasure, and hope.
Celebrating Beltane
Today I find myself celebrating Beltane at the world-famous Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland! Well actually it was last night because Beltane festivities begin at sunset on the eve (30 April) and end at sunset on 1 May (Beltane is a pretty long party). Maybe it’s just the environment - the throbbing Celtic heartbeat of the land, the bonfire pyres that reach the heavens (supervised by a suitable number of fire marshals), the ritualistic drumming - but I am FEELING Beltane this year. Unlike previous years when I did a little spring-y ritual involving a scented candle and maybe some fresh flowers (let’s not relive the paper-burning ritual of 2021 which nearly brought the London Fire Brigade to my door…), this year I am fully embodying the magic of Beltane and I invite you to do the same. There’s something about Beltane that’s different from the other seasonal festivals. Maybe it’s the earth which is emanating lust, maybe it’s the Scots around me who are emanating the lust…who cares? The vivaciousness of Beltane is palpable.
We don’t need to travel or splash out on a big celebration in order to observe the seasonal festivals, that’s kind of the point of shifting to a life that is seasonal, non-linear, and, above all, slower. In many ways, quiet rituals are even more beneficial to our mental and spiritual health because they’re intimate, personal, and local. I was visiting family in New Jersey in mid-April and was reminded of how pleasant the spring weather is there. If I were to celebrate Beltane on the east coast of North America, I would probably use the day to buy my seasonal plants and do some potting in the warm sun. Over here in the UK though, especially up north in Scotland, the earth hasn’t quite warmed up yet, so I observed Beltane last night wearing a coat as I had a dinner of local spring lamb followed by a climb to the top of Calton Hill where I joined a couple thousand people in expressing gratitude to the sun for the mystifyingly long days this part of the world sees in the spring and summer.
Observing Beltane means slowing down and doing just that - observing. As a trauma survivor and trauma healer I am not an advocate for Mindfulness with a capital M (more about that in another article), but in this sense, mindfully observing the changing face of the earth can be tremendously nourishing. Making the best of whatever is available to us is 100% sufficient, whether that’s taking a walk through a field of bluebells, strolling a city street and noticing the potted tulips on stoops, crafting with seasonal flowers, creating a spring altar on a windowsill and lighting a candle, or just standing outside for a minute, noticing the sensation of sun on our face and acknowledging that we are in the midst of a rebirth cycle. Unless we’re practicing Wiccans or neopagans our goal isn’t to pay tribute to the Green Man or the May Queen, it’s just to slow down and start flowing with nature’s rhythm by pausing and acknowledging where we are on the Wheel of the Year as it turns.
The Season of Rebirth
It’s important to acknowledge that while one festival is occurring in one of the earth’s hemispheres, the opposite festival is occurring in the earth’s other hemisphere because the earth experiences life and death simultaneously. For example, the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing a festival of life (Beltane) today while the Southern Hemisphere is celebrating a festival of death (Samhain) on the very same day. When we flow with nature we quickly realize that there is no death without a birth and no birth without a death.
Death and birth are not linear, they are spiralic. They are experiences that flow into and through one another. In fact, it’s said that at both Beltane and Samhain the veil between the earthly and the spirit worlds is at its thinnest; such is the power of death and birth. Nature, in the physical and the energetic senses, rotates like a wheel. Whether we observe the Wheel of the Year in the European tradition in which one half of the same earth dies at the Autumn Equinox while the other half is reborn at the Spring Equinox or the wheel of Samsara in the Eastern tradition in which we die and are endlessly reincarnated, the principle is the same - death and rebirth travel together. Anyone who has ever studied to be a birth or a death doula understands that the stages of birth and death are nearly identical. This is no coincidence.
Change is Our Birthright
I recently read a book by Temperance Alden about how the Wheel of the Year festivals can be applied in our modern lives. In it, the author said something that put a grin on my face: “Beltane fires and festivals are a reason to celebrate the joy of living and being alive.” Beltane is about living and to me, living is about creating the life we desire, without the shackles of social expectation or conditioning. Without the burden of toxic shame. The Abrahamic dogma that many Westerners were raised with would have us believe that we live one life and if lived well, we will experience a rebirth of sorts into everlasting peace.
In the interest of self-disclosure, I love world religions and spiritual philosophy. I still call myself a Catholic but I’m also pretty pagan (is there really a difference?…) and I also observe rituals and tenets of many other faiths and worship in whichever kind of temple is in the nearest vicinity (even if that temple is nature itself). The reason I say this is because in my theological studies I’ve observed several common threads that run through the world religions and ancient traditions. The main thread being that rebirth doesn’t have to wait until our bodily death; rebirth can happen multiple times during our lives because rebirth is a spiritual experience, not a physical one. We can be reborn as many times as we’d like and the purpose of each rebirth is to experience a greater level of peace. As a therapist, I see clients die and be reborn with peace, often multiple times during our work together. It’s even why I named my healing practice after the Yew tree, a mystical symbol of death and rebirth.
Rebirth can take many forms: redemption; resuscitation; or my personal favorite, the choice to start all over again. The story that we have to stick it out in the life we chose is just that - a story. A shame-based conditioned story. I’m still shocked how many people view marriage as a life-sentence; geographic origins as fixed roots; and careers as a vertical ladder instead of a gameboard on which we can move backwards and forwards and sideways. One of the reasons I chose to specialize in the area of toxic shame was because I was devastated to see people I loved shackled to the belief that they were stuck in the jobs, places, relationships, and situations they were in despite not being fulfilled. Eventually I came to understand that much of this belief is shame-based in that the pressure to stay put is a social more created to shame us into compliance.
Of course there is also the deep fear of taking risks, of stepping outside our comfort zones. The more baggage we carry, the harder it is to prioritize our own fulfillment so many of us, well, give up. We settle for good enough.
FOLKS. Take it from someone who is living on borrowed time here - if your life isn’t delicious, authentic, and exactly what you desire, do everything you can possibly do to make it so. Pivot. Shift. Take baby steps or a giant leap, it doesn’t matter! My life isn’t quite there yet, but I spend every minute of every day moving in that direction and it cost me nearly everything. But it was a price worth paying because the next time I die, I won’t wonder about all the things I didn’t try. And until I die again, may I die many deaths and be reborn many times over.
Starting All Over Again
Starting all over again is hard, I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. It’s easier if we have a financial safety net and a support network, but many of us don’t. Even if you’re not sitting on cash reserves or in a dual-income household there are resources to support you. Even if you’re married with children, there are resources who will support you if you want to leave or change your circumstances. Even if you’re over the age of 50 with a solid career, there are resources who will support you if you want to change careers or location. Even if you’re retired, an addict, a leader in your community, even if you have a dozen people leaning on you for support, there are resources who will support you even if your own community won’t.
For starters, check out the Healing Network on my website, an offering of diverse practitioners, many of whom work globally, all of whom have recreated themselves and built new careers and new lives that aligned with their desires. They’ve proven it’s possible and they’re here to guide others as they do it too. If any part of you feels ashamed, guilty, or doubtful about changing your life in any way, I’m always available as a resource. I started all over again too, in more ways than one, and I’m likely to do it again. Even if we aren’t what you need, chances are we’ll be able to point you in the right direction.
Starting all over again is not only possible, it’s also our birthright. We have but this one life and it will be over in the blink of an eye. Make it as blissful, mutable, and authentically you as it possibly can be.