Spring Cross Quarter Fire Festival

The Festival of Expectation

Bel-tene:  A goodly fire.  People jumped the fire together and alone, to purify, to cleanse, to bring fertility.

The Tein-eigin; the need fire, a scared fire, was kindled after all the fires in the community had been put out.

A celebration of the sacred marriage of the goddess and the horned god.  The beginning of the 'merry month' and 'the wearing of the green', in honour of the earths new spring garment.

The maiden of the spring, joins with the lord of the waxing year.  The Maypole symbolises both polarities of the male and female energy, as one.  The interweaving of the ribbons around the pole, represents the joining of their energies.

People walked the mazes and the labyrinths.  Many of the sacred wells are said to be especially healing at this time.  People slept by the wells and, at dawn, collected the dew, which is said to be very potent.

A festival for friends and for lovers.  For joining the male and female energies together and for honouring that union.

The Underlying Energy

The beginning of summer.  Flowers bloom.  May blossom is everywhere.  Birds sing, nature is alive and bounteous.  Sap rises, everything is bursting with fertility.

This is the first festival of summer, celebrated by the calendar on 1st May, withe the rites beginning the previous evening, or on the full moon of Taurus, as it passes through Scorpio.  Those who mark their quarter days by the flows of nature, celebrate with the first blossoms of the hawthorne tree, also known as the may.

The urge to play, frolic and celebrate, is strong. It shows growth and expansion.

From Beltane to Summer Solstice, everything is in action.  Everyone is full of the power of their potential.

Now is the time to reach out, for what it is you want and let the energy of growth whisk you along.

It is a time to honour sex in its raw state.  To see this as part of the cycle.  To allow the extreme to exist.  It is a part of nature and the expansive energy of this time.

Beltane Celebrations

Extinguish all fires in the community and then light a new fire; a sacred fire, called the Tein-eigin, the 'need fire'.  Kindle this fire, if possible, by boring a hole in a piece of oak, fitting a wimble of the same wood in the hole and then making friction.

The fire is the centre of this celebration, so gather in a large circle around it, leaving room for the custom of jumping the fire.

Friends and lovers pledge themselves to each other, as they jump the flames together.  Jump the flames and leave behind what is holding you back.

Use this festival to assimilate what you want for yourself.  Now is the time to be clear about your direction.

It is a time to gather with others.  A time of music, singing, dancing and gaiety.  Celebrate the power of nature and growth.  Celabrate love and the male and female harmony.

A Maypole may be erected, crowned with flowers and hung with coloured ribbons.  Weave in and out, in opposite directions.  Concentrate on weaving what you have chosen in your life right now.

Dress the trees with ribbons and flowers and hang biscuits and sweet things, wrapped in coloured paper.  Honour them and their growth.

Each person takes some of the Tein-eigin, to light their home fires with.

Collect the dew at dawn and wash your face in it.