“It’s May, the Lusty Month of May ” Alan Jay Lerner, Camelot
“Took a woman like your kind to get through to the man in me.” Bob Dylan, The Man in Me
“I miss our spiritual oneness, the blessed union of our souls….” Maj. Frank Burns, MASH, Season 3 Episode 18.
In cultures where people live in close connection to the cycles of nature, fertility and abundance are revered.
Not abundance in the industrialized sense, but in the connection to that which ensures growth and sustenance.
The Beltane holiday, May 1st, is the pagan fire festival celebrating the Divine Union of the Goddess and God, symbolic of the power that would fertilize all of nature (including humans) and ensure survival through another year.
A celebration of sex, a festival of funkiness, parade of passion.
Save the roses and chocolates for Valentine’s Day, when spring is in the air it’s all about celebrating earthly delights.
This is not to make light of the sacredness of this holiday, after all it is only because modern culture has cheapened sexuality that we have lost touch with the importance of a special day to light a bonfire and get it on.
Beltane celebration allows us to honor sexuality as sacred and each other as sacred because we are the embodiment of the God and Goddess.
If one honors the God and Goddess in all of nature, in ourselves and each other, then sacredness is part of every connection, be it romantic, passionate or platonic.
Traditional Beltane festivities involved bonfires because, let’s face it, the throes of passion have nothing on the chill that is always in the air in places where Celtic culture originated.
Fire is the element associated with vitality and the life force. And it is bound to get cold with all kinds of naked frolicking in the woods going on.
Whether you choose to gather around the fire, dance around the fire, jump over the fire, or scry in the fire (Beltane falls opposite of Samhain/Halloween and is a great time for divination) this element embodies passion for life, reminds us of hope and survival.
May Poles are also a part of the festivities, with bright colored ribbons woven together to represent the union of various energies (masculine and feminine for example).
Regardless of your sexual preference or your specific… errrr…. plans…. for Beltane, as we confront the need for healing of sexuality and polarity, healing the Divine Feminine and Masculine in our society, this is a great opportunity to reflect on how we can commit to honoring the divine in each other.
How can we see the Goddess and God within our loved ones, and even within our adversaries?
How can we honor and respect women’s power, voice, sexuality, and energy without going to the extreme to debase the unique power, sexuality, voice and energy of masculinity?
How can we work to heal the residual wounds from generations of not honoring the power of the divine feminine and masculine?
In modern society May 1st has also become a time of celebration for the working class.
It is the day that hundreds of thousands of workers worked off the job in the 1800s to agitate for change. Dignity, respect and an eight hour day.
They demanded “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will.”
More than ‘work life balance’, the working class was calling for the recognition of our rights to be viewed as human beings and not cogs in an industrial machine.
In some ways they too were seeking validation as divine beings, rather than drones.
It could be said that May 1st as a labor holiday celebrates the divine connection to each other in community, in solidarity as the 99 per cent, and our obligation to uphold dignity of the divine masculine (masculine here referring to the process of projecting one’s energy through the act of labor, not specifically to men’s employment).
Whether we celebrate May 1st as a time to remember our sacred connection to each other as the God and Goddess in sacred union in the bedroom, by the bonfire, or in the factory, this is a great opportunity to revisit what it means to honor the divine within each other.
Whether through the act of sex or through any number of other ways that we connect intimately with each other, may we revisit what it means to recognize each other as Souls and not through the distorted lens modern society has given us.
Like the ribbons woven around a maypole, perhaps we will come closer to weaving our polarized energies and once more celebrating the blessed union of our souls.
Happy Beltane!
IN CONCLUSION
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About the Author:
Angela Kaufman is an Intuitive Empowerment Coach, and author of the upcoming book, Queen Up! Reclaim Your Crown When Life Knocks You Down- Unleash the Power of Your Inner Tarot Queen (2018, Conari Press). She specializes in blending the mystical and mundane to help women at the crossroads connect with their core sources of power to overcome obstacles. For more information visit her website. Follow Angela on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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