Magickal May - Practices For Bealtaine

Apr 29, 2024
5 min read

Updated: Apr 28

The magick of May - practices for Beltane — Welcoming in the Summer

Bealtaine/Beltane is one of the Days Of Power celebrated throughout Gaelic cultures, especially Irish and Scots, and which we now call May Day. It arrives around April 30th/1st May, halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. I say ‘around’ these dates as Days of Power do not adhere to our manmade calendar – they go with their own natural, powerful cycles. Be guided by your intuition for when you feel Bealtaine is arriving around this time; you may feel the atmosphere to be different, energetically charged, and this energy can change at different points during Bealtaine so if you are planning on celebrating, go with the times that feel right to you.

Sun and Earth Energies

Bealtaine is one of the Four Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year in Pagan tradition, and Sabbats are marked by their dedication to solar energy. Celebrations traditionally took place at dawn or noon, marking the point in the Sun’s yearly cycle. The Sun is indicative of the masculine God energy and the Earth, the feminine Goddess aspect. This union of the God and Goddess, creates abundance and in farming and earthwork, this means Nature needs tended to ensure a beautiful bounty.

While we might feel that these celebrations are not conventionally recognised in modern times, dancing around the maypole on May Day is still done today and this is a celebration of the Sun energy. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, this is a celebration of the phallic, masculine aspect, winding ribbons and flowers from the Mother - the womb cauldron.

If you are planning on celebrating, here are some magickal practices for Bealtaine/Beltane and beyond into May.

By scattering and surrounding the maypole Sun energy with flowers and herbs, we are also recognising the feminine aspects, the grounding Earth energies. The intertwining and joining together of these energies creates another energy and this is what this festival can bring to us. It is a good time for manifesting.

This maypole ceremony can be done on a smaller, more personal scale by placing a standing crystal on your altar with a small cauldron or vessel of water at the base and scattered flowers of the season, like Hawthorn.

In my blog post Hawthorn, The May Queen - Beltane's Plant Magick, there's a little more on the wonderful medicine and magick of this beautiful plant and how it can be used for personal healing and insight.

Manifesting means combining both physical and energetic intention to bring forth a reality. Spring brings conception but Bealtaine heralds a time of labour towards birthing and nurturing. Bealtaine brings the work!

Nature manifests by bringing the union of the Sun and the Earth together to feed those new life forms that were created in Spring. For us, we can be a part of this magic by consciously bringing the Sun and Earth aspects within ourselves together - Sun=soul, Earth=body - to embody a newly formed life. Life often fractures us and this can mean soul loss. We can return those parts of ourselves that we feel we have lost along the way through difficult times and trauma - this is the basis of the practice of soul retrieval in shamanic work. It is incredibly powerful, just as the communion of Sun and Earth.

My essence Joyful Return is the reminder of what it means to be surrounded by Nature's abundance when we feel we've lost connection to the wildness both in the world and within. My Flower Aid Kit, Earthly Angels, is a dedicated collection of soul-diers for those who feel a longing to connect with the Earth and the elementals.

The Earthly Angels Flower Aid Kit

Buy Now

Joyful Return Organic Flower Essence

Buy Now

As a Fire festival, we can celebrate the Sun energy by lighting our own altar candles, building (safe and respectful!) outdoor fires or smudging our spaces using the combined power of Fire and Earth in the form of smudge. I use my own homegrown organic smudge sticks and mixes. My Pink Heart Mugwort sticks, which were harvested at the Summer Solstice, are perfect for connecting with the self love Heart energy and embracing the power of the coming Summer and for love and joy for ourselves. My Heart Mugwort Sticks are intended to connect us with the Heart of the Earth, the heart of compassion.

Whichever smudge or botanicals you feel called to, light with intention of not just cleansing and clearing a space, person or item but also to bless it. The way is already clear for new energy and it is time to actively nurture it.

Scrying and Reading

I always feel May is a little like a gateway; a space between one place and another, and this makes it perfect for works of scrying in smoke or water and consulting with cards. When we are presented with a gateway to walk through one incarnation into another, it can often be difficult to see our options or pathways clearly - we often get led by the mind when the reality is we have to balance body, mind and soul. It can also be a little tricky to see the wisdom behind the cards we pull for ourselves for this very reason.

If you are scrying or pulling cards for yourself, create a peaceful space for yourself where you can focus your intention and leave the worldy worries behind. Scrying can be done by gazing into a bowl of water, into smoke from incense, a clear Quartz ball or a piece of Obsidian. Rest your eyes, have them just a little out of focus - the intention is to see with your inner eye, not your physical ones.

The plant for May is Hawthorn, and you'll find more about Her at the link below.

The month of May, and not just Bealtaine/Beltane, is a beneficial time for delighting in all beautiful things as it embraces passion, vitality and the manifestation of our intentions and hopes. This is not solely in the traditional fertility and physical sense of conceiving, but also embracing the Sun and Earth energies within us to create something new and wonderful for ourselves. Think of your manifestation a little like a toddler finding its feet on the summer grass. If you are there to guide your wishes, feed them your loving energy, protect and nurture them and put in some hard graft to keep them fired up and growing, all is well.

Some days have a little more oomph than others but all days are powerful days if we choose them to be - we need not wait for a specific day for our works of loving craft.

Wishing you an abundance of gloriousness!

Andrea

About Andrea