Beltane - 30 April
With its themes of fire and fertility Beltane is one of the year's greatest festivals. There is much to be celebrated here. Marking the beginning of summer, we are on the threshold of the warm weather, with long days and short nights ahead, and all around us the energy of growing things can be almost tangibly felt, adding to the feelings of vitality.
In some places the ancient traditions are still upheld, perhaps the most famous being dancing around the Maypole, with its obvious connotations of a phallus being inserted into the earth. The traditional colours of the ribbons are white, red and blue, representative of the phases of our Goddess; white for maiden, red for mother and blue, (or more appropriately black,) for her wisewoman or crone stage.
Traditionally also, the night would have been celebrated with fires, with cattle being driven between two to ensure a good milk yield in the summer ahead.
In the life of our Goddess, she is now a beautiful young woman, and tonight she will conceive her son, who will be born at the time of the winter solstice. Her consort the God is now a strong and virile young man at the height of his powers, a Hunter of the Wildwood and a worthy suitor for our fair Goddess.