The Writing Witch

Beltane (or “May’s Eve”) is the half-way mark between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, and it’s celebrated around May 1.

In the current neopagan community, this sabbat which I like to call May’s Eve tends to be called “Beltane,” because these cross-quarter checkpoints (the center marks between solstices and equinoxes) are derived from ancient Celtic paganism.

Historically known as “Bealtaine,” “Walpurgis Night” and later “May Day,” this time of year is known across cultures as a time to celebrate abundant fertility.

Spring is in full swing, giving way to Summer. The blossoms are blooming, and love is in the air! This is the time to honor nature in the height of it’s potency. To acknowledge the life force energy of plants, animals, and people alike!

May’s Eve (Beltane) is opposite November’s Eve (Samhain/Halloween) on the Wheel of the Year, representing the springing forth of life, as opposed to the onset of death.

Naturally, a lot of the traditions of the dark time of year are about being deeply insightful, contemplating the meaning of life, and clinging tightly to that which keeps us safe and warm when the Sun is at it’s weakest…

But now that we’ve crossed over into the light half of the year, our spirits are lifted! There’s an overall feeling of a weight being lifted off of our shoulders. We’ve had our time to be deep and contemplative, and we’re just about ready to sweep away the heavy cares of life and have a coming out party of some kind!

The astrology of the Scorpio / Taurus axis illustrates this perfectly. If you look at the Wheel Of The Year with the Zodiac Wheel, you’ll notice that May’s Eve is right in the very center of Taurus season, and November’s Eve is right in the middle of Scorpio season.

If we think of Scorpio time as a time of darkness and mystery, and Taurus time as a time of physical vitality and carnal pleasures, then we can see these sabbats as the peaks of those two opposite energies.

It’s even believed by some cultures that just as the veil between the worlds is the thinnest at Halloween, so too is it thin again half a year later at Beltane. And some say Halloween is when souls of the dead leave this realm and Beltane is when new souls incarnate into the world of the living. Some say both times are faerie times, while others say Samhain belongs to the ghosts from the realm of the dead, and Beltane belongs to the elves and faeries of the Earth realm.

Whether or not you take any of these fascinating ideas literally, they’re both super powerful times of year to contemplate the important themes of the life-death-rebirth cycle.

My three favorite themes to focus on in my craft this time of year are Fertility, Connection and the Law of Gender.

Fertility

The Spring Equinox and May’s Eve both celebrate the concept of fertility, but in different phases.

In nature, the Spring Equinox is a great time to start seeds indoors on the window sill, for example. Whereas, Beltane is the time when it becomes safe to bring plants outdoors, trusting that nature will support their growth.

The same concept is taking place within our own lives. Any venture of self-discovery that we throw ourselves into right now will likely prove to be a highly evolutionary experience! And it is likely that the results of that transformation will grow to become evident both on the inside and on the outside.

The inner work we’ve done all Winter long is now able to show out in our decisions and actions for the world to see!

Here are some questions to ask yourself around the theme of fertility this May’s Eve season:

Which of this year’s intentions are already beginning to naturally take form in my life?

And which intentions are taking more conscious effort to manifest?

What action steps can I take right now to bring these desires into fruition this Summer?

One intention that’s already beginning to naturally take form in my life right now is gardening. One of my biggest desires for my life is to have my very own epic ground level garden where myself and the earth can be at one.

I got a taste for gardening years ago when I was the caretaker of a property my family owned at the time. I did as much gardening as I could in that large yard for the year that I lived there. And I made a morning and evening routine of walking barefoot around the garden, checking my plants for progress, watering and tending to them.

That path that I walked everyday began to feel like a magickal labyrinth. Every time I walked upon it, I began to feel that Mother Earth was speaking to me – programming me to be more and more connected to the spirit of nature.

I’ve since moved on from that space, and I’ve really been missing that direct connection to nature. But at that time, I vowed that even if I lived in the densest parts of the city, I would never accept a rental that didn’t include some kind of private outdoor space where myself and my feline companions could at the very least feel the sun and air on our bodies and keep a few potted plants.

What I didn’t understand at the time when I moved into my current space is that there’s a wall blocking my patio from the direction of south… Which sadly means that I can only grow medium light to shade loving plants in most of this space. But that didn’t stop me from getting a perfectly decent harvest of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and peas two summers back by growing them right at the edge of the awning.

Last year’s garden, however, wasn’t much to speak of, as I found myself too busy with other priorities to fully attend to it… And if I’m being honest, I can admit that I was also navigating a lot of fear about the outside world last year, which led to a feeling of hibernation in a way – even though it was summer and I was still making sure to go out for nature walks whenever possible.

During that healing cocoon phase, I felt extra sensitive to the noise and pollution of the busy area where I live, and it felt better to go out to more quiet locations like parks a few times per week than to spend my morning and evening rituals on my patio like I had done the previous year.

Rather than regretting that time that wasn’t spent gardening, or telling myself a story about how my epic gardening experiences will have to wait until I’ve manifested the perfect walled garden in the quiet, secluded forest of my dreams… I’m instead choosing to tell a more empowering story.

A wise witch knows that we are always in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right resources at hand and in mind.

This is a little mantra I’ve been repeating to myself all spring, and I’ve been programming everything in my life and practice with this empowering mindset.

I made up my mind that this year, I would make gardening a top priority – Not just to embrace what I love to do in the present moment in spite of the imperfections of the current circumstances… but also because a wise witch knows that it’s by embracing what we desire in the present that we attract better versions of it in the future. And it’s already working wonders!

I’d set the intention to make the most of my patio for gardening as a new year’s resolution at the Winter Solstice, even though I wasn’t sure how it would fit into my schedule and budget. And wouldn’t you know it, an earth angel that I’ve manifested into my life observed how passionate I am about this desire. And he’s decided to take it upon himself to both fund my garden supplies and help me build a raised bed that will allow me to grow as much as possible while also hopefully providing a little bit of privacy in my little suburban sanctuary.

My human design makes me a non-specific manifestor, meaning that manifestation comes most naturally to me when I’ve surrendered the “how” as well as let go of overly specific details of what the result needs to look like in order to be considered successful.

Ever since I’ve become aware of this and challenged myself to relinquish control while also embracing my desired feelings in the present moment, I’m constantly being pleasantly surprised by what I’m able to manifest… and how it never comes in the way I would have planned out if I were forcing it to happen in a logical way.

This goal of being more in a “feminine flow” of receiving has been a bit challenging at times since I spent so much of my life being conditioned to not to be this way, but I’m getting better at it all the time.

Connection

May’s Eve / Beltane is about making genuine, person to person connections.

It’s time to come fully out of hibernation – to step out from behind the book or computer screen, and begin to form personal relationships with nature and with human beings (in whatever ways you feel are most healthy for you).

It’s time to truly enjoy the type of growth and expansion that can only come from hands-on experience. It’s time to find our tribe, celebrate the soul-searching we’ve done over the Winter, and decide how to express ourselves for the world to see in real time!

Time to get outside our comfort zone and let previously hidden parts of our soul shine out into the visible world.

Here are some questions to ask yourself around the theme of connection this May’s Eve / Beltane season:

What experiences with events, people, places and things are on my bucket list for this Summer?

Which Summer intentions are absolutely non-negotiable, and how can I anchor those in now?

Going back to the whole non-specific manifestor thing, I’ve kind of detached from the concept of bucket lists. Rather than making rigid rules or overly specific plans that I know will probably lead to unnecessary stress, I’m instead leaning into more broad intentions.

For example, rather than saying,

“This summer, I will get a huge tomato harvest and celebrate by making a big pot of tomato soup,”

I instead say something like,

“This summer, I will spend time in my garden and enjoy tending to it daily.”

This way, rather than creating an external goal that puts my power outside of myself, I’m instead setting myself up for success by creating an attainable daily ritual that can be it’s own reward regardless of how many tomatoes come to fruition.

It still allows me to set intentions and take inspired action on them, and will almost certainly have the added benefit of tangible results like vegetables to harvest. I’m still setting a standard for myself with the non-negotiable gardening time. It just isn’t giving my power away to outside circumstances that are beyond my ability (or desire) to control.

For an example of goals related to socializing and getting out of my own neighborhood, I can say something like,

“I will prioritize going on as many hiking and kayaking trips with loved ones as possible this summer,”

Rather than,

“I will get out on the water with my both of my siblings every weekend this summer.”

…Because it’s more empowering for everyone involved if I only make claims for myself that I’m in control of, rather than setting expectations based on certain people’s availability or the weather or whatever else.

I’m realizing at this point along my path that springtime for me really is about balancing Masculine and Feminine energy… and not just in the prescribed way that other’s have said is appropriate from a goal oriented standpoint or spiritual standpoint.

For me, it’s also about completely redefining my own definition of success so that it puts me in my zone of genius, rather than making my success dependent on external factors.

The Law of Gender

As humans, we experience our reality through the union of opposites: Light or dark, inner or outer, thought or form, circle or line, Masculine or Feminine energy.

It is by combining the opposites that we create change in our reality.

During the dark half of the year, it was a time to imagine; to reflect inwardly and dream up the greatest possible Self that we could potentially evolve into as the year would unfold (Feminine).

And now, the light half of the year is the time for us to put those dreams into action (Masculine).

The marriage between dreams and actions is the union of Feminine and Masculine energy which is necessary to create tangible, measurable evolution in our lives.

Here are some questions to ask yourself around the theme of the Law Of Gender this Beltane / May’s Eve season:

What are my beliefs, experiences, or intuitive ideas about the nature of Masculine and Feminine energy in the Universe?

What is the potential of combining the positive aspects of each to create change in my experience?

This balance of masculine and feminine energy has been something I’ve really become extra curious about in my 30s. I had of course already been aware of the masculine and feminine aspects of nature and the elements for quite some time.

But when I turned 30 and found myself freshly out of a long term toxic relationship with a man, and freshly out of an incompatible business plan that really shook my perception of success, it really prompted me to take a deeper dive.

Previously, I had focused mainly on trying to actively understand and balance Masculine and Feminine energy within my psyche as it pertained to my goals and ambitions… Which looking back, I realized was a very “Masculine” way of looking at the whole thing!

The piece of the puzzle that I’d been missing had been the art of surrender. I’d thought that the “Feminine” energy of “opening up to receiving” meant writing lists of things I wanted and trying to tell myself I deserved them while working hard to embody the kind of person I believed could have those things.

But now I knew there was something much deeper than that, and that if I were to experience the things I wanted most in life (a truly aligned creative career, and to manifest my soulmate) I needed a much deeper and more personal understanding of what Masculine and Feminine energy really were to me.

I began researching and dabbling in a much wider range of perspectives on how masculine and feminine energy could be experienced and expressed. And I was able to look at my past career moves and romantic relationships as lessons on what is and is not aligned with my personal definition of a healthy cycle of giving and receiving (which in essence is what I believe is being described by the terms “masculine and feminine energy”).

I realized that I had been suppressing a lot of my naturally feminine nature in favor of trying to be strong and in control –Aand that this stemmed from a pattern of not feeling stable, safe or supported, which I had picked up in my own relationships and from the examples of relationships that I’d observed growing up. I had watched myself and others oscillate between toxic independence and toxic codependency, both in our relationships and in our careers.

I decided I needed to take time to myself outside of those influences to process, heal and redirect my energy. I’d realized that even in my attempt to rebel against it, I was still subscribing in a way to toxic patterns of society that deep down weren’t my truth.

I dove into self care and also got really curious about the Law Of Gender from an experiential standpoint. I researched perspectives about both the nature of universal energy and the nature of human relationships. And I began realigning the way I treated myself with the way I wanted the Universe and my ideal partner to treat me.

And by both giving myself lots of space to just be in a space of receptivity and gratitude, and then taking action on the inspirations that came through intuitively, I was able to manifest meeting my dream partner almost exactly one year after setting off on this quest!

I also began a massive phase of de-conditioning from anything and everything in my career and life that represented patterns of toxic independence and toxic codependency – which led to massive overhauling my business plan and manifesting a whole new group of friends and colleagues… All of which feels 100% more fulfilling than the way things were headed before.

This journey of understanding and embodying a healthy balance of Masculine and Feminine energy is to me the essence of life itself, and so I’m sure it will be an ongoing journey with lessons that I’ll continue to learn for the rest of my life.

But I definitely feel that the biggest takeaway for me from this last couple of years has been the surrender piece. It’s about knowing which parts of the experience of life to surrender and which to embrace as invitations for inspired action.

It’s a delicate dance that I know looks totally different for everyone. But I know for me it’s definitely about balancing the head and the heart, and always letting the most loving decision be what takes center stage.

So, what are your favorite themes, rituals or traditions for this “May’s Eve / Beltane” time of year?

One of the best things about our online magickal community is that we get to keep expanding our practices by exchanging ideas with others, so I invite you to leave a comment so we can also learn from you!

If you enjoyed the information and prompts that I’ve shared with you in this post, then I would love to invite you to join me for a fun guided journaling adventure for the May’s Eve / Beltane season!

I’ve designed gorgeous printable grimoire pages based on the concepts we touched upon in this video. You can get instant access by downloading them from my shop, or you can order pre-printed copies if you don’t have a printer.

Are you also looking to connect with myself and other magickal mavens as you embody your most fulfilled version of yourself this season?

If so, I’d love to invite you to join our Late Spring Seasonal Living Challenge!

Every Wednesday for the five weeks around Beltane, I’ll be posting a prompt to help you maximize your fulfillment by harnessing the themes of the sabbat.

All you need to do to participate is be aware that…

• The challenge begins on the third Wednesday in April when the first post goes live. There will be one challenge post per week for five weeks leading up to the final post which will come out in mid-May.

• Challenge prompts will always be posted on Wednesday mornings.

• You can join late and catch up at your own pace, if need be.

If you’re not already an eligible patron, I invite you to sign up now! I’m so excited to get to know you better as we share our experiences with the seasons! I hope to see you there!

May’s Eve blessings to you!

Until next time, blessed be.

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