-  Symbols:  May Pole, Eggs, Baskets, Flowers, Trees, Butterchurn.

 

-  Deities: May Queen, Green Man, Flower Goddesses, Divine Couple, Deities of the Hunt.

 

-  Colours: Red and White.

 

-  Herbs: almond, ash, cinquefoil, frankincense, marigold, meadowsweet, and woodruff may be burned; angelica, bluebells, daisy, hawthorn, ivy, lilac, primrose, and rose may be decorations.

 

- Beltaine is the Irish - Gaelic word for the name of the month of May.

 

- Beltaine is the time of the year when the Maiden of Spring and the Lord of the Waxing Year meet and rejoice together in green fields under the sun.

 

- At this time everyday life is intertwined with the spiritual, and all of nature is renewed.

 

-  At Beltaine Pagans meet in the time of the flowering, to dance the Spiral Dance.

 

-  Beltaine is the beginning of the Celtic Summer and also the light seasons of the year.

 

-  At Beltaine, like at Samhain, it is a time in which the veil between the worlds is at one of its thinnest points of the year, and therefore it is a time to communicate with spirits, particularly nature spirits.

 

-  It is a festival which is associated with the Celtic God Bel [Balor, Belenus], who is the God of light and fire.

 

-  Traditionally at Beltaine many fires are built, and young unmarried people would leap over the bonfire to wish for a husband . wife, and young women would leap over the bonfire to ensure fertility, and couples would leap over it to strengthen their bonds.

 

-  During Beltaine it is common to see Maypoles, which represent both the phallus and the Goddess.  It acts as the World Tree connecting the 3 worlds; it has its roots in the Underworld, and its branches in the Heavens.  The shamans spirit may therefore travel between the realms via the World Tree.

 

-  The phallus and the World Tree may be seen as two aspects of the God in His relationship to the Goddess in His cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

 

-  The May King is the Green Man, and was often covered entirely in leaves.

 

-  The mating of the Green Man with the Goddess as May Queen was a magickal act seen as necessary for the fertility of the land / Earth.

 

-  Beltaine is a time of fertility, and is also an excellent time for Handfastings and the sacred marriage.

 

-  The Hawthorn tree blossoms can be gathered and made into a wine to be drank at the next Beltaine.

 

-  Celebrate Beltaine by taking pleasure in life an enjoying the gifts of the Goddess.