Blessed Beltane Everyone

Littleun helped put together the altar this year

Well we lit the candles at Sunset and rose before Dawn to welcome in the Sunrise and what a beautiful one it was too. Last year was soaking wet, really really horrible so it was lovely this year to feel the warmth as we stepped out to join the others.

Met with friends old and new as the Morris sides danced in the dawn. Sadly not sure where the drummers were, maybe a pint too many at Sunset?! However we are off for some drumming this afternoon so no doubt will find out then.

Blessed Beltane to you all and hope you have as fantastic day as we are having.

Lammas Lughnasadh: Altar-gether

He he please excuse the silly name for this post, just in one of those moods!

Right what I’m going to ramble on about in this post is our altar. I always try and involve Littleun in the making of our altar and we often start putting it together in the days leading up to the relevant celebration. Although it isn’t ever difficult to find something that Littleun wants to add, this particular celebration being for both Lammas and Lugh makes it easy for him to join in.

Last years small altar, got more space this year

There are so many little crafts that can be represented by him ranging from the corn dollies to drawings, berry bracelets, Apple candle holders or just candles made to look like apples, to name a few. This mixes both the arts and the harvest at the same time.

This year we have befriended a local famer who has been growing corn and wheat and has kindly given us some sheaths. We will start by making a horn for a cornucopia, then Littleun has said he would like to add the plastacine fruits we made (bunches of grapes) and some of the flowers from the allotment.

The colours for the altar are going to be golds, oranges, greens, representing the time of the year with the golden growth but that there is still more to come so the green for the continuous growing season.

If you would like to make your own apple candle holders it is very easy to do: (from about.com)

"Rinse and dry the fruit or vegetable thoroughly. Polish the outside with a soft cloth until the apple is shiny. Stand the apple up on its bottom, and use a knife or a corer to make a hole in the top where the stem is located. Go about halfway down into the apple so that the candle will have a sturdy base. Widen the hole until it’s the same diameter as your candle. Pour some lemon juice into the hole and allow it to sit for ten minutes. This will prevent the apple from browning and softening too quickly. Pour out the lemon juice, dry out the hole, and insert a sprig of rosemary, basil, or other fresh herb of your choice. Finally, add the taper candle. Use a little bit of dripped wax to secure the taper in place."

Right am off to find the maize maze with Littleun, more (if you aren’t bored yet) about our lammas celebrations later...

Maypoles, Weaving & Beltane

What connection is there with maypoles in the UK and Beltane? Well that depends on your point of view. The idea of a maypole is to have ribbons attached to the top and children holding them at the bottom dance in a pattern that weaves the ribbons around the pole. So is this pagan? The symbolism is certainly phallic and as we all know Beltane is the celebration of fertility.

Over the years they have been banned as "a Heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and wickedness." by those lovely puritans (they really didn’t know how to have fun!). In the countryside, may dances and maypoles appeared sporadically even during the Interregnum, but the practice was revived substantially and joyously after the Restoration. By the 19th century, the maypole had been subsumed into the symbols of "Merry England". The addition of intertwining ribbons seems to have been influenced by a combination of 19th century theatrical fashion and visionary individuals such as John Ruskin in the 19th century. Pairs of boys and girls stand alternately around the base of the pole, each holding the end of a ribbon. They weave in and around each other, boys going one way and girls going the other and the ribbons are woven together around the pole until the merry-makers meet at the base.

The weaving is also something some pagans do in order to bind male and female as fertility ideals or as meditation process, it’s very calming! So are the ribbons just pretty Italianise symbols the Victorians added or is there another meaning?

Regardless of whether it is Pagan the maypole is an important part of the celebrations for many villages and towns. Ours will be on the Sunday together with the crowning of the May Queen and Garland competition. And if like me you haven’t got a garden that’ll take your own maypole you could always make a small version for your altar:

For this simple craft project, you'll need the following:
· A 1" thick dowel rod, about a foot long
· A wooden circle, about 4" in diameter
· Pieces of ribbon in various colours, about 2 feet long each
· A hot glue gun
Use the hot glue gun to attach the dowel rod to the centre of the wooden circle. Once the glue has dried, you can stain or paint the wood if you choose. Attach the centre of each ribbon to the top of the dowel rod, as shown in Figure 1. Weave as desired. (about.com)

Use the Maypole as a centrepiece on your altar. You can braid the ribbons as a meditation tool, or include it in ritual. Optional: add a small floral crown around the bottom to represent the feminine fertility of the Sabbat.

Imbolc, Another turn, Another change

So the wheel turns once again and we welcome in Imbolc, Spring. The change here is straight away noticeable. Yesterday it was cold and crisp, beautiful ice and frost covering every corner stretching the pretty patterns over all it could touch. Today the temperature is up and the rain is down! But that's what we want. Let nature appear. We went for a walk yesterday to see how many new flowers we could find and surprisingly it wasn't many. Normally at this time of year the snowdrops are starting to peak in the flowerbed under the window and the deep purple crocus' are raring to go from under our bay trees.

So what does this new time bring to us. Well in my case an extra effort in things. To be happier when something is irritating but beyond my ability to change it, to declutter as I put my items back into the front room, to increase my exercise to shift these pounds (have slackened with the diet) and the start of preparations for our veg and fruit growing.

Seeds are in for some crops, ground will be broken this weekend for the new life to take hold and the planner updated so I can make most use of the area. We planted some bulbs as part of our Imbolc ritual. Lovely indoor Iris' that Littleun could do. Hopefully they will grow but they will apparently take 14ish weeks in the dark to do so.

Our feast went well, though I've got a scorch mark from the crepe Suzette's (bit too much flambe) and the non alcoholic mead passed into deep red wine. Littleun is starting to recognise the reasons behind things and has added his own items to the celebrations.

The altar is a small affair in comparison to other times, partly because of our current space restrictions but also to allow it to grow. We didn't pick any flowers as I'm not keen on doing things like that, so we made our flowers to go on the crown instead.

Hope you all have had a good Imbolc.

Yule, the Holly King v Oak King & other random facts

The dark nights have drawn to their longest point and time has come for the Oak King to triumph over the Holly King. By cutting off the Holly Kings Head, the Oak King rules from Midwinter to Midsummer. The Holly King has represented Death and darkness since Samhain. Yule is bringing our spirits high as we rejoice with the light returning, time to be reborn, new lives beginning. A different version of the Holly v Oak King theme is the ritual hunting and killing of a Wren. The Wren, little King of the Waning Year, is killed by the Robin Redbreast, King of the Waxing Year. The Robin finds the Wren hiding in an Ivy bush (or as in some parts of Ireland - a holly bush).
There is also the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight where you can see similarities to the holly/oak stories. The following is a translated chapter (no.13)

"Never fear," he said, "I'm not fishing for a fightwith the beardless children on the benches all about. If I were strapped on steel on a sturdy horseno man here has might to match me. No, I have come to this court for a bit of Christmas funfitting for Yuletide and New Years with such a fine crowd. Who here in this house thinks he has what it takes,has bold blood and a brash head, and dares to stand his ground, giving stroke for stroke? Here! I shall give him this gilded blade as my gift; this heavy axe shall be his, to handle as he likes. And I shall stand here bare of armour, and brave the first blow. If anyone's tough enough to try out my game, let him come here quickly and claim his weapon! I give up all rights; he will get it for keeps. I'll stand like a tree trunk -- he can strike at me once, if you'll grant me the right to give as good as I getin play. But later is soon enough, a full year and a day. Get up, if you think you're rough, let's sees what you dare to say!"

Our Yule Altar

Yule was not celebrated in early Celtic traditions. It was brought to Britain by the invading Saxons who viewed Yule as the "turning time". Yule literally means "wheel" in Old Norse. Because the symbolism of the wheel was so important to this Sabbat, it became a day sacred to Goddesses of the spinning wheel. Wreaths were a popular representation of the endless cycle…the Wheel of the Year.

Evergreens were sacred to the Celts because they did not "die" thereby representing the eternal aspect of the goddess. Mistletoe represented the seed of the God, and at Midwinter, the Druids are said to have gone deep into the forest to harvest the mistletoe. They cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle and caught it in a white cloth for it was not to touch the ground in deference of its sacredness.

Yule is a solar festival. The Yule log, which is made of oak from the previous year is burned into the fire to symbolize the Newborn Sun/Son. Some of the log is saved and kept throughout the year to protect the home and is thought to bring the home prosperity and good luck throughout the year. That piece is used to light the next year's log. The log was usually cut from the God-related oak tree. Originally, the Yule log was brought into the home amid much dancing and ceremony before being lit in the fireplace.

Our candle representing the new light/Sun

Disjointed though this post is I hope it is of some interest! Have a good Yule.

Getting in the mood…

Sorry for the lack of posts this week but as you’re probably in the same situation you can guess it’s been a little manic. Can’t work out where the time has gone, it only seems like it was September and I was thinking “great a month to go, no problem”!

I have spent this week changing our altar from our Mabon offerings to our Samhain offerings (we like to keep the altar all the time adding things throughout the days as the time changes). We’ll add the last part on Samhain when we have our feast, our friends around us and I’ll post some photos and thoughts on this another time that hopefully you might like.

We’ve also been desperately constructing the props for mums Hallowe’en do. To get some more inspiration (and as an excuse to be a kid again) I took Littleun to a farm in the next county which had laid on all sorts of Hallowe’en treats for general amusement. Immense fun was had running around the maize maze a ghoul, ghost or pumpkin at every turn.

We met several skeletons including Femur who was a “dog hungry for a bone”, strangely the Littleun who is normally scared of dogs (long story that one) sat down and petted this dog!

We also had a right laugh catapulting pumpkins and shooting corn cobs at targets ridiculously far away and getting the backlash or pulp as we realised how useless we were at it.

Think the best part must have been the “scary hayride” which during the day was tempered for the Littleun’s but still spooky enough to get the heart going. A really funny bit was the Christmas shop tucked away in the corner; it had a little Nativity with the barn and animals etc, now I’m used to seeing these all over the place with Crosses or Stars of David over the manger but this was the first time I’ve ever seen one that had the pentagram on it. Strangely enough they didn’t like me trying to take a photo to show you!

Anyway a brilliant day, now I’ve just got to work out how I’m going to carve 23 pumpkins, buy several sacks of compost & a couple bales of straw, make cakes, biscuits and other goodies for mums Hallowe’en thing as well as getting the food prepared for our feast, visit my Grandmothers graves and my time for quietness all in tomorrow!

Seeing if I can load photos, Mabon Altar...

Morning,

I'm testing out what I can do on this blog today. Trying to load photos so not too sure how it'll go! Anyhow the first photo is meant to be one of our Mabon Altar, yes I know it's past that now but it's a pretty altar (well imo) and I kinda wanted to show it off.

The centre candle is something Littleun and I made after one of our woodland walks, we'd collected loads of small pinecone type things and beech cases and after pouring plaster of paris into a cake tray he stuck the items and candles in, not too bad for a 4yr old, though he is quite eager to put everything in, never knows when to stop!

You can see it a little better in this one, hey I'm getting the hang off this. We had a great Mabon, invited friends and family around for the dinner, spent all day baking bread and apple pie, also did a very yummy venison casserole with redcurrants from our nearby farm.

Well got to go as am baking faerie cakes today for a friends party. 25 3-4 yr olds in a soft play gym, gonna need earplugs! Afterwards off for a wander under the chestnut trees, had a lot of wind last night so may have some fallen treasures to find...