Southern Hemisphere Beltane Celebration

 The tide is a turning and it is now halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice! 

BELTANE

Down here in the Southern Hemisphere in Australia neo-paganistically speaking, on the eternal eight spoke wheel covering the year this be the time of BELTANE and the lighting of the protective fires.

Tis a great thing to do to celebrate and use the special vibratory time.  You can do this with the making of Calendula Oil / Balm / Creme and harness the magic healing powers of this precious herb ready for Summer. 

Calendula gets this name from the Kalends which was the first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar. It's said Calendulas  bloom at the beginning of the month. 

Prepare a basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill and then give it to someone in need of healing and caring in these next few days.

 

Calendula Recipes

CALENDULA SALVE / BALM
In a clean jar infuse either dried flowers or whole flower heads in a cold pressed vegetable oil, enough to cover all of the flowers and for all the oxygen bubbles to disappear.  Sit this somewhere so the warmth and the light for approximately four weeks to draw out the magic from the flowers into the oil.

Strain this infused oil through a cloth or a coffee filter into another pot and add some beeswax and heat to melt the wax.  Add some rose oil or Lavender Oil for pleasure and extra benefits.  This makes a lovely salve and has a shelf life of three months not using a preservative. If you want a thicker more solid balm you just add more bees wax and a few drops of Preservative 12.

CALENDULA CREME
To make a creme use the strained oil, some beeswax, some spring water and some glycerin and heat gently and then blend until lovely and creamy white.  Add some preservative 12 to stop the creme going rancid and also add a few drops of Rose Oil to give your Calendula creme a pleasant smell.  This will have a shelf life of about twelve months so remember to date your creme.

CALENDULA OIL
You can always use the Calendula Oil  straight as well for all sorts of skin irritations and rashes.  Dryness of the skin can be caused from getting older in age.  It is one of the reasons I use all of the above concoctions on my skin.

Happy Beltane here in Australia folks as we watch Summer arrive for 2017.

Its not easy to understand the truths about  the festivals anymore especially in Australia. You have people running around dressed in Halloween costumes and trick or treating. 

When you see this its a sign there is no real grasp of the understanding. Going along with the crowd who are making a mockery of the wisdom behind understanding of the seasons.  

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Halloween or Beltane...

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

It is always a good time to celebrate All Hallows and honor those that have died by lighting candles and visiting cemeteries.  They call this Halloween.  I celebrated with a charity dress up event.  I had never ever gone to anything in fancy dress before.  I have always longed to do this.  So I can tick that one off the bucket list.  It was lots of fun.

Witch Queen of New Orleans / Cajun Zombie

Here in Australia it is the wrong season to celebrate All Hallows / Samhain rituals because we are going into a hot summer down under and not the death of Winter.

Down Under we need to honor the waxing power of the Summer Sun that bringeth forth growth and prosperity.

Samhain is a festival of the Dead. Meaning "Summer's End" and pronounced saah-win or saa-ween, Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest and the start of the coldest half of the year. For many practitioners, Samhain also is the beginning of the spiritual new year.  [From Google Search]
www.jattdisite.com

FIRST OF MAY.... Beltane

May First 2013

"If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now. It's just a spring clean for the May Queen."   Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven"

According to folklore, the tradition once had a sinister twist, in that the May Queen was put to death once the festivities were over.. The veracity of this belief is difficult to establish; it may just be a folk memory of ancient pagan customs. Still, frequent associations between May Day rituals, the occult and human sacrifice are still to be found in popular culture today. The Wicker Man, a cult horror film starring Christopher Lee, is a prominent example of these associations.

Beltane, as it is known in the British Isles, marks “the midpoint in the Sun’s progress between the vernal equinox and summer solstice.”

 The etymology of the word means “bright fire”, “bale-fire” or “Baal’s fire”. The festivals on May 1st literally stem from a form of sun and fire worship. 

The Illuminati's founding date of May 1st by Adam Weishaupt  because he wanted the word Illuminati to be symbolized by a point within a circle:

☉

This same symbol has always represented the sun.  In ancient Egypt it was used thousands of years ago as the Hieroglyphic symbol for the sun and the sun-god Ra.

The May Day festivals were an enactment of both sun worship and fire worship.  For Weishaupt the date of  May 1st gave his order the overt type of symbolic connection.

This same connection is evident in the May Day practice of dancing the  Maypole. This is a dot within a circle.  A dance using colored ribbons, the dancers while holding these ribbons, weave beautiful plaits.

Maurice Pendergrast (1858-1924) paints children at May Day
& the Maypole in Central Park between 1901-1903

Read more about the FIRST of May

Image Flickr

It wouldn't be quite right to forget this memorable track by the Bee Gees First of May.

Robin Gibb passed away on May 20, 2012 after a long battle with cancer.  Farewell Robin. First of May was released in 1969 and featured in the soundtrack of Melody, a 1971 British film about Puppy Love starring Jack Wild Mark Lester and Tracy Hyde

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Beltane or Beltain /ˈbɛlteɪn/ (also Beltine or Beltaine) is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 30 April –1 May, or halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It was observed in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish it is Bealtaine ([ˈbʲal̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə]), in Scottish Gaelic Bealltainn ([ˈpjaul̪ˠt̪ˠɪɲ]) and in Manx Gaelic Boaltinn or Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals; along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh.

Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and it is associated with important events in Irish mythology. It marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth.

Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire.

Doors, windows, byres and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush; a thorn bush decorated with flowers, ribbons and bright shells.

Holy wells were also visited, while Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty and maintain youthfulness. Many of these customs were part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe.

As a festival, Beltane had largely died-out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. Since the latter 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Beltane, or something based on Beltane, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Beltane at the other end of the year (~31 October–1 November). From Wiki
 
Images @ Eminpee Fotography