Beltane

THE FIRES OF BELTANE

Trail of Fire that beats within my soul. You emerge and rekindle once more. I have been lost for centuries and cold as coal. Now you are reborn in me like the fields in spring. It's the fires of Beltane! Let us dance and sing! Shout the blessing of the Goddess, the blessing of fertility! Celebrate the ecstasy of the spirit bearer.... Join us, great consort, Billy-goat, provoking the greatest love expressed. Lift up your hearts, lift up your voices, Let us join hands, unite our souls in celebration. Let us celebrate our Pagan condition and give thanks for blessings to the Goddess.

Beltane or Beltaine is an ancient Irish celebration day, it's the 1st of May. This day was celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and Isle of Man. In other Celtic regions like Wales, Britain, and Cornwall they had similar festivities on the same day. Currently, Beltaine survive with a folklore practices on the Celtic nations and diasporas, in addition, on the last decades, this day have had a rebirth. In Galicia, without being regarded as a Celtic nation, despite its claim to be considered as part of the Celtic cultural heritage), Beltaine was held with a night harvest with torches called Fachucos. The Fachucos ashes were spreaded on the field.

For the Celts, the night of Beltane marked the beginning of the new summer season, when the the herds of cattle were driven out to the green pastures and grazing lands of the mountains. In modern Irish Mi na Bealtaine is the name for the month of May, although it is often abbreviated like Bealtaine, the holiday being known as Lá Bealtaine. One of the most popular activities from this celebration was the lighting of bonfires in the mountains and hills with a magical ritual and a politic meaning on Oidhche Bhealtaine (Beltaine's eve). In modern Gaelic Scottish, is used Lá Buidhe Bealtaine (the Yellow Bealtain's Day) to describe the 1st of May. In the ancient Ireland, the main Bealtaine's bonfire was burn on the central hill of Uisneach, 'The Navel of Ireland', the center of Ireland, center of magic rituals from the country, now it's localized in Westmeath. In Ireland, the lighting of bonfires at Oidhche Bhealtaine seems to have survived only to the present day in the County of Limerick, especially in Limerick City with its annual bonfire night, although some cultural groups have expressed interest in reviving the habit in Uisneach and perhaps on the Hill of Tara. In modern times one can also observe the lighting of Beltane fires that are lit individually in homes in some parts of the Celtic diaspora and by some neopagan groups, although in most of these cases this practice is a cultural celebration rather than the revival of an ancient tradition. The 30th April's eve, in the Gregorian calendar, it's the beginning of our Beltaine, Celtic celebration. The word Beltane is composed of two words; "tane" which can mean fire and with the union of both we could obtain "good fire", "luminous fire" or "beautiful fire". Beltane begins, the dreary days are a reminder of days gone by. The light is reborn in the time of more strength and it is our third festivity, where fire is the protagonist. Our celebration begins at sunset of the 30th April’s eve and it’s concludes the next day, in these moments, according to our believes, the summer begings. Samos starts, the end of the Celtic’s winter and the start of the illuminated wheel’s year. It’s our fire’s festival. The willows’ s month go through Beltaine’s season and lends his magic essences. In our ritual we have previously extinguished all the existing fires in our tribe or community, as a symbolic form representing the absence of this one. At dawn when the dawn begins to break on the first morning of Summer, we will ritually light our fire where we will regenerate our own spiritual vitality. The bonfire, as our ancestors did, like our ancestors did, will be made of nine sacred woods from nine different trees, and later, carried by nine people are going to put the woods in the bonfire. When it starts to burn, we will get embers to light other small fires at the Beltaine’s sunrise, as opposed to Samhain where the fires start at twilight. In these magical moments, which our ancestors also performed by passing themselves and their livestock through the smoke in a rite of cleansing and purification, fire was and is a divine symbol. This fire was entrusted to the patronage of the god Belenos (the shining one). Manifestation, moreover, of the Lord of Summer and associated with the healing powers of the Sun. Our ancestors also had more ways of greeting these days of celebration and partaking of the healing energy of the Sun Good. One of these traditions was to rise before the sunrise, after a vigil in the sacred forests, where they had participated in the sexual rites of Beltane, they would go to a nearby hill to watch the sunrise and bathe in its life-giving rays. Such bathing could also be taken in a more symbolic way, by bathing in sacred fountains and springs in which the sun's rays had been trapped, or by drinking the water from these or from sacred wells, where the sunlight had been retained. The druids advised drinking the water from these springs before sunrise, washing with the morning dew and adorning themselves with flowers. All this ritual was to dance around the May tree, letting oneself be carried away by the seasonal festivity. The dew that was collected on Beltaine mornings was also collected and stored for use in later rituals. The dew that was collected on Beltane mornings. Dew in its magical concept was considered an essence distilled from the Earth by means of fire (the sun), an alchemy of the spiritual nature of Mother Earth, in whose bosom the springs and streams represent her female organs with their healing properties. The goddess of the Earth