Beltane, high spring and the launch into the summer season. A festival so often associated with fertility and sacred union. Nature is blossoming and usually so is our social calendars. This year there will be no gathering in large numbers, local events like the Hastings Jack in the Green Festival have been cancelled. Many groups and circles are exploring different ways of connecting online via social media and conferencing sites. Kent Goddess Group will be meeting on Sunday 3rd May on Zoom and our plans include having a stir-up and (if we have all managed to get some flour) and mixing banana bread. For our craft we are making mini maypoles or priapic wands and you can find a tutorial over at Moody Moons here. Our ritual is adapted from Jason Mankey’s A Solitary Beltane Rite: The Magick of Joining, from his website “Raising The Horns”. This ritual really spoke to me it identifies that Beltane is more than just a fertility festival and often looking through lenses reduces things down to the binary and make connection solely about biological functions is reductive and our paganism is so much more broader and inclusive. In this time of Corona where so many of us are in isolation Jason’s ritual seemed really evocative as wherever we are and however we are celebrating Beltane we can always make time and space to invite the divine to come and join with us. Jason very kindly gave me permission to adapt and video the ritual to be shared with the Pagan Federation’s Virtual Garden, an online event from Beltane to Summer Solstice. You can find a link to the event here. I cannot help but wonder, is this solitary ritual, being shared in so many ways is it still a solitary ritual? We may be socially distanced but are we as a community exploring different ways of coming together. I know many people in the disability community have commented that when the broader society is in lockdown there seems to be a much greater push for using technology for greater inclusion. While I do hope that we all come out of this soon I hope we can encourage organisations and events to consider how they can nurture what we have learned in lockdown and use the potential to create more inclusive community ritual events in the future. So my solitary Beltane celebrations have included a meditation (in which I fell back to sleep but I think my higher self knew that I needed a bit more rest). A few oracle cards pulled. I liked this spread from Myna Moon. I used Sue Allsworth’s Chakra Oracle Cards 1. Fire: What ignites my passions? I drew communication and this really resonated with me. I love engaging with people and lockdown has really inspired me, I am really exploring different ways of connecting and communicating with people, using Zoom, Facebook Life and creating video’s. I have also explored more collaborations participating in Janet Groom’s Uplift Project and Warriorkind Women and their Online Art Exhibit. I’ve completed another NaPoWriMo month and my poetic offerings can be found over at A Little Black Phone With My Poems In. 2. Virility: Where do I get my strength and energy? I drew present. I think this is more inspiration for what will leech away our strength and passion. All we have is this current moment. Looking too far back or forwards usually robs us of the gift of the now. Lockdown is scary, people are worried for their health, of losing loved ones, jobs financial security. While we should be mindful of what is going on in the world it can really be kind to keep social media consumption to a minimum. To reach out to people who fill us up. Maybe step back from the things that drain us. I know for me the 6pm evening bulletin is enough for me to keep informed but not overwhelmed. 3. Sexuality: What attracts others to me? I drew soar, it is a beautiful card with a little witchy woman flying up to a full moon. I am attracted to those people and opportunities that raise me up. Life is too short to stay around people or situations that drag you down. I have history with inviting into my life individuals who are not interested in integrating their shadows. They become embroiled in the performative aspects of their suffering. Reliving their traumas, I know, I KNOW I have been guilty of this too. Every life experiences pain and we really do have to face it, process it and heal it. If you do not commit to doing it, you’ll always be mired to it, your ability to soar is grounded. 4. Commitment: What should I commit to during this time? I drew compassion. These are incredibly divisive times. People are judging the government, and how lockdown is being implemented. We have judged those that hoarded or ‘bent’ the rules on social distancing. Even the heron Captain Tom who raised £23,000,000 for the NHS polarised, those who thought it was an heroic undertaking to those who condemned the need to fundraise for services that we pay for through taxation. These are valid discussions and we should hold our political leaders to account but there is great deal of judgement of people rather than of ideas. I am currently reading Judgement Detox by Gabby Bernstein. In the book Gabby explores how judgement is usually against ourselves leading to feelings of shame and guilt that overtime I project onto others, which then leads to more disconnection and isolation and that judgment cycle continues to perpetuate. Commitment to compassion for ourselves and others helps us to challenge the addictive patterns of judgement, 5. Union: How can I deepen my relationships? I drew faith, I think my faith is a great comfort to me in these times. I have faith that this situation will pass. I have faith that although some people are coming from a place of fear, and there is absolutely no judgement here it really can be scary, and uncertainty hits us in waves. I have absolute faith in my ability to lift others up and to be lifted up in turn. My faith moved my family home before the lockdown was implemented. I work in Further Education and the last day before the college closed students were cooking and making up food parcels for our most vulnerable learners. I helped to pack up bags and someone started humming, “We’ll Meet Again”. I have absolute faith that we will.
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