Beltane Wicca is a pagan festival that is celebrated on May 1st in the Wiccan tradition. It is one of the eight Sabbats in the Wheel of the Year and marks the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Beltane is a celebration of fertility, abundance, and the arrival of summer. In Wicca, Beltane is honored as a time of joy and renewal. It is a time to honor the earth's fertility, as well as the sacred union between the god and goddess. The holiday is often celebrated with bonfires, dancing, and feasting.
Enchanting Beltane Rituals for New Witches
Beltane is the fifth spoke along the Wheel of the Year. Celebrated around May 1, or the midway point between the spring equinox and and summer solstice, Beltane honors life and, more specifically, fertility. In her book Practical Magic: A Beginner’s Guide to Crystals, Horoscopes, Psychics, and Spells, author Nikki Van De Car writes, “Beltane marks the return of vitality, of passion. It is a celebration of life. It is sensual, but innocent in its sensuality – there is no shame or fear severity on Beltane. It is nothing but joy.”
Here, we offer you our most cherished rituals to bring your Beltane holiday to enchanting life.
Beltane Rendezvous: Wiccan High Holiday of Love
If you’re planning to celebrate this sabbat with a group of friends and loved ones, consider this festivity ritual, courtesy of The Practical Witch’s Love Spell Book: For Passion, Romance, and Desire by Cerridwen Greenleaf.
This is the witch’s high holiday of love, observed on April 30 with feasting and ceremonial ritual. The Celts of old made this day a day of wild abandon, a sexual spree, the one day of the year when it is okay to make love outside your relationship. After an all-night pagan lovefest, May Day is celebrated with dancing around a beribboned May Pole. You decide how you want your Beltane to go, just as long as it is a fully sensual experience with food, dance, sex, and lots of laughter.
Ideally, you will celebrate Beltane outdoors. But if you are indoor-bound, at least serve the food and the drink on the floor and insist on bare feet and comfy clothes. Serve an ambrosial spread of finger foods with honeyed mead (available from some microbreweries), beer, and wine. As you light incense, set out a few dozen white, red, and green candles and arrange spring’s new flowers: daffodils and narcissus.
With arm extended, point to each of the four directions and say:
Hoof and horn, hoof and horn, tonight our spirits are reborn.
Welcome, joy, to my home.
Fill my friends with love and laughter.
When your guests arrive, invite them each to light a candle of their choice and carve their secret Beltane wish into the wax. Ask them now to make an offering to the altar, which your invitation will have instructed them to bring: pink crystals, an apple for love, or perhaps stone-smooth sea glass from a beach walk. Sit everyone down to eat, drink, and make merry. Later, hand out colored ribbons and flowers to braid into other people’s hair, or around wrists, fingers, and toes. It will start getting markedly more pagan now. Turn the volume up on the music, though live guitars and drums are better. If your group is open-minded or of like mind, call a circle and invoke the randy May spirits.
Make Your Own Beltane Brew
Every new witch’s Beltane ritual is complete with a magical libation that honors the aphrodisiacal qualities of this holiday. Here, author Cerridwen Greenleaf offers her recipe for honeyed mead, courtesy of The Practical Witch’s Spell Deck: 100 Spells for Love, Happiness, and Success.
Witches celebrate Beltane on the last evening of April. This is a holiday for feasting, dancing, laughter, and lots of lovemaking. Honeyed mead is revered as the drink of choice for this red-hot holiday.
Mix 1 quart of honey with 3 quarts of distilled water. Boil for five minutes. You can vary the herbs to your liking, but can try a teaspoon each of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice. Add a packet of yeast and mix. Put in a large container, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise and expand. Store the mixture in a dark place and let it sit for seven days. Then refrigerate it for three days while the sediment settles at the bottom. Strain and store in a colored glass, preferably green.
Tap into the Power of Your Sacral Chakra
Beltane is an optimal time to focus on one’s sacral chakra and harness the power from that sensual area of the body. Here, author Nikki Van De Car offers insight and correspondences to help you tap into your sacral chakra during this holiday, courtesy of her new book, Chakras: A Little Introduction to the Seven Energy Centers.
SVADHISTHANA
This is the sacral chakra, where the ovaries and testes are located, and it is the center of our creativity and sexuality. Pleasure and passion both flow when this chakra is open—and these pleasures can be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. We can tap into our artistic sides, and we can find ourselves dancing and basking in our own joy and sensuality. But when this chakra is blocked, we are blocked. We cannot find our inspiration, and sometimes we cannot even find pleasure. But an overactive sacral chakra can lead to manic or hedonistic behaviors— abandoning one’s responsibilities in favor of fun. Which is great sometimes! But it isn’t sustainable in the long term. Physical manifestations of an unbalanced sacral chakra can include problems with fertility, kidney function, and hip and lower back pain.
COLOR: orange
ESSENTIAL OILS: sandalwood, ylang-ylang
SOUND: VAM
CRYSTALS: sunstone, rutilated quartz, carnelian, garnet, ruby, citrine
YOGA POSES: Eka Pada (pigeon pose), Gomukhasana (cow face pose), Utkata Konasona (goddess pose)
Crystal Love Ritual
Love, fertility, and sensuality are all strong themes for this Sabbat, and incorporating crystals into your Beltane ritual is a lovely way to promote these themes. Here, we offer you the Crystal Love Ritual from Wellness Witch: Healing Potions, Soothing Spells, and Empowering Rituals for Magical Self-Care by Nikki Van De Car.
There are so many different kinds of love: love of self, love of family, love of friends, romantic love, love of the earth, of Spirit, of peace and plenty. It is inarguably the most powerful force known to us and the source of all that is good and right in this world. Yet for all that, love sometimes feels so far away. It can be hard to truly sense the love given to us or the love we have to give, though both are always there. This ritual is structured to open you up to all forms of love; though if you want to focus on one in particular, you can do that as well.
You’ll need only two crystals for this ritual: malachite and rose quartz. Malachite will open up your heart chakra, allowing love to flow in and out, and rose quartz will focus that love – so harness its power to place your intentions and desires for the kind of love you want to give and receive!
As with all rituals, set yourself up for greatness; Allow yourself time, and prepare a quiet, restful environment. Light some candles, indulge in some aromatherapy by using any combination of ylang ylang, rose, jasmine, and sandalwood essential oils in a diffuser. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Lie flat, and snuggle your shoulder blades together so that your chest is open. Place the malachite at the center of your breastbone, your heart center. Hold your rose quartz in your nondominant hand. Close your eyes.
Being to take conscious breaths in through your nose, inhaling deeply so that you feel the malachite rise and fall, but smoothly so that it doesn’t shift. As you inhale, gently squeeze the rose quartz, and open you palm up to the sky as you exhale. Allow any fears, frustrations, resentments, or sorrow to empty into your crystals – you don’t have to think about those feelings and dwell on what they are. Just breathe, and allow them to go.
When your timer goes off, allow your breath to return to its normal state. Remove your stones, and sit up slowly. Take one last deep breath.
Be sure to cleanse your stones in clear water, or under the light of the moon, to remove the energy they have taken on before you use them again.
The holiday is often celebrated with bonfires, dancing, and feasting. Beltane is seen as a time of balance, where the energies of light and dark are in harmony. Many Wiccans see this as a time to celebrate the union of the masculine and feminine energies within themselves and within the world.
The Practical Witch's Love Spell Book
Following on the heels of the successful The Practical Witch's Spell Boo k comes this next book of charms, targeted to those interested in tapping into the powers of good magic to manifest a love connection.
The Practical Witch's Love Spell Book is a magical collection of spells and incantations, specifically for bringing more love into your life. Both beginners and seasoned witches will find a myriad of spells and lessons on good magic, all for attracting your perfect mate, or improving a committed relationship that needs a little boost . . . all with gorgeous art throughout.
Beltane Rites and Rituals
Patti Wigington is a pagan author, educator, and licensed clergy. She is the author of Daily Spellbook for the Good Witch, Wicca Practical Magic and The Daily Spell Journal.
Updated on February 03, 2020April's showers have given way to rich and fertile earth, and as the land greens, there are few celebrations as representative of fertility as Beltane. Observed on May 1st (or October 31 - November 1 for our Southern Hemisphere readers), festivities typically begin the evening before, on the last night of April. It's a time to welcome the abundance of the fertile earth, and a day that has a long (and sometimes scandalous) history.
There are many different ways you can celebrate Beltane, but the focus is nearly always on fertility. It's the time when the earth mother opens up to the fertility god, and their union brings about healthy livestock, strong crops, and new life all around.
Here are a few rituals you may want to think about trying—and remember, any of them can be adapted for either a solitary practitioner or a small group, with just a little planning ahead. Try some of these rituals and ceremonies for your Beltane sabbat celebration.
of 08It is also a time to celebrate the growth and abundance of the natural world. Traditionally, Beltane rituals often involve the weaving of ribbons or flowers around a maypole, which represents the phallic symbol of the god. This dance symbolizes the union of the god and goddess and is a celebration of their creative power. Participants may also engage in rituals to honor the earth, such as planting seeds or making offerings. Beltane is a time of heightened spiritual and magical energy, and many Wiccans use this time for divination, spellwork, and rituals to manifest their desires. It is seen as a time of transformation and personal growth, a time to set intentions and bring them into fruition. Overall, Beltane Wicca is a vibrant and joyful celebration of life and the arrival of summer. It is a time to honor the earth's fertility, celebrate the union of masculine and feminine energies, and embrace the power of growth and abundance. This holiday holds a special place in the Wiccan tradition and is cherished for its spiritual significance..
Reviews for "Beltane and the Divine Feminine in Wicca"
1. John - 2 stars - Beltane Wicca didn't resonate with me at all. I found the rituals and practices to be overly complicated and not rooted in any solid foundation. It felt like a mishmash of various traditions without any clear direction. Additionally, the emphasis on fertility and sexuality made me uncomfortable. Overall, it just didn't feel authentic or meaningful to me.
2. Sarah - 1 star - I was extremely disappointed with Beltane Wicca. The book promised a deep exploration of the Beltane festival and its significance, but I found it to be lacking in substance. The author seemed more focused on providing personal anecdotes and opinions rather than offering a comprehensive guide. The rituals and spells described were rudimentary and uninspiring. I expected more depth and knowledge on Beltane, but this book fell short of my expectations.
3. David - 2 stars - Beltane Wicca wasn't what I was expecting. The author seemed more interested in promoting their own beliefs and practices rather than offering an unbiased exploration of Beltane. The rituals and spells suggested were overly complex and convoluted. I was hoping for a more practical and accessible approach to Beltane, but this book didn't provide that. Overall, it was a disappointing read that didn't provide the guidance I was seeking for my Beltane celebrations.
4. Elizabeth - 1 star - I couldn't connect with Beltane Wicca at all. The author's writing style was confusing and hard to follow. The information provided was scattered and lacked cohesion. I felt as though I was reading a poorly researched blog post rather than a well-structured book. The lack of clear instructions and guidance made it difficult to understand how to incorporate Beltane rituals and practices into my own spiritual path. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a comprehensive guide to Beltane.