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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

Fire

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:

 To the east,

to the south,

to the west,

to the north.

 Then recite:

Hoof and horn, hoof and horn, tonight our spirits are reborn.

Welcome, joy, to my home.

Fill my friends with love and laughter.

So mote it be.

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.

Tea cup

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.