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2 Reasons the World Needs Beltane NOW

2/5/2015

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Beltane, or May Day, is known in the neo-pagan community as the wild and sensuous holiday of fire leaping and trysts in the woods. It is that, with a maiden playing the Queen of the May and a young fellow playing the Stag Lord. They chase through fiery revelries and ritually make love for the benefit of the harvest, or, at least that is what we believe was celebrated in antiquity; now it is a huge street party in cities such as Edinburgh, Scotland. However, the underlying meaning of this holiday is so needed in our world right now.

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Uniting of the Queen of the May and the Stag Lord

The ritual chase and coupling of the May Queen and the Horned God symbolize the great coming together of the masculine and feminine energies for creation, with the added fuel of great desire. What marvelous good could be accomplished in our world with the clarity, courage, decisiveness, and the “going forth” energy of the divine masculine, together with the perseverance, stability, nurturing, and patience of the divine feminine.
 
We each have both those energies within us and we each have all those combined attributes, and more. The key to powerful creation is to unleash all those attributes along with a deep desire to facilitate the manifestation of something new. The creative urge is really all around us at this time of year…the longing of the pollen to reach the pistil, the passion of the seed to burst and send up a shoot, the battle of the stags to win the doe, the desire of the soil to support the new plant. Over and over there are examples of the desire to go forth and the desire to nurture. We, too, have those longings within us…to form a new creation and to support it to the fulfillment of its purpose, whether it is a child, a project, an invention, or something else. The Beltane message is, “Unleash your desire for the great good of the world; it is needed NOW.”


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Balancing the Masculine and Feminine Energies

Beltane celebrates the perfect balance of the masculine and feminine energies. The Stag Lord pursues the Queen of the May, but she wants the coupling as much as he does and for the same purpose. In a modern reenactment of the ancient sacred marriage the May Queen says:

         I am the womb of creation. Within me the new life of earth grows each
year. Come to me. I honor you, my Lord, and shall create new life with you.


The Forest God replies:

I am the seed of the next generation. Come to me. I honor you, my Goddess, and shall create new life with you.

With their sacred union consummated, new plant life, animals, and people are assured for the next cycle of life.

Our world is in need of this balance for our next generations. At this time there seems to be a predominance of masculine energy in our political scene, in our police forces, and in schools. Take a look at the attributes of a masculine dominator world view and a balanced partnership world view:


         Masculine Dominator                        Balanced Partnership

            Fear                                             Trust

            Win/ lose                                    Win/win

            Control                                        Nurture

            One-sided benefit                     Mutual benefit

            Hoarding                                    Sharing

            Negative conditioning            Positive conditioning

            Taking orders                            Team work

            Secrecy                                        Openness

            Indoctrination                            Education

Beltane offers us a balanced partnership in the creation of our world. Each time we let go of the dominator world view in our business life and families and take the balanced partnership route we are working to create a world that works for the next generations. This is the Beltane energy that is needed NOW.

 

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Three Lessons from the Green Man

1/12/2014

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The Green Man is an ancient archetype encompassing the wildness and the life force of nature, and the human connection to the natural world. This nature deity appears in many pantheons of old: Osiris in Egypt, Pan in Greece, Jack-in-the-Green and Robin Hood in old British lore, to name a few. Most commonly he is depicted as a human face emerging from a sea of branches with greenery sprouting from his mouth, nose and ears. Numerous carvings in stone and wood can be seen in churches and chapels throughout Europe. This beautiful example is one of 103 such carvings in Rosslyn Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland. What does the Green Man hold for us today?

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We are Connected to the Natural World

The depictions of the Green Man are so varied, showing humor, fierceness, anger, joy, and every emotion in between. It would seem that our ancestors actually saw him in the woods. He invites us to look for him, to get out into nature and relate to the playfulness and wisdom in the natural world. Sometimes, when I have been walking in woods, a movement flickers in the corner of my eye and I know that something or someone has slipped from tree to tree, daring me to catch an actual glimpse. I love this hide and seek of forest creatures, be they Green Men, wee folk, or fairies, and it makes me want to feel into their world. Can you see the faces in this wooded scene?

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We Draw Strength from the Seasons of the Year

There is a tradition in Ireland about the Green Man and the yearly cycle of growing. At Samhain (October 31), when the growing cycle is over and all goes dormant on the land, the Green Man descends into the underworld to rejuvenate in stillness. During his months in the earth his roots grow down into Mother Earth and his antlers grow up. Both outcroppings serve the same function –to connect him to the power and wisdom of earth energy. He stays in the underworld until Beltane (May 1), when he explodes onto the land as the god, Cernunnos – virile, strong, antlered and ready to participate in the fertility of the entire natural world. He pursues and mates with the Queen of the May and a new cycle of growth begins. Now, in December, he is in deep meditation in the underworld. We can use this time of the calendar, quiet wintertime, to also go deep within to gain strength for our own next creation.

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We Can Encourage Our Wild Side

The Green Man is the bridge between wild nature and the face of humanity, with quite a bit of his energy on the wild side. In stories from antiquity he is related to wine, brewing of spirits, sexual excess, and other physical pleasures. This is not a civilized archetype. In our world of jobs, internet, traffic snarls, and schedules, most of us long for a bit more wildness. The Green Man tells us to risk a bit more, be outrageous a bit more, go for a dream a bit more, let yourself enjoy physical pleasure a bit more. Go ahead and let yourself dip into your primal nature, along with the Green Man, and enjoy your life on earth, with all its deliciousness. This life lasts for a countable number of precious seasons, and the Green Man encourages us to enjoy all that earthly life and our physical bodies have to offer our soul. I agree!

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