Bealtane,
Walpurgis,
For thousands of years humans have celebrated at the end of winter, and everyone comes out in early may for 2 weeks and eats the last food from the cellars. They roast a spring animal or two to feast. The last ofthe winter beer comes out. Young people who are looking for love think of their lover as they twirl their ribbon round the may-pole in a community ritual and those who wish to HANDFAST make their wishes known to the community.
The christians want to tie people together for life, which is a control scheme, christian marriage. Handfasting is one of christianities greatest enemies, because more than two people can handfast together, and they are only bound for until the love lasts. They aren't bound forever and their property is not bound togeter, which is the purpose of christian marriage, the binding and theft of beliefs, rights and property.
So anyway, this is a good time to handfast. And there are far fewer restrictions, because it isn't considered a marriage by any christianized government administration in canada. Handfasting is strictly about LOVE not anything else, so people who love each other make vows in front of their friends, who are generally ok with most partnerships where two (or more) people of freewill can dedicate themselves to each other in a communal situation.
Bindings that pious christians would disapprove of for whatever reason can occur in handfasts as long as the people who are going to tie the mates hands together can accept it and walk up to them and tie them together, then it works. Many people write wishes for the lovers on the ribbons before they tie their hands.
50 ribbons is 50 people acknowledging the binding of the lovers.
The maypole is the absent or wished-for lover as one of its symbolisms. Tying a ribbon to it can be a spell to visualize and project your love.
The full moon nearest to may 1st is the actual important time. Its the christians who like solar dates in stone, pagans are more interested in celebrating while the moon is full.
Why the moon is more important is obviously too big of a topic for here. But consider that you are a bag of water (80%) with a bit of other material in the meat. So when the rock and stone of the earth gets elongated and ovoided by the travel of the moon, so does the water in your body sac. Its also a deep hereditary racial memory common to almost all humans to get goopy about the full moon, so that's reason enough for it.
It is a common time for etheric/astral travel of various humans practicing their succubi routines too.
Later the christians would demonize mayday as a time of "human sacrifice", which it really wasn't, but it was a good story to keep scared parishioners away from the pagan parties where they might get drunk and fuck someone who they weren't married to. Which is fine to a pagan, as long as your mate is cool with it.
This is the time when all the little witchies should be sending their spirit forms about, trying to find their mate through etheric spirit communication before they consumate in body. Or finding lovers in the dark in the woods. Lots of fertility rites. Damn fornicators. 8P
Most people get it wrong, but pagans are a lot less about orgies than people think. They just like fucking their mate or lover in a space where everyone can see their friends fucking each other. Even pagans get the idea that everyone fucking everyone leads to everyone getting herpes or worse.
They are generally an observant group of people, if maybe a little too trusting.
I was always more interested in the barbecue. Mmmm. See that's where the sacrifice stories come from. Really they just had a barbecue, but they all had a big prayer for the cow/goat/chicken first so the christians called it a sacrifice. It was a feast. The killing of the meat was a central part of the event because that's what everyone was going to eat for the next 3 days.
Anyways, this is the two week period of Bealtaine, so work yourself up into a frenzy for the full moon,
and watch out for the Christians, who will always try to jack your party.
If you want to participate in the Wild Hunt
You should get a little drunk and meditate on the full moon
Just so you know, you don't actually go running around, its an etheric travel thing.
Try it!
You might like it.
Any Pretty little kinkster witchies out there who are well off enough to drag the hobo wizard around?
8P
Notice how the two most important Pagan celebrations, Bealtaine and Samhain, don't have public holidays? And their are christian and secular holidays almost immediately before and after?
Its to keep people from celebrating on THEIR special spiritual time.
The administrative burning of the witches.
Watch out for GHB on May Day. Its the number one tool of the christians against pagans right now. No VPD officer will ever investigate the GHB rape of a pagan. Seriously. That's why there is so much of it. It only costs $10 to buy a dose of liquid rape in Vancouver, and there are litres of it ready to be used against you all with impunity. The best thing pagans can do for themselves as a group is by some of those GHB detection strips. Personally I think they should be freely available from the VPD, but they wouldrather turn their heads and pretend there isn't any GHB being used against you. Really, you weren't drugged, you're just a witchy slut right?
Real pagans like to drink, and even use entheogens, but passing around bottles with GHB in it is really rape. IMHO. And if you can't remember your "ritual" there isn't a lot of point in pretending its important to you.
One last warning: where you have your "rituals" can be fatal to you! I've seen a couple of large witch/pagan groups disbanded simply because they rented a hall that was run by christianized gangster rednecks. In less than 3 years their numbers halved. They were identified and targeted after their parties in the hall by gangs using the surveillance footage from the hall's security and the guestbook information. They never realized until it was too late that there was a reason those people offered them the hall so cheap. They were attacked one at a time and never realized that it was their own belief that they would be treated equally in todays society that they were able to be divided.
- Johfra Bosschart "sabbath"
You might notice I haven't mentioned any specific deity or deities associated with May 1.
Because there are deities from every culture and belief connected with spring rites and festivals, so take your pick or just enjoy the feast without one.
Because there are deities from every culture and belief connected with spring rites and festivals, so take your pick or just enjoy the feast without one.
All pagans don't necessarily have deities, and those that do often have wildly differing ones.
