Blessed Beltane!

This weekend us in the northern hemisphere are celebrating the warming spring, the returning green, and fertile times ahead! My garden is starting to get moving, with most of it planted.

This little guy, my white sage, is blooming for the first time, just in time to feed the bees! Blessings!

Beltane Fires

Blessed Beltane! Merry Mayday! Happy Walpurgis, International Workers Day, Valborg or any other excuses you have to build a bonfire and party with your comrades.

Beltane is an interesting transition time, officially spring begins on Eostre, the equinox, but around here the cold weather is clinging on. Colorado is notorious for unpredictable climes, and I know well enough to not put out the tomatoes until May Day as we can get snow 10 months of the year here in the city. So we are now moving into a steady warm season, with ever lengthening days and the greening earth.

Flower crown tutorial.

Traditionally Beltane was celebrated throughout the British Isles, honoring the sun god Bel. Great fires would be built and the livestock was run between two fires on their way out to summer pastures. This practice may have arisen from attempts to scare away evil spirits, or the more practical scaring off of predators and competition. Walpurgis and all it's relatives were also based around bonfires and merry-making.

Photo by Roddy Macd

In the earlier days of Industrialization and socialist movements May Day became International Workers Day. Besides being a day of celebration, it has been suggested that the largely rural farming workforce that was transitioning to factory work still enjoyed the holiday even after the older traditions (like running livestock) had dropped out of it.

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No matter the focus of your celebration, this is a time of new awakenings and fresh starts. As we in the northern hemisphere enjoy the coming bounty and fertility of the land, raise a glass to the fire, to the land, and to the people who work it!

The Wheel Doesn't Always Turn One Way...

After a few weeks of very warm weather and a weekend of 80+ F degrees, it spent the last two days snowing. This is actually fairly normal for Colorado, skip Spring and go straight to Summer, then come back around to a little bit of Winter.
I know better than to trust an early season, so all the seeds I've planted are frost hardy. There's a reason we call them "Snow Peas" and Radishes hate warm weather. Of course the tulips didn't miss a beat. In fact the moisture was a huge boon to them! My table will have a fresh bouquet on it for at least two weeks from now.
I finally started on the fourth and final stage of my Wheel of the Year project. Spring will be a light colored tree with small buds and pink flowers. I'm looking forward to bringing the whole circle together, and already plotting a project for the coming trip around the sun. Nothing like crafting to make us enjoy every single season!
What does spring look like for you? I feel it's the season that people are most in touch with, we've kept so many of the old traditions celebrating fertility and rebirth (like spring cleaning, Easter, Earth Day and May Day) that even in modern society we all recognize the return of life. Be sure to get outside and watch some flowers blooming!

Beltane Fires

The wheel of the year just keeps turning! This weekend marks Beltane, a transition between spring and summer. In many traditions this is a time to hang out all night around a huge bonfire dancing and singing and carrying on. That's right, partying all night is a spiritual event for some pagans, makes you want to play right? Top to Bottom - Beltane greeting cards (even more fun if you have über-conservative relatives) by FifthRealmPress. Camp never looked like this! Handsewn Alter cloth honoring the element of fire, from Linemor of Sweden. Fine silver reproduction of a Scythian Deer Brooch from those crazy Germans of Albae. Check out their full collection of metalsmithed goods based on anchient artifacts and techniques!



Beltane was a very important Celtic celebration, and a precursor to Mayday. The maypole and ribbon dance are traced back to it. Purifying and cleansing with the fires and ashes prepare one for the new life that summer brings!
Lovely yarn (with a hint of magic!) from SolsticeYarns in the colors of hot coals. A finely formed and well painted leather owl mask from Teonova, if you want to party all night in style. A bright and lively limited run print from NtheGroove called "Flame of the Dryads" reflecting the energy of the bonfire. Even if you don't enjoy the Beltane tradition, we can all rejoice in the growing blooms and coming summer months. Cheers!