Beltane Blessings

Beltane a vibrant celebration of wild blooming and sacred fire

As the Wheel of the Year turns, we arrive at Beltane, a Celtic festival of fire, fertility, and wild blossoming. The days grow longer with a gentle kiss of warm sun rays that shine with a golden promise of summer yet to come. Beltane marks the beginning of the bright half of the year. In the old Celtic worldview, Beltane was not attached to a fixed date, but rather attuned to the seasonal energies, often observed when the Hawthorn bloomed and the animals were ready to go to summer pastures. Its timing was based on a more organic and observational calendar, following the cycle of the moon and  tied to the turning of the natural world.
According to the Ancient Celtic lunar Coligny calendar Beltane is celebrated on the second New Moon after the Spring Equinox. So this year Beltane is on 27th April 2025. 

The Gregorian reform in 1582 realigned the calendar more closely with the solar cycle by skipping leap days in certain years and adjusting the way leap years were calculated. As a result of this correction, seasonal markers like equinoxes and solstices shifted by about 10–13 days over centuries, depending on the region and when they adopted the new calendar.
As pagan festivals were woven into Christian observances, as Christianisation began to take over Beltane  became associated with their May Day celebration which was held on May 1st.
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The Coligny Calendar reminds us of the spiral nature of time, how things return transformed, how endings are beginnings. Its cyclical structure echoes the wisdom of the medicine wheel, the spiral of rebirth, the seasonal soul journey.

If you feel the old rhythms stirring in your bones, you might choose to celebrate Beltane as our ancient ancestors would have, when the land is ready, when the blossom bursts open, when your own inner fire awakens, when the veils are thin and the pulse of fertility hums in the earth.
It is not about the date, it’s about the moment of turning, the invitation to dance, the threshold of becoming.

The ancients didn’t measure time in straight lines, but in spirals.
They watched for signs.
Listened to the land.
Moved when the season whispered, “Now.”

Beltane marks the sacred midpoint between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice and invites us into a threshold season, a doorway into light, passion, and life renewed.
Beltane, derived from the Irish Gaelic Bealtaine, is thought to stem from the name of the Celtic god Belenus, a radiant solar deity associated with light, healing, and sacred fire. His name translates as "Bright Fire," a perfect invocation for the flames lit on Beltane eve.

The Beltane Fire and the Nine Sacred Woods
Traditionally, fires were kindled using nine sacred trees, each holding symbolic and energetic significance:

• Birch – New beginnings and purification
• Rowan – Protection and second sight
• Alder – Bridging worlds and community guardianship
• Willow – Emotions, dreams, and lunar wisdom
• Hawthorn – Fertility and sacred union
• Oak – Strength and wisdom
• Holly – Masculine protection and midsummer power
• Hazel – Inspiration and poetic insight
• Apple – Healing and love

Fires were more than warmth, they were living altars, kindled to bless crops, animals, and people. Villagers would leap the flames or walk between them for protection, vitality, and fertility.

Sacred Union and Handfasting
Beltane is a celebration of sacred union, between land and sky, the divine feminine and masculine, and within ourselves. Ancient rites included handfasting ceremonies, often held under blooming hawthorn trees, a symbol of sensuality and protection beloved by the Sidhe (fae folk). These "greenwood marriages" were sacred pledges, witnessed by nature, the elements, and the unseen realms.

Brigid’s Presence at Beltane
Though we often associate Brigid with Imbolc, her presence is felt powerfully at Beltane, not as maiden, but as maturing goddess, midwife of blooming and guardian of love. She weaves her sacred fire into the season, blessing unions, creativity, and the fruition of dreams.

Traditions Across the Celtic Lands
In Ireland, it was said that Partholón, the first settler, arrived on Beltane. The Tuatha Dé Danann were also defeated on this day, marking a shift in mythic ages.
In Cornwall, doors were adorned with hawthorn and sycamore, and the mystical ‘Obby ‘Oss’ would dance through Padstow's streets, bringing fertility and protection. In other parts of England, Maypoles were raised, remnants of Axis Mundi rituals, symbolising the sacred connection between heaven and earth.

Beltane Today
​Even as Christianity absorbed Beltane’s rites into May Day or Walpurgis Night, the essence remained, bonfires, flower garlands, and celebration of life’s sensual, vibrant, untamed beauty.
To celebrate Beltane today might mean:

• Lighting a candle and whispering your desires to the flame
• Making flower crowns or decorating your home with seasonal blooms
• Gathering in community or simply walking barefoot on the earth
• Writing your own vows, whether to a beloved, to life, or to yourself
• Remembering your body as sacred, your pleasure as prayer, your joy as devotion

Beltane is an invitation: to bloom, to burn bright, to say yes to life. May we honour the fire in our hearts, the wisdom in our bodies, and the wild beauty that calls us home again and again.

If you feel the old rhythms stirring in your bones,
celebrate when the land calls you
when the blossoms open,
when your inner fire rises,
when the veils are thin
and the earth hums with desire.
It’s not about the date.
It’s about the moment of turning.

The invitation to return, to bloom, to become.

Beltane reminds us:
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Love is holy.
Desire is sacred.
Life is meant to be lived, fully, wildly, soulfully.
So light the fire.
Adorn your body with flowers.
Walk barefoot on the grass.
And remember: the Earth and Fire meet within you too

Beltane Journal Prompts….
For Rekindling Passion, Awakening Desire, and Honouring Life

1. What desires are stirring within me now, quietly asking to be seen, heard, or expressed?
   (What is awakening in my inner garden?)
2. Where in my life do I long to feel more aliveness, intimacy, or connection?
   (With others, with nature, with myself?)
3. What parts of me are ready to bloom, no longer hidden, no longer waiting?
4. What fears or old beliefs keep me from fully embracing my sensual, creative, or wild self?
5. If I could tend to my life like a Beltane fire, fiercely, lovingly, and without apology, what would I burn away? What would I feed with sacred flame?
6. What does fertility mean to me, not just in body, but in spirit, in dreams, in creative life?
7. What would it look like to honour my joy as sacred? My pleasure as prayer?
8. What beauty in my life wants to be celebrated right now?
   (How can I mark it, bless it, or share it?)​

Beltane Somatic Practice: "Ignite the Inner Fire"
A sensual embodiment ritual to awaken the senses and open to aliveness
Find a private, cozy space. Light a candle, burn some herbs (hawthorn, rose, or mugwort if you have them), play soft, earthy music if it feels good.

“I honour my body as sacred. I welcome aliveness. I welcome joy. 
​I welcome my full, fertile self.”

Feel the earth beneath you.
Know that you are connected to the great turning, to Beltane’s dance of light,
life, and wild beauty.

Beltane Blessings
Love 
​Theresa