Here we are on the eve of May Day, on what I just learned is the day of an old Celtic celebration called Beltane, or "bright fire". I'd been thinking about starting a blog for a while now and when I read about this celebration, I decided that a day of "bright fire" seemed as good a day as any to start! So... as I was reading about Beltane this morning, something in it really struck a cord with me. The celebration originated around the start of the summer crop-growing and breeding season, and is the cross-quarter point between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. All that is to say that it's the start of a season of birth and growth, and at the other end is the harvest - Samhain to the Celts or just plain ol' Halloween to the rest of us (and one of my favorite holidays!). Anyway, on both occasions, bonfires were lit on hillsides across Scotland and Ireland, and both were believed to be times when the veil between worlds was especially thin...
And that's how I'm feeling today... everything looks a little more clear and I feel like I'm coming out of a lengthy hibernation. My birthday is also coming up in May so all that meaning and metaphor about birth and growth seems to ring true even more. So lots of beginnings are in the air and under foot... we'll see what happens!
May, clad in cloth of gold, Cometh this way; The fluting of the blackbirds Heralds the day. (Raven Grimassi)
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