| May Day and Beltane |
BY MADISYN TAYLOR
Celebrate May Day by leaving flowers on a friend's porch
Throughout history, humankind has celebrated the transition from season to season. The festival of May Day takes place on May 1 at the halfway point between the beginning of spring and the start of summer and originated in ancient times as a celebration of fertility, life, sexuality, and nature's renewal. Still observed by many people today, May Day has many colorful and unique customs associated with it and is intimately bound to the Gaelic and pagan fire festival of Beltane. Both celebratory rites take place on the same day and are believed to have originated from the ancient Roman feast of Floralia, which honored Flora, the goddess of spring and flowers, as she returned to the earth to bring the fields back to life with her touch.
Traditionally, May Day celebrations began on April 30, when men and women spent the whole night in the woods where they would dance and play games. On the morning of May 1, they would emerge carrying freshly budded green boughs and flowers that were in bloom. A tree was felled and resurrected as the May Pole around which young people would twine ribbons in the hope of becoming entwined with a new love. Houses were decorated with freshly cut foliage to attract the blessings of earth spirits that were said to walk the land on the first of May. A May King and May Queen were chosen to represent fertility gods and goddesses. Beltane, while also a festival of fertility and sensuality, remains primarily a festival of fire. The Beltane bonfire fire not only blesses the coming season, but also invites luck into one's life. Jumping over a Beltane fire, walking between two fires, or burning sacred wood and dried herbs in a fire guarantees an auspicious season. Often, people would put out their fires and rekindle their hearth using a flame taken from the bonfire.
Both May Day and Beltane can be observed to celebrate the return of passion and vitality that we feel as the weather grows warmer and the world grows greener. You can celebrate these festivals by decorating your home with flowers, blessing your garden, or enjoying a meal made from fresh produce. Each festival represents a wonderful opportunity to mark the end of winter's darkness and ruminate on what the light-filled days of the coming months may bring.
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Wisdom Of The Owl |
BY MADISYN TAYLOR
Owls are patient messengers, bringers of information and the holders of wisdom, capable of seeing the unseen.
For as long as humankind has recognized animals as teachers, wise men and women have recognized traits worthy of respect in both wild and domestic creatures. The cultural and spiritual significance of certain animals transcends geographical boundaries, unifying disparate peoples. Not so the majestic and mysterious owl, which has over many millennia served as the focal point of numerous contradictory beliefs. Though owls have been regarded with awe and fascination, they have also inadvertently served as agents of fear. Since owls are nocturnal, human-owl encounters tended to occur at night and likely when the bird was swooping silently down to earth to grapple with prey. Yet even as some shied away from the owl, calling it an agent of darkness, others recognized the depths of awareness in beautiful owl's eyes.
In the classical Greek tradition, an owl could often be found perched on the shoulder of Athena, goddess of wisdom, while owls could ward off bad luck in Roman lore. It is in Native American mythos, however, that the owl attains its own unique identity. Owls are patient messengers, bringers of information and the holders of wisdom, and they are capable of seeing the unseen. With their keen eyesight, they can glance into the soul to discern meaning and motive, and they are totems of truth. Unlike our distant forebears, we may never encounter an owl in the wild, but we can nonetheless internalize the wisdom of the owl by attuning ourselves to its most venerable qualities. Fully integrating the medicine of the owl into spiritual existence is a matter of considering how we might open ourselves more fully to the wisdom that can be found in the larger universe.
Should you find your efforts blocked as you commune with the owl, remember that it was not always revered as an icon of wisdom. This denizen of the nighttime has overcome many prejudices in its long association with humankind. To reveal those hidden elements of the self that impact your life for better or for worse, you must often make your way through the darkest parts of your soul as if you yourself are the nocturnal hunter. There is indeed darkness both inside the self and outside the self, but like the owl you can transcend it by drawing nourishment from the insights you receive when you penetrate it.
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