When was the last time you thanked the Sun? That life-giving ball of magic in the heavens above us, that which nourishes and feeds us all - when’s the last time you paused to give thanks to that which gives you and yours life? I don’t intend to call you out on any sort of lack of appreciation, but rather to provide you with that perspective that most of us are stuck in the material, the physical.
Generally speaking, we are all spiritually sterile.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve explored the idea of ritual and ceremony. I’ve called this series “Spiritually Sterile,” as I believe many of our collective problems extend from the sterile relationship most of us have with Spirit. In Part One, which I shared two weeks ago here, I discussed why ceremony and ritual should be part of our everyday lives. Ritual and ceremony help us through transitions, they help us heal, and they help to make us whole again. Appropriate for new births, marriages, divorces, graduations, and perhaps even for easing us through the traumatic events of our lives.
In Part Two, shared last week here, I discussed the function and form of ritual, the importance of symbols and art in that process, how art is always ritualistic and ceremonial, and how ritual and ceremony are always artistic.
This week, I bring to you a simple ritual and ceremony you can do by yourself, and just in time for a magical transition in our year.
Beltane.
Most of us are familiar with the idea of the “Wheel of the Year'', but if not, here’s a brief overview. In Wiccan and Neo-Pagan (“New” Pagans, or modern Pagans) circles, there are 8 major holidays, or sabbats, over the course of the year. These holidays can be thought of as cross-quarter points on a great wheel. For example, the four major sabbats or holidays are the Summer & Winter Solstice, and the Spring & Autumn Equinox. These are points that are balanced throughout the year, at equal distance points away from each other.
The Summer Solstice is generally around June 21st, while the Winter Solstice is generally around December 21st. These times indicate major tipping points, not only in our year but in the course of the planet itself as it hurtles through space. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, after which the Earth starts slowly tilting away from the Sun in a great dance. On the other side of that wheel is the Winter Solstice, with the longest night and shortest day.
The Spring & Autumn Equinox, respectively around March 21st and September 21st, marks the in-between points between the Solstices where the Earth’s equator is closest to the Sun and day and night are of equal lengths. These milestones within the calendar represent balance. There are also intersections between those four major points and those other four points, sometimes known as lesser sabbats. These are Imbolc around February 1st, Beltane around May 1st, Lughnassadh around August 1st, and Samhain around November 1st.
There is stability in these cross-quarter points that helps us relate to how time is passing and the seasons are progressing, and for all that, you do not need to pay attention to these rhythms. We highly recommend that you do, of course, as when you do, you come into closer rhythm with the Natural World around you.
In ancient times, there were rituals performed on Beltane and May Day. It’s traditionally the start of the agricultural season, the unofficial start of Summer when cattle were let out to summer pastures to graze, trees were blooming, birds were nesting, and the Land was coming back to life. In these times, we were so much more in tune with these rhythms of the Earth because our lives depended on them, as we used to literally scrape our sustenance out of the ground.
When we speak of Beltane as May Day, we speak of it as in the northern hemisphere. Beltane is on the other side for the southern hemisphere, with Beltane being around November 1st, when we’re celebrating Samhain or Halloween. Beltane is halfway between the Spring Equinox around March 21st and the Summer Solstice around June 21st. Traditionally celebrated from Sundown on April 30th to Sundown on May 1st, it’s directly on the other side of the Wheel of the Year as Samhain and Halloween, on October 31st to November 1st.
Many of these ancient cultures in the northern hemisphere had celebrations around this time, including rituals to help with the health and vitality of livestock and crops, as well as to protect people and to provide them all with abundance, health, and fertility. Fires were also lit in hopes of gaining the favor and protection of spirits. This was a fundamental time of the year when it was vital for the world to blossom forth as scheduled and as necessary. The fields and flowers needed to be lush and abundant at this time of year for the rest of the harvest down the line to be lush and abundant.
Essentially, Beltane was a time to encourage growth and abundance. These were the days when people were doing their best to sow crops, move livestock, and make the most of the warm, summer growing season as it was upon them. Days were longer, the Earth was warmer, and while life required more work, at least that work wasn’t concentrated around staying warm but rather growing and nourishing.
In Celtic lands, this was normally the time when the hawthorns were flowering and when the cattle were moved to the summer pastures to graze. There was hope again, that the world had left Winter behind and the World was kind to them again, offering up sprouts and plants from the Earth so all could be fed. This may be one of the most fundamental spiritual and mental shifts we could accomplish in our modern world: to get back to a fundamentally spiritual appreciation for all the magic of the world in which we live.
Science, for all the good that it has done us in this world, also hinders us...or perhaps the better way to say it, it limits us. We now have an understanding of the Earth and its place in the Solar System, how our planet revolves around a central Sun. We now understand, generally speaking, that photosynthesis happens: that the cells in a plant’s cells will transform the Sun’s energy into its own and grow. We are so much better off for knowing those sorts of things, yet what kind of magic do we lose once we know them?
Our Ancestors would have looked at the energy of the Sun, not knowing that it was an almost incomprehensibly big ball of chemical and elemental reactions floating in an even more incomprehensible void. They would have held an animistic point of view – in that, all parts of creation are made of spirit – towards the energy of that warm, bright ball in the Sky, and almost every ancient culture celebrated the Sun in some form or fashion.
Over the course of history, this time of year has been celebrated by so many different cultures from all over the world, and especially since the Sun was warming the world and bringing life to everything. If you are a person who leans into astrology, this is also a potent time of year, ruled by Taurus. You don’t necessarily have to celebrate Beltane on May 1st exactly, you can wait until the hawthorns are blossoming where you are, or you can wait until the Sun is positioned at 15 degrees relative to Taurus. Taurus is one of the fixed cardinal points in the Zodiac and a powerful time of year.
Beltane, especially ruled by the power of Taurus, is a potent time to invigorate the world around us. This is a time of fertility and sexuality, of growth and expansion, a powerful time to offer thanks to your Helping Spirits. Beltane is also a powerful time to ask for continued blessings and protection for you, your family, and your community.
Now I’ll present you with a simple ritual of thanks and honoring the Earthly cycles that you can do on Beltane, which falls on Wednesday, May 1st, this year
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First, we set our intention: to celebrate Beltane, or May Day, with an offering of art and color to the world outside your home. For this task, you’ll be using “cloots!” In Scottish nomenclature, a “cloot” or “clootie” is a brightly colored piece of cloth or rag. You’ll need to find some sort of colorful rag or ribbon for this ritual. Remember the power of symbols, and especially color. Red can mean vitality and life, blue can mean peace, yellow can mean energy, and so on.
In Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man there is a traditional practice of making offerings to a “clootie” well or tree. At holy springs and wells, these pieces of cloth were sometimes dipped in the water and used to cleanse an ailing body part. The rags were then tied to a branch or laid on the edge of the well and as the rag decayed, so did the ailment fade in the body.
There are also rites of walking around wells or springs a particular amount of times, reciting prayers or wishes as one did so. Often, these practices and pilgrimages were performed by those seeking healing, but sometimes, people simply made these as an offering to these spirits of place. In pre-Christian times, these prayers and offerings were made to the goddesses of these springs and wells, as well as nature spirits specifically associated with these locations. As time progressed and so did the influence of Christianity, many of these wells and springs became associated with saints.
Take your “clooties” and bring them outside to a tree or bush that is in your local area, preferably in the yard of the home where you live. If you’re able to do this near your drinking source or well on your property, wonderful! It is absolutely fine to simply find a participating tree. If you live in an apartment or do not have a yard or property where you can tie these ribbons, you should make your way to a local park where you can do this as well. Your goal here is to tie each ribbon on the branch of a tree or bush as near to your home and water as possible.
You may tie all your ribbons to one tree, shrub, or bush, or you can tie a single ribbon to a group of trees or bushes. What’s important here, though it may not make sense to you now, is to have a conversation with everything as you do so. This may not make sense to you to have a conversation with the ribbons, or with the trees, but I’m encouraging you to do so! As well, have a conversation with the wind and the sun as they work around you. If a tree doesn’t feel like it wants ribbons tied on its branches, please respect that feeling!
You can have this conversation internally or externally, but it’s preferable to have an external conversation. Talk to the trees or shrubs, preferably with their name, as in “Birch” or “Pine.” Guidance around what to say here will be limited, as I can’t tell you how to speak to the person who lives next door to you. I can only suggest you do so with kindness and courtesy!
Beltane is the time to celebrate the great greening, the official start of Summer. This is the opposite time of year to Samhain or Halloween when ancient cultures would bring their livestock in from pasture. This is the time of year when people dance around a Maypole with ribbons, and as you most likely won’t be doing that this year, these ribbons celebrate that. Consider them a biodegradable, beautiful offering to the spirits of the Trees and to the spirits of the Land, offerings that the local Bird Kingdom will eventually make way with as material for their nests.
As you tie each ribbon onto the branch, be mindful to make sure you do not tie knots around developing leaves. Be mindful of weight distribution and do not weigh down the branches too much. Do your best to tie it in as non-invasive a way as possible. When you do, speak out loud or internally, telling the Tree how much you thank it for all that it does, whether it grows apples or other fruits, or simply provides you shelter from storms while holding in the soil, keeping it safe from erosion.
As you tie the ribbons, thank the spirits of the land for all their protection and hospitality, for their bounty and grace. This is an especially potent exercise if you have gardens or livestock, where you take sustenance from the land on which you live. If you are called to light any incense or candles outside or inside as an offering to the spirits of the land, please do so!
Tie your ribbons out on trees, offering thanks to your local spirits for their vitality and their essence, and thank them for their benevolence. Ask for bounty and abundance for you and yours, ask that there be peace between you and these spirits always, and offer your voice as an offering. Even better, chanting or singing to the trees or shrubs with which you’re working is indeed a potent offering of breath and lifeforce, all dedicated to those spirits you’re thanking and working with.
If you are near water, and you have a bum knee or a case of tennis elbow or carpal tunnel, dip a clootie in some water and wash that area. Tie it around a limb or lay it near the source of water as you can, so that as it disintegrates, so does your ailment. Consider making a wish, asking to increase or decrease areas in your life as you’d have. Don’t be afraid to make wishes. Perhaps use some of the ribbons as wishes for yourself, wishes for others, and simple offerings for the tree and land? Feel out what’s appropriate to you.
Once you’re finished, you have created a bit of beauty as an offering of thanks, and as a symbol of your stewardship and peace. This is a simple gesture of love and gratitude that will go a long way with the spirits of your home and the land on which you live.
That’s essentially it! Once you’ve tied all your ribbons, or “cloots,” offer words of gratitude and peace. By doing so, we’re celebrating the new summer with which we’re gifted while making offerings to the land that sustains us. This helps us honor the turning of the seasons and brings us closer to those energies that support us.
Incorporating these types of blessings and rituals into our lives helps us grow closer to Nature and Spirit. Thus, our lives won’t be so spiritually sterile but rather lush and full of connection.
As it should be.
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Ceremony and ritual can be as easy and artistic as tying ribbons to trees or as involved and in-depth as a wedding ceremony. While we can create ceremony and ritual in our own lives, we may need help from others who have experience in these types of situations. I encourage you to create ritual and ceremony in your own life to help you through transitions and healings, but I also encourage you to seek out a spiritual community that could help you with the same.
Sometimes we can do it by ourselves. Sometimes, though, we need help.
If you feel ceremony and ritual could help you in your healings, I recommend reaching out to my husband, Isaac Vars. His website is greenmountainmage.com, and he can be emailed at greenmountainmage@gmail.com. With decades of experience in spiritual wisdom and training, he has helped many in their own transitions. Email him to see if you can set something up with him, either in-person or virtually!
Many blessings to you and to your healing and transitions. As always, thank you for being here!
Perhaps you could do some research and educate people that this a a nonsense modern blot of a “tradition” it does nothing but harm to the trees and our environment - ribbons are plastic and it needs to be stopped. Look at the issues Avebury, Knowlton and lots of other sacred places all over the UK are having with plastics pollution. This is a harmful and ridiculous article
This article seems well-meant but it's actually supremely unhelpful to encourage people to tie things to trees in order to 'honour' them and the environment. Particularly plastic ribbons. The same can be said of using incense and candles which can leave toxic residue and wax and are often abandoned at the site afterward. There is no historical evidence of 'honouring' the sun in this way in so-called 'Celtic lands' (whatever they are). The result of this kind of naive article is that trees end up being covered in cheap plastic litter by people who then go on their merry way without giving them another thought. Please research the damage these 'clooties' cause the trees, the wildlife and the environment around them before you encourage people to do this.