 Image by State Library of Queensland, Australia via Flickr |
| Also not attendees of WC's Beltaine, for privacy reasons. |
The Kunnings are making their annual pilgrimage up to Wolf Creek Sanctuary for Beltaine and Walpurgisnacht with the Radical Faeries! We have gone the last several years, and the place has special meaning for us- Rowan was conceived there at Beltaine- so the land and this holiday in particular are near and dear to our hearts.
We will be taking a mini-van with 3 other adults up to the sanctuary and will be there from Friday morning through Monday afternoon. Bonus- a couple long-time Faeries are getting married on Friday! Huzzah!That means we get a wedding, Walpurgisnacht, and Beltaine- all in one jam-packed weekend!
On Walpurgis night, it is the tradition of this gathering to have an all-night party and burn the maypole from last year's festival in the central firepit. We cannot start a new maypole dance on Beltaine until the old one is cold ash.
Beltaine festivities start in the afternoon in a meadow especially reserved for this event each year, aptly named "Maypole Meadow". A tree is selected before this weekend and felled. All reverence and thanks are given to this tree. During the weekend, volunteers strip it of its branches and bark, except for the very top, which will be visible above the fray of ribbons.
Special sacraments are passed, intentions are set, and then we are off to the races! I remember the first year we went, a friend we brought fretted that it was goingt o take "forever" to dance the maypole, as it was so tall and there were hundreds of ribbons (for all the attendees). She need not have worried. Chaos magick reigns in this place, and it took no time at all for the spider-web mess of a maypole to get done. No prim and proper "in and out" here- it was "do what thou wilt"!
After the Maypole, there are myriad festivities happening all over the land. You are free to take part in any mischief you can find. That evening in the barn (the biggest common building, where the communal kitchen is) is a dance like you have never seen. Joyous, ecstatic, writhing bodies of all kinds together. THIS is a proper Beltaine.
How do you celebrate this time of year?
We will be taking a mini-van with 3 other adults up to the sanctuary and will be there from Friday morning through Monday afternoon. Bonus- a couple long-time Faeries are getting married on Friday! Huzzah!That means we get a wedding, Walpurgisnacht, and Beltaine- all in one jam-packed weekend!
 Image by Ben Amstutz via Flickr |
| Not a pic of folks at WC- that is private. |
Beltaine festivities start in the afternoon in a meadow especially reserved for this event each year, aptly named "Maypole Meadow". A tree is selected before this weekend and felled. All reverence and thanks are given to this tree. During the weekend, volunteers strip it of its branches and bark, except for the very top, which will be visible above the fray of ribbons.
Special sacraments are passed, intentions are set, and then we are off to the races! I remember the first year we went, a friend we brought fretted that it was goingt o take "forever" to dance the maypole, as it was so tall and there were hundreds of ribbons (for all the attendees). She need not have worried. Chaos magick reigns in this place, and it took no time at all for the spider-web mess of a maypole to get done. No prim and proper "in and out" here- it was "do what thou wilt"!
After the Maypole, there are myriad festivities happening all over the land. You are free to take part in any mischief you can find. That evening in the barn (the biggest common building, where the communal kitchen is) is a dance like you have never seen. Joyous, ecstatic, writhing bodies of all kinds together. THIS is a proper Beltaine.
How do you celebrate this time of year?
I follow the Norse tradition, in my own way. So I'm having a solitary blot to Freyja, Jord and Njord to celebrate spring and ask for a bountiful summer with good weather :)
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