An abundance of joy and celebration during Beltane
May Day or M’Aidez is also the day of Beltane. Funny how it is used as a signal for urgent help. Traditionally celebrated by Celtic neo-pagans to acknowledge during the midpoint between spring and summer (May 1st), this period marks the planting time and is recognized as a time of peak fertility. We are now halfway between the Spring Equinox & the Summer Solstice.
We arrived at about 11.15 to find that the customary food and drink facilities were no longer available. They had run out! The first celebration was at 7am followed by dancing and rituals. They were clearing up the last vestiges of the offerings and the tables were bare of all food and drink. There is always a coffee lady who serves good coffee off a van in the adjacent car park so I went off to slake my thirst there and re-entered. Thank goodness there is no charge for Chalice Well entrance until 12.00 on celebration days and festivals.
The person on the gate said that he had never seen so many people; he had being doing the job since the 1980’s. There were many groups from abroad including some druids from Estonia and people from India, Netherlands, France and pretty much all European countries.
Here were a group of people being lectured to earnestly by a professor type.
Below, for some reason their version of tree hugging prevailed.
At Midday we had the usual seasonal blessing and re-dedication of the well. We are given a short speech by one of the staff followed by ten minutes of silence for prayer and meditation. The talk was powerful and included the question. How do you use power? Do you use it for dominating others or in the service of others? We were adjured to use our power and influence for the empowerment of others. That changes my mind-set fundamentally. The well is dressed in a different way each time.
After the event I strolled around and found two little girls making daisy chains. I remarked with pleasure that I had not seen anyone doing this sort of thing for years. I walked on and thought no more about it. Later one of them found me and presented me with a small chain as a token. I was very moved that children are capable of thinking in this way in this day and age.
The gardens look lovely at this time of the year so enjoy these images below.
A large procession came from the town at about 1pm and a lot of us marched up an incline to one of the meadows on the side of the Tor. These was dancing and celebrations all round. We left early because there were so many mobile phones on that the EM fields were playing havoc with the peace and quiet we had enjoyed at the blessing.
Off to the high road in the town and for a much overdue visit to Burns the Bread. I had a wonderful fresh sausage roll, a blueberry muffin and a latte all for £6. On the way we noticed a new shop front. There are never any vacancies in this town and shop premises are sought after.
Community Fridge (below). Situated near the Town Hall this facility enables spare food from shops to be collected by those who have need. When I went in it was about 2pm. There were many loaves of bread, baguettes, rolls and some bananas.
Street art takes many forms. This man does mandalas and beside them write various profundities.
All in all a good and satisfying day from the human point of view.