Beltane
The Wheel turns, and soon the fires of Beltane will be kindled. Beltane is the last holiday of the spring season, and the final awakening of the Lady. Just as Imbolc was the awakening of the Maiden, and Eostre was the awakening of the Mother, Beltane is the awakening of the Crone.
The awakening of the Maiden brought Light back to the world, and the land grew bright. The awakening of the Mother brought the green woods and meadows to life, and the land turned green. But what does the Crone bring as she wakes?
Beltane is the day that the Lord and Lady attain Their manhood and womanhood. The world, which had turned green with the Mother's awakening, now turns all colors as flowers bloom in profusion. The Crone awakens and brings sex into the world.
"Manhood" and "womanhood" have historically referred to the ability to bear children. In many cultures, adulthood is conferred at the onset of sexual maturity. (Even today, the Jewish rite of the Bar Mitzvah signals the entry into manhood. At the age of twelve, the young man is now responsible for his own actions, and he ceases to be his parents' responsibility.) The child ceases to be a child at the time that he or she becomes able to bring a new child into the world. That the Lord and Lady have attained their manhood and womanhood implies that They have become sexually mature.
This theme is reflected in the symbolism of the holiday. The sexual connotations of the maypole are obvious. (In one Mayday rite that I wrote, I set up a maypole, and tied ribbons to a chalice which was placed on top of the pole.) Men and women jump the Bel-fire in hopes of being fertilized by the power of the flame, and when animals are driven between bonfires, it is as much to ensure fertility as to drive away evil. And, of course, flowers, a major theme of mayday, are the sex organs of plants.
May day is associated with fertility, and with play. The play, "Camelot", recalls this with the song Lusty Month of May, the month when, Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes
Ev'ryone breaks
Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes
The lusty month of May!
(The phrase, "Lusty month of May" also appears in Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur.) Indeed, the spring sees a great many fires kindled, without and within.
So why is sex the province of the Crone? Why not the beautiful Maiden or the fertile and bountiful Mother? The crone is the figure we'd expect to see riding to the traditional Walpurgisnacht Sabbath on her broomstick, and not a sexy figure in any respect.
Here lies a mystery. On Beltane, sex awakens, and thus we have the potential for bringing new life into the world. But the same gateway that lets new life into the world calls old life to pass from it. Sex enters the world hand in hand with Death.
In astrology, Scorpio represents sex, death, regeneration, initiation, and many other powerful forces. (In a personal horoscope, you'll see this acting through the eighth house, of which Scorpio is the natural ruler.) The Lord is, among other things, the Lord of Death and Resurrection. The Crone tends the Cauldron of Cerridwen, which held a powerful magic. Things that went in alive came out dead; things that went in dead came out alive. This cauldron is a dark gate through the veil which separates the realm of the living and the realm beyond. The Crone tends the gate, and the Lord of Death and Resurrection guides our passage through it at each end of our life.
Sex and death are both powerful initiatory forces, and are the province of the Gods, whether we acknowledge Them or not.
We treat this powerful force with a definite ambivalence. The bel-fire is lit for many reasons in different cultures. The Germans would light it to scare away the witches as they rode to their meetings on the mountaintops. Others kindled the flame to bring fertility, and would jump over it or pass through it to receive a blessing. We enjoy life, and we welcome the births and awakenings. We wish to put off the other side of the coin the end of life, that we may clear the way for the new as long as possible. We jump over the fire to reap the blessings, yet we hope the flames will scare away the curse for as long as possible.
But "as long as possible" is not forever, nor can it be forever. The Crone awakens, and with Her awakening, the gate that separates life and death is opened. Sex, the light-hearted theme of this holiday, celebrated in song, dance, and play, leads to birth and new life. With new life entering the world, old life must exit. The Crone allows new life to pass in to the world, but the price She exacts is that old life must leave.
During this holiday, another tradition has all the fires in the village extinguished, and the "Need fire" is kindled. From this fire, all the village fires are re-lit the following day. Here we see the physical sign of another mystery, mentioned in the Farrars' book, A Witch's Bible.
Robert Graves tells us (The White Goddess, p. 416) fire was originally kindled by drilling an oak plank ... it originally culminated in the sacrifice of a man representing the Oak God. (Vol I, p. 82
and [The Oak King and the Holly King] compete eternally for the favour of the Great Mother; and each, at the peak of his half-yearly reign, is sacrificially mated with her, dies in her embrace, and is resurrected to complete his reign. (Vol. I, p. 24).
The God, in His aspect of the Oak King, dies to the world above and passes through the Dark Gate into the worlds beyond the veil. He returns at once to complete his reign, but there is a gap at this festival, during which he is not to be found. During this time, all fires, which are part and parcel of the great fire, the sun, are killed. They are reborn at once, in the form of the need fire, and all other fires are re-kindled, allowing them to complete their "reign".
Death has entered the world. As soon as the first living thing gave birth to the second living thing, death entered the world. But with death inevitably came rebirth, and it is the rebirth, and the power to create life.
And finally, over all, is the one unifying Mystery which binds all together. This Mystery is the overarching Mystery, without which none of the others would be. This is the force which drives us to create, both life and life's work. This is the force which brings us together, life after life, to be with each other again and again. This is the force which brings the Lord and the Lady together, in the face of pain and inevitable death. This is a force which never sleeps, and which at all times of the year, makes the Wheel go round.
This is the force called love.
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