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The Maypole It's impossible to think of Beltane without thinking of the Maypole. This is perhaps one of the most popular symbols of the season, representing the Divine Marriage between the Lord and Lady of the Greenwood. The pole represents the male principle, and the ribbons that wrap around it (and the wreath placed atop the pole) are symbolic of the female principle. The Maypole represents the phallus of the God. The wreath atop represents the vagina of the Goddess. As the Maypole is danced, the ribbons wind around the pole and the wreath lowers, symbolizing the Divine Marriage, the sexual union of God and Goddess. -- Yasmine Galenorn,
Dancing with the Sun
The Dance The May Day dance is rich in pagan symbolism. There are usually eight dancers, one for each sabbat of the year, paired into four couples. (Of course, many more may dance. This is only a suggestion.) The dance involves moving in circles and weaving over and under the other dancers. The women take the white ribbons with their right sides to the pole, and the men take the red ribbons with their left sides to the pole. The weaving of the symbolic birth canal begins with music or chanting as everyone moves forward from where they stand, moving alternately over and under each person coming toward them. (To start, the men begin weaving under the upheld ribbon of the first woman they encounter). Continue the dance until the maypole is wrapped. Tie off the ribbons and let the wreath drop to the ground. Many folks wear bells when dancing the May dance. Make your steps a cross between a skip and a jog, coming down in time to the music, so that the bells mark off the beats of the music or chant. May Day Chants We are the flow and we are the ebb
We are the weavers, we are the web We are the needle, we are the thread
We are the witches, back from the dead Weavers, weavers,
We are weaving the web of life. Weave, weave, weave me a rainbow
Out of the falling rain.
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow.
Fill my cup again Lady, weave Your circle tight
With a web of living light
Earth and Air and Fire and Water
Bind us to you. The Pole The traditional Maypole is a fir tree that has been stripped of all but its uppermost branches (often the trunk of the Yule tree was saved for the Maypole), but traditions vary. Some use oak; others pine. It may range in height from a few feet to as large as you care to make it. (Bear in mind, ribbon will need to be twice as long as the pole.) With unlimited space outdoors, ten feet is a good length. Of course, in a pinch, even a flagpole would do. For those who have restricted space or who have to celebrate indoors, a 3-4 foot dowel inserted in a wooden base and placed upon the altar will work as well. If you cut a tree for the Maypole, please ask the tree's permission before cutting and leave an offering at the base. An offering of food, wine, or flowers is entirely appropriate. The Ribbons However many ribbons you use, you will need equal numbers of at least two colors, depending on the number of dancers you'll have. I recommend at least 6-8 dancers. Ribbons for the pole should be twice as long as the pole and about two to three inches wide. Colors vary according to preference. Traditional colors are red for the God and white for the virgin Goddess. Some use colors of the season -- hunter green for the forest, gold for the sun, or purple for the color of grapes and wine. I've even heard of people using a rainbow of colors to represent the signs of the zodiac. Some traditions request that dancers bring a ribbon in a color representing a certain blessing they might wish for. The ribbons can be tied just below the topmost branches of the tree or adhered to the top of the pole with thumbtacks, nails, or glue. In Dancing with the Sun, Yasmine Galenorn recommends making crosscuts on the top end of the pole, tying knots on the end of each ribbon, and threading the ribbons through the slits at the top of the pole. The knots will keep the ribbon from sliding out of the slits as it is woven around the pole. The Wreath The wreath should be made on Beltane morning. It is traditional to go to the fields to gather May flowers at this time. Fashion a wreath from greenery and decorate with the first blooms of the season. It must be somewhat bigger than the top of the maypole, taking into account any branches you left at the top, in order that it may fall down the pole as the ribbons are wound. Consecrate the Maypole Erection of the Maypole should be carried out with great fanfare. Once the tree has been selected, cut down, and the branches removed, it might be carried in processional to the dance site. Next, a hole must be dug. Pour an offering of water with a pinch of salt or a purifying herb like rosemary into the opening with words like: Earth Mother, may this offering
Prepare you to receive
This symbol of your consort, our Lord. Next, anoint the Maypole itself, using altar oil or a mixture of any of the following: myrrh, musk, and/or sweet woodruff. With the oil, make the sign of the solar cross, or the Rune inguz, a rune related to the annual "king's circuit," or walking of the land, to ensure the fertility of the land: At each anointing, say: Blessed be this tree,
Vehicle of our Lord
Which shall soon enter
Our Mother, the Earth. When the Maypole has been erected and decorated, light the balefire and celebrate! References:
Dancing with the Sun by Yasmine Galenorn
The Sabbats by Edain McCoy
Ancient Ways by Pauline Campanelli |
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The Maypole The maypole is, of course, an ancient phallic emblem and the symbol of the generative power in nature. Originally it was no mere pole, but a living branch, and, though stripped of its foliage, a green tuft was always left at the top. The pole was elaborately decked with flowers, leafage, ribbons, and various devices, and was carried with great ceremony through the streets to the site of the celebrations. With it came a flower-crowned maiden and occasionally a youth—the Queen and King of May. ‘We may infer,�?says Frazer, ‘that our rude forefathers personified the powers of vegetation as male and female, and attempted, on the principle of homeopathic or sympathetic magic, to quicken the growth of trees and plants by representing the marriage of the sylvan deities in the persons of a King and Queen of May, a Whitsun Bridegroom and Bride, and so forth. Such representations �?were charms intended to make the woods to grow green, the fresh grass to sprout, and the blowers to blow. And it was natural to suppose that the more closely the mock marriage of the leaf-clad or flower-clad mummers aped the real marriage of the woodland sprites, the more effective would be the charm. Accordingly we may assume with a high degree of probability that the profligacy which notoriously attended these ceremonies was at one time not an accidental excess, but an essential part of the rites.�?/FONT> The earliest definite reference to the May Game in Scotland is to be found in the minutes of the Faculty of Arts at St. Andrews University in 1432, but already at that date the custom of the magistri and scholares bringing in May or summer in disguise on horseback, bearing the insignia of kings and emperors, is spoken of as an old practice and is condemned as useless and dangerous. The St. Andrews game was processional in character—this is, says Miss Mill, it consciously or unconsciously included the pagan ceremony of spreading the influence of the fertilization spirit through the community. The idea of dancing in the seasons is of great antiquity. At Beltane special dances were performed by the crafts. In Perth, for instance, the glovers�?craft performed an elaborate dance, sometimes called a sword, and sometimes a Morris dance. From the 1633 account we learn that the dancers were all clad alike ‘with grene cappis, silwer stringis, rid ribbens, whyte shoes, and bellis about thair leggis, scheiring raperis in the handis, and all uther abuliment (equipment).�?nbsp; Thirteen took part, five standing on the shoulders of another five, while the remaining three danced in and out among their legs. In a footnote to The Fair Maid of Perth, Scott mentions that the Glover Incorporation of Perth had preserved entire among their relics the costume of one of the Morris-Dancers. ‘This curious vestment is made of fawn coloured silk, in the form of a tunic, with trappings of green and red satin. There accompany it two hundred and fifty-two small circular bells, formed into twenty-one sets of twelve bells each, upon pieces of leather, made to fasten to various parts of the body. What is most remarkable about these bells, is the perfect intonation of each set, and the regular musical intervals between the tone of each. The twelve bells on each piece of leather are of various sizes, yet all combining to form one perfect intonation in concord with the leading note in each set. The concords are maintained not only in each set, but also in the intervals between the various pieces. The performer could thus produce, if not a tune, at least a pleasing and musical chime according as he regulated with skill the movements of his body.�?/FONT> Mr. Douglas Kennedy, a leading authority on the folk-dance, sees in this costume a remarkable survival of the scape-goat. “It is hung with bells and cut and shaped to allow for padding, for the Perth dancers were stoned as they danced, pelted with pebbles and broken glass. Broken glass appears on the costumes of many Morris Dancers. Some say it was to avert the evil eye, but I regard its function to be sun-reflection. It appears mostly on the head-gear, making it flash and twinkle as the dancers leap and spin in the sunlight.�?/FONT> In Edinburgh there were twelve dancers, who wore white shoes and ‘hattis of flouris.�?/FONT> These dances sprang from the ritual of the seasonal festivals and symbolised the resurrection of the year in spring, though in the course of time they inevitably lost much of their original folk character. Dunbar testifies to the popularity of the Morris dance at the Scottish court in the sixteenth century: Sum singis; sum dancis; sum tellis storeis;
Sum lait at evin bringis in the moreis; and Wedderburne, in his Complaynt of Scotland (1549) speaks of a dance where ‘evurie ald scheiperd led his vyfe and evyrie zong (young) scheiperd her quhome (whom) he luffit best �?It was an celest recreation to behold the licht lopene, galmonding, stendling, backwart, and fordwart, dansand base dancis, panuans, galzardis, tardions, braulis and branglis, vith mony uther dances.�? A popular game at this season was Barley Brakes. In May gois dammosellis and dammis
In gardyngs grene to play lyk lammis;
Sum rynnis at barlabreikis lyk rammis,
Sum round about the standand pilleris. |
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