Day: April 26, 2021

The Wheel of the Year – Beltane

~ JezzieG

The two high sabbats within the annual cycle of seasonal celebrations are Samhain, 31 October, and Beltane, 1 May. Halfway through the Celtic year the festival of Beltane compliments Samhain in that it is the joyful balance to the darker Hallow’s. Beltane is an open-hearted and joyful celebration of life. In Pagan spirituality Beltane focuses on the principle of life as generated by the energies of physical and sexual union.

The name Beltane is derived from the ‘Bel fire’, a fire lit on the first day of May to honour the Celtic god Bel, a sun god also known as Beli or Balor. To symbolically announce the return of light and life the ancient Celts lit Bel fires with wood found in local oak groves.

Another ancient Beltane rite celebrants would cut branches of May, budded hawthorn, and bring it into their homes to mark the return of the goddess. The Maypole is also a sacred object connected to Beltane. It is symbolic of the king’s or god’s phallus and is planted deep into the earth to initiate a season of growth and fertility. The pole is decorated with ribbons and bells, and dancing around the pole is said to invigorate the earth.

In contemporary Beltane celebrations we embrace a liberated expression of our own sexuality and sexual identity. It is a time to examine sexual views, taboos, practices and expressions. Sex is natural part of living and to embrace and live life fully we have to be understanding of our own sexual desires and those of others.

Sexual energy symbolises the merging of individual identity into a collective consciousness. Through the act of sex, both actual and symbolic, two become one. It symbolises the process through which we merge with the divine force of life. In the Pagan view sex is spontaneous and uninhibited, manifesting in one’s own sexual expression and practices.

As we approach Beltane 2021, and I am gaining in confidence in sharing some of my personal practices. a good start is A May Eve Incantation

Things you will need:
• A selection a variety of fresh greenery
• A 6 inch red taper candle
• A flower

As witches we use and recite various chants and rhymes as part of our spiritual rites, Beltane Eve is no different. At midnight on the last day of April, mark out 9 foot diameter circle on the floor using the fresh greenery. Light the candle and hold it in the right hand while holding the flower and a piece of greenery in the left. Raise both the candle and flora upwards to the sky.. Starting at the east of the circler of greenery begin to walk round it clockwise while reciting the following chant. Repeat thrice.

Do not tell the priest of our ways
For he calls it a sin
That we are in the wood all night
Conjuring the summer in
Bring the good news by word of mouth
For humans, animals and fields of corn
For the sun is rising higher in the sky
By oak and ash and thorn

In love and light
Blessed be
Raven )O(

Chariots of Fire by Vangelis

~ JezzieG ~ 2 Comments

Chariots of Fire
1981
Film and TV

Vangelis
Film and TV, Ambient Jazz
29 March 1943, Agria, Greece
Nationality: Greek

Vangelis is a musician and composer of progressive, electronic, ambient, jazz and orchestral music. He is best-known for his Academy award winning score to Chariots of Fire and also composing scores for Blade Runner, Antarctica, Conquest of Paradise and Alexander. From a career spanning over 50 years Vangelis is considered one of the most important figures in the history of electronic music

Roundelay Notes

~ JezzieG ~ 1 Comment

A popular English form the Roundelay originates to the time of Chaucer. Consisting of any number of quatrains comprised over two couplets, the second couplet is the common rhyme within each stanza and the last line of that couplet is also a refrain.

This gives the following rhyme schema
aabB ccbB ddbB and so on.
Example

Celtic Nightmare Divena Collins

Bleak was my outlook within castle walls
But heard voices that echo`s ghostly calls
So dark was the dungeon I could not see
I ran to the entrance but found no key

A violent storm blew through the dark night
Dank was the dungeon devoid of all light
Alone and frightened I was destined to be
I ran to the entrance but found no key.

I in my destiny felt a presence so near
Why in my dreams should I suffer fear
But Oh in my heart I wished I was free
I ran to the entrance but found no key.

A putrid stench of death breathed within
Entombed in a dungeon how could I win
Who did it belong to mayhap it was me
I ran to the entrance but found no key.

Dark was the night of the ravens loud call
Death he sang shall but come to us all
Perched upon the bough of a willow tree
I ran to the entrance but found no key.

Gone was the fear of that night of sorrow
Haunt our dreams like there’s no tomorrow
When spirits of the darkness so violently
For a fantasy entrance beheld no key

Tasting Erotica

~ JezzieG ~ 15 Comments

Form: Raven’s Rovi Sonnet 109

My fingers caress the precious pearl flesh
Ivory whiteness, inhaling her scent
Her irate fragrance so sweet and so fresh
With gentle stirrings I bring out her best
Just a little longer I wait to taste
For my tongue is hungry and longs to test
But such is her sweetness I cannot waste
To savour her delight then I must wait
As combining liquors create the zest
And my senses begin swirl and enmesh
Yet they still say my youth was one misspent
Yet here I linger without making haste
For as a youth I learned well to create
And garlic, she’s always good on the plate

©JGFarmer2021