(no subject)
The Clan is doing Old Beltane instead of May 1 for Beltane this year. Several of us were away camping at Beltane, so I suggested we go back to the old date of May 15.
Maybe it's the word "old" in its name. But it's been a bit of a journey for me.
My presence at the forefront of ritual for our Circle needs to fade as we enter Summer. J (who is leading with me) has permitted me to play a bit. The Crone will be present long enough to challenge the menfolk as they enter Circle. She will be the Dark Goddess, who as the Maiden dances and tempts will remind the God that on the other side of lust and love is death. Then J will banish me back to the edge of Circle where I, as Crone, belong.
Maybe it's the world "old" ... but when writing the ritual I felt the joy even greater for the challenge, for the price knowingly paid for it. The Crone in me knows that we pay the price many times over in life... and the Maiden in me, who dances and celebrates, knows life is worth every sacrifice we make to it.
I waxed a bit nostalgic preparing the music we'll use for the Spiral Dance (which we are going to snake all about our hosts' home and yard and then back into Circle). We are going to use Jethro Tull's "Beltane." Any of you flashing back to 1976 at the mention of that? When writing the ritual and wanting to include that, I reached to Circlemate D ... I asked if he had the song, because, truly, he has everything ... and I am deliriously happy ... as he had not just the song but the whole the CD and copied it for me. Oh, I am loving it!
When we got together to plan, J mentioned a poem in John O'Donohue's last and newly released book about wildness. She's ordered the book, but it hasn't come in yet. So she's Googling herself silly trying to find the poem. As it needs to be used towards the end of the night.
Which led me to searching for it, too ... which was a great meander through the works of one of my two favorite contemporary poets (it's no secret the other is David Whyte). I truly grieve for John's passing. I wonder if his poetry was so passionate because his short life meant he was always closer to knowing Mystery?
To start ritual, when we are gathered for a bit of "reason for the season" introduction, I will end our preparation time with John's ... "A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you."
And after the Charge of the God, we'll connect to him in each of us with John's ... "Once you start to awaken, no one can ever claim you again for the old patterns. Now you realize how precious your time here is. You are no longer willing to squander your essence on undertakings that do not nourish your true self; your patience grows thin with tired talk and dead language. You see through the rosters of expectation which promise you safety and the confirmation of your outer identity. Now you are impatient for growth, willing to put yourself in the way of change. You want your work to become an expression of your gift. You want your relationship to voyage beyond the pallid frontiers to where the danger of transformation dwells. You want your God to be wild and to call you to where your destiny awaits."
And at the and, at the Closing for Circle, again I've take some poetry from John ...
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
Taking Beltane a bit out of its expected time has shifted my thoughts in relation to it. The Shadow is a bit more present as I think about life and what we do give up in order to be part of something so much greater, in order to come closer to Mystery (which John is now a part of). It makes the joy and the dance that much more wild.