Our dear sister Glenys Livingstone says of Beltane “Her photons are flooding the biosphere, She sees Her Land, which we are also.We are Her Land, at one with our Place. With this vision, the power of Her eye, Goddess as Sun brings forth life and beauty.”
Beltane symbolizes the seasonal surging of Creation, life, color, music and dance. How do we hold this in authenticity and presence with the now? How do observe Beltane amidst the reality of massive suffering wrought by oligarchic authoritarianism, the magnum opus of a patriarchy devoid of the Mother? How can we be present with what is and create ceremony fit for purpose?
This term was used by musician and wise woman Anonhi. Ceremony fit for purpose sums up her perspective on how to be present with the realities of ecocide and fascism. She said, during her recent interview with Naomi Klein. “How do we make a container for this? Where are the ceremonies fit for purpose? Why aren’t we doing Olympic events to mark the fact that all of coral life will be extinct within five years? Where is the ghost dance for this? Where is the expression of reckless hope that responds to a statistical lack of hope?”
Reckless hope. Celebration of brilliance. Creation as a Prayer for this moment.
Where do we see life? We must peer beyond the omnipresent stranglehold of death religions at play all around us. What grows through the cracks in the dogmas of separate self, the deification of greed?
People united in prayer, in protest, in mutual aid, in song. This is life, and life longs to be acknowledged, to be danced with. Creation longs for our awe and our bodies long for Her like the perfect lover, to feel Her course through us and remind us we are alive and full of life.
This Beltane holds songs of grief as well. How could it not? Beltane is about Power, and our grief is power. Our Anger is Power. Anger on behalf of those being harmed, anger at the most distorted version of masculine power that has a death grip on the planet at present, choking her breath, poisoning her waters, slaughtering her children. We are still Life breathing in and out upon and within Her body.
May these words of Anonhi rebalance our collective spirit as we grapple with patriarchy’s fetish for suffering.
“Our lives are still dancing, tenderness is still dancing, our cells are still dancing, moments of kindness are still occurring in tiny microspheres creatures are having weird little wars, life is still going down”
Beltane Dance Priestess ~ a playlist for Beltane 2025 ~