Lunar Beltane, a most magical moon of fusion
It’s lunar Beltane which means the moon is full in the sun sign of Taurus. As twilight comes on tonight it is a most magical and auspicious night, perhaps one of the most of the year by the esbat way in the phenology of things to cocreate your life in union with the Seen/Unseen.
It is time of first fruits, daisies in the meadow and the new wild rose buds so sticky sweet along the briar-hedge your fingers’ll taste like honey when you’re harvesting. Earth’s fertility swishes in the breeze.
What are your intentions?
The gibbous moon waxing all week such a magical week the most magical moon of fusion tonight, the moon of what is and what will yet be dancing, wild mysteries and women’s mysteries alive all week, in and out of my dreams, they wake me, direct me, are the Call.
“The Storyteller” Alaskan Inuit Whalebone Carving
One eye turned inward, toward the inner mysteries, Kalsched, 2013
It is Beltane and I call out to the Ancestral, to the long lineage of survivalist women that came before us, are always have been ever will be. Call out to my great grandparents on my mom’s mom’s side who kept boarders and cabins where the jockies for the nearby track slept 70 years ago where the big corporate gas station is now across from the high school. Backroads driving between there and my home my Ancestors are turkey vultures now and always let me know when they are here. My grandparents on my dad’s side spirits live in the soil the fauna and loblolly trees where my parents now live off those same back roads, and the glisten in the light when they are near.
It is Lunar Beltane, time for First Fruit, and to Root.
We stand on the shoulders of elder Wise Women who gave us the framework to center ourselves.
Who first lament the making sacred of, deep sacred work of ourselves, our own inner mysteries, at the center. This is the framework with which I start again:
Roots root root dig in. Access and information on pagan practices and customs was limited in the mid 1990’s. Bookstores had tiny little occult sections, so cut-off was the mainstream from our heritages and earthbound traditions of yester-year. Women’s consciousness raising communities that rose to prevalence in the 1970’s in high concentration on the US west coast with 2nd gen feminism midwifed a specific emergence of female and goddess-centered religions and spirituality. Both Starhawk and Margot Adler’s hallmark works arrived within a year of one another as a paradigm shift around 1980: Starhawk’s Spiral Dance and Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon were quintessential to the early establishment in the US of Wicca and goddess-based beliefs and practices. In the Ancestral to these teachers leaders priestesses communities seen and Unseen we call you.
It is Lunar Beltane and I wile and wild out thank you thank you thank you at least in part for the prevalence of Mid-Spring celebrations now.
In the collective Ancestral, my own superhero teams of radical, rebel poet priestesses showing me My Way back from the 1930’s onward–Elizabeth Bishop; the 50’s onward–Diane diPrima, Audre Lorde; 60’s onward–Adrienne Rich; the 70’s–Ntzoke Shange and 80’s on bell hooks I remember you 1990’s Clarissa Pinkola Estés poet-Seer Medial Woman coming through~
It is Lunar Beltane and we say yes, we see, we remember, we thank you.
In the elemental, the gnostic alchemical seen and unseen Ancestral spirits holding us F U S E:
oh citrinitas Air, Oh rubedo Fire
OH SPRING NEARING SUMMER
Oh sacred heart, oh immaculate heart oh mother, oh sovereign maiden Queen hag heart, oh innocent child Oh
Pa Dutch trad of my great grandparents by mom’s mom nearby Oh Celtic reclamation of my dad’s dad. Oh bald cypress habitat and chestnut oak. And most of all
OH, Wild Rose. Wild Rose we thank you, Wild Rose precious gentle precious fierce precious eternal alchemy of RoseGold.
IN THE CAULDRON: How To Make Magic with Rose/Rose Gold
Multi-flora are an invasive species of wild rose that take over the lowland and tidal marsh forests where I live in pretty early secession after logging. They are everywhere because of the pine industry, which over the years of my grief work over earth’s degradation I have made into a beneficent blessing because I have a devotional heart, and Love simply IS when you get to harvest brand new wild rose buds for prayer work.
Wild rose is gentle as she is fierce and staying. She is tiny and light and spreads with sweet peace, or can come on so strong if needed she’ll make your heart thump. I cut her now, when she is in early bud and as said, so sweet she is sticky.
Gold is the color of the one’s alchemical process when the shadow and tar stuff has dissolved and new serums of insight and clarity begins to emerge. It is the symbol of Spring. Red is the color of one’s alchemical process when integration is embodied, as in the fruiting. It is the symbol of Summer. Rose Gold is the in between of them, a time of deep and present grace that propels of its own already in motion momentum.
Wild rose as medicine ingested softens and strengthens the heart. She brings lightness and grace to the heartbody, our emotions as well as defenses and armors, as the powerful bridge of unconditional love.
Turning this grace inward , beginning within is the practice of Rose Gold and wild rose wants to help under fierce or soft Lunar Beltane moon.
I warm my favorite honey in a double boiler til it is just under hot and add my cleaned rose buds. I let them cool and set in a jar, her imprint will be ready for you to feel as soon as she cools. This year I will let mine sit in the jar in a cool dry place until the Solstice. For me Rose Gold is the year or stage I am in, early Crone, so I want my rose gold medicine to last through the seasons and will make enough I hope.
Wild rose this week in honey for our Honeysuckle Rose Full Moon Mini Retreat tomorrow
You can also make rose water with her tender buds. Cover a cup of her with enough water in the top pot of a double boiler just until she gets bubbles then turn off. Just a few drop of witch hazel to keep or else store in fridge for a week or so. Or add her to just boiled water by a handful, in a tea ball or tea bag, to drink with the intention of her medicine: to soften the heart, or make fierce the heart, offering whatever version of love needs supported indeed.
I make rose syrup using rose tea. After I strain out the buds you add sweetener and a bit of sure gel while she is hot just under boil. It will keep in the fridge up to two weeks and in the freezer for several months.
Blessing your work, your body, your intentions, your heart, your own inner journey of mysteries with her special imprint can mark and guide your way into summer through til first harvest.
Turn to her grace this sweet, fierce moon: BE GOOD TO YOU. Where do you need love and support, start there.
Keep going.
Be blessed~
Wild Women Wisdom 