Beltane Chant (by Rudyard Kipling):
O do not tell the priests of our arts,
for they would call it sin!
We will be in the woods all night
A-conjuring conjuring summer in.
And we bring you good news by word of mouth.
For women, cattle, and corn:
The sun is coming up from the south,
By oak and ash, and thorn!
(Continue chanting 'by oak and ash and thorn')


 The first day of May marks a festival of great importance for all those who follow the Pagan way.  We call this day 'Beltane' which means 'Fire of God,'  the Sun, renews his gift of Need-Fire to the Earth Mother.  The spark of life has once again been delivered.
 
The Celtic May festival, to celebrate the arrival of summer; from Old Gaelic words meaning blaze-kindling.  In Druidic times, two fires were lit, and the tribes cattle driven between them, in a purificatory rite.  In later times, young men would leap over fires in tests or displays of energy and virility.
 
 
  On April 30th in some areas, fires burn from dusk till dawn.  Beltane or May Day at dawn wash your face with dew for a good complextion and good luck throughout the year.

BELTANE - The Celtic 'Flower Festival.'  Marks the first day of Celtic Summer - the first day of the Light Half of the year.

 Date - May Eve/May 1st (psychic high-tide; full moon before May 1st).

 Modern Equivalent - May Day, Lilac Sunday, Lady Day Walpurgisnacht.

 Celtic Godforms - Belinos, Flora, Bloodeuwedd.

 Alignment - Male,  Cross-Quarter Lunar

 Customs - sexual license among peasants, May Pole erection, gathering flowers, wearing green, Fire Calling, feasting, merry-making.

 Symbols - May Pole, daffodils, bright colors, smiling sun.

 Sacred Foods - sweets and sugar products, heather mead, cakes, cookies, no meat or fruit.

 Threshold - Dawn 

Incense - lilac, heather, apple blossom.
 
 
http://afwcraft.blogspot.ca/2012/04/beltane.html 


 Wiccan Spells and Witchcraft

 http://witchcraft.org

Lions & Lambs --- Using the Energy of Sprinby Leni Hester     edited and reprinted from her blog
“Season & Spirit” at PaganSquare.com

     The transition from Winter to Spring is a dynamic one, with lots   of pulling and pushing as the weather goes from one extreme to  the other. In this dance between two opposing forces, we can see  the Earth’s changes at their most dramatic. There is increasing  light, but the rain-heavy clouds are much darker and gloomier than  the bright icy snow clouds of a month ago. Perhaps we see this  transition as a movement away from the hardships and struggles  of Winter, to the greater ease and gentleness of Spring. Or we feel  the movement from the repose and introspection of Winter to the  increasing noise and activity of Spring.
 
     While we may welcome the  arrival of spring, it’s not uncommon to feel irritable or restless and  dissatisfied this time of year.


     This transition is very much like waking up after a long sleep.  Sometimes it takes some stretching and grumbling and rubbing of  the eyes to get fully awake. Sometimes it’s not entirely inviting to get out of our warm bed and put our feet on the cold floor. But  we cannot stop the Spring from coming any more than we can  stop ourselves from feeling
the rising energy, noticing the excitement (anxiety) just below our skin, as the
world wakes up.

     Here in Colorado, the dynamic tension between the seasons is particularly noticeable. My coven’s Ostara ritual last month was canceled due to a blizzard that dumped about eight inches of   snow. This is always a busy time of year, with the chores running from shoveling snow to turning beds and pruning trees. But out  in the garden, even on the coldest day, even with the plants still  dormant, I can feel the energy rising, ready to pop out and drench  the world in color and life No matter how much it looks like Winter,  Spring is ready to roar inside us.


This is the season to make changes and try to rewrite bad habits.   For example, isn’t it silly to try and start a new diet on January 1,  deep in the coldest part of winter, just when our bodies most crave  heavy, high fat foods? In Spring, we begin to crave the bite of new greens and veggies, we want to cleanse and detox, we long forlighter fare as we shed our Winter layers.


      The old tradition of “Spring cleaning” is a very natural inclination.  This time of year, I find myself longing to re-organize my entire  house for top to bottom. Cleaning out our space can really relieve  so much stress and anxiety, of course, but the itch to get clean  is not just for our spaces, but ourselves. We respond by getting new clothes or cleaning our homes, but what we long for is to be clean on the inside. Letting go of old bad habits and dysfunctional  patterns and routines can be difficult, but the energy of the season  truly supports these shifts.

     Part of our restlessness as the Winter   gives way to Spring, is that we begin to notice things that we were  resigned or complacent about, and find we aren’t comfortable  with them anymore. Maybe it’s a compromise we don’t want to  make, or something in our home or workspace that is not working   quite right. Maybe it’s a outgrown relationship, or a desire for new  challenges. All the places where we fall short of where we feel  we should be, everywhere we see dysfunction and breakdowns  in our lives—whether magickal or mundane, personal or professional—these gaps rankle us, and spur us to action. We may wish to re-organize our lives from start to bottom, getting rid of anything that we feel no longer serves us. This time of year, I find I have no tolerance for procrastination and dithering after decisions are made.  I also have very little patience with my own bad habits and dysfunctional routines. I want everything that feels like clutter, the feels extraneous and dysfunctional, out of my space.

     I know that unless I make sure I don’t over-schedule myself, I will  over-commit my time and energy, and then look up suddenly and say, “Wow, when did Spring start? And where has it gone?”   If I   don’t remember that the impulse to clear clutter out of my house  is so amped up right now, I will follow that impulse and get ri of   things I might need later. Plugging into the rising earth energy after such a long rest can be exhilarating, and it can be also be overwhelming and uncomfortable.


    At times of change and transformation, it helps to get quiet.   Do not  be fooled by the sudden pop of energy and action everywhere. We  still need to get quiet especially when the world gets loud. Don’t lapse on your meditation practice now.


    Speaking of meditation, as the weather get nicer, take some  time to walk in a park or other natural area. Walk silently and take  in the scents, sounds and sensations of the waxing year. Put all   your awareness into noticing the life around you, even if much of it  is still hidden.


    Cleansing and purification are huge elements of the ritual work  of this time of the year cross culturally. Clean your house, then purify it with smudge or incense. Open the windows, even for a brief  time, to get the power of Air clearing out your space. Sprinkle your  space with Florida water, or blessing oils or Van-Van oil diluted in water.  If you drop the ball on New Years’s resolutions, now is the best time to give it another shot.  In any case, here’s hoping that your spring (and mine) will be full of the energy and light of this dynamic and magickal season. Blessed be!

April 2013
BBI Media News
Publishers of Crone,  SageWoman, and  Witches&Pagans magazines.

     April arrives with a shower of cosmic energy, providing exactly what you need to get your projects and ideas blooming!

      The planets make their presence felt right away when the Sun squares off against Pluto on April 1. You may feel blocked or trapped, but the build-up will prove to be more difficult than the event itself, so you'll have things well in hand by April 1.  The Sun also meets Jupiter that same day, boosting morale and sprinkling a light dusting of good fortune over most everything.


      The stars take a break until April 7, when sparks fly as Venus and Mars meet in a passionate embrace, making romance hot and heavy. Things heat up outside the bedroom as well, with these planets adding sexy attitude to everything you do!


      On April 10, a new Moon rises in Aries, making for one of the most decisive days of the year to get cracking on new projects. Just be sure to set your sights on something you
can do quickly -- otherwise, you might grow bored.


      Come April 12, Pluto sends you back to the drawing board once it turns retrograde in Capricorn.   Use this time to reconsider -- and perhaps even reorganize -- your plans
regarding finances and material goods.


      Your outspoken  nature advances to the forefront two days later on April 14, when Mercury moves into Aries. You may struggle with foot-in-mouth disease a bit, but your direct and honest approach will be refreshing ... and maybe even welcomed!


      As April comes to a close, however, the cosmos will remind you not to go overboard. Saturn puts a damper on your newfound indulgence on April 22, when it opposes Venus. Three days later, on April 25, a lunar eclipse between the Scorpio Moon and Taurus Sun
forces you to find balance between emotional intensity and basic common sense.   Finally, Saturn returns on April 28 to oppose the Sun, serving as a reminder that duty must come before extravagance.


Don't forget to order your personalized April Forecast  for complete details on the month ahead!


Sincerely,
http://www.astrology.com

      Many gathered last week to celebrate the verbal equinox at Stonehenge. Thought to be  created between 3000 and 2500 B.C.E., Stonehenge is getting something of a  makeover. This year will see the closure of of the A344, the road alongside monument.  The £27 million pound project will add a visitor center, remove a parking  lot, “restore the dignity” of the stones’ setting and “minimize the intrusion of  the modern world,” according to English Heritage.


      Can’t argue with that, though the plan to restore the site to more of its  original naturalistic state does not go quite as far as hoped. A plan for all  major roads to be diverted via tunnels has been scrapped, for instance.


      Thanks to radiocarbon dating, archaeologists and historians have been able to  figure out that, around 3000 B.C.E., the huge circular ditch that now surrounds  the stones was dug and  a number of bluestones erected. It was around 2600 B.C.E. that the  sarsens, the giant stones, were erected and massive rock lintels placed atop  them. Five trilithons (with three stones, a horizontal one capping two verticals  slabs) were raised. All these were aligned such that the setting midwinter sun  and the rising midsummer sun shine through
the very middle of the site and down  through the road leading up to it.


      What purpose the stones and site served has been the subject of constant  speculation since ancient times:


1) Back in the twelfth century, Geoffrey of Monmouth said that no one less than the  legendary wizard Merlin had built Stonehenge as a burial place  for knights slain in fighting the Saxons.


2) ) Most recently, University College London professor Mark Parker Pearson  has suggested that Stonehenge was in essence a celebration  site that unified Britain. While originally a  burial site, Pearson says that, just as today, people gathered at the massive  stones to celebrate the solstices in what was like “Glastonbury festival and a  motorway building scheme at the same time.”


      Some 80,000 bones from cattle from all over Britain have been found near the  site; Pearson suggests that Stonehenge was a “monument that brought ancient  Britain together,” at a time that was the only one “in prehistory in which ‘the  people of Britain were unified’ and all engaged in a ‘common cultural activity.’”


3) Professor Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University instead suggests that  Stonehenge was a “place for the living” where people came to seek  cures, in the manner of pilgrims visiting the shrine of our Lady of  Lourdes.


4) Scientists have some other ideas. Based on the alignment of the stones,  Stonehenge was a sort of observatory, where astronomical calculations could be made to predict phenomena  like lunar eclipses.


5) Anthony Perks of the University of British Columbia’s Department of  Obstetrics and Gynecology has suggested that the whole circular monument is  meant to be a fertility symbol, in the shape of the femalesexual organ (pdf) in honor of some sort of prehistoric mother goddess.


6) A 2011 study by an international team of archaeologists suggested that,  long before the sarsens were erected, the pits surrounding Stonehenge had been used for sun  worship, another argument for it being a sacred site.


7) Druids have often been associated with Stonehenge  (including with building it). While some say Stonehenge existed before Druidism came into being, others argue that  the Druids predate Stonehenge by a good millennium and that the connection  between them and the huge stone circle “may be fairly recent.”

       An architect, John Webb, dispensed with the idea that those indigenous to  Britain built Stonehenge. The huge structure was rather built by the Romans as a temple to a sky-god  Coelus.


9) Others suggest that it wasn’t the Romans but the Danes who built  Stonehenge — and others take the notion of someone “foreign” building Stonehengea bit further and suggest that aliens built it.


10) Geologists have suggested that Stonehenge’s builders were neither human  nor alien but the forces of nature itself and that glaciers “snatched” the huge stones from the  Preseli Hills and deposited them on Salisbury Plain. Never underestimate the  power of mother nature?




Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/10-theories-about-the-mysteries-of-stonehenge.html#ixzz2OfEzkQcx

     Spring begins with the vernal equinox at 7:02 A.M. (EDT) on March 20, 2013 in the Northern Hemisphere.  Ah, spring! This season brings increasing daylight, warming temperatures, and the rebirth of flora and fauna.
 
      Spring arrives this week, opening up a world of new possibilities. The Sun entering Aries on Wednesday heralds the Vernal Equinox, followed by Venus entering Aries on Thursday. These fiery influences team up with Mars and Uranus in Aries to ignite your passion, motivation and individuality, which will likely influence your love
life.

Equinox Means "Equal Night"

 Translated literally equinox, means  "equal night." Because the Sun is positioned above the equator, day and night  are about equal in length all over the world during the equinoxes. A second  equinox occurs each year on Sept. 22 or 23; in 2013, it will be on Sept. 22 at  4:44 P.M. EDT. This date will mark the autumnal equinox in the  Northern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox in the Southern  (vernal  denotes "spring").