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

      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").

Season of Solstice  Work:

     Solstice - either of the two points in the ecliptic (the first points of the sign Cancer and Capricorn respectively) at which the sun is furthest from the equator and consequently appears to pause and turn in course: the time when the sun reaches these two points in its orbit, about 21st June and about 21st December. 
 
      Around December 21, the Sun enters Capricorn and witches celebrate the Winter Solstice.
  
     In the Northern Hemisphere the Winter Solstice around December 21, marks the beginning of winter and occurs when the North Pole is tilted away from the sun.  The word Solstice literally means "standing still."  At the Winter Solstice the sun rises, stands still, for a brief moment,then quickly dwindles to disappear beneath the horizon.

     The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year.   Yule, one of the four lesser Sabbats, takes place each year around December 25.  Legend of Santa Claus-Santa is the Holly King, the sleigh is the Solar Chariot, the eight Sabbats and the horns represent the Horn God, the North Pole symbolizes the Land of the  Shadows and the dying solar year, and the gifts meant both to welcome the Oak King as the sun reborn and as a reminder of the gift of the Holly King who must depart for the Oak King to rule.

     This is a great time to reflect upon the past and make plans for your future as the Sun illumines a pathway toward the achievement of your goals.

Three days before Winter Solstice - Yule: 

    Contemplation  
     Thought
    Preparation
   

 First Quest of Mastery -
 to be granted an identity Discover your roots...your idenity in this world.
  
     If you seek to understand the whole universe, you will understand nothing at all...but seek to understand yourself, and you will come to understand the whole universe. 

     It can take a life time to understand who you are and your purpose in life. 

     Live your outer life as a leader, while maintaining the heart and conscience of a Pagan.

The Eve of Winter Solstice - A Midwinter's Dream:
  
     The main ancient formulae guidelines in magic are followed: An herb, a flower and a tree make three.

Herb - sacred to God Form or Spirit Guide being called, Flower - mistletoe, Tree - oak leaf or bark
  
Incense Dragon's Blood - the breath of the Dragon - burn incense for good psychic atmosphere to be felt.
 
     On the eve of the shortest day call upon your God Form or Spirit Guide to make their will known (speak to your higher power ).

        Trust the road you take is a guided one.   Just because your God Form or Spirit Guide insn't here in body doesn't mean their love isn't with you. 
 
      To call forth Elders from the Deep, one need only to pass into sleep with palms of both hands upon the cheek.
 
Pose your question.  ASK: "Please tell me how to continue; in what direction
shall I search, and for what end?"
 
    Search the depths of the inner world.  Leave not a single dream darkened -
until you know beyond doubt who you are, and why you are here; search out your identy...your own destiny.
  
    Remember that dreams are the true interpreters of our desires.  To say 'it is
only a dream' is a foolish thing.
  
Keep moving forward until your dreams come true. Of course, you’ll encounter
obstacles along the way, but you should try to see them as tests of your will and motivation, rather than as setbacks.  Seeing obstacles as stepping-stones to success, rather than as barriers, will help you evolve to ever-higher states of awareness.

Morning of Winter Solstice - Yule
  
     At dawn on the Shortest Day light a small Yule fire of oak, and then triumpt rebirth with bells and boughs of everygreen.  Hold a chalice filled with promagrant juice and toast the morning sun.  
  
Trust your intial respomse.  Follow your intuitions.
 
 Ritual inspired by The 21 Lessons of Merlyn A Study in Druid Magic & Lore  by Douglas Monroe
 
-Yule Sabbat-Green Witchcraft SeriesAuthor Ann Moura 
http://Annmourasgarden.com  
 
 


"Keep your eye on the bunny and bird," is a Faery expression meaning that the answers you seek are in nature.  Birds are the harbinger of growth and promise.  The morning of Winter Solstice, Yule 2012,  in the new-fallen snow a Cardinal was the first bird I saw come by and stayed for a meal.  The Cardinal represents self-worth, an aspect of one's personality---value - that quality which renders you valuable (important). To  see a cardinal or find a cardinal feather means  fortunes await love.

Let me, oh Spirit Guide, this day
Make someone happy
By what I do
Or what I say
And when my thoughts
To irritation roam
Spirit Guide let me remember
Charity begins at home.


  Work with Spirit:

"I ask Spirit Guide to please place the people, things and information I need to know to open up the doors to ____________ .  If this is your will, So Shall It Be!"  And then keep doing your part toward the goal.  A piece at a time comes in that will work for you.  Eventually everything starts changing,  What is no longer compatible to your aim is removed from your space, and you begin to attract a combination of favouring circumstances.  Your 'Free Will' decides what you do with the new opportunities.

Within the dark chaos of a troubled world I will seek to find some Beauteous Thing.

From eyes grown dim with weeping will shine a Light to guide me, and in Sorrow's Hour I shall behold a great High Courage.  

I shall find the wonder of an infinite Patience, and a quiet Faith in coming Joy and Peace.

And Love will I seek in the midst of Discord, and find swift eager hands out-stretched in welcome

I will seek Beauty all my days, and in my quest I shall not be dismayed.  

This poem is by Minnie Aumonier, author of Gardens in Sun and Shade  

Get up and go into the garden and put your hands into the earth.  Walk out and into the garden.  Kneel down and begin to weed the flower border.  A week later do the same.

Gather flowers for charms and spells early in the cool of the morning; they will stay fresh longer.  Gather violets of the spring and fashion them into a little posy; this encourages love and fairy magic.

Adding a few tumbled semiprecious stones to your garden encourages the benevolence of the nature spirits and fairies.  Deep blue lapis promotes loyalty, fidelity and spiritual thoughts.

To attract fairies to your shady garden, plant violets, lady mantle, ferns, foxgloves, and bluebells.

To attract the fairies to your sunny garden, plant yarrow, roses, betony, lavender, and morning glory.

A Full Moon in May is a sacred time to bless your magical garden, flowers, herbs, plants, and enchanting trees.

For best results, plant annual flowers in the waxing Moon and perennial flowers, trees, and shrubs in the waning Moon.