Beltane- Bringing in May

Beltane the month of protection for children and elderly women.  Who more needs protection more this month?  A blessed month indeed.



The Celtic festival of Bealtaine/English version Beltane, begins May 1, mid-Spring, when it is apparent there is a changing of seasons that our ancestors knew by heart.  Trees are leafing, flowers are budding and early spring flowers are blossoming.  The air is alive with fertility and promise, as are we, women, who stop to listen to our heart and soul.  

I have hung my May Basket, planted seeds, transplanted starter pansies.  My daffodils are truly daffying.  The bees are buzzing.  The flowering things are preparing to bust full force. I crave to wear bright spring colors.  I want to have a bonfire on May 1st, in order to burn some old things that I want to let go of, and to commune with the smoke that rises as prayer.

I will not be home to do it all on the exact date so I will be posting this and other (s early so I might share the information with you, sister-friends.  While the Maypole sounds lovely, and I could decorate a tree in Easter Eggs, I do not have the time to do so.  So, I will take some prayer tobacco pouches to Alberta with me and give offerings into the fire.

While in Alberta, I will gather some pussy willows to dry and have in a corner of my house, in a vase, in remembrance of the many symbolisms of Spring through-out the year.  

I will stand out in the morning dew and be grateful for the living waters that I am made of.  

I will make note of the mating birds, animals, and bless them with a prayer when I see them.  I will bless gardens as I pass them.  I will celebrate the fertility and fecundity of Mother Earth as I see new baby birds, horses, calves, and whatever babies I meet along our way.

Before I go, I will set up my altar with green colors, with a candle to celebrate the fire of the coming time of the Goddess Bona Dea, with seeds and dried flowers, with dried sage I picked in Arizona deserts.  I will add a green stone (green fire agate) to represent the greening oak and Green Man who represents the male virility of nature. 

Research some ways you can celebrate this Merry Month of May.  Share them with us.

©Carol Desjarlais 4.24.19

May Goddess - Bona Dea

The Goddess of May is Bona Dea.  Bona Dea comes to watch over virgins and matrons; the youngest women and the oldest.  She wishes us to dump the past things that now hold no truth(S) for you and casting off the winter rags and recharge with the rest of Mother Nature.

Bona Dea watches over us, in those two stages, and throughout all the changes we make in this newest spring.  During this time we can call on her for guidance and protection.

Bona Dea ceremonies were (are) only for women.  You see, Old Man Winter has been led off into the past. You will see him resurrect in some of the stories in the shape of The Green Man, symbolic of the male virility it takes to move into the stages of blossoming fecundity and represents our need for male aspects of ourselves during this time, as well.   It is noted that her name was kept secret from the men as well.  This is a sacred feminine goddess and we honor only the sacred goodness within ourselves. 
Using green fluorite stones during this time, to help us focus on healing ourselves, with use of natural, hand-picked medicines (like mint you have picked and dried).  Herbal teas and cooking stews and soups is traditional for this month of hers.  

To honor her, wear greens.  Smudge with sandalwood.  Light candles all month.
Reading for this month can be used every morning or night, throughout May:

O Bona Dea,
Good Goddess of the Earth
Whose name is mystery,
Whose name is a hundred names,
Whose spirit lives in us all
And in every goddess who touches the soil,
And in every mortal who sprang from the clay,
Be with us on this day!
You have made the Earth spring forth
With many green goods for us,
Not merely those with which me feed our bellies,
But also those which heal our bodies.
Lady who heals us, godmother of Hygeia,
Daughter of Faunus who tracks in the wild,
We find your gifts both in our gardens
And on the wild paths where you have trodden.
We see the healing herbs springing up
In each of your passing footprints,
And we are grateful for our lives.
O Bona Dea,
Good Goddess of the Earth
Whose name is mystery
But whose gifts are so concrete,
We revere you and ask that you bless this day
Your plants which you have so generously given us,
That we may always be healed
And always help to heal others.

Blessed be, my sister-friends.  Blessed be the young women and the elderly women.  Be a blessing to ourselves and each other.

©Carol Desjarlais 4.29.19

Friendship

"A garden requires patient labor and attention.  Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambition of fulfill good intentions.  They thrive because someone expended effort on them." - Bailey

There cannot be enough said about friendships.  There are myriads of kinds of friendships.  This is about those friends who are vital to our body, mind, heart, and soul health.  

It is true that friendship evolves as we do.  Life can get in the way as we are career women, but still, the right kind of friendships sustain themselves.  The deep friendships are like familial bonds.  Yes, the right kind of friendships shovel past all our inner demons and our physical hindrances (as we age) and we have grown through that kind of love of and from others.  

We need to be, and have, the kind of friendships that are kind, compassionate, caring and help us understand we are deserving of such.  We need to be treasures to each other.  And lucky are the ones who have this.  I would not be alive if not for that kind of friendships.

Deep, long-lasting, and authentic friendships give us energy and they are ones who know their worth in us as they know it in themselves.  They know who we are, accept who we are, and encourage us to keep on keeping on even when we are neck deep in personal, social, emotional, spiritual troubles.   We know what we are worth to them and they know what their worth is to us.  They give, sometimes, until exhausted, and so do we, because we are worth it and they are worth it.  They teach us to give, to serve others, and we learn to receive.  

Sometimes their truth hurts, as it should, because they know better of us, and we learn to accept because they think we are worth the fear of losing us to something earthly.  Sometimes we have to gird up our loins and be everything to them while they are weak and the same goes for them.  And we keep no checks and balances.  And we survive impossible things, we overcome what holds us back, and we thrive...we all thrive.  We know we are tender souls although we may give off armored selves.  We know into the very soul of this kind of friend and their soul knows us.  We have been warriors and we know it and we have gained a spiritual connection by battling through things.

Oh, these friends are the kind that makes life worthwhile.  They keep us nurtured.  We nurture them.  In doing so, our souls become twin flames that light up the spaces where we are.

If you have never held a friend n your arms and allowed them to grieve, oh, what you have missed, and oh, how truly spiritual.  I have such friends.  They are few but they are there, cheerlead8ing me along the way and I am there, calling to them so they join me in our earthly walk.  How truly gifted to be such a friend.  How truly gifted we are to have such friends.

Make a vow to make the most of those few deep and long-lasting friendships that have endured and continue to endure.  We cannot do without them.

©Carol Desjarlais 4.22.19

Amidst the Quiet

"The things that we understand, create silence. The things that we do not, create emotion." - Kapil Gupta

How many levels are quiet are there?  Consider body quiet, mind quiet, heart quiet, spiritual quiet and the many levels within them.  Sometimes silence speaks louder than words for a woman.

A woman may retreat, causing distance, out of fear, or desire, out of frustration.  There is a woman's silence of contentment.  A woman's silence can be that she is pleased with her life.  A woman may be planning, in her quiet.  A quiet woman may be one who does not want to take the effort to defend herself, to explain herself, to affirm what she is thinking.  A quiet woman may be a grieving woman and is seeking her own silence to be able to work through it rather than seek others to help her through. (so me)  A woman may be quiet because she is mad as hell and not going to take it all anymore.    Oh, a woman's quiet is a whole world away from others, both sacred and scary, betimes.

When a woman is frustrated, she should know her quiet is settling.  When a woman is disappointed, he silence is the color gray, dark gray, steel gray, the gray of putter.   A woman's fear may be her quiet.  When something is risky, a woman can be quiet.  Confusion can make a woman quiet.  Her quiet may be that she has a thousand thousand things to sort out in her mind.  

Do not think a woman's quiet is all about giving other(s) the silent treatment.  Perhaps she is quiet because there is a virtual explosion about to happen if she does not find a quiet place within.  She can be quiet because she does not trust herself or her emotions. 

A woman can be quiet when she is not interested in what is going on around her.  She may be creating a distance in a relationship because she is pretty sure she is done, but not quite yet.  She is not using her quiet to manipulate you; she is using, perhaps, her quiet in order to have a talk to herself about what is concerning her.

Perhaps she is quiet because that is the place and space she needs right now, to empty her mind of all the chaos of her world.  She might be collecting herself because she is standing on as precipice and not sure which way to jump.  Maybe she is lost in a beautiful memory.   Perhaps she is learning a lesson a new way by going over something that happened.  Perhaps she is simply savoring quiet time.

Shhh, let her be!

©Carol Desjarlais 4.21.19