Even though Beltane is halfway between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, it seems like the start of spring in Edmonton. We are often still shovelling snow when the Equinox arrives but by Beltane there is more warmth in the sun, the days are getting longer, the geese and butterflies have returned, and the pussy willows have opened along the river valley. 

At Beltane Gaia, Mother Earth, is filled with the strong and fertile energy which was released at the Spring Equinox and all of life is bursting with potent fertility as new shoots are emerging from the ground and birds are singing their mating songs and animals are performing their mating rituals. Traditionally, Beltane was a fertility festival, and a celebration of the uniting of masculine and the feminine, the collective energy of creation, to ensure fertility for the coming years. 

We are influenced by two major cycles: the moon’s monthly cycle around the earth and the earth’s year-long cycle around the sun which results in the changes of the seasons that we experience. At Spring Equinox the sun is the farthest away from us, the lowest in the sky, and it appears to stand still for a few days before it starts to move again, every day after we move closer to the sun and it gets higher in the sky and has more warmth. This continues until Summer Solstice, the longest day, when we will have completed half of our journey around the sun and the days will start to get shorter as we move away from the sun. 

Six months from now it will be Fall Equinox, and once again the days and nights will be equal length as we move towards Winter Solstice, the longest night. 

These times of transition provide an opportunity to harness the energy of change and new growth to empower your intentions for the next six months. This is a potent time in the year to focus on your intentions and the dreams that you want to manifest in your life. By observing, and using these cycles within our lives we can utilise their magic and power as we live and experience the cycles.

Beltane gives us a permission slip to pause and reflect back to Samhain, the day most people know of as Hallowe’en, which is the halfway point between Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice. This reflection provides an opportunity to correct our course, strengthen our intentions, and illuminate what might be hidden or we might be hiding from ourselves in order to be clear about what we want to bring into fruition in the next six months.

In addition to today being Beltane, the new moon in Taurus was on Sunday. Both of these are fertile times, ripe with potential and possibility. As well, this is the Year of the Snake, a time of transformation and we have also just come out of an very intense Eclipse Season, in a year long cycle of change in our political, social and cultural systems. The world will be a different place by the end of the year.

In these times of intense energy, I think it is important to remember that the energy of chaos is also the energy of creativity. Instead of getting caught up in the changes that we see playing out around us that are beyond our control, we can remember that the energy of chaos is also the energy of creativity and that if we are clear in our intentions we can harness this energy for manifestation.

Today at Beltane, let’s use this energy of potential to bring about the most positive timeline for each of us and for the planet in this time of global reset, the best and highest good for all.

What would you like to manifest over the next six months?