Beltane is a time of fertility, a time of union, a time of manifestation, a time of love. It’s a great time for rituals filled with fun, gratitude, creativity, and passion. In this chapter, you’ll find several rituals especially crafted to help you connect with these powerful energies and make the most of their marvelous magickal potential.
Rituals differ from spells in that they’re typically, but not always, more complex, more in-depth, lengthier to perform, and result in longer-lasting effects. Rituals usually involve direct communication and contact with higher spiritual entities, be they elemental forces, deities, or various godforms, whereas a spell may or may not incorporate such powers. While a ritual might certainly include elements of magick and spellwork (the ones below do), there is also a spiritual purpose, a value found solely in the experience of the ritual, completely independent from outcome. In contrast, spells always have a magickal purpose, and may or may not include a spiritual purpose.
Below you’ll find a ritual designed for solitary practice, a ritual to do with a partner, a ritual to do with a larger group, and a super quick mini-ritual to do when you only have a few moments to spare. All the rituals described can be safely adapted, so feel free to add to them and adjust so that your ritual experience reflects your own uniqueness as a magickal and spiritual being.
Beltane Growth Ritual for Solitary Practice
This ritual is intended to honor growth, both the growing things of the earth and the ever-evolving soul within the individual magickal practitioner. Though especially designed for solitary use, the ritual format here described can easily be adapted to group practice. If you have friends joining you for the rite, just do everything in unison, or take turns handling different parts of the ritual according to aptitudes and interests. Do feel free to adapt and enhance these basic ritual proceedings to better suit your own personal beliefs and preferences.
Purpose:
Attune with nature’s tides, attain deeper understanding of the process of growth as it occurs within nature and within one’s self, express gratitude for the growth of vegetation that sustains us, contemplate and “take stock” of personal growth, initiate and manifest opportunities for even greater personal growth.
Setting:
Outside, in the morning
Supplies:
Two tea light candles or taper candles with candleholders:
preferably one gold or yellow, one silver or white
Fresh plants, herbs, and flowers from your region,
roots attached
Large bowl of water
Two pieces of paper and a pen
One small square of green fabric and a piece of gold or
yellow string
Pre-Ritual Preparations:
Take a bath or a shower to help cleanse away both physical and psychic impurities. Imagine any negativity or staleness flowing out of you and into the water as it washes over you. If you like, add a handful of sea salt to the bath water to help you attune with solar energies. If you’re having a shower, try rubbing your skin with sugar or oatmeal to shed away unwanted vibrations while connecting to Beltane themes of sweetness and abundance.
Go skyclad, with no clothes whatsoever, or dress in something you feel is suitable for a growth ritual. Natural fabrics in shades of green would be an excellent choice. You’ll want something comfortable that helps you feel natural, strong, and earthy. For an added boost of magickal power, accessorize with gold or copper jewelry, both attuned with solar energies.
Make a list of accomplishments, noting all the ways you’ve grown as a person over the past year. Make another list outlining any new goals for personal growth that you would like to achieve this season.
Place the bowl of water on top of the list of past accomplishments. Arrange the candles on either side of the bowl, placing the gold or yellow candle to the right, and the white or silver candle to the left. Place the fresh plants in front of the bowl, on top of the list of new goals for personal growth.
The Ritual:
Sit and place your palms flat down on the ground. Take several deep breaths until you feel calm and centered. Then extend this feeling of calm outward beyond the boundaries of your physical body, so that it encompasses and encloses the entire ritual space. Stand up and walk a clockwise circle around the space, while at the same time projecting a light, loving energy through your chest, flat palms, eyes, or wand tip. If you’re having trouble feeling it, it might help to think of something or someone you love very deeply, then let that emotion radiate outward, illuminating the ritual area in a bright, white light. Another idea is to walk around the space while ringing a bell, which acts as a quick and fairly foolproof method of clearing away stale, negative energies while at the same time inviting fresh, positive energy. The area surrounding you is now filled with a peaceful vibration, you’re ready to delve into the heart of the ritual.
Look around you. Notice the plants, their growth dependent on the interplay of the earth, sun, and rain. Touch the ground, stroking the living plants that spring from the earth beneath you. Do you feel the powerful energy of the earth, vibrating with life and creation, throbbing like a heartbeat, pulsating with both love and indifference?
Let this energy come into you, literally pulling it into your body through the point of contact between your hands and the living earth. This might sound like an oversimplification, but it isn’t. You have the ability to move and direct energy through the conscious application of your will and intention.
Think about what you want to happen energy-wise, then let your feelings guide you, noticing how your body responds throughout the process. If you’re actually moving or directing energy into or through your body, there’s usually a physical sensation that goes along with it. You might feel the energy moving through your body as a subtle tingle, as a strong and sudden jolt, “shock,” or shiver, as a feeling of heaviness or lightness, or as a sensation of warmth or coolness.
Sensations vary depending on the individual, but certain energies do seem to have outstanding characteristics a great many of us experience very similarly. In this ritual, for instance, the earth energy you’re invoking into your body is likely to have a warm, strong, vibrant feel. As you start to feel it, let it take over, allowing it reign over your body and emotion until any sense of ego is nil. If you like, rub some dirt on your skin or touch your body with green plants or flowers to enhance the feeling. You’ve now invoked the earth element, the powers of which are now filling you completely and flowing through you freely.
Next, turn your attentions to the bowl of water. Think of the rivers, the oceans, the lakes, the seas, and think of the rain that fills them. Think of the water beneath the earth, above the earth, and on the earth. Drink from the bowl, envisioning the water as the flow of a river or droplets of cool rain. Notice how your body feels as the water moves through you, quenching thirst and fueling transformation. Invite this energy to stay within you for the course of the ritual. Having now invoked both earth and water, envision yourself as the damp soil, wet and dark and warm as a womb.
Pick up the fresh plants that you’ve placed on top of the list of new goals you’d like to achieve. Read over the list as you cradle the plants gently in your open hands. Think of these plants as the very hopes and dreams outlined on the list of goals, and feel the emotion within those desires. Let that energy pour into the plants, charging them with a feeling of love and filling them also with the powers of earth and water that should still be coursing freely throughout your body. Place the plants in the water and say:
These are the dreams of (insert your own full name),
a child of the earth, moon, sun, and sea.
Light the silver or white candle, representative of the moon. Hold the candle above the bowl and think of the gravitational pull of the moon literally moving the oceans, manifesting and directing the tides of the water that covers more than 70 percent of our planet’s surface. Think of how the tides affect the weather, and how the weather in turn affects the lives of Earth’s plants and animals. Think also of the fact that your body’s composition is more than 50 percent water, and how, like the seas, the moon sways our inner emotional tides, as well. Let the idea of your dependence on the moon sink in, then allow your feelings of gratitude to flow into the candle flame and into the water below. Think of your list of past accomplishments that lies beneath the bowl of water, and think of the new dreams you want to achieve, represented by the plants you’ve placed in the bowl. With your hand that’s not holding the candle, swirl the water in the bowl clockwise as you say:
Great moon, as you move the sea, so too move me!
Watch the plants swirl around in the water and envision your goals manifesting, tides turning in your favor thanks to the help of the moon.
Return the candle to its place at the left side of the bowl.
Next, light the gold or yellow candle, representative of the sun. Hold the candle up to the sun, and think about the sunlight streaming into the candle flame, adding solar energy to its already bright and fiery power. Walk clockwise around the ritual space, noticing how the living plants that spring from the ground seem to pulsate with the same solar charge now infused within the candle flame. Invite that solar charge to flow into you, also. Let the candle flame draw the sunlight, then direct the energy down through the wax and into your body. As you walk around the circle, envision the plants around you growing, fueled by the sunlight, earth, and water. Stop in front of the bowl of water and hold the candle high above it.
Envision yourself growing and sense the cellular and molecular processes going on within your body, just as dependent on the sunlight, earth, and water as the vegetation surrounding you. Think about the process of photosynthesis that occurs within the green parts of plants, a process in which pure sunlight is transformed into nutrients that fuel the plant’s growth. Look now at the plants floating in the bowl of water before you. Feel the solar energy still pulsating within your body, warm and bright, fiery and strong. Ask the sun itself to help you fuel your dreams, then direct all that amplified solar power now coursing through you and through the candle to enter into the plants in the bowl. As you do so, envision yourself growing ten feet tall, a thriving giant radiating with health, vigor, and success, just like a mighty tree playing king of the forest. Say:
Great sun, fuel and energy of Earth,
charge me up now, give my future dreams birth!
Place the candle back in its spot to the right of the basin. Let both candles burn out completely, and leave the basin of water with the plants in it outside overnight. Place the list of new goals in a sunny spot in your home. The list of past accomplishments you can keep for sentimental purposes or discard; its magickal work is done. The next morning, remove the plants from the bowl and set them in the sun to dry. Pour the water on the earth. Once the plants are dried, tie them up in the small piece of cloth (preferably green for growth), and secure the bundle with the length of gold or yellow thread, colored in tune with powerful solar vibrations. Place the bundle on top of the list of new goals that should be sitting somewhere in your home in a sunny spot. The rite now complete, you should feel very much in tune with Beltane’s energy flow, and your inner process of personal and spiritual growth will be highly accelerated, at least temporarily. Make the most of it!
Beltane Handfasting Ritual for Lasting Union
This Beltane handfasting ritual is designed to create a lasting union and forge a cooperative, happy, and loving marital partnership between two people. With the concept of sacred union as its framework, this handfasting ritual is moving and powerful, offering a meaningful Pagan alternative to more mainstream marriage ceremonies.
Purpose:
This ritual is designed to unite two people into the bonds of marriage. A handfasting ritual is a type of binding magick, tying together the spiritual energies of the two individuals so that a new union is created and the boundaries and limitations of that union are established and fortified.
Setting:
Evening, preferably outdoors
Supplies:
One red candle, to symbolize both love and the element
of fire
One glass of water with ice, preferably in a clear, blue,
or silver cup
Pre-Ritual Preparations:
You’ll need to decide which role each participant will play in the rite. This ritual has two starring roles: the part of fire, and the part of water. Let personal preferences guide your selection, or consider having the person with the more masculine, dominant, or active personality play the role of fire while the person with the more feminine, or softer, gentler personality, plays the role of water.
Going skyclad or donning special ritual attire can enrich the experience and enhance the magick. The person playing the part of fire might wear robes in red or orange to symbolize flame, gold or yellow in honor of the sun, or solid white to represent pure light. The person acting the role of water might wear translucent fabrics or clothing in shades of blue to symbolize water, or they might choose silver clothing to pay homage to the moon. Solid black attire is another fitting option, representing the darkness of deep water, the darkness beneath the ground where seeds begin to grow, and the darkness of the cosmic womb from which we all emerge.
If you’re able to find a peaceful natural setting in which to do the ritual, the space will need very little preparation. Make sure the area is free of debris, and be sure it’s a space where you’ll feel safe and comfortable. If you’re enacting the ritual indoors, choose a place that’s clean and uncluttered. If the area you’ve chosen has a negative or stale feeling to it, you can do a general space clearing before you begin the ritual. One easy method of clearing an area of undesirable or stagnant energy is to sweep the space with a broom. Begin in the center of the ritual area and sweep toward the edges, moving in an outward, counterclockwise spiral while visualizing any stale or negative energies dissipating and dispersing. You might also perform a basic circle casting if you like, or simply light some incense and a few extra candles to enhance the magickal ambiance of the ritual space. If you like, enhance the space with fresh flowers.
The Ritual:
Begin by facing one another, the person acting as fire holding the candle and the person acting as water holding the glass. Fire lights the candle, envisioning sunlight and flame radiating from their body’s core as they do so, dissolving all traces of ego. Fire says:
I am Fire. I am Sun. I am the warmth, the light, the seed,
and the will. I am (insert your full name).
Water takes a sip from the glass, envisioning rivers, oceans, and rains flowing down their throat and integrating into their being as they swallow, letting the energetic vibration of the water overpower personality. Water says:
I am Water. I am Moon. I am the blood, the food, the womb,
and the intention. I am (insert your full name).
The person playing the role of water becomes the cosmic womb, while the person playing the role of fire becomes the fertilizing seed, a combination from which will spring the new creation—the new cooperative partnership between anima and animus. This is the sacred union, the magick of intermingling polarities that gives rise to creation and manifestation.
Imagine that you yourself are whatever it is you are representing—say it, open your heart and body to it, and invite those energies to flow through you. Be a vessel for whatever it is you are representing, and if you haven’t already, try for a moment now to forget all about who you are in your everyday life. You are fire. You are water. You are the womb. You are the seed. You are the yin. You are the yang. Whatever it is, don’t just think of it—be it to the greatest extent you can manage. It might sound tricky, but it’s actually not that complicated. By emptying yourself of identity and ego (which is the tricky part!), you make yourself an open vessel for any energies you wish to temporarily “host” within your body. This is the process that is known as invocation, actually invoking, or taking within your own body, the spirit, entity, or energy you’ve invited for a visit.
Once both you and your ritual partner are fully “in the zone,” in character with your respective roles and unhampered by mundane thoughts and feelings, look into each other’s eyes and raise the energy. Think of the specific outcome you hope to achieve with the ritual, the main aim and purpose you’re hoping to manifest. Feel the emotions of that reality, what it would be like and feel like to have a successful, lasting partnership. As you look into your partner’s eyes, let the emotions you feel flow back and forth between you, magnifying with each “pass” until you sense the energy is at its highest vibration.
At this point, the person playing the part of Water opens himself or herself completely, envisioning a fertile field, a womb, and primordial darkness ready to embrace the spark of life. The person playing the role of fire should continue focusing on the ritual goal at hand (creating a permanent, loving bond), and when the vision and feeling of love and unity is clear in both mind and heart, every bit of energy they have within them is sent into the body and spirit of the person playing the role of water. Just envision the magickal power you’ve raised through emotion and visualization flowing out of your eyes and into the eyes of your partner. The person playing the part of water should feel this action if you do it right. It should feel like a powerful blast of emotionally charged energy.
Once the energy has been received by the person playing water, exchange the objects you are holding, passing the glass of water to fire and giving the candle to water. Both ritualists say:
By our powers combined, by moon and by sun,
by water and fire, what we will, will be won!
Fire takes a sip of water. Then, the cup and the candle are placed side by side on the altar. The partners clasp their hands together over the altar, gazing steadily into each other’s eyes as they repeat in unison nine times:
We are bound together, together forever!
As this is said, the ritualists should envision ropes of golden light, made of pure love, circling around their wrists and entwining together their hands.
The partners share a loving, passionate kiss. Water then takes the ice cube out of the glass and holds it over the candle flame, melting the ice and putting out the candle.
Clasping hands once again, the partners say in unison:
Our love remains through dark and light!
May love transform us, day and night!
The partners share another kiss, and the handfasting ritual is complete.
Beltane Group Ritual for Love
With fertile energies running wild, love is in the air this time of year, just waiting for us to reach out and grab it. Why not take advantage of the opportunity with a ritual centered on love and romance?
This Beltane group ritual is designed to help all participants attract, express, and manifest more love in their lives while tuning in to the fertile, creative energies of the day. It’s most powerful when worked with larger groups of seven or more, but it can be performed by groups as small as four in number.
Purpose:
This ritual will help participants improve their ability to attract, express, and manifest love. It will also help ritualists get into the romantic, carefree spirit of Beltane, and it can be useful in heightening creative energy and bringing fresh inspiration.
Setting:
Nighttime, preferably outdoors, preferably in a wooded area or somewhere near a body of water, and preferably a place where you’re allowed a small campfire.
Supplies:
Candles, one for each participant plus one more, and a candleholder for each. Any color candles are fine, but red or pink are best since they are in tune with loving, romantic
vibrations.
Jasmine oil, rose oil, or patchouli oil (use pure, natural
essential oils, not synthetics)
Small pieces of notepaper and pens with blue ink, enough for
everyone to have a pen and several sheets of paper
Two cups, filled halfway with water
Two wands
A bell
Pre-Ritual Preparations:
Dress in clothing that makes you feel sensual or good-looking. Shades of white, pink, red, or green are especially suitable. Light a small campfire if allowed. If not, place the additional candle in the center of the ritual space. In a circle surrounding it, place the candleholders. Beside the campfire or the center candle, place the two cups, the two wands, the bell, the notepaper, the pens, and the essential oil. Give one candle to each participant, and then select a person to lead the ritual. You will also need three additional volunteers to aid in the summoning of powers that takes place near the beginning of the ritual.
The Ritual:
Have everyone stand in a circle, then have the person chosen as ritual leader walk around the circle ringing the bell. As they do so, participants should focus on the ringing sound of the bell, envisioning the space clearing of any negativity. The ritual leader should then make a second pass around the circle ringing the bell, this time with the intent of infusing the area with a positive vibration. Ritual participants can help with this process by conjuring up in their hearts a happy, loving feeling and projecting this outward, into the ritual space.
Next, the ritual leader and the three preselected volunteers should each pick up a cup or a wand, coming to the center of the circle where the other participants can see what is going on. The wands are raised high in the air, and the ritual participants focus on drawing down into the wands an active, assertive, masculine energy. If desired, specific deities or godforms such as Cernunnos, Pan, the Horned God, or Belenos might be called at this point, directly invited to enter the circle through the points of the two wands held high. The two people with the wands then touch the wands together, forming an X and then switching their positions so that the wand that was in back is now in front, forming an X again. They say:
Scepter to scepter, we welcome the energies of the Great God,
the active principle, the seed, the Animus!
Enter here now! Join us here now!
Next, the two people holding the cups take center stage. The cups are raised high in the air and the ritualists concentrate on drawing down into the cups a more passive, nurturing, feminine energy. If desired, specific deities or godforms such as Anu, Brighid, Flora, Freya, or the Maiden Goddess might be summoned now—just ask them to enter the ritual space by first entering the water in the two cups.
The two people holding the cups then take turns pouring a bit of water into the other person’s cup. They say:
Cup to cup, we welcome the energies of the Great Goddess,
the subtle principle, the nurturer, the womb, the Anima!
Enter here now! Join us here now!
Next, the two people with the wands should come forward and plunge the wands into the cups, one in each. One wand is moved in a clockwise motion while the other is moved in a counterclockwise motion, causing the water in the cups to swirl. The ritual leader and the three volunteers say in unison:
Scepter to cup, we acknowledge the sacredness of all creation;
we welcome love and light in all its multiple and many forms!
The volunteers then return to their original places in the circle.
Next, the ritual leader picks up the essential oil and makes his or her way around the circle, anointing the participants on palms, wrists, chest, and forehead. As this is done, they should envision the loving vibration of the oil seeping into the body of the anointed, filling them with glowing beauty and causing them to radiate with love. The ritual leader can enhance the effects of the oil by adding to the mix their own power. A feeling of love is conjured in the heart, and when the emotion is at its height, it’s directed into the body of the participant through a straightforward application of visualization, will, and intention. As the ritual leader anoints the participants and fills each one with a feeling of radiating love and beauty, they say to each person:
You are love. You are beautiful, and you are loved. You are love.
Once everyone has been anointed, the final person in the circle should anoint the ritual leader. Then, the ritual leader can return the oil to its place near the center candle or campfire. The ritual leader circles the center candle or campfire three times, envisioning the loving energy that is now swirling around the space growing brighter, more powerful, and magnified. He or she then stops, holding his or her hands (safely!) above the flame, saying:
By Great Beal’s Fire, we empower our desire with the power
of creation, with the power to inspire! By the powers here that be, we manifest all that we see!
Our light draws love and our love draws light!
We’ll get just what we will tonight!
The ritual leader then gently taps one of the participants, signaling them to go to the center of the circle where the center candle or campfire is burning brightly. That participant then carefully lights their own candle from the central fire, turning to face the circle and remaining in place. The participant then focuses their mind and emotions on their personal creative goals and/or on their wishes for love and romance. The other participants, including the ritual leader who has taken up a place in the circle, observe the ritualist standing in the center. The participants notice admirable, appealing, or attractive traits about the person, shouting them out as inspiration comes. For example, participants might say complimentary or supportive things such as “You have beautiful eyes and legs” or “You are worthy of love” or “You are beautiful inside and out.” Just make sure the statements are coming from a place of compassion and authenticity. Most people can see right through empty flattery, and there’s magick at hand, after all, so keep it real and keep it genuine.
At the ritual leader’s signal, the participants then hold their hands out, open palms toward the ritualist who stands holding their candle at the center of the circle. The participants conjure a feeling of love in their hearts and minds, letting it radiate throughout the body then out through the hands and directly into the ritualist at the center. If any of the ritualists are new to the concept and practice of directing energy, visualization can be a big help. Imagine the energy you’re directing as a glowing, tinted light, and charge that light with as much emotion as you can muster.
Once the participants have filled the center ritualist with this extra bit of “love power,” that person then places their candle in one of the candleholders at the center and returns to their place in the circle. A new ritualist then takes their place near the center candle or campfire, lighting their own candle from that central flame and repeating the process of visualizing one’s personal creative goals or romantic wishes, receiving the accolades and compliments of the crowd, receiving the loving energy from the crowd, placing their candle in one of the holders, then returning to the circle so that another ritualist can then have their turn at the center. Repeat the whole process with every participant, including the ritual leader.
Once everyone has finished at the fire, all participants should be in a circle, hands joined. A feeling of love is sent around the circle, projected from hand to hand, beginning and ending with the ritual leader. If you like, you can send the loving energy around the circle with a kiss rather than with holding hands—just pass a kiss around the circle from cheek to cheek, or if you are more adventurous, from lips to lips.
Once the loving energy has been raised satisfactorily, it’s time for the next step. At the ritual leader’s signal, everyone holds their hands toward the central fire, palms open, again projecting that loving energy, this time sending it into the flames. As this is happening, the ritual leader says, sending with the words a final boost of loving energy and magickal intention:
By love, by fire, by you, by me, by God, by Goddess,
what we will, it will be!
The heart of the ritual now complete, spend some time socializing with your ritual mates, talking openly about your romantic feelings and wishes and sharing creative ideas and aspirations. Use the notepaper and pens at the center of the circle to write short notes for one another, perhaps offering compliments and/or invitations for romantic adventure. The candles and/or campfire can be extinguished now, or if you are hanging around for a while, you can let them burn out on their own. Expect love and creativity to noticeably flourish in the lives of all participants, beginning immediately upon conclusion of the ritual and continuing for as long as several weeks or more, depending on the strength of the ritual and the effort of the participant in making the most of the ritual’s effects.
Quick Beltane Vigor and Youth Mini-Ritual
for Groups, Partners, or Solitaries
Here’s a Beltane ritual you can do when you have only moments to spare. It will quickly put you in touch with Beltane’s fertile, creative energy flow, infusing you with fresh vigor and renewing youthful abilities of self-healing and regeneration. This ritual can be performed solo, with a partner, or with as many friends as you can gather. It will take only a few minutes from start to finish.
Purpose:
The purpose of this ritual is to renew youth and restore vigor by attuning to Beltane’s energetic current of fertility, growth, and creation.
Setting:
Daytime, preferably early morning when the ground is still wet with dew, in an outdoor location where the ground is soft and covered with vegetation.
Supplies:
None
Pre-Ritual Preparations:
Wear something you won’t mind rolling around on the ground in!
The Ritual:
Sit or lay on the ground, making as much contact between your skin and the earth as is comfortable. Stroke the vegetation with your hands, petting the leaves or blades of grass slowly and gently. Let the vegetation slide between your fingers, and sense the energies of the plants flowing into you as you do so. If there is dew on the ground, collect it on your palms and rub the dew into your face, anointing cheeks, lips, forehead, chin, and the area surrounding your eyes. Rub some dew into your hands, as well. If you’re starting too late in the day for dew, substitute with a bit of vegetation, selecting an especially healthy-looking leaf or flower with which to stroke your face and hands. Whether it’s dew or vegetation, envision a vigorous, thriving energy flowing into your body as you touch it to your skin. Say:
Like the plants of the earth, like the fresh morning dew,
I am healthy and growing, youthful and new!
The ritual is now complete. Expect a feeling of renewal and energy to set in soon after. Effects should last throughout the growing season, helping to improve and sustain health, increase energy levels, and strengthen one’s sense of youth and vigor.