beltane
BELTANE
In the orchard, the pink and white blossoms of the apple trees buzz with insect activity, and the green grass is a polka-dot pattern of dandelion flowers. The downy buds of the rowan tree open into leaves that will shade the woodland wildflower garden during the hot summer months that lie ahead. Here, delicate blossoms of bloodroot have faded, and Virginia bluebells, red columbine and white trillium now bloom in their turn. April rains have forced the growth of many of the herbs and each is greeted like a dear old friend after a long winter’s absence. Sitting on the hillside, with our sheep grazing contentedly nearby, looking down at the rooftops of our home and the neighbors’ pastures beyond, I seem to recall another time when the mighty Gods participated more directly in the affairs of mortals than they seem to do today.
May is the time when all of nature comes alive and the Spirits of Nature are most active, and for this reason I believe it is the time when faeries are most likely to be seen. It was in the month of May that as a child I saw faeries. I remember that it was when the Canada May flowers were in bloom. But who are these creatures of the other world that we call the faery? They seem to be many things to many people.
One definition or explanation is that the faery-folk are, or were, an ancient race of people who lived in the British Isles long before the Anglo-Saxons or the Celts arrived. These people, somewhat smaller in stature than the Anglos, Saxons, Celts, and Romans, lived in round, sod-covered huts that were partially underground. They hunted, and probably practised a shamanistic form of religion, and stained their bodies blue with juices extracted from wild woad. But surely it was not the Picts that I saw in the last vestiges of a virgin oak forest, in suburban New Jersey, in the late 1950s (although, if there were a lost tribe of Picts lurking in New Jersey at that time, it certainly would have been among those ancient oaks). Still, there seems to be a connection between those ancient tribes of mortals and the faery-folk.
In some of the early testimonies given during the persecution known as the Witch Trials, there is occasionally found a reference to “Witches of the Air.” These seem to be regarded as being distinctly different from “Earth Witches,” or living human beings. These Witches of the Air are also described in the same terms as faeries.
Another class of entities that are also often grouped together with Faeries are ghosts and spirits. For the purposes of this chapter, and for that matter, throughout my writing, I will use the term “ghost” when referring to the spirit of a deceased person, one who is temporarily between incarnations. One of the reasons for the confusion, I think, is the association of the wiccan term Summerland, or dwelling place of the spirits of the dead, with the Land of Faery, or the dwelling place of Spirits (as opposed to spirits). It is very likely that this is the same place, but these entities are different. The faeries referred to in faery-lore are not the ghosts of the recently deceased, but a different class of entities altogether.
Most wiccans seem to agree that everything in nature has a spirit. The group of entities to whom I am referring when I use the term “faeries” is any one of an infinite number of Nature Spirits, including the consciousness or spirits of plants, animals, trees, springs, wells, stones, storms, etc. In other words, the astral bodies both of physical, living entities, and also the non-incarnating forces of nature, somewhere between the physical plane and the gods themselves. What we call faeries are often the “astral bodies” of living entities that dwell on the earth plane, and so their realm of activity is the astral plane (to use a term popular in many branches of occultism). But the astral plane is most likely Summerland.
The connecting thread between all of these different concepts of definitions of faeries is the shamanic religion. In ancient times, when shamanism was the prevalent religion, it was the shaman or priest who worked for the benefit of the tribe or village by traveling to the spiritual or astral planes in order to gain magickal information, or to make the necessary arrangements with the spirits of hunted animals. (This last function, I believe, degenerated with the advent of civilization and agriculture into the practice of human and animal sacrifice.) The shaman was able to leave his body through trance and ritual, and travel either to the world of Nature Spirits or to the Underworld of the Dead.
So, the Land of Faery is inhabited by Nature Spirits which are the astral bodies of plants, animals, and even minerals, by the spirits of nonincarnating entities; by the spirit bodies of people who are traveling on the Astral plane through the practice of meditation, ritual, or other shamanic devices; and in all likelihood, by the spirits of the members of ancient races such as the Picts, who have gone beyond the need to reincarnate. The Astral world or Land of Faery occupies the same space as the physical world and is every bit as real. Unfortunately, modern civilization recognizes only one side of reality and denies the other, and since we are all part of this modern civilization, whether we like it or not, we have all learned to focus primarily on the material side of life. This focus on the material is evident in many subtle ways. For example, most of us
some of the different kinds of faeries
where they dwell and what they do
|
FAERIES, |
FORESTS FAERY HILL & RINGS FIELDS & WILD PLACES FLOWER GARDENS |
DANCE & PLAY, KNOW THE MAGICKAL SECRETS OF HERBS, STONES & ANIMALS. SEE THE FUTURE. |
|
GNOMES, |
IN CAVES & MINES, |
KNOW THE LOCATION OF PRECIOUS GEMS AND METALS AND HOW TO FORGE AND FORM THEM. |
|
BROWNIES, KOBOLDS |
HOMES AND COTTAGES |
HELP & PROTECT THE FAMILY. DO CHORES BY NIGHT. |
and what they are called
in different countries
|
ENGLISH |
FAERIES |
|
IRISH |
SIDH |
|
SCOTTISH |
SITHS |
|
CORNISH |
PIXIES |
|
FRENCH |
FEE |
|
GERMANIC |
ELVES, TROLLS |
|
ARABIC |
DJINN |
|
HAWAIIAN |
MENEHUNE |
|
ITALIAN |
IMPS, FAUNS |
|
GREEK |
NYMPHS, SYLPHS |
|
UKRAINIAN |
BLAZHENNI |
are right-handed, and thus the left hemisphere of the brain is dominant. It is the left hemisphere that deals with logic, math, language, etc. while the right deals with emotion and intuition, and therefore the spiritual side of life. In a left-handed person, the reverse is true. This imbalance is also reflected in our politics—right or left; conservative or liberal. Science focuses on the physical while modern religion preaches that the material world, or nature, is what we are here to rise above. Science and religion are at constant odds with one another and neither has the wisdom to see that they are each dealing with a different side of reality.
The only way to begin to accomplish this is for each of us on the Pagan path to come to know the world of the faery. This will take a lot of magick. Happily, there are several charms and methods still preserved for us.
A Tyrolian charm to see faeries is to gather together a sprig of rue, a broom straw (this might be a straw from a besom, or a bit of the plant called broom), agrimony, maidenhair fern, and a sprig of ground ivy. Bind them together with a green yarn, or tie them into a pouch with green yarn and wear this next to your heart.
To make an oil that, when applied to the eyelids, enables one to see faeries, place in a small glass jar three buds of hollyhock, three flowers of marigold, three sprigs of thyme, three buds of witch hazel, and grass from a Faery Ring, or “throne.” Cover these herbs with olive oil and allow them to stand in the sun for three days before pouring off the oil into a clean bottle for storage or until it is needed.
When the charm has been made and the oil has been prepared, it is still necessary to go to a place that faeries have been known to frequent in order to see them.
The first place that comes to mind, of course, is a faery mound.
These exist all over the British Isles and much of Northern Europe. They are of two types, the burial mound and the sod-covered dwelling. The tales of Manawydan, son of Llyr, in the Mabinogion (a collection of Welsch myths and tales which were written down in the thirteenth century, but which came from a much older oral tradition), begins with Manawydan and Pryderi going to a mound because they were told that if they sat there they would see a beautiful lady on horseback. They did so and a thick mist descended upon them. When the mist cleared, everything seemed to be the same as it had been before, but there was no one to be seen. Everyone had vanished. “Where they had once seen flocks and herds and dwellings, they now saw nothing…only the houses of the court, empty, deserted, uninhabited.” Manawydan and Pryderi wandered about until they came to Ireland, where they had several adventures before returning home.
In 1690, during the height of the Witch Trials, the Reverend Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle, Scotland, began to visit a faery mound called Doon Hill, just beyond the graveyard of his little church. After many nightly visits to the Mound, this conservative and well-educated man wrote a detailed account of his visits to Faery Land, entitled The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies. One night a few years later, Kirk, clad in his nightgown, walked out to the faery mound and fell down, apparently dead. Legend tells us that although he was buried, the coffin was empty because his body vanished into Faery Land.
It is said that if one falls asleep on a faery mound, one will sleep for one hundred years. Before giving up the hope of finding faery mounds in North America, remember that the ancient ancestors of modern Native Americans also built mounds. Both the Hopewell and the Mississippian people were mound builders, and the mounds they built were either ceremonial platforms or burial mounds like those of Europe.
But these are not the only mounds in North America. When I was nineteen years old and a student in art school, two friends took me to see some structures that they had discovered in the woods behind their home. Both structures, as I recall, were of very old, low-fired brick with entrances made from native red sandstone cut into wedge-shaped blocks to form a perfect arch. But most importantly, both of these structures were entirely covered by a circular mound or hill of soil that had obviously been placed over them after they had been built. The mounds were approximately eighteen feet in diameter and ten to twelve feet in height. The second, larger mound, a short distance from the first, had a huge oak tree growing on top of it, so it had to be, we figured, about two hundred years old, at least. And that would put it right in period with some of the historic old, pre-Revolutionary houses in the area which were built of the same sandstone. We thought that they might be some sort of ovens (although there was no trace of fire) or root cellars. But regardless of their original function, they are still mounds, and quite covered by vegetation, and they are in the very same forest where, a decade earlier, I had seen the faeries.
Tradition tells us that, aside from faery mounds or faery hills, the type of place we are most likely to encounter a faery is in a faery ring. These rings, unlike those of standing stones, are not at all confined to Northern Europe and the British Isles. They are likely to spring up anywhere. Like the mounds of Europe, though, they are of two types. One is the ring of mushrooms, some as large as dinner plates, that appear suddenly, overnight. The other, more subtle type, is a ring of grass that appears to be thicker, deeper green, more lush and faster growing than the rest. This faery ring of grass will not disappear when mowed. Instead it will remain a deeper green, and in a few days, be taller and thicker again than the grass around it. But like the faery ring of mushrooms, the rings of grass are caused by an underground network of the fibrous parts of fungi called mycillium. There is another term, the faery throne, and this is probably the small, circular (one to two feet in diameter) tufts of a certain type of grass that sheep will not eat, and so it will grow quite luxuriously in an otherwise well-clipped pasture.
But rational explanations aside, there is an aura of magick and mystery about these faery rings—and there is a very real connection between mushrooms and faeries. Once again the connecting link is shamanism. The shaman in many different cultures ingested some type of mushroom as part of a ritual that enabled him to enter the spirit realms. When I first started out on the Wiccan path, a Witch told me that eating mushrooms helped to develop psychic abilities. I forced myself to acquire a taste for them, and I think perhaps she was right.
There are several types of trees that are traditionally associated with faeries, too. The first of these is the oak, and in particular, a hollow oak. For this reason, acorns can be worn as amulets to attract faeries. The oak to ancient European people symbolized all of the attributes of the Horned God, or Spirit Father, and for this reason the trees were held sacred, considered to be a link between this world and the world of the spirit. Probably for this reason, too, these ancient people used hollow logs as coffins for their dead nobility, and it is these same coffins that lie at the heart of many of the burial mounds called faery mounds. Also, it was on a fallen oak log that I used to sit when I saw faeries.
A Witch Broom Tree
The hackberry tree is subject to bacterial disease which causes it to grow tufts of twigs called witch brooms. These witch brooms really do resemble the traditional Witch’s besom, and small ones make wonderful amulets that can be used as links to faery realms. But, above all, a hackberry tree, or any other tree for that matter, that grows a witch broom is traditionally a place where faeries may gather. Yet most all the trees associated with faeries, probably the strongest association is with the hawthorn tree. This tree is also known as whitethorn or may, and its pink and white blossoms were used to adorn the ancient altars from Greece to Ireland. In the British Isles it is often found growing near sacred springs or wells, and the faeries associated with these trees will, under certain circumstances, grant wishes.
The traditional way of making a wish at a hawthorn tree is to leave strips of cloth, symbolizing your wish, in the tree. At the time of the full moon, go to a hawthorn tree and bring with you strips of colored cloth, choosing the color appropriate to each wish you want to make. Stand silently before the tree and attune yourself to it. When you feel you have attracted the attention and approval of the spirit of the tree, take one colored strip of cloth at a time and hold it, concentrating on your wish and visualizing a logical way in which it might come true. Then, with the words appropriate to the color and the wish, hang the cloth in the tree by piercing it on one of the thorns and chanting your wish.
For protection, use a blue cloth and words like:
With this thorn will this charm
Protect my family from harm.
For prosperity, use a deep bright green and words like:
Spirit of this hawthorn tree
Grant to me prosperity.
For love and romance, use pink or rose strips of cloth and chant words like:
Charm of rose and hawthorn tree,
Bring my true love unto me.
To attain occult knowledge, use deep purple or indigo cloth and intone words such as:
In darkest night the hawthorn tree
Reveal to me a mystery.
Make as many wishes as you like, being sure to use different words each time so that each wish is a separate ritual—and make the wording as specific as possible for each enchantment. If you have an urgent need, use several strips of the same color, repeating the same chant again.
When you have finished, leave an appropriate gift for the spirit of the tree. And when your wish has been granted, go back to the tree with an additional offering as a thank you.
In some traditions, colored eggshells are also hung on hawthorn trees as tokens of wishes made; and since hawthorn trees often grow near sacred or wishing wells, this sounds remarkably like the Ukrainian tradition of setting colored eggshells adrift in streams and rivers as a sign to the Blazhennie, or “Kindly Ones,” that spring has returned.
Forests and wild places far from towns and cities have always been regarded as places likely to be inhabited by faeries and nature spirits. The shaded forest floor, clad in hay-scented fern, where the tall, stately oaks give way to the silver barked beech, and humming birds sip nectar from the pink rhododendron; or the moss-covered banks of a woodland pool, where sunning turtles slip silently from a log, seeming to vanish at the sound of an approaching footstep—only to re-appear on the log again, as if by magick—here are faeries, their presence to be sensed, if not seen. And like trees, there are certain plants more often associated with them than others. Ferns and faeries naturally go together, but there are some ferns with even stronger associations than the rest. One of these is bracken, whose large, lacy triangular leaves form a second canopy just two feet above the floor of the yule scented pine forest.
The sight of the scarce maidenhair fern, so named for its thin, black stems that support the semi-circular fronds of primitive leaflets, almost always bring the faery-folk to mind. And moonwart, a fern so rare as to seem more mythological than material, is also associated with faeries. Ebony spleenwort and maiden hair spleenwort, both of elfin proportions, also seem to belong in this group. Mushrooms, toadstools, liverworts, and club mosses all convey the feeling of the faery-folk.
Among the flowering plants, the large waxy, umbrella-like leaves that hide the blossoms of the May apple, the green-white flower spikes of snakeroot that seem to sway and meander above the forest floor on invisible stems, and the tiny flower clusters and heart-shaped leaves of Canada mayflower that perfume the air and carpet the floor of the forest, all seem to be especially favored by the Faeries.
Not only the forests, but also the moonlit meadows, springs, wells and streams, all have resident nature spirits. Certain type of faery-folk prefer certain environments. For example, trolls are believed to dwell under bridges, while dwarfs prefer caves and mines.
If you don’t wish to visit a faery forest, but prefer to create an environment for them in your own backyard, begin gathering and planting trees, ferns, and wildflowers that you feel are especially appropriate and best adapted to the type of environment you are able to provide. Many nurseries and websites sell a wonderful variety of less common and endangered species of wild flowers and ferns. Wood chips, straw, pine needles, and leaves all are excellent mulches, and certain ones are necessary to certain plants; but they also encourage the growth of some strange and wonderful mushrooms that the faeries might find attractive. A piece of moss-covered log will also do this.
Once the garden has been started, you might want to ritually dedicate it as a faery garden sanctuary. Begin describing the boundaries of the garden with an athame. Then sprinkle the perimeter with a branch of fir dipped in salted spring water. Finally, describe the boundaries of the garden with a stick of burning incense, which can be left in the ground to burn out afterward. Then with a wand of hazel, slowly walk about the garden and greet each species of plant with words like:
Spirits of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit
I welcome your presence in this garden.
Feel your love flow from your heart, down your arm and out through your wand, directed toward the plant. Address each plant (or grouping of plants) tree and stone, this way, being sure not to overlook any because it is said that nature spirits are easily offended. You might wish to conclude the ritual with words like:
In the name of the Goddess
(most of the names of the Goddess in her aspect of Goddess of the Moon are also names of the Queen of the Faeries)
And the God (in his aspect of Lord of the Greenwood),
I declare this garden a sanctuary
For the Spirits of Nature
And the Children of the Gods.
It would then be appropriate to leave a gift to attract the spirits: cookies, soda, ale, or cream are all appreciated. So are bright and shiny things like rings or beads. Certain stones, too, are favored by faeries. Moonstone (feldspar) and quartz crystals, and especially the twin crystals of staurolite that form perfect solar crosses (called faery crosses) are attractive to faeries. Selenite, named for the Moon Goddess Selene, is also a favorite of faeries. It is the crystal form of gypsum from which plaster is made, and these crystals grow in caves. Selenite is the only mineral that habitually forms curved crystals. Wearing these stones as amulets also opens a channel that might help one to see faeries.
Another environment suitable to faery-folk is a dollhouse. I had one as a child and knew it to be inhabited by spirits. For that reason, I would never have dolls in the dollhouse. They would have been an invasion of privacy. When I was about twelve years old, my mother gave my dollhouse away. Somewhere she got the ridiculous idea that I would outgrow such things. I have another dollhouse now, much more expensive, and once again it is inhabited by spirits, especially the attic and the kitchen.
If you have a dollhouse or other such miniature environment, you have a perfect place where you can meet the spirits on their own territory. Here is a fun exercise to try: Light candles in front of the dollhouse so that every room is lit by them, even if it is electrified. Then sit on a comfortable chair very close to the dollhouse so that it is at your eye level.
Gaze into each room and imagine what it would be like to sit on the chair or lie in the bed, eat from the dish, or drink from the cup. Then close your eyes and let your spirit enter the house, asking, “May I come in?” Listen for an answer and as you move through the rooms, be aware of any presence you may encounter. When your visit is finished, blow out the candles and leave a gift for the folks that live in the house. Afterward watch for signs that there is a presence. Obviously, such things as objects being moved would suggest this. Try to learn the entities’ likes and dislikes in order to make them happy, and in so doing, befriend them.
But for most of us, it is not enough to sense the presence of faeries. We wish to see them as objective reality. In order to do this, we may arm ourselves with amulets and moonstones and faery crosses, anoint our eyelids with specially prepared oil, carry herbs attractive to faeries, and sit within a faery ring or forest. But it is still necessary to achieve an altered state of consciousness, because it is on the “inner planes” (or astral, or spirit realms) that real magick takes place, and where faeries actually exist. But this altered state of consciousness need not be the deep, deep state of meditation sought by Eastern mystics—just a slight shift in focus will do. I have not only seen faeries with this slightly shifted awareness, I once read an entire album jacket in a busy record store in this state, until Dan interrupted me and pointed out that the album jacket was written entirely in Russian! I prefer to call this state a shifted focus or awareness because it is very much like shifting the focus of the eyes to gaze through something rather than at it, in the same way one gazes into a crystal ball or scrying mirror. For this reason, faeries are seen with the eyes wide open, not closed.
Once this state is achieved, and assuming faeries are present, there is any number of ways they might appear. One of the most typical is a tiny pinpoint of blindingly white light. This pinpoint might remain as such, or it can expand in human form to any size, although they usually remain small. They may appear somewhat transparent and seem to float, and they may appear to be part human and part plant, or clad in leaves and petals and butterfly wings; but I believe that the human part of their appearance might have more to do with our perception of them as being like us. At other times, especially in memory, they may appear as clouds or nebulas of millions of tiny pinpoints of light, shifting and shimmering colors of the rainbow. Or, they may appear as a sudden movement seen out of the corner of the eye, or heard as a giggle. Or, they may choose to be seen as a bird or butterfly, in which case they may do something obvious to let you know that they are what they are. Once faeries have been seen, the next step is to befriend them or gain their trust. The only way to do this is to feel only love and joy for them.
There is much practical knowledge to be gained from knowing the faery-folk. They have knowledge of all the healing and the magickal properties of herbs, stones, trees, and animals. They have what is traditionally called “the Sight,” and can predict the future and in certain circumstances, transmit the ability to others. They are credited with being able to perform incredible feats of magick, often in very little time, suggesting that time in the Land of Faery is different than it is here.
Many years ago, when I was working on my first quilt, I decided that I would like to have it finished by a certain date because we were planning an open house on that date, and I had invited over a hundred people. I really wanted to have the quilt on the bed when they arrived, so every night I worked on the quilt, and every night I quilted one square. Then, two weeks before the date, I counted the number of squares left to do and found that there were fifteen of them, and only fourteen nights left. I quilted as much as I could, but all I could do was one square a night. Each night I counted the squares, and each night there was more than I had time to do. And then, just two nights before our open house, I sat down to my quilting frame and counted again and there were only two more squares left to do!
The faeries also know the whereabouts of buried treasure, precious metals, and jewels. But the most valuable knowledge to be gained from the faery-folk is that they do exist, and that the Land of Faery is every bit as real as the material world.
It might be noted that the magickal abilities of the faeries are the same as those of witches, i.e., the knowledge and use of healing herbs, stones, animals, etc.; having “the Sight,” or the ability to see into the future; the ability to work magick in accordance to one’s will, and the ability to locate hidden treasure or minerals (dowsing or “water witching”). This suggests that either witches gained their knowledge from the faeries, or that faeries and witches obtain their knowledge from a common source. Most likely, Witches obtained their knowledge and methods by an oral tradition handed down from earlier races or ancestors who had received them directly from the spirits of Nature. With the coming of the new religion, faeries were labeled demons and devils, and their magicks evil. (Actually, the word “devil” may come from the Sanskrit word “deva,” meaning god or good spirit.) Witches, of course, were condemned along with the faeries because of their association with them, which was called “intercourse with the devils.” Of course, intercourse originally meant interaction, or more literally, “running between,” as in traveling between the worlds. Like so many other things, this became perverted by the new religion into copulation with (their) devil. For this reason, a great number of charms were recommended for protection against the evil magick of the faery-folk.
No such protection is actually needed, since the faeries are, in fact, “The Good People.” But many of these ancient charms are excellent charms for protection against evil in general.
One such charm is to gather the leaves of elder on May Eve and hang them over the doorway. Though this was a charm to protect against faeries, elder is a tree favored by the faery-folk and probably invites their blessings and protection. When gathering the leaves at dawn on the first morning of May, point your wand at the elder bush and say words such as:
Elder leaves come with me
Magick as the number three.
Then tie them with green yarn and hang them over the doorway, saying words like:
Elder over the doorway
Fortune over the threshold.
Faeries are not at all evil, although they are very playful in a childlike way, and their games might be considered annoying to one who does not love them enough to have patience with their games. Their feelings are also easily hurt due to the innocence of their purely spiritual nature, and their ways of getting even when coupled with their immense magickal power could seem cruel and vindictive; but their motivations are never evil. Even so, if you have injured the feelings of a faery, it is said that a charm made of iron is the best protection.
Neither the existence of faeries, nor belief in them, is confined to the British Isles or Northern Europe. Certain Indians of North America believe in a class of nature spirits that inhabit natural hills, sand dunes, and forests. In Africa, there is a class of nature spirits closely akin to tree spirits, who, under certain circumstances, will mislead a man so that he becomes lost in the forest. That this trait shows up in countries as different from one another as Africa and Britain—where a person can wander, lost for hours, pixie-led by the faeries—should be evidence enough of their reality.
In some Arabian countries, they are called the Djinn, and to the Polynesians of Hawaii they are the Menehune, who are credited with building ancient structures of unknown history. Here again, like the faery-folk of Europe, they seem to be thought of at once as an ancient race of mortals and as a class of nature spirits who dwell in the forest, perform magick by moonlight, and under certain circumstances, are able to be seen by humans. There is another curious parallel: the Hawaiian name “Menehune” for these little people is very much like “Huna,” the Hawaiian word for magick; or “Kahuna,” meaning “magician,” or more correctly, “shaman.” This is identical to the faery-witch connection in Europe.
To the ancient Egyptians, the dwarf Bes was the guardian of children and he blessed the home with happiness. To the Romans and the Etruscans, faeries and witches alike were presided over by the goddess Diana or Tanit. The red-capped Italian imps resemble, at least in attire, the gnomes and elves of Northern Europe. Greek myth recognizes all manner of nature spirits, including fauns, nymphs, and sprites. To the French, they are the fee, and in the Ukraine and other countries of East ern Europe, they are the Blazhenni or Kindly Ones.
Even the faeries of Northern and Western Europe have many different names and functions. The name “faery” is an English one; the Irish call them the “sidh” (pronounced “shee”), and the Scottish call them “siths.” In Cornwall, England, they are also called “pixies,” a name supposed to be derived from the ancient tribe known as the Picts. Pixies are associated with the earth and nature, and are believed to live in forests, hollow hills, caves, mines, and beneath the roots of trees. Also, because of their association with the earth and nature, they traditionally wear and are attracted to earth colors: browns, tans, greens, and rust. One group, the brownies, wear brown (or have brownish skin), and prefer a friendly house or cottage to the forest. If they are treated well (and they don’t ask for much, just a bit of bread and some cream), they will make themselves very useful around the house and be very protective of the family. Brownie is a Scottish name, but to the Germans they are kobalds, to the Danes, nis, and to the French, lutin.
In the countries of Northern Europe, the faery-folk are called elves, and their function is to inspire and teach the ancient wisdom to those that are capable of perceiving them. They are the shining white ones, in contrast to the dark dwarfs. Dark dwarfs are not necessarily evil; they are sometimes called gnomes and trolls. While elves usually dwell in forests, trolls and gnomes generally dwell underground, in caves, mines, and hollow hills. They are the shapers and the forgers of things before they appear on the material plane, and they know the whereabouts of mineral wealth and guard great treasures. It was these dwarfs that forged the necklace of the goddess.
There seems to be an American version of these guardians of the mines. Called tommyknockers, they probably originated in the tin mines of Cornwall, England. Today they are believed by some to warn of mine disasters, and occasionally indicate by their knocking or other eerie sounds, the most profitable places to dig. Still, others believe that they are the ghosts of miners killed in mining accidents, who continue to haunt the shafts and tunnels of the mine.
Some Pagans today consider faeries as being identified with, or creatures of, the element of earth. But this idea was developed by Paracelsus, the sixteenth century alchemist who assigned gnomes to the element of earth, sylphs to the element of air, salamanders to the element of fire, and undines to the element of water. Certainly faeries are of the earth in that they are spirits of nature, and as such are children of the Earth Mother. But the idea of spirits of the elements is really more a concept of ceremonial magick, not of the old religion—and, as I said earlier, the important thing about faeries is that they are not what they are.
There is a wealth of European folktales also known as faery tales that still have much to tell us about the spirits of nature. The first one that comes to mind is the tale of Rumplestiltskin. This dwarf (troll or gnome) came to the rescue of a miller’s daughter after the miller had promised the king that she could spin straw into gold. The king declared that if she could do this, he would marry her, but if she could not, she would be executed. Rumplestiltskin spun the straw into gold for the girl in exchange for a small trinket. He did likewise on the second night. But on the third night, he agreed to turn straw into gold only in exchange for her first-born child. With the straw magickally converted to gold, the king wed the miller’s daughter and made her his queen and eventually a child was born. The dwarf returned to complete the bargain, but the queen could not part with her child. Instead she was given an alternative, that if she could discover the dwarf’s name, the bargain would be broken and she could keep her child. She did, through trickery, learn his name; and she called him by it—Rumplestiltskin. He became so infuriated at this that he stomped and stomped until he stomped himself into a hole in the ground.
This simple little tale actually tells us a great deal about faery-lore: first, that faeries are willing to help people; second, that they are fond of trinkets; third, that they are able to perform wonderful magick—and as in this case of spinning straw into gold, they are able to transform the mundane into the spiritual; fourth, that the third time is the charm; fifth, that this particular faery, a dwarf, was of the underground gnome or troll variety; sixth, and most importantly in this tale, is that to know a faery’s name is to bind the faery, or break his spell. (The magick in a name is in its being kept secret, which is why Dan and I use our Craft names only in the circle.)
A purely American folk tale that still carries with it traces of faery-lore is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, who, in the days just prior to the American Revolution, wandered off into the Catskill Mountains where he fell asleep. Apparently, he did so on a faery mound because he slept for twenty years. While he slept, he visited the ghostly crew of Henry Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon, who had apparently become nature spirits that caused the sudden thunderstorms of the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson Valley by playing their games of ten pins.
May in this part of the country is sheep-shearing time, and this is the cause for celebration to a witch, because both wool and spinning have some significance in magick and witchcraft. One old charm from Devonshire to cure warts required that the patient bring in a blackthorn, milk from a red cow, and wool from a white sheep. The witch presumably skewered the bit of wool onto the blackthorn, and then dipped it in the milk with which she then bathed the warts.
Wool is also the easiest fiber to spin and to dye for magickal cords and many other uses. (Cotton and flax are both plant fibers, and so they contain cellulose which causes them to resist most dyes.) Spinning or a spindle, of course, is a symbol of the Triple Goddess of the Moon.
For two days before sheep shearing, the sheep must be kept dry because damp wool dulls the shears (which can then cut and scrape the sheep), so our sheep are kept in their shelter for that time. Then, on the morning of the shearing, they cannot be fed. After the sheep-shearer arrives, it is only a few minutes before the entire fleece is removed, and they emerge, lean, sleek white animals, prepared to tolerate the coming summer heat. And so, the sheep-shearing is as much a celebration of their liberation as it is the harvesting of their wool, which will be spun and dyed and made into clothing that will protect us from the cold, as well as many magickal objects.
To begin the celebration, they are let out to graze the fresh green grass on the hillside. We spend the afternoon with them, relaxing on the grass in the shade of a tree, bundles of fresh fleece nearby as I card wool and spin it on the drop spindle. Our meal is a picnic on the grass. Then, when we bring Rowena, Rowan (Buckethead), and Willow in for the evening, we take the bundles of fresh fleece into the house, where we bless them by sprinkling them (lightly, so that they won’t get moldy) with salted water, censing them with incense, and encircling them with a lit candle. We also give thanks to Faunas for the sheep and the fleece.
Faunas (Pan to the Greeks) is the god of wild creatures, an ancient god who is probably a direct descendent of the ancient and nameless god whose image adorns many an ancient and sacred cave. His twin sister is Floralia, goddess of flowers, whose feast day (the Floralia) coincides with Beltane both in terms of the time of year that it was celebrated and in what was being celebrated: the bursting into blossom of all of nature. Almost every one of the major wiccan festivals has a Roman counterpart, which in turn had its origins in ancient Greece—and no doubt the countries of old Europe.
Beginning at Imbolc, a festival of fertility in Western Europe, the Roman and Eastern equivalent is the Lupercalia, a celebration where in the Lupercali, the goatskin clad priests of Dionysus (Pan), ran through the streets of the city using goatskin thongs to strike the palms of women who wished to bear children.
In ancient Rome at the time of the Vernal Equinox, the eunuch priests of Cybele held a five day festival during which Attis, the consort of the Great Goddess, symbolically died and was mourned for several days; he was then resurrected, to the great joy of his worshippers. This corresponds to the celebration of the resurrection of all of nature, and the return of the Sun God at this same time in other parts of Western Europe.
As mentioned above, the Floralia of ancient Rome corresponds to the Beltane of Western Europe. It was the time of the celebration of nature in full blossom, a time to clean and purify the temples and to make offerings of flowers at springs and rivers.
In June, the ancient Romans celebrated the Vestalia in honor of the goddess Vesta. Vesta is the Roman goddess of the hearth and her symbol was the sacred flame, so that Vestalia was a festival of fire very much like the Midsummer Fires of Western Europe.
In August, at the time of the grain harvest, there was a celebration of joy for the reunion of Demeter, goddess of grain, and her daughter Persephone, or their Roman counterpart, Ceres and Prosepina. This equates perfectly with the Lammas festival in honor of the grain goddess or Corn Mother.
Although the Bacchanalia, the festival of Bacchus, the god of wine, took place in the spring, as did the rites of his Greek counterpart, Dionysus, fall was also a time to honor him when the grapes were harvested and the wine was being pressed.
The final Roman holiday of the solar year was the Saturnalia. The celebration lasted for several days beginning on December 21 and reconciled the difference between the solar and the lunar calendars. Saturn is a god of death, and is often portrayed as carrying a scythe—an image which has carried over into the present day with the symbolism of Father Time, or the old year of New Year’s celebrations who makes way for the diaper-clad infant of the incoming year. Zeus is the father of the gods, but Saturn was the father of Zeus. This suggests an unbroken lineage, in spite of some minor changes, in a religion that began before the golden age of Greece, and whose fragments have filtered down to present day celebrations in such symbols as Father Christmas and Father Time.
the sabbats & roman holidays
|
WESTERN EUROPEAN SABBATS |
ROMAN HOLIDAYS |
PURPOSE OF THE ROMAN CELEBRATION |
|
IMBOLC |
LUPERCALIA |
A FERTILITY RITE |
|
VERNAL EQUINOX |
BACCHANALIA |
CELEBRATION OF RESURRECTION |
|
BELTANE |
FLORALIA |
CELEBRATION OF THE FLOWERS THAT PROMISE FRUIT |
|
MIDSUMMER |
VESTALIA |
REKINDLING OF THE HEARTH FIRES |
|
LAMMAS |
FESTIVAL OF DEMETER & PERSOPHONE |
REUNION OF THE GRAIN GODDESS & HER DAUGHTER |
|
AUTUMN EQUINOX |
WINE HARVEST |
IN HONOR OF THE GOD OF THE VINE AND OF RESURRECTION |
|
SAMHAIN |
FESTIVAL OF POMONA |
HARVEST OF FRUITS & NUTS FOR WINTER |
|
YULE |
SATURNALIA |
END OF THE OLD YEAR & BEGINNING OF THE NEW |
In preparation for our own May Day rites, there are many things to be done. The first of these preparations may have begun as early as the pruning season in March, when nine kinds of wood for the Beltane fire were gathered and bundled. The bundle might contain three pieces of each type of wood, and the different kinds might include birch for the goddess, oak for the god, fir for birth, willow for death, rowan for magick, apple for love, (grape) vine for joy, hazel for wisdom, and hawthorn for purity and for May. These pieces might be as small as matchsticks for burning in a cauldron, or might be large pieces of wood for an outdoor fire. Wood that was cut and collected in March is now dry enough to burn well.
For a good sized coven able to celebrate the Sabbat rites outdoors, each coven member might prepare their own bundle for a really spectacular blaze. In any case, wood for the Beltane sabbat, like the Yule log, should be adorned for the sacred rites. Streamers of white ribbon and bouquets of wild flowers are ideal.
One of the more important aspects of the Beltane rites is the crowning of the May King or Queen. In some traditions, only a May Queen is crowned, but Beltane is a celebration of the sacred marriage and so a Queen without a King is not appropriate. Equally important to the Queen is her crown.
One of the keys to a good Pagan ritual is simplicity, and a simple way to make a good crown for the May Queen is to cut up two twelve to eighteen inch branches of apple, which at this time of year is usually in bloom. Put the branches together end to end, so that the two base ends are overlapping each other by six inches, and so the tips of the branches are pointing away in either direction. Secure the two base ends together with twist-ties in two places. Then slowly and gently bend the two tips together to form a circle. It may be necessary to crack the wood in several places in order to form a nice circle. Adjust the size by overlapping the branch tips and then secure the front of the chaplet with twist-ties in at least two places. More flowers can be added, if desired, with floral wire, and ribbons might be a nice touch.
For the King’s crown, since he represents the god in his aspect as the Lord of the Greenwood, or the Sun God returned, green leaves of the oak or laurel are appropriate. Birch is symbolic of the goddess, but as it also symbolizes a return from death, birch is also a good choice—or a combination of these. Whichever type of wood is chosen, the King’s crown can be made in the same manner as the Queen’s.
Probably the most popular object of the Beltane rites is the maypole. The most traditional maypole is a fir tree which has been stripped of all but its uppermost branches. It may range in height from a few feet in height to well over a hundred. It was generally cut by the young men of the village on May Eve and erected in the village square to be danced around on May Day. Some maypoles were left up permanently.
Not everyone today can have a fifty-foot maypole. For those who, for some reason or another, have to hold their Beltane rites indoors, a pine dowel three or four feet in height inserted in a block of wood and placed on the altar can suffice. Lengths of quarter-inch of ribbon can be thumbtacked to the top, and the ends of the ribbon might be adorned with nosegays of spring flowers. Larger maypoles for outdoor rituals should be cut a few feet longer than the desired height (approximately one-quarter of this height) in order to have enough of the pole in the ground to stabilize it. Before such a pole is erected, the ribbons should be attached to it by tying it just below the tuft of foliage at the top. Each covener might wish to bring a ribbon of a specific color, according to a certain blessing they might wish for; but the traditional colors for these ribbons are red and white. The reason for this might be found in the origin of the maypole, which is connected to the spring rites of the cult of Cybele and Attis. Here an evergreen tree, representing the dead Attis, was wrapped in white woolen cloth and splattered with blood from the slashed arms of the priests of Cybele. This was performed in order to bring about the god’s annual resurrection. In this ritual, we have the traditional elements of the maypole, the evergreen tree wrapped in white ribbons, representing the shroud of death, and red ribbons representing the lifegiving blood.
The maypole may have even more ancient ties. To the shaman in just about every culture, there was one tool that was indispensable: it was the staff that symbolized his calling and might be a tree trunk propped up to the smokehole of his tent. In every case, the wood used was considered to be an offshoot of the world tree which connected the world of the living with the spirit planes. Possibly for this same reason, branchless trunks of fir trees have been found among the offerings left in the wells that were sacred to the Druids.
The maypole represents the male principle in the divine marriage between the Spirit Father and the Earth Mother. It is also the witch’s broomstick at Halloween, and upon which the crone rides up the chimney and past the moon to the spirit realms. The maypole at Beltane, and the witch’s besom at Samhain, stand across the Wheel of the Year from one another, the one symbolizing the male principle in the Divine Marriage, and the principle of Death in Life; the other, the principle of Life in Death.
For these reasons, the erecting of the maypole should be carried out with ceremony and reverence. Once a tree has been selected, cut down, and had its branches removed, it might be ritually carried as in a procession to the site of the Sabbat rites. Next, a hole must be dug for the pine to be placed in. When it is deep enough, pour an offering of salted water into the opening, saying words like:
Earth Mother, may this offering
Prepare you to receive
This symbol of your consort, our Lord.
Next, you might wish to anoint the maypole itself, using altar oil or an oil especially prepared for this night. An oil containing myrrh, (artificial) musk, and sweet woodruff would be appropriate. Anoint the pole with oil at intervals, making the sign of the solar cross or else the Rune, and at each anointing, intone words such as:
Blessed be this tree,
Vehicle of our Lord
Which shall soon enter Our Mother, the Earth.
Then, when the maypole has been erected, light the Beltane fires and begin the celebration. Another way of symbolizing the Sacred Marriage was to place a circlet of flowers over the top of the maypole. As the ribbons tightened and entwined the pole, the wreath was slowly lowered so that the pole, which represents the lord, slowly penetrated the circle of flowers, which is the lady. Here at Flying Witch Farm, we hold a similar rite: following the Beltane sabbat, the chaplet of flowers is placed over a stone which we have come to call the King Stone, and which stands at the center of a small garden dedicated to the Horned One. This small standing stone is a sort of permanent maypole.
Due to its resemblance to the maypole and all that the maypole represents, asparagus has been a traditional food for May Day celebrations. But, the plant is not grown in Europe the way it is grown here. In this country, it is simply allowed to grow and the green shoots harvested; but in Europe it is mounded up with mulch which causes the asparagus to grow short and thick, and without chlorophyll so that it is completely white. These shoots are then served in a white cream sauce.
Another traditional part of the May Day feast is May wine or the May bowl. This is a bowl of white wine containing strawberries and sweet woodruff. A recipe is given in Wheel of the Year.
When the Beltane fires have burned to ashes and the May bowl has been emptied, it is time to look forward to the season of growth that lies ahead.
All around us nature flourishes. The hens in their coop preen and dust-bathe in the afternoon sunlight, and a falcon hovers above a newly planted field of corn. A gentle breeze blows the last of the blossoms from the apple trees in a shower of pink and white petals. Slowly, seeds sprout and fruits swell, and slowly our lord, in his aspect of the Sun God, moves toward the zenith of his path and the height of his power.
