May feels like a spell being cast. Blossom drifts through the air. Bees thrum like prayers. Even the evenings seem to glow, as if the sun is reluctant to leave. May is the month where the world is no longer becoming because it has moved into the now and it just is, it is here. It is the midway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.
Green is everywhere. Flowers, nectar filled blooms are everywhere. A riot of pinks, whites, yellows and purples. Life spills over hedges, through cracks in pavements, climbs the walls and fences without asking permission. The garden is abundant with life and verdant lushness. May is the earth in full voice.
This is the last month of Spring and I have been busy in the garden. Trying to keep on top of the weeding, tidying up plants, filling bird feeders and baths plus adding more plants to the borders. I am also trying to get my garden ready for the main event this year – the Open studios event in September. So, I am planning now and planting things that will look good in September.
May is when the fires of Beltane arrive, linked to the Celtic sun god Belenus, Beltane is the great festival of fertility, passion, and sacred union. Marking the marriage of earth and sun, the blessing of animals and crops, the thinning of the veil between worlds and the return of sensuality and joy.
In Scottish Gaelic, the festival is called Latha Bealltainn, sometimes the older Scottish Gaelic spelling Bealltuinn is used. The term Latha Buidhe Bealltainn means, “the bright or yellow day of Beltane”, means the first of May. Beltane, held on the 1st May, is one of the four Gaelic seasonal pagan festivals. Fires are lit on two facing hillsides, traditionally cattle was driven between these hilltop fires to protect them from disease and the Faeries, people would leap over the fires or embers to ensure fertility, good fortune and health for the coming year and all households would extinguish hearth fires and then re light them using ashes and flames from the communal Beltane bonfire, symbolising the birth of a new season.
Pagan traditions see people leaping over fires, crowning themselves with flowers, dancing around maypoles, and all are about inviting abundance into our lives. This is the time of the Lover – the world alive with desire, movement, and connection. The Maypole is an iconic fertility symbol, which represents the union of the Goddess (the May Queen who is often associated with Flora the Roman Goddess of flowers of the Celtic Goddess Brigid. The maiden aspect of the Triple goddess; Maiden, Mother and Crone.) and The God (The green Man or the Horned God associated with the Celtic god Cernunnos, Lord of Wild Things or the Phrygian god Attis, both are symbols of the forest, vegetation and the masculine aspect of fertility).
These days there is a modern ritual held by The Beltane Fire Festival and is a ticketed event held on the 30th April (May Eve) at Calton Hill in Edinburgh. It is an immersive, dramatic, participatory performance with fire play, drums, dancers and elaborate costumes and culminates in a huge bonfire.
May Eve and May Day are also associated with a thinning in the veil between the human world and the supernatural. Samhain (Halloween) is the thinning of the veil between the living and the dead, but May Eve is when all things supernatural can cross the veil and come out to play especially the faeries and the witches. It was considered unlucky to give away fire, salt or milk on this day because of superstitious beliefs about witches and fae using these gifts to cast spells. Giving rise to the saying, ‘Never sell or give away, anything on the 1st May or luck will leave your door’. Luck and prosperity was tied to milk and cattle. Strangers were deterred on this day from visiting to ensure no ‘luck’ was stolen, cattle were blessed and people and their homes protected with yellow flowers and rowan crosses.
May teaches us that abundance is not always quiet. It arrives loud with birdsong, thick with scent, heavy with colour. The world is not holding back and neither should we.May this month bring you pleasure, creativity, and the courage to take up space in your own becoming.
In the Studio
I am super busy this month getting work ready for my open studio event with Central Fife Artist’s Collective. I have so many ideas of what I want to make but there is not enough hours in the day to get it all done. I am trying to make more functional work this month; jugs, bowls and platters and getting back to throwing on the wheel. It is a skill that I don’t often use and even though I trained as a production potter, I have let that skill set go a bit rusty, so I have decided that every day I make sure I have a few hours of practice time on my wheels.
Plus, I am working on packaging and branding for the Open Studios event, and I hope to have another shop drop soon through my online shop. My pottery shelves are filling up fast and I am now having to think about storage of finished work. Lot s of garden sculptures, mini monster geeks and wee beasties plus some other items too. Check out my Instagram or Facebook for updates on what is happening in the studio because I usually post a few times a week on there.
A Small May Ritual
On May Eve put a clean piece of cotton cloth in a small clean bowl and place it outside on the ground where it can catch the morning dew and on the morning of May Day wipe your face with the damp cloth. This is an ancient tradition and it is believed that it will bring youthfulness and luck for the year.
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In the garden sow hardy annuals like nasturtiums or calendula. Push each seed a few millimeters below the soil and pour water over the area you have sown seeds in. Remember to plant them where you would like them to grow and pop a label near to them, so you know where you have sown them. Always plant 2 seeds side by side and later when they germinate and start to grow, you can remove the seedling that is the weakest. Or plant beans like runner beans or French beans – again just push the seed into the soil with your finger up to your first joint, cover with soil and sprinkle a generous amount of water over the area where the seeds are. Make sure you have placed a few tall canes nearby to where you have sown your bean seeds, so that they have something to grow up. You can make it either as a long row or as a tepee circle of canes and tie all the canes together at the top.