Beltane Full Moon Guided Visualization

This is a guided visualization for the transition from Spring to Summer through the gateway and seasonal celebration of Beltane. It is an opportunity to pause, fully cast off the darknesses of winter and embrace pleasure. It begins with a short relaxation, a poetic evocation of the spirit of Beltane and the wonders of Spring in their fullness and moves into a guided journey. It contains music. | *You might like to have a blanket, a Beltane candle and a notebook handy.

Transcript

The seasonal wheel turns to Beltane.

Glad all over we garland the Maypole,

Leap the bell fire,

Call in the beginning of summer.

Beltane invites us to leave behind the ups and downs of spring where we were buffeted by the winds of change and all the decision making required to set our intentions and make plans.

We may have experienced doubts,

Anxiety and fear about how the year would unfold,

Not just in our own lives but the life of the earth and the world.

Now is the time to let go and relax into our bodies.

Notice how your body is feeling right now.

Are you comfortable?

How warm are you?

Is there anywhere else in the room you would like to be?

As you settle into yourself,

Notice what sounds are around you.

Are there some you would enjoy letting your attention rest on for a while?

Can you hear birdsong where you are?

Feel your body rise and fall with your breath.

Enjoy your body beginning to rest.

Allow time to slow down.

Feel the atmosphere in the room becoming still.

Lean back into pleasure.

Let your eyes close if it feels comfortable and smoothly move your awareness from the outside to the inside of your body.

Let go of everything except what is here now and take this journey into the heart of Beltane.

Beltane is the greening time.

The trees shape shift the land before our eyes like magicians pulling miniature leaves from their coughs no less miraculous than the burning bush.

A once a year marvel as fresh and tender as first love.

Uncowed by climate and global pandemics nature rewilds with cherry,

Apple,

Black thorn and rowan blossoms.

Yoke yellow gorse which smells of coconut in the heat of the sun.

After weeks of careful nurturing we can trust there will be no more frosts so we relax our watchfulness and let our plans,

Our plants and carelings grow on by themselves to become sky born in their own time.

The dawn chorus starts our days.

We get up at first light to walk and listen.

With each new surge of warmth and growth more small pockets of delight emerge.

A blue tit building a nest in the eaves the first swallows return.

Buzzards,

Kites and ravens high circle in skies bluer than euphoria.

All of nature pairs up.

Hairs box in the fields,

A deer comes down from the hills to browse in our garden.

We see its new antlers are growing in velvet soft.

Dog violets tiptoe across the floor of the woods,

Primroses settle into the leaves of moist mossy logs.

Cuckoo flowers,

Clumps of wooden enemies and celendines smile up to us.

The seeds we have planted become ignited and germinate.

Later their trajectories will be impossible to contain.

We go to bed in the light and wake up to it.

We dream of making love all night in the fields and woods to our sensual summer selves we had almost forgotten about.

We bring home armfuls of blossoms to decorate the windows.

Hawthorn blossom turns the streets where we live into middle earth shires for may marriages.

Translucent green beach leaves garland the top of the hedges.

Last year's dead leaves skitter up hot roads.

We ritually offer flowers and fire to what needs to change in the world and ours as we find new ways of celebrating and protecting the earth.

All the colours are freed.

Peacock butterflies land on fat dandelion heads and neck to feast for them,

A colour fest for us.

The grass in our gardens seems longer at the end of every walk.

We hear our first cuckoo sit and listen to the gentle cooing of the wood pigeons to let them soothe our nervous systems.

Lambs in the fields grow stocky and robust.

They graduate their mischief from jumping on the spot to going about in gangs,

But butting back under their mums when the first sign of danger comes.

The undergrowth on the sides of the riverbanks is an overgrown riot of fecundity.

We seek out a new narrative from this land of joy,

Hope and honey.

Not the same old story of oppression,

Greed and patriarchy,

But something filled with life and beauty.

In her book,

The Yellow on the Broom,

Betsy White writes that the appearance of the broom gives a heads up to the Scottish travelling folk,

The mist people who own the world's room to get away from the scoldies and their four winter walls,

And once again,

Romance the back roads.

Here,

Still,

At Beltane,

Along the green lanes and species-rich hedgerows,

There is an abundance of food for free,

Including fiddleheads,

Miner's lettuce,

Hawthorn leaves called the kids' bread and cheese,

Chickweed,

Wood sorrel,

Stinging nettle,

Purslane,

Plantain,

Jack-in-the-hedge,

Wild garlic and three cornered leeks.

Even these names fill our imaginations and shared memory with longing for the open road that leads to the way and ends in a welcome,

Food,

Fire,

Stories,

Songs and community.

As we get used to the return of the heat of spring turning into summer,

We find sanctuary and rest in the dappled shadows and big white limbs of beech trees in the Bluebell woods.

Imagine yourself walking through there after a night of rain,

The Bluebells rinsed into even greater vibrancy.

Hear what sounds like the gentle crackle of a fire and see smoke rising up into the balmy afternoon sky from a part of the woods you haven't explored before.

Let your curiosity and a sense of adventure lead you forward in that direction.

You find your path undulate slightly uphill and down.

On either side of you,

The woods take your breath away.

There are so many trees in blossom and new leaves filled with light.

You feel magic stir in your heart.

Your senses quicken as if something good is going to happen.

You arrive at a clearing and see in the middle of it the haze of a low fire.

It is crackling as branches are being fed onto it.

Preparations are underway.

Food is being made.

The scene is set for celebration.

An archway of willow is being constructed.

A circle of people are here.

You pause to make out who they are and what they mean to you.

It is for you to decide and choose them one by one.

They might be a favourite teacher who has taught you valuable life lessons.

Someone who has given you encouragement and accepted your choices to grow to your full potential in the way you want to without any judgement or criticism.

Perhaps there is somebody here who has stepped in at low points in your life.

Someone who makes you laugh and brings out the fun and playfulness in you.

There might be family members here.

Grandparents,

A parent,

Child,

Cherished ancestors,

A person outside of your family who is like a mother,

Father,

Sister or brother to you.

It is your celebration and your choice.

All the people here now are from the present or the past and have shown you kindness and respect,

Celebrated you and your achievements.

You can feel easily a sense of gratitude towards them.

There may even be a person you have met only once on a bus or at a party.

But there was something so loving and solid,

So compassionate about their presence that you have always remembered them.

And you may want to leave space for a shadowy figure who you haven't met yet but who will have a profound effect on your life and you theirs.

Here they all are at this gathering to honour you and view them and prepare you as you step through the Beltane Gateway.

In the trees and the bushes,

In sunny spots and shadows,

There may be animals and familiars who you also want to be present at your gathering.

Allow your heart to be bathed in gratitude and blessed by everyone who is here as you slowly picture them one by one in the circle in front of you.

Take your time to be sure.

When you have chosen them all,

They smile a delighted and loving welcome to you and invite you to join the circle and take your place amongst them.

Your heart feels so glad you are here with them.

You sit down and feel a sense of ritual and ceremony focus you.

You notice beside you there is a small pile of twigs and branches fallen during winter.

You are invited to pick them up one by one and add them to the fire as a way of casting off the darknesses of winter finally and completely.

The lows,

Self-doubts,

Anxieties,

Stresses and worries you may have experienced so that you can step into summer with as much abandon as you are able.

Around you,

Your dear ones begin to sing as you pick up the twigs and cast them into the fire,

Not just to let go but also to build up its strength and your potency.

Step into the holy fire,

Step into the holy flame,

Step into the holy fire,

Step into the holy flame,

Blessings on you,

Beauty fill you.

When you have finished,

You look up and see the faces of your friends mirroring the new lightness of being your heart feels.

They look radiant.

The birdsong in the grove seems even closer than before.

The grass so much lusher,

The perfume of the blossoms reaches down towards you.

You breathe them in to bring them closer and hear the buzz of the bees and insects.

You've never felt so happy and able to inhabit the moment so effortlessly.

The more you pause to enjoy everything through your senses,

The more it amplifies in your awareness until you feel filled to overflowing.

And then the feast begins.

You're past a platter which you see is a mandler of colours,

Foods that have been foraged especially for you from the best the season has to offer.

Someone gives you a goblet of spring water that tastes exquisite like the elixir of life.

When you've all finished feasting together,

Another beloved comes and takes you to sit in front of the archway in your own ceremonial chair carved from oak.

They comb your hair gently and sensually with their fingers,

Sending tingles from the base of your neck up through your scalp.

Another takes your feet in their lap and rubs rose oil into them.

They name the blossoms and leaves that are already appearing on the tree of life which is yours,

Which is you.

You feel so lovingly mirrored and deeply honoured.

You are ready to go through the arch.

The full moon has risen bright and luminous.

The air is charged and still holding heat from the day.

You walk through.

You are the world dancer,

Fluid and blessed,

Ready to return to your life with grace,

Wisdom and trust.

Summer begins.

Reviews

So picturesque, tenderly and sensually described. Thank you, Debra☀️💚🎀🌸🙏🏽💖🌳

I’ve listened to this every Mayday for the past 3 years, it is magical … a timely reminder to let go of what has been and embrace what will be - thankyou Debra 🙏❤️

I didn’t realise until undertaking this meditation, that I was still a little bit trapped in Winter. Thank you for helping me move seasons.

Amazing!! Exactly what i needed on t this special day 🙏

Thank you - this is really wonderful , the evocation of the season and the journey - it gave me so much food for thought.