Disappointing Beltane? Spring Comes Anyway

To be honest, Beltane almost slipped by me.

I’ve been catching up on life and work since my karate promotion and trip to Australia, focusing on the mundane.

And a lot of the traditional trappings of Beltane, the whole Lusty Month Of May thing, are more a source of frustration at the moment than something I want to focus on and celebrate

But as I drove downtown this evening. my radio browsing landed on The Thistle And Shamrock, the Celtic roots music show on NPR, with an episode focusing on Beltane-related songs — celebrating, as the dulcet voice of Fiona Ritchie reminded me, the greening of the Earth.

Because that’s the thing about nature religion. Nature is still here, doing its thing, however your own little life may be going at the moment. Having a good week? The Earth spins on its axis just the same. Having a bad month? The season cycle still goes from death to life.

“Spring 2009”by Anoop Joy is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The beautiful and terrible (in the sense of intense, formidable, powerful, going back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to tremble”) world keeps on turning, “and everything she touches, changes”, as the chant goes.

So if your Beltane proved disappointing or forgettable, be of good cheer. Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.