Date in the Northern Hemisphere: 1 May
Date in the Southern Hemisphere: 1 November
As the earth reaches the peak of spring’s song, Beltane rises – an ancient fire festival alive with the pulse of creativity, fertility, vitality and hope. It arrives like a breath of coming home to our greatest potential, asking us to awaken fully, to embody our becoming.
We have emerged from winter’s deep gestation. The soil has softened. The spring rains support new life. The veil lifts. And in the quickening of earth’s breath, we feel our own life force stir, ripe with possibility. Beltane is not only a celebration of light – it is a mirror reflecting the inner fire that longs to be born into form.
A time between worlds
The word ‘Beltane’ comes from the Gaelic ‘Bealtaine’, meaning ‘bright fire’ or ‘lucky fire’. One of the four great Celtic fire festivals, it marks the sacred midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice – a liminal time when the veil between worlds thins
If Samhain honours our ancestors and the descent into darkness, then Beltane honours the unborn
souls, and the unseen energies preparing to enter the earthly plane. This is a season of conception, of divine union and of soul activation.
In ancient Celtic tradition, the Sacred Masculine (Green Man, the sun) and the Divine Feminine (the May Queen, the fertile earth) would unite in a holy marriage, celebrating the cosmic dance of light and dark, seed and soil, passion and presence.
Beltane is a frequency – a rhythm we can feel in the body, in the wildness of blooming branches, in the tender ache of our own desire to create. Spirit meets matter. Energy becomes form.
It is the season to honour the sacred union within: the radiant sun of the Sacred Masculine, the fertile soil of the Divine Feminine, and the harmony of becoming whole.
To walk the path of Beltane is to reawaken the body as a temple, the heart as the guide, and creation as an act of love. This is a time to return to a heart-centred life, where joy is a compass and beauty is the prayer.
Rituals of renewal and honouring the fire within
To align with Beltane is to remember the art of sacred living. Fertility is not just of body – it is of spirit, of ideas, of devotion. When we honour both the wildness and stillness within, when we see through the eyes of love, we become creators of the world we long to live in.
We return to the Holy Mother again and again to shed our scarcity stories, to redream our lives into
alignment with joy, presence and abundance.
The Celtic Wheel of the Year teaches that what happens in nature also happens within. Beltane reminds
us that we are nature, blooming through cycles of death and rebirth. We are both the fire and the one
dancing around it.
Create a Beltane altar
Build a springtime altar that calls in the five elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether. Let your ritual be playful. Let it be sensual. Let it be sacred.
- Use flowers, candles, feathers, crystals, and bowls of water to represent each of the five elements. Place your altar in a space where light dances freely.
- Write eight prayers that reflect your soul, each starting with ‘I am…’, then shout them aloud. Let them rise like sparks into the Beltane fire.
- If you feel called to, leap over your altar (or a small flame in a safe space) and shout your prayers with joy. Let the fire catch your dreams and carry them toward summer’s fullness.
- Seal in your ritual by welcoming in divine timing, signs, symbols, and your guides/intuition for active support this season. If you work with oracle or tarot cards, choose a card for final reflection and journal about your experience.
Other Beltane ritual ideas
- Wash your face in May morning dew to welcome youth, vitality and blessing.
- Make flower crowns and wear them as symbols of your blooming.
- Dance around a May pole, weaving your dreams with ribbons and laughter.
- Gather friends for a ceremonial meal, each bringing an offering of prayer and gratitude.
- Light a bonfire, jumping over the flames (carefully!) in devotion to your becoming.
- Walk through smoke for purification. Offer herbs, such as sage, cedar and lavender, to the fire.
- Sing, drum, and move your body in rhythm with the earth’s song.
Journal prompts for the soulful seeker
Use these reflections to deepen your Beltane ritual. Let them lead you into the fertility of your own heart.
- What energy or healing does your Sacred Feminine most desire right now?
- Which archetype most calls to your becoming: Maiden, Mother, Sage, Huntress, Lover, Mystic, Queen or Weaver?
- How can you tend to this archetype in the way of creative expression, ritual, and soul care?
- How can you honour the Sacred Masculine – through light, action, completion or protection?
- What lights you up from within? What sparks your joy?
- What is ready to be released into the fire? What must be burnt away for your true self to rise?
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* Images from Mara's upcoming deck, The Divine Matrix oracle deck and guidebook
Beltane blessing
May you feel the pulse of the earth in your belly,
the fire of your purpose in your heart,
and the joy of becoming in walking the beauty way.
May you leap the flames of limitation,
and dance wildly into the fullness of who you are.
Blessed Beltane.
