The BELTANE/CALAN MAI INKLINGS includes
- Voicenote with short grounding meditation and sharing of current creative practice threads, including experience of being a non-binary/queer human at this time. Shorter version is available for free subscribers. (1)
- BELTANE/CALAN MAI folklore and seasonal insights
- Journal prompts
- Spring 2025 Playlist
✺BELTANE/CALAN MAI✺ blessings to you as the sunsets and the heat of the day subsides.
Late spring is here and summer is but a short dance away.
The Hawthorn blossoms are resplendent in the hedgerows, the days are lengthening and evenings feel pregnant with the promise of warm balminess. There are gatherings in the neighbourhood, and the temperature is increasing. At May Day, it is a Celtic tradition to erect and dance around a brightly ribboned maypole. These traditional community gatherings vary from region to region and can come with their own sweet songs of early summer to be sung or played on musical instruments.
It is also a time of thin veils. The otherworldly is open to us to traverse, if we dare to fall asleep beneath a blossoming tree.
Hawthorn is traditionally gathered at Beltane and brought in to the home to adorn the kitchen table, as well as placed on top of the maypole before dancing commences.
In Suffolk, it is said that many years ago, the first servant in the great houses who would bring in the Hawthorn would be awarded a bowl of cream.
But we need to be cautious. We greet the new awakening plants with curiosity and respect, like any relationship where we have not made contact for a while…
They, like us, are changed by the winter months. We must move slowly, ask for their consent to dance and gather their abundance. The otherworldly beings, the faeries, will make it known if you do not. There is a lot of folklore and superstitions around Hawthorn. Reported by folklorist Margaret Baker, a farmer in Worcestershire who was so frustrated with people visiting an old, lone Hawthorn tree on his land, cut the tree down. Soon after, he broke his arm, and then his leg and his farm burned down.
May we bow to the knowing beings who are leafing around us at this Beltane.
There is a feeling of emergence in the air at this time. We may or may not be ready for this seasonal shift. If we have been able to rest a little through the winter months beyond the bare minimum, we may be feeling our own energy expanding.
If we have not been able to slow down and take respite in the dark, the returning of the light can feel jarring and discombobulating.
In seasonal, cyclic awareness, we notice the effects of one part of the cycle upon another when it is happening. In the same way we may feel a particularly busy evening the lunchtime afterwards, when our rejuvenation from our night’s rest sort of peters out after a few short hours awake.
In the short term, this is nothing to be too concerned about. We may notice that we need more rest in the summer months and need to accommodate. This is something to notice and keep in mind for the next dip into Autumn, reflecting on how we would like our next turn into the darker, slower months be.
How might we gently reflect on that greater turning now? This is a way of bringing in our cycle awareness, rooted in our actual experience, not what we think we should be doing, to then go on and support us through future turnings.
(1) With all that has been unfolding in the UK in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, as a non-binary human, I couldn’t show up in this long-form INKLINGS and not make space for talking about it, as vulnerable as it is. In the short free version voice note, I speak a little about this, and there is more depth in the full paid subscriber version.
This verbal offering is given in the spirit of generosity and camaraderie with all of life, particularly with trans and gender nonconforming siblings, those who love us and allies.
If you are currently a free subscriber and would like to receive access, you can sign up to be a paid subscriber, and I also offer complimentary subscriptions to folks in financial need, no questions asked.
I will be keeping this space as boundaried as possible, where needed, and welcome interaction, but will be strict about political debate and aggression. I do not wish to debate my existence and the right I have to live my life, and the rights that all trans and gender non-conforming people have to belong.
We are all ever becoming.
Journal Prompts for you.
Pick a couple, a few, or meander through them all. Setting a timer for a few minutes for each and writing freely on the page, without censoring, is a great way of tapping into your INKLINGS at this BELTANE/CALAN MAI time.
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