Beltaine 2011

Planting petunias for the take way

We had a really lovely Beltaine this year. Spring hadn't sprung quite as much as in most years, but the weather was perfect, we had really good attendance and everything just clicked really well. The Deity of the occasion was Medb, as it has been for the past several years. Before the rite we decorated pots and planted petunias in them for our take away blessing. The altar was a little more sparse this year, and I realized we don't have Medb's crown anymore! We will have to make a new one for next year, but at least we had room for everything this time!

Beltaine Altar

The Gatekeeper was Mannanan Mac Lir as usual but the for Bardic Chris did something a little different, he did invoke Shakespeare but also Brighid and Puck; Bardic inspiration from the Gods, Ancestors and the Nature Spirits. We did a bit of the literary Beltaine again with my poetically enhanced version of the Cosmic Order. We used Jacks new Triads for the Kindred Offerings but did not use Shakespeare's Queen Mab speech as an invocation this year, but I did write one as promised. One of the things I focused on and one of the the things I like about Medb is She has aspects of each of the three Kindreds, She has been known as a Sovereignty Goddess, the mortal (if mythical) Queen of Connacht, and the later the Queen of the Faeries. Which made Chris' Bardic invovation a nice tie-in. :)

Flowers for the Sacrifice

For the Sacrifice Jack and Chris brought fresh flowers from their garden and of course we did not forget the booze and a bottle of Peche Lambic was sacrificed as well (We learned our lesson!) Janet Berres attended again and as she is Queen of Tarot, she pulled the Omen. The offering was accepted and Chris prepared the delicious orange cupcakes Jack baked and some of the Lambic and pomegranate juice for the return Blessing. We nom nomed the cupcakes and Lambic and since Chris brought a bunch of bottles of bubbles, we (okay me) became 5 years old again and blew lots of bubbles much to the amusement of our Otherwordly guests I am sure! We then ended the rite and unfortunately had to leave almost right away because I had to get to work. We missed going to see the frogs and toads at the vernal pools this year which kind of made me sad. I am hoping there may be some left when we go back to Thatcher Woods for Summer Solstice! (Which as I look at the clock is in about 9 hours from now!)

Speaking of High Days, I have added a link to the website for RSVPing to High Days and Wild Onion events. There is a drop down menu to specify what event you are planning to attend and a place to put some contact info in case we have to change venue due to weather etc. I am hoping this makes communication easier in case of last minute changes and will help towards not leaving people stranded. It also helps us know how much food/beverage and take-away blessings to bring! Thanks and hope everyone has a blessed Solstice :)

Beltaine planning and crafting

Méabh, Beltaine Altar 2010

This past weekend some of the Onions had a crafting day and Beltaine planning meeting. The planning was quick and easy, Méabh will be the Deity of the Occasion again this year (yay!) I will write the Invocation, and probably resurrect the Well, Fire and Tree from last year, Jack will write the Triads and make something for the Sacrifice, we are giving bouquets of herbs and flowers for the take away (and I have some ideas to add small prayers or something to them, I'll have to let that bubble away for a bit) and it will be in the Forest Preserve, the first High Day of the year to be outside (here's hoping the weather improves before then!) We didn't actually establish the Gatekeeper or the Bardic Deities but it will probably be Manannán Mac Lir and Brighid. This will be our third year invoking Méabh at Beltaine so it should go well as we have forged a good connection with Her.

The preliminary drawing

Crafting took up most of the day. The Artisans Guild of ADF started a quilt with blocks for all the Groves, Guilds, Kins, and SIGs in the org. We finally got around to starting the Wild Onion block and it will hopefully make it onto the quilt before Wellspring! The idea for our block was to have Chicago rising up out of a garden (the city's motto is "Urbs in Horto" or "City in a Garden") and have Lake Michigan present and have representations of the State flower (Violet), bird (Cardinal), and tree (White Oak), as well as Wild Onions of course! (For those of you who did not know, the name Chicago derives from the Miami-Illinois word for Wild Onions which grow along the river) The swoosh is either wind (for the Windy City) or the Chicago River we sort of left that open to interpretation. Now we aren't seamsters really so the idea was to print the image onto cotton fabric and then paint the scene upon it, then embellish it with a Cardinal button, and some embroidery and seed beads for the climbing vines.

A work in progress...

So we got most of the painting done, just a few details to be added, and some areas refined, but then the Cardinal will be sewed on (he is just resting there for the picture) and the vines need to be embroidered. It will then be cut out and surrounded by a light green ribbon and mounted on a hunter green background. You can't tell from the photo but the onions are pearlized and the lake has micro fine blue glitter in it and the swoosh has both. We were going to use tiny flower buttons for the violets but they didn't look right so we may just leave them painted or use some ribbon or something. I might repaint the title as it isn't very even and I am not happy with it.

Anyway I think it turned out pretty well and we are all pleased to finally get it started! Looking forward to writing some liturgy and celebrating in the great outdoors before the mosquitoes set in! Hope everyone has a great Beltaine! :)