The Pink Beltane Full Moon

On April 29, at 5:57pm, Pacific time. We are blessed with a Full Moon at 9 degrees Scorpio, conjunct expansive Jupiter. What a rich treat!

The Goddess is Alive and Magic is Afoot, artist unknown

It bleeds and blends seamlessly into the closely following Beltane eve. Beltane is a pagan, cross-quarter day, that is celebrated with bonfires and revelry from dusk til dawn followed by weaving a Maypole on May 1.

Papercuts Scherenschnitte Collage

The Maypole symbolizes the phallus of the Great Horned God, the Green-man of nature, and the ribbons that wrap it up tight are her Ladyship, the Great Goddess's lady-parts.

Traditionally all fires in the community were put out and a special fire was lit from the 9 sacred woods, specially gathered for the Beltane bonfire. Birch, rowan, ash, willow, hawthorn, alder, oak, holly, and hazel.

"This was the Tein-eigen, the need fire. People jumped the fire to purify, cleanse and to bring fertility. Couples jumped the fire together to pledge themselves to each other. Cattle and other animals were driven through the smoke as a protection from disease and to bring fertility. At the end of the evening, the villagers would take some of the Teineigen to start their fires anew."

-Glennie Kindred.

constantcontact.com

This is the traditional first day of summer. Planting was to be finished by this date and farm workers often got the day off. This day was never quite as appropriated by the Church to the degree that the other cross-quarter days were, thus it still feels its pagan taproots to run quite deeply.

A King and Queen of the May are annually chosen in Beltane celebrations that continue to this day. The images below are from Scotland and are modern.

The Queen of the May

The King and Queen of the Beltane celebration in Edinburgh, Scotland 2010, artist unknown

On Beltane eve it was magically and traditionally the custom to chose someone besides your partner with whom to perform the Sacred Marriage, or Hieros Gamos. There was a relaxing of sexual fidelity. The tradition was to go and lay in the newly plowed and planted furrows, in the fields, using the sympathetic magic of passion and fertility to encourage the crops to grow and thrive through suggestion and example. Osmotic passion and heat from all the rolling around and such. When children were conceived under the Beltane rites, the children were welcomed and wanted and had their own special destiny. King Arthur is said to have been of Beltane conception.

This is the night of the Greenwood Marriage that lasts from sunset to sunset.

On May Eve the sexuality of life and the earth is at its peak, all of life is bursting with potent, abundant, Taurean fertility. It's as fecund as it gets and birds, bees and humans alike are all awash with desire to have a sexy encounter.

The blooming of the hawthorne tree in the north has long marked this holy day and may be brought inside to place on your altar, along with fresh milk or cream, as an offering for the faeries and magic in general.

Vintage hawthorn botanical illustration from pintrest.com

Beltane is the cross-quarter day polar to Hallow's Eve. As Beltane is the gateway into summer in the north, winter in the south, Halloween is the gateway into winter in the north, summer in the south. On both of these nights the veil between the world is very thin, meaning that the faerie realm commingles with our world easily on these magical nights.

Loreena McKennit's, All Soul's Night. This song and video captures the essence and spirit of Beltane Eve/Hallow's Eve axis.

Finnish aurora, artist unknown

Some ways to work with this Full Scorpio Moon,

called Pink Moon,

Sprouting Grass Moon,

Egg Moon and

Fish Moon are:

Art by BirchBliss on Etsy

Do a Ribbon Spell

Write your prayers and invocation on long, colorful, ribbons and tie them to the branches of a tree, with tiny bells at the end and Zephyr the west wind will send your prayers to the heavens.

Craig Photography

Or.....

Magic with Flowers.

The following is handed down from a 13th century Italian witch.

By Air

Write a spell and keep it under the flower's cup until it has blossomed; or keep the flower by your bedside, and as you fall asleep, ask its spirit to show you an answer to your query, a way out of a situation.

By Fire

Burn the essence of the flower, or let a candle burn continuously (safely) until the blossoms you have placed next to it open.

By Water

Let the flower's petals steep in a glass of well water or spring water, under the full moon, for a whole night. Drink the water mixed with dew on May Day morning, while calling in the powers.

By Earth

Plant a seed in a little pot, giving it the desire, or purpose you want it to accomplish. When the plant is ready, the wish is granted.

Image from Botanicaetcetera.com

This Full MOON also features CHIRON at the Aries Point (0 degrees ARIES).

"Centaur Kiss" by George Leonnec, 1924

CHIRON was an incredible teacher and healer. Unlike other centaurs CHIRON was the child of a god (Saturn) and an extra special water nymph.

Among his many students were:

Asclepius, the great god of medicine

Artist unknown

Aristaeus, inventor of beekeeping

Bee Goddess by Q. Cassetti

Achilles the greatest warrior of the Iliad

Image from greekmythology.com

and Dionysus the god of wine, fertility, madness, and divine ecstasy.

Jim Morrison, artist unknown

CHIRON was credited with the discovery of botany, pharmacy, the science of herbs and medicine. As you can see, he is quite the teacher. His students show his true mastery on nearly every level. How lucky we are to have his watchful gaze.

In ARIES his lessons will surround the concept of the spiritual or divine warrior. How we can learn to fight against injustice and for just causes. How can we find allies instead of enemies.

He is here to help us in our quest to heal the "toxic masculinity of an uninitiated MARS", as Caroline Casey says.

Just as this transit has begun, North Korea and South Korea have agreed to bury the hatchet. Not bad work for your first couple of weeks, CHIRON. Things are certainly feeling better than they were at the New MOON with the bombing of Syria.

Image from BBC.com

CHIRON travels a highly eccentric orbit between SATURN and URANUS and is what Caroline Casey calls, “the Maverick Healer”.

His medicine is in is accepting our wound, our human mortality and then proceeding to thrive in the ways that mortality allows, to be wise teachers and mentors for others as we go.

Chiron in our natal charts points to where we have healing powers as the result of our own deep wounds. If we work hard to overcome our wound, the gained healing powers are potent. Look to your chart to see what house is ruled by ARIES to know where CHIRON will begin to work for the next 7 years.

Ask me if you don't know how to find him in your chart.

All in all, this is a very juicy Full MOON. There is only one SCORPIO Full MOON each year, Beltane happens only once a year, and Jupiter is only in SCORPIO once every 12 years. These 3 lining up so closely are very powerful, it's a very fertile time.

If you want to get pregnant now, great! If not, be careful! What in your life would you like to fertilize with the incredibly abundant natural pollen of life? It is available now!

Pine pollen from architeschner on IG

It's a good time to take a big bite of something yummy.

Make that a part of your Full Moon, Beltane celebrations.

Image from the MetaPicture

This TAURUS SUN, SCORPIO Full MOON opposition is also squaring the AQUARIUS LEO NODES, activating this Full MOON portal to an even greater degree. There is a great deal of physical, sexual, mental and creative energy available to be downloaded now, represented by this fixed cross.

And lastly in planetary updates, the most noteworthy aspect of the last week,

MARS (desire, anger, energy, violence, eros, war) and

PLUTO (death, taboo, obsession, rebirth) have been together in

CAPRICORN (structure, the 'out of alignment empire' we are all living under).

MARS has finally cleared PLUTO and gets to keep right on truckin' on its own (though we know we are soon entering a MARS retrograde starting after Summer Solstice). The bubbling magma that is PLUTO is both intensely inflammatory as well as deeply cleansing to MARS.

This has been like MARS having a nighttime medicine journey in the jungle, as preparation for his coming retrograde, which will be a different, AQUARIAN flavored, type of medicine journey. MARS in CAPRICORN has been in sync with SATURN and then PLUTO since mid-March so this rocket booster detachment that MARS has just done is quite a relief.