VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4
"We are all one people"
MAY 1995
BELTAINE FIRES:
The Passion of Spring
T THE HEART of f7t the bright half of the Celtic year, is ^  *~ the great May Day fire festival of Beltaine.
At Beltaine, the goddess shakes off her dusky cloak of winter solitude to revel in the vibrant sensuality of spring.
The sidhe mounds open, magic flows unimpeded through the heart of mankind and all of nature shudders deliciously under the heady spell of procre-ative mystery.
Beltaine pays homage to the "Bel-fires" of the proto-Celtic bright god known as Bel or Belenus.
Whitley Strokes wrote in 1862 that the name " Aine," a primary solar deity, is found within the term Beltaine and is preceded by the root "Belt," referring to white, or the white lunar eye. Literally then, the Beltaine festival conjoins lunar and solar, the dark within the light.
Although Ireland is divided into four provinces, Connacht, Ulster, Leinster and Munster, it is supposed that those four are held together by the "territorially elusive" fifth province of Mide.
Beltaine was a time of gathering at the Hill of Uisneach, County Westmeath, the area of this mythical fifth province. On her slopes lies the stone known as "umbilicus hibernia," the navel of Ireland.
The view from Uisneach encompasses landmark summits from 20 counties. As twilight dissolved into darkness of May Eve, a pair of bonfires were lit on the mount of Uisneach. As the flames licked skyward, pairs of beacons, "fire eyes," were lit on surrounding hills and on the coasts, echoing the Mide fire.
Michael Dames writes that the bonfires formed a web of sacred relationships. "The ring of 'real' views was passed, via sight to insight, in a symboi-making process activated by ritual, and thereby turned into myth. In this way, the landmark became, an authentic version of a divine life story, and Eriu breathed again."
Thus, the quality of elemental fire-light and the creation of earthly bonfire eyes united communities with each other and humans with the very essence of divinity.
At its core, Beltaine is a fertility festival where the Maypole dances, searching for nuts in the
CYNTHIA WALLENTINE
woods and "greenwood" marriages were playful expressions of human sexuality.
Garlands of hawthorn, rowan and marsh marigold were carried and draped throughout villages, and annual fairs were the year's first meeting of friends, relatives and merchants after the long winter's confinement.
Beltaine rituals included symbolic sacrifices to the May Queen, driving of cattle between bonfires to ensure the health of the herd and collecting the dew of the May dawn for good luck.
The Queen of May herself was none other than the queen of the fairy folk. A powerful otherworldly figure, she represents the goddess of Ireland, Eriu. The May Queen's lineage stretches back to the mythic Queen of Connacht, Medb or Maeve.
The High Kings of Ireland were wed symbolically to Medb, whose name means "intoxication." Hence, as High King they were wed to the spirit and nature of Ireland.
In everyday life, however, woe betide the mortal who would seek to waylay the May Queen, as she bustled in the hedgerows on her spring rounds.
As the fiery wheel turns again to Beltaine, humanity experiences afresh the re-awakening magic of spring; at once familiar and different with each passing year.
"As above, so below', as the universe, so the soul Welcome Beltaine, the heartbeat of spring
Welcome the light these Bel-fires bring."
FOR A COMPLETE UPDATE ON NORTHERN IRELAND TURN TO PAGES 14 AND 15
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