We are Halfway to Halloween! Annnnd…it’s Beltane!

Which also means it’s less than three days from halfway to my birthday!

For those of you non-witches, you may be wondering what the F Beltane is. But don’t worry, I didn’t even realize it was today. I’m a bad witch.

Or, I’ll just blame it on this time warp named the “stay at home order.” Recalling what day it it is can be hard.

But in reading more about Beltane, I found myself relating:

This holiday is a celebration that honors the divine balance in the union of masculine and feminine. Having reached maturity after their long, wintry separation, Lord and Lady can now come together as one and give birth to new life, ideas, passions, projects, and wonderful expressions of unbridled sensuality.

from Sagegoddess.com: “What is Beltane and how do I celebrate it?”

I haven’t seen my boyfriend Ryan in over 50 days! What a parallel situation to my own life! This Lady and her Lord are totally ready for:

It does seem a little premature since we still have to wait until May 8.

Speaking of premature celebrations, I cluelessly celebrated Beltane yesterday instead of today. I had an urge to get outside and see what I could find in the grass. I carefully curated bark, pinecones, leaves, dead hydrangeas, even a loose fallen lichen (I lichen it so much!)

I have been a collage fiend since the stay at home order, but mostly I used my arsenal of glitter glue with fashion and highfalutin travel magazines I got from my air miles expiring since I can’t afford to travel.

Then one day a friend/former professor Kris had shared these really cool collages made out of natural items. I contemplated making something like that. I doubt my art making abilities a lot so I wasn’t sure I’d do it.

But then somehow I created this:

And this:

I do not look amused. I was happy with it, but the hanging greens were getting mixed with my hanging banana curl.

Witch (spelling mistake intended) turned into this:

I wanted to show my parents what I made, but they are my biggest critics. They heckle me at home constantly.

My dad is a wholesale floral consultant, or a FLORACLE, you could say. He sees it all when it comes to plants, flowers, and…crystal vases?

In other words, he knows a lot about what I can’t grow or keep alive.

I thought he’d look at it and be like “You SUCK-ullent!” But actually, he told me it was EXCELLENT! Then he quipped, “You should work at a florist–oh, they’re all going out of business.”

The last thing I made before retiring to bed surrounded by a pile of sticks and pinecones was this sigil:

For those that don’t know, a sigil is a magickal symbol witches can make for a particular purpose (usually kind of selfish ones)

I really wanted to make a sigil, but never did until last night. I have been trying to force myself to read this autographed copy of a sigil making book, thinking it was the only way I could learn to make sigils. I kept telling myself to read the book and then it became this fearful thing where I kept putting it off. I was forcing myself so hard to only learn them that one way.

So I liberated myself and googled it. This is one method of making a sigil.

When I woke up today, I looked at my calendar and was like, is it really May?

Waking up today like this.

I immediately checked facebook while on the toilet.

First I saw: oh hey, it’s Beltane! Then I saw: Oh it’s half-o-ween! (Which honestly I have never heard of before. I wonder if that was someone’s best quarantine contribution).

So Beltane is kind of a pagan holiday that celebrates the end of winter hibernation and embracing the coming of Summer luvin. It’s recommended that you work with plants and get out and enjoy the outdoors. Maybe even naked. Probably not a good idea unless you live in an unpopulated forest like this:

Photo by Zack Melhus on Pexels.com. I am pretty sure this is a miniature house and landscape and not really my dream house.

But yesterday my subconscious mind was like, “Get outside you fool! Soon it is Beltane and you will have nothing to show for it! Pick up the remains of wintery plants so you can make beautiful art out of them!” I guess my subconscious mind didn’t want me to be like a kid who rushes to do his homework in homeroom.

I also want to note that Beltane/May Day/Half-o-Ween is also International Workers’ day. I hope my sigil helps the essential workers. I’m going to make another one too for the workers who have lost their jobs or are furloughed (like me, because how else would I be writing in this blog so much otherwise?)

Finally, I want you to remember that Halloween may be everyday for us gothy folx, but the Halloween most people know of is in danger. So please: