Beltane

The wheel turns and we find ourselves at Beltane again. Beltane is one of my favourite points of the eight fold year. Usually I'd be at Glastonbury, a ritual pilgrimage I've undertaken every year since 1990, other than during the foot and mouth restrictions, being ill once and now two successive years due to Covid. I miss it, the activities of the day and the personal traditions I've created in addition. Still, we're lucky enough to live in a triangle of natural beauty; New Forest, Cranborne Chase and Purbeck...our point of pilgrimage this morning. We arrived atop Creech Barrow Hill, a high point adjacent to the Purbeck Ridge, shortly before sunrise, 30mins or so. The morning was still shrouded in darkness although on the shift, cold though thankfully still, the dawn chorus grander than I've heard in a long time, below, the low surroundings of the harbour and Great Heath flooded with mist...in some ways very reminiscent of the view from Glastonbury Tor you sometimes get. We sat taking in the sights and sounds, connecting, as usual I wondered why I didn't take sunrise more often, it was stunning. Leisurely and subtly the sky began to change as dawn approached and colour seeped in. The colours were muted pastels of warm hues, which grew in intensity the closer we got to sunrise. Although sunrise was not guaranteed, well it was, but whether or not we'd see it wasn't...cloud hung above the horizon. Though the sun was having none of it, it's Beltane after all!  Ever so slowly, feint at first, an orange then growing with intensity a red disk materialized through the cloud, finally the sun rose above the cloud, free, a blazing golden ball...the day was born. Wonderful! Whatever your path, whatever your tradition... Beltane blessings to y'all. Be they held in your heart, planted in the land or maybe something crafted by your hand, in the coming season, may all your dreams find fecundity. /|\