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Beltaine Tarot Blog Hop: A Union of Opposites
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Welcome to the Bealteine 2014 Blog Hop!
Perhaps you are joining me from Arwen’s blog. When you finish here, please continue the hop by visiting Joy Vernon’s blog. If you find a break in the chain, our wrangler, Aisling, has the Master List for you.
Blessed Beltaine to you! Today, in the northern hemisphere, we celebrate the cross-quarter day between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. At this time of year we gather together to leap the belfire, drink from the maybowl and dance the maypole.
Our wrangler, Aisling, has identified Major Arcana 6, the Lovers, as a tarot card often associated with the lusty festivals of fertility celebrated at this time of year.
In modern times, many readers associate the Lovers with passion and romance. Aisling reminds us that there are older traditions for this card which discus the Lovers as a union of opposites.
I like to think of the Lovers in this way. In the Rider-Waite-Smith image, the man gazes at the woman, but the woman gazes at the angel. One focuses on the physical, the other, on the spiritual. The push-pull yin-yang energy of this card speaks to me of the reality of what it is to maintain a relationship.
The Lovers is typically associated with the astrological sign of Gemini, and therefore the element of Air. Not Water, for romance, nor Fire, for passion, but Air.
The union of opposing forces is created through the force of reason and logic.
There is power, too, in the union of opposites. This is a theme we see in a few Major Arcana cards.
As I think of the Major Arcana cards I might associate with this theme other than the Lovers, three come to mind.
The steeds in the Chariot, be they the black and white sphinx in the Waite image or the zebra-fish creatures of World Spirit Tarot, show the union of opposites in action.
Strength shows a union between the fierce, wild lion and the gentle, loving woman.
Temperance, the card of art, time and alchemy, shows the making of a perfect solution from imperfect parts.
For a few years now I have been working on my 78 Poems Project. That is, one poem (not necessarily a good poem, mind you) for each of the 78 Rider Waite Smith cards.
As it turns out, I had already written poems for these three cards. And, in each poem, I had written something that now seems pertinent to our discussion about the union of opposites.
As I think about these cards I am struck with an idea. In bringing opposites together in harmony we create something both peaceful and powerful. At this time on our planet there are opposing forces seemingly unable to compromise or work together. In these tarot images we find the wisdom the world needs to move forward in peace.
On this Beltaine I send the power of the Lovers, the Chariot, Strength and Temperance to embrace the world in a new balance, a new cooperation and a new way forward, through the power we find in the union of opposites.
The Chariot
Opposites in union pull forward
Directed not by hand but by will.
The power of myth and the power of mind
The hero is traveling still.
Transportation and transformation
A singular vision and quest.
The warrior speeds commanding his steeds
Envisioning total success.
Swift motion and great calculation
Under the cover of stars.
Mastery conquering mystery
Whether ordeals or journeys or cars.
Strength
As water with patience carves into stone
So do hearts carve one on the other.
And when nature battles civility
New friends are drawn together.
Each has more reason to fear than to love
The dangers beckon, not understated.
This war is waged not with bullets but blooms
And fine compassion, communicated.
The gentle maiden must be of mind fierce.
She has enraptured a fierce jungle king.
The beast submits not by violence but choice
To a union of forces opposing.
Strength then is found not in warfare or blood
Nor in doctrine nor laws to rely on.
True strength is found in faith and control
With your hand in the mouth of a lion.
Temperance
Water poured from cup to cup, and metal turned to gold
Sorrow turned to patience, and ego turned to mold.
One foot on the water, another balancing on land
Not a drop is spilt by the angel's gentle hand.
Caution guards the recipe, stirring grace with balance
Art and time make alchemy with these select ingredients.
Change forged of disappointment, mingling with hope
Built on tragic lessons learned that gave us skill to cope.
Expectation and assumption gone, accepting what will be
Still the angel blends the cups, creating perfectly.
Perfect are the cups' contents, and perfect is the measure
And perfect are the woes and joys, blended into treasure.
Now it’s time to hop over to Joy Vernon’s blog. Or, if you are working backwards, visit Arwen’s blog. If you find a break in the chain, our wrangler, Aisling, has the Master List for you.
Maypoles I Have Known and Loved
Beltane (May 1) conjures a lot of memories for me. Because it is a spring celebration and there are so many fun Beltane traditions it is typical to celebrate the holiday with other people, even if you tend to celebrate other turns of the Wheel more privately.
My first Beltane gathering was also the first time I acted as priestess for a large group. I didn’t priestess the Maypole, but I did perform a handfasting at the day-long event.
This gathering happened at Devil’s Hopyard in Connecticut in the 1980s. It was the first time I had ever seen a Maypole.
Well, I had seen pictures of schoolchildren dancing the maypole. Discovering the maypole as a fertility rite was quite a different matter!
A few years later I was honored to be priestess at a Beltane celebration at a private home. I’m afraid that the pole was a bit short and the hole was a bit shallow. I ended up sitting on the ground and stabilizing the pole during the dance. The energy of that was amazing – to be sitting in that vortex of fertility and creativity.
I ended up having to do that same thing a few years later at a Beltane Tarot Circle meeting. A member had made a beautiful maypole out of a coatrack.
One year I rented a conference room in a hotel and we used a maypole in a Christmas tree stand. Our ritual honored the four elements. We had ribbons colors for each element and each person had to dance with a ribbon that honored the element they most needed to bring into their lives.
My son was born in early May. After he came along our Beltane celebration would often include a birthday celebration for him.
When he was three we gathered at Kettletown State Park in Connecticut. We had a wonderful day with our kids, dogs and guitars. Our huge maypole was a multi-colored extravaganza as we laughed and danced. Ultimately we ran around the maypole until we were dizzy.
In another field in the same park we found a solemn group of Wiccans with their own Maypole wrapped precisely with black and white ribbons. We were all dressed in tied-dyes and colorful prints. They were in somber black robes.
It was nice to see other folks enjoying their traditions in the same park, and nice to see how each group expressed the magick of Beltane – so differently in some ways and so much the same in others.
I was lucky to be a presenter at a large Beltane festival in Connecticut. There we danced a thirty foot maypole to the tune of renaissance instruments.
The following year at the same festival I led the women in digging the hole. I wrote a chant for the occasion.
We prepare the Earth
With reverence and mirth
It’s the season of rebirth
It’s Beltane!
I’ve used that chant every year since.
I led a much smaller skylad Beltane two years in a row. The second year we created a chant for the men as they fetch the pole.
We prepare the pole
with reverence and soul
rebirth is our goal
It’s Beltane.
That year I learned that it can be a problem to use streamers as ribbons. The first year it wasn’t humid at all and the (inexpensive) crepe streamers worked well. The second year the crepe was soggy. Many of the ribbons ripped. That was probably the least successful maypole of my life.
Last year I did a small maypole with a group of women. It is interesting how the Beltane energy is expressed in sisterspace.
This year the Beltane season has brought us a lovely new home. I am already scoping out where to put the maypole for next year.
If there is one thing I have learned over the years it’s this. There is no one right way to do things. Some ways work out better than others. At the end of the day it’s not about the size of the pole or the perfection of the dance. The celebration of spring, renewal and fertility is all that matters. In that way, and in many others, the maypole is a wonderful analogy for life.
Beltane for All!
We celebrate Beltane (Beltaine) on or around the first day of May. Beltane is the Pagan holiday of fertility. Its rituals include dancing the Maypole, jumping the Belfire, crowning a May King and Queen and drinking from the Maybowl.
Beltane celebrates the union of masculine and feminine. That is not to say that it is specifically a holiday for the heterosexual, or for those who are actively partnered. Although it is the holiday of fertility, its magick is not reserved only for those who wish to have children.
The message of Beltane is integration. Just as the ribbons of the Maypole entwine with each other, so must we weave the different aspects of ourselves together to create a productive whole.
Within each of us is yin and yang, passive and aggressive, creative and analytical. If we can meld these aspects together, we are able to live in balance. From that balanced place, we are fertile. The fertility we seek may be about generating health, energy, money, art or any other creation we desire.
The Charge of the Goddess expresses both the joy of Beltane and the union of opposites.
"Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.
Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you."
The importance of this integration is clear throughout the lessons inherent in tarot. So many Major Arcana cards speak of integration, including the High Priestess, the Lovers, the Chariot, Temperance and the World. The four suits of the Minor Arcana point the way to integration as well, with Air and Fire as the masculine energies, Earth, and Water as the feminine.
With the springtime, we celebrate new hope, new possibilities and new beginnings. At Beltane, we joyfully own all that we are, and weave it together to create that which we desire.