Celebrating Beltane

and COLLAGE as CREATIVE RESISTANCE

We’ll be playing with Collage in our next session of CREATIVE RESISTANCE!

Collage is an art form created by collecting a variety of bits of paper and gluing them down onto a paper substrate. The word itself comes from the French word for glue: “colle.”

How is making a collage a form of creative resistance? While you could create a collage in many different styles, in our next CREATIVE RESISTANCE session on May 17th at 11:00am eastern, we’ll be channeling our negative energies into a creative piece by tearing stuff up with gusto and smashing it down with glue. Way more energetic!

Whether or not you’ve ever created a collage, you are most welcome to join our creative community on May 17th. You can get the details and sign up here:

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Using clay as catharsis was a smashing success! (“smashing”... did you see what I did there?) After releasing negative energy through smashing, twisting, pulling, and tearing the clay, I invited everyone to drop into the energy of creation. The variety of metaphors incorporated into the pieces was astounding and powerful. The clay pieces will serve as cognitive artifacts of our process of moving energy. That’s an essential tool to have available.

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May flowers for you! by me

Beltane is tomorrow!

Tomorrow is May 1st, the day when many in Celtic Lands will celebrate the fire festival of Beltane. This is the threshold into the Samos or light half of the year, when our outward activity becomes more prominent and the analytical and rational way of proceeding is manifest. Beltane has been celebrated since at least the first century.

The word “Beltane,” sometimes pronounced “Bealtinna” means “sacred flame” and incorporates the element of fire into its celebrations. It is a time of honoring the returning sun and clearing out winter energy.

In Edinburgh Scotland, there is an elaborate street festival including fire, drumming and acrobatics, plus special appearances by the two Beltane celebrities, the May Queen and the Green Man.

According to the Beltane Fire Society, “the May Queen embodies purity, strength and the potential for growth. She is the personification of the energy of the earth.” This central character of Beltane has been called “May Queen,” “Mary Queen of the May,” and “Earth Mother.”

The other main character is the Green Man, symbolizing rebirth, nature, and the cycle of new growth. He is typically depicted with a human face, but with foliage, vines, or leaves sprouting from his mouth or surrounding his features. “The Green Man represents the life that grows on earth. They cannot exist without each other.”

With this turn of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, the Earth is celebrating fertility, flowering and the promise of abundance. Beltane is the midpoint of Spring, as it is halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, but it feels like we have outrun winter at last! Experiencing the rebirth of life in the natural world and the return of the sun is a grand reason to celebrate after the long winter’s darkness.

The Beltane festival celebrates a union of opposite energies: light and dark, male and female, rational and instinctive. Both are allowed to exist, and in their sexual union or Sacred Marriage, the fertility of the land is ensured. We witness this in the fruitfulness and fecundity of all living things. See more at The Celtic Wheel of the Year, by Tess Ward.

Personally, I find the idea of celebrating fertility a bit off-putting at my age when I’ve stopped bearing children. But here’s a twist: We can all celebrate being creatively fertile!

Consider this prompt:

• What does your Creative Source want to bring into fruition in or through you in this new season?

Our creative energies are always inviting us to create something out of nothing; to create something that’s never been seen before. Imagine the possibilities!

How can you cultivate the fertility of your imagination, which provides the fuel for your creative practice?

Here are a few ideas:

• Change up your routine. It may lead to a change in perspective.

• Schedule some down time. Your imagination needs some quiet time and boredom to expand and entertain new possibilities.

• Doodle on the back of an envelope (or anywhere) and capture whatever comes into your imagination, but don’t overthink this. Just think of something and draw a line around it! It’s supposed to be fun.

• Read fiction. It requires your imagination to fill in the details of the fictional people and place in your story.

• Create your own version of the Green Man and the May Queen! There are lots of images on the internet to feed your imagination.

How can you make space for your creative practice to blossom at this time of Beltane?

Sending you Beltane Blessings!