Beltane 2025

Hawthorn blossom is in full flower. Swallows have returned to the skies. Tadpoles are teeming. Every day I walk into the wood I work in more buds have opened, and leaves are filling the space between the deep brown earth and clear blue sky.

The energy we all receive from the sun is rising, the days lengthening.

Beltane is about rapid, external growth, fertility, exuberance, pollination, birth, letting livestock out into fresh pasture. It's about making the most of this wild brilliance, the passion for life, for the new generations, and thus also for those yet to come.

Sometimes it seems like there is a riot of unordered growth but as I look deeper, closer....

Everything I see is incredibly ordered and unfolding according to its plan. Hidden blueprints inspiring life emerge in such beauty and aliveness that tears sometimes come to my eyes as I gaze on the rhythmic, annual expression of life.

I know I am very, very fortunate to live somewhere that has a spring like there is her in England.

For many of us humans there is now a lift in the spirits. I feel joy from the birdsong, bluebell blue and new green.

If Equinox is birth, then Beltane is childhood and so is concerned with exploring, being in your body, playful, curious.

I am feeling invigorated, alive, and also keenly aware I am now not in the spring of my life! Yes, I have motivation to get ‘out there’ and soak up the vibes of intense birdsong and bluebell blue. This year it’s taking more effort, and I'm huffing and puffing up hills on little runs to get some spring back in my step. But having done so… it feels so good to have made the extra effort!

How is this spring for you? Anything new or different in your mind or body this year? How are you being?

I asked this question as part of a Natural Musicians training day in Nottingham the other week. Here's a picture of us using the Cards for Life 'being' deck to connect and reflect on 'how we are being' this spring:

What is progress?

With all the focus on light and new growth, it’s easy to miss the teachings about shadow at this time of the year. As much as there is new life, there is also a lot of death. Just imagine how many mini-beasts the birds are feeding their chicks right now! New growth comes from older patterns. Hard protective cases are dropping to the woodland floor in their millions as soft leaves emerge.

For a simple personal example; the other day I reflected again on how I sometimes show a lack of emotion when meeting or leaving my partner. I think it is probably a ‘defence mechanism’ I put in place at around 9 years old. To show I was grown up enough, and could cope with, the trans-continental journeys I had to make between my divorced parents. And this is affecting my relationships now…and so useful to shed some light on, to remember to be my more emotionally expressive self at times, and show how important, how much I love and value, others I share my life with.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wish I was more full of the joys and sadnesses of spring, free to laugh and cry and express emotion like a child.

Yes, part of adult life and about learning to tame and understand our emotions and express our needs. Humans have always endured stress. But with brains formatted over millions of years, and so many modern stresses and pressures, I wonder if it’s especially hard to keep our hearts open now, and be a true expression of our being? As Ronald Wright who wrote a Short History of Progress says, we are "slaves to progress". And I haven't ever hear that slavery is playful and live!

So is all progress good?

Beltane is a good time to reflect on this.

In my opinion No mow May is an excellent example of positive progress. Stepping away from the idea that short neat single species grass lawns are a sign of wealth and status... towards one of bio-abundance, and living as if the lives of there creatures mater too.

So… long may your grass grow, and may you have a re-natured, energy filled spring, more bugs in the air, birds in the skies, and tears of sadness, wonder and laughter in your eyes.

Until the summer solstice blog,

Warmly,

Chris

PS, I hope you find these blogs useful or at least thought provoking and reflective. If you know anyone who might like to read them, do share. And if you do want to write in response I always read the replies, even if I don't get round to replying