Welcome to Mark Winter, a respected authority on eastern philosophies
and the New Age. Mark, a long-time friend of Jonathan, will examine a very wide variety of New Age subjects each week on this page.
Archive for Wednesday
30th April 2003 - Spring festival
The rampant power of nature reaches its peak tonight, according
to ancient Celtic folklore. This time of abundance, celebrated
for over 2,000 years as Beltaine, the spring cross-quarter festival,
is not only a time of fertility, but of potency when prayers
and messages of love for a better world can be most effective.
Expert on ancient lore, Glennie Kindred says: It is a time to
be in touch with instinctive wild forces, to be aware of the power
of the life-force on the physical and mystical levels. At this
time in the annual cycle, love and prayers are at their most powerful.
The Church overlaid May Day celebrations over Beltaine to prevent
wild nights in the woods, typical of the ancient festivities,
according to Kindred. But the ancient symbolism of the festival
was not altogether lost, the maypole blends both male and female
energies. And the face of the Green Man, the spirit of nature,
is still well known. The Virgin Mary, as the pure May Queen, has,
however, taken over from the Horned God, Herne the Hunter, the
untameable instinctive man of the forest. At Beltaine he was said
to have transformed into a white stag to chase the fertile earth
goddess. Memory of this ancient holiday lives on: in Oxford, for
example, the dawning of May Day is celebrated most notably by
the choir atop the Great Tower of Magdalen College. It is the
perfect time to connect to the spirit of nature.
Mark Winter
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