Fire of Creation

It is Beltane Eve. I've set up an altar in my living room complete with a red-ish altar cloth and tree of life plate with a small pine on it. I have the wand I wove many Beltanes ago as well as all the elemental and moon and sun symbols. There are daffodils in the yard that I may bring inside to adorn the altar tomorrow morning. We'll see. I rather like the happy yellow in the yard right now. I used an incense just now to make the house smell good and to cleanse the space. I find it somewhat comforting and exciting to have our home prepped for summer. Goodness knows we here in the white north are ready to say good bye to winter.

 That's right Goat, enjoy the green.

I've always been drawn to Beltane since I began studying Paganism and Wicca. Having been raised Catholic and told that masturbation and sex outside marriage was a sin, I found it refreshing that a spiritual path recognized that sex was vital to our existence and something to be celebrated. I've never felt drawn to procreation as dictated by the Church, but I have felt the passions rise and demand my attention and participation. I felt free to acknowledge my own sexuality and inhibitions on this holy day. After all, look where denying sexual urges has gotten the Church.

Nothing but trouble, right Tarsier? But they should just handle that decades long indiscretion themselves and not acknowledge forced celibacy as a problem. 

Beltane is a fire sabbat. Traditional gatherings would do things like bonfires and have cattle jump it to protect them. Or, humans could jump the fire. I'd be fearful of catching a robe on fire, but I suppose skyclad solves that particular concern if you have a climate and private location for such activity. I tend to just start a small fire in my cauldron as a fire in the backyard is usually too chilly still for my comfort. I long for the huge bonfire celebration though. My friends held one at one member's property out of town and everyone was welcome to sleep in tents on the land. They were not only having their fire, they also had the dancing, which I love of course. Unfortunately, I had another Benlysta treatment and sleeping in the cold on the ground did not appeal this time around.  I see the fire though as a recharging of the earth's creative energy and therefore essential to this sabbat.

If only Beltane was next weekend, a fire outside would totally happen with the warmer temperatures. Alas!

Speaking of fire, I've been reading Michio Kaku's book Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos.  Seems appropriate reading material for this time of year. The earth warms, the sun shines longer, the flowers begin again, and the little ones appear in nature. The gooslings for example have arrived along the river. Yes, I know the proper term is gosling, but I've called them gooslings for a long time now. Go with it. The Pope even recognized that the Big Bang happened. Of course, he believes that God clapped his hands or some such event and the Universe experienced the bang that set things in motion. He did say God didn't wave a magic wand. Interesting distancing from magic there, Popey. Whatever. I also saw one of the women who went to school with my sister comment on that post that she sees the connection between science and the natural world as the greatest symbol of God's hand in creation.

I know, Chuck. I do appreciate your portrayal as a reluctant schmuck in a bathrobe struggling to write the path of the universe though.

To be clear, the Big Bang does not require a creator. A creator is a human construct. I've heard a lot of scientists who reconcile their faith this way. However, that makes no sense to me. If we truly accept the Big Bang and its subsequent revelations, we no longer have need of a creator. Yes, I include the Lady and the Lord, the Mother Goddess and Father God, the Moon Goddess and Sun God--whatever name you give them, they aren't essential to the beginnings of life on this planet. The moon and sun though are. The moon gives us tides and the sun keeps us warm so life keeps going. That balances life and seems important to acknowledge in the grand scheme of universe and cosmology. The universe began in fire and may end there as well as Robert Frost said, or it may well end in ice. What won't happen though is some deity coming down and smiting us all only to restart the universe. It makes for good fiction, but the force and beauty of creation and its destructive force to immolate creation does not mean a creator is pulling the strings waiting for just the right moment to torch things and try again.

Besides, with the current administration's denial of global warming, who needs a deity to destroy things? We can do it ourselves.

I will celebrate the spark that gave our universe life, but I will not name the Goddess or the God. I don't believe in them, which according to D. J. Conway and others makes me "not yet fully and truly a Witch" (reference my previous post). It does make me "Witch material" and a Pagan. I'm ok with that. My spirituality is mine and mine alone. I will use the fire of creation to focus my personal festival. I can appreciate, revel, and commune with the natural forces of the summer while acknowledging the Big Bang origins without feeling conflict. Right now, I think I'll read my book, perhaps watch a documentary on cosmology, and be grateful I'm part of all creation.

Enjoy Beltane your way, Moose.