As Earth’s tilt moves us into the Seasons of Samhain and Beltaine – as they are commonly named in Old European traditions, the dark part of the day continues to grow and dominate in the Southern Hemisphere, and the light part of the day continues to grow and dominate in the Northern Hemisphere. The actual Moment, which is the midpoint between Equinox and Solstice, is May 4^th23:00 UTC – that’s May 5^th 9:00 EST Australia where I am. All global times can be found at archaeoastronomy.com

In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn: a time for remembering those who have passed into the night, the ancestors, which may include all beings, and our old selves – we may remember that there is nothing we have not been. As last Summer’s growth, and perhaps much of all that has been, passes and de-composes, and the dark part of the day waxes, it may be a time for embracing the dark and the not-knowing. It may be a time for allowing the space in which the new may be conceived. Within this rich dark space empty of the past, new re-solutions may emerge: surely appropriate in these times. Samhain may be a Moment for celebration of the transformative fertile power of the dark: which may include the comfort and rest it may bring, as well as the breakdown and composting of the past. The Dark is the ground of being, and is a sentient fertility rich with possibility, in which the new may be composed/conceived.

In the Northern Hemisphere it is the Season of Beltaine/High Spring: a time for remembering the beauty and allurement of the dance of life, for passionate engagement with it – we may remember the holiness of essential deep desire itself, which brings forth all things. As the light part of the day waxes, it may be a time of receiving the power of our Mother Sun’s radiance, which becomes more apparent in the garden and everywhere. It may be a time for entering new relationship with this place in which we are: surely needed in these times. Within this sensual light filled space we may awaken to relational connections of all kinds. Beltaine may be a Moment for celebration of the alluring fertile power of the light: the warmth received, the abundant manifestation of perfumed flowers, fruits and beauty, the diverse colour wavelengths received into eyes,^[i] and the creative nature of the passion enkindled.  Desire, deeply felt and expressed multivalently, is worthy of much contemplation: nothing happens without it. 

Samhain and Beltaine are essential to each other – one cannot be without the other. They do occur at the same time: that is, they are co-incidental. Knowing a sense of death, the knowing of the passing of all, is intimate with appreciation of the moment of now – its gift and its beauty. Life is built on death: it has taken everything to get to this moment. Death is actually the Mother of us all. We may remember that we are united with all who have come before us, in their desire, in their longing: we share this with all. We may sense the wholeness of form and trans-form, the flux and unity that this event of life actually is. Both of these Seasonal Moments have traditionally often been times of celebrating a wild fertile space – one a genetic fertility, the other a trans-genetic/imaginal fertility. It could be a kind of excitement felt in bodyminds in anticipation of the fullness of dark or light, the climax, as it will be at Solstice – Winter and Summer. In the evolutionary story the advent of meiotic sex is connected to the advent of death:^[ii] there is intimate connection. 

For some Samhain Poetry: PaGaian Samhain on YouTube

For some Beltaine Poetry: PaGaian Beltaine in YouTube

Many will celebrate the Moment on traditional dates, and yet others will enjoy it closer to the actual astronomical moment. At my place in Wakka Wakka country Australia, my partner and I will share Samhain ceremony with others on the 5th May, close to the Moment. I invite and invoke celebration in this way:

Earth’s tilt leans us further into the dark – this is the time for conceiving the new …

You are invited to celebrate


SAMHAIN


In this moment, between the old and the new,


all is possible.

The veil is thin that divides the worlds.


We remember the dead, let go of the past,


conceive the Not-Yet.


We remember that we are more, much more.


We meet to trans-form yet again,


in the womb of the Dark Shining One,


of our own bodyminds.

…oOo…

PaGaian Cosmology blogs for Samhain/Deep Autumn

PaGaian Cosmology blogs for Beltaine/High Spring

Some Samhain and Beltaine story, and offered ceremonial scripts may be found in Chapter 4 and 8 of my new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony (2023) respectively. Some story is also in Appendix F of PaGaian Cosmology (2005). These Seasonal Moments in relationship to the whole Wheel of the Year may be found in Chapter 2 of A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos, and also Chapter 5 of PaGaian Cosmology. 

You may find the Samhain/Deep Autumn and Beltaine/High Spring tracks on PaGaian Cosmology Meditations CDs useful for ceremonial purpose – available for purchase individually in digital format. 

To be on the PaGaian Cosmology Seasonal list (for both hemsipheres) please contact me.

Blissed Samhain/Beltaine transition to you.

NOTES:

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^[i] See Laura Sewall, “Earth, Eros, Sky” in Earthlight, Winter 2000, for more on this. 

^[ii] See Elisabet Sahtouris, Earthdance, p.134-135, and Ursula Goodenough, The Sacred Depths of Nature, p.143-149. More can be made of this link between these Seasonal Moments: orgasm has been termed “a little death” in French.