Bealtaine: Lighting the Fire of our Imaginal Potential

Plus a special downloadable Bealtine Guide and playlist.

Hello all,

And to those new here, a very warm welcome too. Feel free to come and introduce yourself here.

Today on The Wild Edge, I am bringing you some reflections on the threshold in the Celtic Calendar of Bealtine. This is a time of bloom and becoming, a time we are invited into our own authentic creative imagination too. In the post, open to all, I share a little more about the symbolism and mythology around Bealtine, and specifically about Uisneach, ‘the navel of Ireland’, where a symbolic stone with immense potentialities, awaits a mythic encounter.

My illustrations to accompany Bealtaine are lead by the Pine Marten, who right about now is emerging for wintering dens to breed. It too has a magical biological capacity within its own breeding cycle, which also feels fitting. More below!

I hope you enjoy, and if you’d like more, for paid subscribers, I’ve created a downloadable guide, with prompts, reflections, a creative practice and a playlist.

Also a reminder that I am hosting a special Bealtaine Salon with poetry, journalling, story and seasonal creative ritual this coming Friday 2 May.

Thank you. And Bealtaine Blessings to you all.

Clare x

Bealtaine: Lighting the Fire of our Imaginal Potential.

Sitting on the rocks at high tide, the water is luscious and full. Threads of sea-pinks lace the shore with delicate, still unfurling bloom. By now, the blackthorn has come into leaf — a green so rich with green, and the canopies are growing in fullness too, soon shading out the early blankets of bluebells and primrose. The great greening is upon us.

There are moments in the cycle of the seasons when the transition from one phase to another moves through a slight pause. Bealtaine, or May Day, the start of summer (Samhradh), is one such threshold. The seeding has been done, and we await the big bloom and later harvest. For now, we welcome and bless the quickening and swell in the land, and alongside it, we our invited into our own blossoming too.

We are now at the mid-point in the Celtic calendar. Starting at Samhain, at the end of October, we have traversed the dark cycle of the year. There, the invitations were for release into the dark, deep rest, and a surrender to the unknown. Crossing Winter Solstice, the invitation led us into Celtic dreamtime — a practice of inner listening to the authentic stirrings within. At Imbolc, or early February we were awakening to the potentiality of seed, and by Spring Equinox, we were being called slowly out, to find our footing on solid ground, balanced and strengthen. But now, as we leave the dark cycle of the year, Bealtaine is the doorway to the light. It brings with it the energy of the initiate, with freshness and a readiness for growth. This is the time if ever there was the time.

Yet, with every transition, there can also come resistance. At Bealtaine, our fears, doubts, uncertainties can rise in us. Am I fit for the challenge? Am I actually ready? Those niggling voices can be persistent. But we can never be fully ready. What we have instead is to trust; like the natural world around us, we too must yield to the quickening. We must, in that sense, meet what I call, our Bealtaine moment.

It comes in every project, whatever its scope or scale: stay in the formless, or come into form. It is the convergent phase of the design cycle, where decisions must be made, and ideas be made manifest beyond the dreamworld and into the real world. It can been safe to stay in the dark, to remain in the spell of Samhain or the deep rest of Solstice. But just as the dark is essential to any creative process, so too is this transition to the light, as nature so readily and fruitfully demonstrates. The trees must risk their bud to bloom, the bird must risk its branch for the sky. No blossoming, nor flight, can come before the leap of a Bealtaine moment: to dare, to let go, to fly.

Alongside Bealtine’s relationship to the creative cycle, I have been thinking about the archeology and mythology around the season too, and its relevance for this moment we are in collectively,

Here I find myself thinking, and totally intrigued with the ancient site of Uisneach.

Located geographically at the centre of Ireland, in Co. Meath, Uisneach also resides centrally in the Celtic mythic mind. Here, layers of archeological, mythological and historical records overlap.

Geographically, it is primely located on a rise, from which, on a clear day, twenty counties of Ireland are said to be visible. (I have only ever been there on drizzly days, so I will have to revert to the lore as confirmation!) - a prefect spot however for both defence and proclamation. Ceremonially, it was here where the Goddess Eiru, after whom Ireland is named (Eire), and the sun God, Lugh, were said to come into wholeness, or sacred union. Eiru, now said to be buried at Uisneach, represents feminine sovereignty and right relationship with the land, and Lugh, God King of the Tuatha de Dannann, (an ancient clan of pre-christian deities) representing clarity and craftsmanship, bring the forces of matter and spirit, masculine and feminine together.

Uisneach became a central site for the festival celebration of Bealtaine, (the Dail Mór Uisneach), at the start of the summer, a tradition which has been revived in recent years. On May Day eve, the Uisneach fire is traditionally light, from which additional fires are kindled- the fire to spur growth and warmth, ushering the flourishing which will give rise to the harvest. Bealtine, or Beal Tine, translates as both ‘mouth of the fire’, and ‘bright fire’. Cattle were said to be driven through the fires, as protection, and the fire was kept burning as a symbolic gesture to the light, as the Bealtine festival of dancing, music, feasting and games kindled community and connection around it — key components which would be necessary when it came to harvest time later in the season too.

Both archeologically and mythologically, Uisneach, was the site where four provinces of Ireland came together- Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught, and also the mythical fifth province, which will not be found on any maps, but exists in the mythic imagination. On the site, there is a large limestone glacial erratic, about 20ft in height, called ‘The Stone of Divisions’, which is said to be this portal into the imaginal or the otherworld, which in Celtic mythology is never far away. This fifth province acted as a kind of anima mundi or axis where earth, sky, gods and humans could come into alignment and dialogue. It was a place also through which ‘imbas’, or creative potential could be accessed. I find it incredible that at the very ‘navel of Ireland’, we find this gap, which is also to say, that at the very centre of the imagination of Ireland, there is an opening or invitation. It is a gap for potential, creativity, otherness, myth, mystery and wonder - a gap which the world so utterly needs right now, through which new stories, ideas, inspiration and potential can be accessed. It is a profound invitation into the power of place, myth and story as regenerative tools to help reimagine and re-story our world, one where we are once again in right relationship with the land and that which animates her. Working with myth in this way, we have a tool or portal for reflection and deep contemplation, helping us navigate our own relationships, in this case, to our creative imagination.

What might it be to access our own fifth province within us, for instance? What stories might we find there? What visions or ideas might arise when we can listen deeply inwards to our creative dreams, then harnesses them with the power of the Bealtine fire and the quickening within the land.

Mythic thinking is not just a thing of the past, but a tool for awakening and insight. The land and stories are rich with symbols, and, as the wheel of the year once again reveals, it is rich with wisdom for these times too.

So, this Bealtine, wherever you find yourself, whether in Ireland or beyond, may I offer an invite into the symbolism of the fifth province to be your ally and guide. It is a threshold to your own imaginal centre, an ushering to tend to your own creative visions. It means listening to symbols, stories, ideas and dreams and allowing them to help shape how you walk through the world, and offer your gifts into it. The myth is a doorway, but the story is unfinished. The future is knocking, and inviting your imagination to fill it.

Bealtaine Guidebook

To support your own reflections, working with your own Imaginal Centre, and guided by seasonal ritual, I have created a special Bealtaine Guidebook. It has journal questions and prompts, photography, illustrations and comes with a playlist to accompany it too. This is for paid members of The Wild Edge. It is behind the paywall as a way of honouring my own time and effort I have put into creating this. All writing, photography and artwork is my own.

Bealtaine Seasonal Salon

To mark Bealtaine, and to gather in community, kinship and connection, I will be symbolically lighting the Uisneach fire at our next seasonal Salon, this coming Friday May 2^nd- a night of poetry, journaling, story and seasonal ritual. Tickets are included in ‘Gold’ Wild Edge Membership, but can also be purchased here.

About the Pine Marten (Cat Crainn/ Tree cat) Illustration.

Each season, I choose a different mammal or bird to illustrate the guidebooks. This Bealtaine, I have chosen the Pine Marten (in Irish, Cat Crainn or Tree Cat, one of Ireland’s native mammals, which sadly, like so many stories, is under threat from deforestation, pesticides and habitat loss. Pine Martens are elusive, beautiful, secretive creatures, but begin emerging from their wintering dens around about now in late Spring/ early summer to breed. Remarkably they are one of a few creatures who can experience ‘delayed implantation’, where eggs that are fertilised in the summer can remain viable until the following spring when there will be enough food to insure the pregnancy will carry. Agile and nimble, they are excellent climbers and often prefer nooks in tree over ground sites for cover and protection.