“Beltane is not the beginning of Summer! It’s not even 70 degrees outside yet!”
“Astrologically speaking, Beltane is the beginning of summer, even if it doesn’t feel like it.”
The story of my life here in Chicago. We might have hit 70 degrees twice this year so far. We might hit it tomorrow, but most of us are sitting here, shivering, wondering if we’ll ever be warm again. Ever.
And yes, Beltane is, indeed, the beginning of summer, even if some parts of the country only just got out of 40 degree weather.
Astrologically speaking, the Summer Solstice (coughMidsummercough) isn’t the beginning of summer, the way that the talking heads on the weather channels will have you believe, but, well, midsummer. If you don’t believe me, think on this: did Will Shakespeare write The Beginning of Summer Night’s Dream?
Still don’t believe me? Here’s a blog post by Phil Plait that explains why the seasons do NOT begin on the solstices. I’ll wait here.
(for the tl;dr folks: it’s based on the tilting of the planet, not on the weather)
So it’s summer, dammit.
My husband and I have been toasting the Sun at every ritual we’ve had since Bride, hoping to (in our own way) strengthen that Sun and make it warm up even just a little bit here. It is disheartening to be celebrating Beltane by shivering in your apartment while outside it is trying to decide between rain and freezing rain, instead of being outside frolicking in the soft green grass.
Oh, well.
We did celebrate Beltane, though, and it was a happy (if somewhat chilly) one. Since we do not have space for a Maypole (nor the ability to store, transport, or buy one), we instead braided colorful strands of ribbon or embroidery thread together, weaving our desires together through the magic of the season. Then we toasted the gods, and the Sun, and asked for a lovely long summer to balance out the long, long, long winter that just doesn’t want to give up.
I hope your Beltane was as lovely, and quite a bit warmer than our own.
Merry meet!
Windy City Witch 