Today is the ancient festival of Beltane (or Beltaine), celebrated
for thousands of years by our northern hemisphere pagan ancestors in
a tradition which is still carried on by modern pagans.

In Britain, certainly, and possibly throughout northern Europe,
paganism is currently the fastest growing religion. It is especially
attracting young people who often see it as a spiritual counter-
balance to an over-technological, over-controlling society.

The term "pagan" means "country dweller" and was a term devised by
the autocratic Roman empire to demonise and thereby diminish and
control the free-spirit-lifestyle rural populations of northern
Europe. This was at the time when the Roman empire adopted
Christianity and monotheism as way of quelling dissent amongst
disparate religious groups in the Roman empire. Then, as now,
religious differences were often emphasised and exploited in power
struggles and wars.

Cambridge pagans have a newsgroup at:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/CambridgePagans/

The Significance of Beltane
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Beltane is a time of "mystical union" fire energy (fire energy =
inspiration, passion). The word Beltane (or Beltaine) refers
to "Bel's Fire".

The "mystical union" occurs holistically on several levels...

At the physical level, it is the time when plants are in full harmony
(union) with their natural environment - it is the time when plants
are growing at their fastest (warmth, light, moisture) and there is
still room for them all to grow.

At the emotional/social level the Beltane festival was an important
human social event. In ancient times, girls would bathe in the
morning dew to beautify themselves and attract a lover. There was
also flirting and courting around the may poles, and tying "wish
ribbons" to trees. A time for falling in love and frolicking in the
woods!

At the metaphysical or spiritual level, Beltane is a time when "the
veil between worlds is thin" - i.e. divine guidance and wisdom can be
accessed more easily from the earthly plane. This veil or barrier
between the conscious and unconscious mind (worlds) is always fairly
thin when we are close to nature (genetically speaking our
real "home", since human genes have barely changed in the last 30,000
years). Mystics assert that this "thinning" is more pronounced at
this time of the year. In fact this is why I have been moved to run a
series of "Plant Spirit Healing" nature workshops just now, see
http://www.sunflower-health.com/workshops.htm
The power of these Late April/early May workshops to inspire,
energise and link people to their divine guidance has been quite
awesome!!