Hello, my darling.
We’re one week away from the beauty of Beltane. This green witch couldn’t be happier!
As someone who always has their hands in a plant pot or head in a hedgerow, Beltane is the festival on the Wheel of the Year I look forward to the most. Witches across the Northern Hemisphere are working speedily to get as much in the ground as possible this April and May. There’s a giddiness to planting while under a canopy of hawthorn blossom and birdsong.
And I think you might feel it too.
The ancient festival of Beltane falls on 30th April-1st May every year. Like all of the Cross Quarter days (the “Big Ones” in the Pagan calendar alongside Imbolc, Lughnasadh and Samhain), this is a fire festival that our ancestors celebrated with bonfires, feasting, dancing and, more recently – since around 600-700 years ago – flinging themselves around a maypole. This is a festival of heart-led passions and pure, unadulterated joy.
For the past few years, I’ve really embraced the festival’s key theme of fertility after struggling with infertility and loss for five years. But right now, I want to focus on the excitement and the confidence boost this festival brings.
I invite you to do the same.
Beltane is an excellent time of year to welcome vitality back into your life and witchcraft practice. Last week, I wrote “Your 7-Day Magickal Reset”, which looked at small steps to re-establish your witchcraft practice when life sweeps it aside. After so many of you got in touch to tell me how much “10 signs you’re craving a slower, more magickal life” resonated with you, I’ve decided that The Green Witch paid membership will focus on ways to build a steady weekly practice and create joyful rituals that fit into our busy modern lives as we build up to the summer solstice.
I hope you’ll join me there!
In this Beltane edition of The Green Witch, I’ll be sharing:
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a very exciting witchcraft event happening this weekend!
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ways to celebrate my absolute number one festival on The Wheel of the Year
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my biggest-ever Beltane giveaway (scroll down!)
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a simple spell jar to amplify the joy in your life
Blessed Beltane, my love. On this festival so closely associated with the heart, I hope yours is open and willing to receive the goodness coming your way.
Jennifer x
Join us for Beltane at Blackwell’s Oxford 🌸
If you’re missing your Beltane fix of The Divine Void podcast right now – I have something special for you.
Join Laura Derbyshire and I at Blackwell’s Oxford this Saturday for our Beltane Sabbat Session!
This time, we’ll be sharing all our knowledge on the flowery Pagan festival of Beltane. Find out the history, a deep-dive into hares and hawthorn, and exactly how to make the Fae play nicely. We’ll also be answering your witchcraft questions and signing copies of our books afterwards.
Our Samhain and Imbolc events both sold out, so don’t forget to get your free ticket fast! We can’t wait to see you there on Saturday 25th April from 3:00 – 4:00 pm.
How to celebrate Beltane
This festival demands glee – after this glorious, sunshiney week, it’s not hard to feel that springtime joy! Here are some of the best ways to celebrate the festival of fertility, beauty and all things green and growing:
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Create a beautiful Beltane altar. In the Wiccan tradition, Beltane is the sexual union of the Goddess and God – the Goddess will then give birth in the form of the harvest at Lughnasadh. You can represent this symbolically on your altar by having two red candles burning – the colour of passion – as well as both an athame (male) and a chalice (female). You can also include rose quartz, spring bulbs in a pot, a green altar cloth, and fallen tree blossom. But remember – never EVER bring hawthorn or blackthorn blossom into your home. These plants are sacred to the Fae, and they will not be happy… Here is my altar from last year:
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Protect yourself and your home. We are currently at the exact counterpoint to Samhain, the spookiest time of year and when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. Despite the flurries of blossom, the veil is also whisper-thin at Beltane. Meaning? Ghosts and ghoulies are out – so it’s time to take extra care, even in the face of such glorious weather. Place a mirror in your window facing outward to repel demonic energy, place smoky quartz and black tourmaline by your doors, and you can upgrade your subscription to The Green Witch to find out how to create a magickal protective talisman that you can carry with you always.
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Take time to praise yourself. At Beltane, it’s like we all just took a shot of confidence. We are officially in Taurus season: the sign of beauty, luxury and generally feeling good about ourselves. Use this turn in the energy to look in the mirror and praise your best physical qualities for a blast of well-earned pride. But you can also use this fiery Beltane energy to think about the other areas of our lives – what are we currently doing well? How can we channel our best qualities into our passions over spring and summer this year? It’s time to get out the journal.
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Bake traditional Beltane goodies. One of the main staples no ancient springtime feast would be complete without is a Beltane bannock. Traditionally, a Beltane bannock, or a flat oatcake divided into nine sections, was made and eaten on Beltane morning to ensure the health of crops and animals. It was eaten accompanied by a small rhyme; I really like this one I found on Cailleach’s Herbarium: “Here to thee, wolf, spare my sheep; there to thee, fox, spare my lambs; here to thee, eagle, spare my goats; there to thee raven, spare my kids; here to thee, martin, spare my fowls, there to thee, harrier, spare my chickens.” Or, how about a good old fairy cake, decorated with everything fae-like especially for the festival!
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Honour the Sun god, Bel. Yep, the one this festival is named after! Beltane itself means “Bel’s fires”, with Bel being a Celtic god of healing and light. In Danu Forest’s wonderful book, The Magical Year, I learned that Bel was one of the purported fathers of the faery race the Tuatha de Danaan. When this race of peoples arrived in Ancient Ireland, they lit the first Beltane fires by burning their ships at dawn. Light your own Beltane fire in his honour, but – for the love of the Goddess – burn a candle and not a boat.
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Give yourself over to your sensual side. There’s no getting past it: Beltane is the sauciest festival on the Wheel of the Year! This was traditionally a time for handfasting, where you could see if you and your partner were, um, compatible for a whole year and a day before deciding to officially wed. My advice? Go for it, hun.
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Create your own version of a maypole. We don’t all have a village green handy these days, but I loved this incredible papercraft hawthorn wreath from . Such beautiful work!
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Scrub those cheeks. One of the oldest-known traditions of Beltane is washing your face in the morning dew to welcome in fertility, beauty and good luck. Head out to the garden or your local park at dawn on 1st May and wet your face with dew, visualising a stream of light flowing through you.
Find more ways to celebrate Beltane in my book, The Wheel: A Witch’s Path Back to the Ancient Self.
My Big Beltane Giveaway 📚
To celebrate my favourite Pagan festival of all:
I’m giving away a copy of my book The Wheel: A Witch’s Path Back to the Ancient Self to the next 10 witches who sign up to an annual subscription of The Green Witch Substack!
To get your copy by post, all you have to do is subscribe for a full year of witchcraft articles, spells and ways to live in tune with the Pagan Wheel of the Year. Once you’ve signed up or upgraded your subscription to The Green Witch, drop me a Direct Message with the words “Beltane giveaway”.
After all 10 copies have been claimed, I’ll announce that the giveaway is closed on my Substack Notes 🌸
Due to postage, this giveaway is open to UK subscribers only. I hope you love the book!
Growing your joy spell jar
Last Beltane, I shared a charm to welcome fertility into all areas of your life, and the year before that, I gave you a self-love spell using gorse.
This year, I want to share my Growing Your Joy Spell Jar from The Witch’s Survival Guide, that I recently performed live at Mind Body Spirit Festival. It’s always risky doing magick on stage 😅 but this is such a lovely spell!
Spell jars are a beautiful, compact way of working magick. I love that they are a visual representation of the spell that we can display around our homes to always help us remember their intention when we pass them!
This particular spell jar is designed to welcome happiness and contentment back into your life. I think it’s the perfect spell for Beltane as it uses herbs mainly ruled by the element of Air; the element most commonly associated with spring. Harness the energy of this time of year to bring real potency to this spell – and allow the joy to thoroughly enter your world.
You’ll need:
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a small sterilised glass vial or small jar (sterilise a clean vial by filling it with hot salt water for 20 minutes or by putting it in the oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes)
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5 dried dandelion heads
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2 tsp of Himalayan salt
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2 tsp of dried lemon balm
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1 tsp of dried peppermint
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1 tsp of dried lavender
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1 stick of lavender incense
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a yellow candle
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matches/a lighter
1. Light the incense and, when it is smoking, insert this into the vial and move it around three times in a clockwise motion. Then do the same to the outside of the vial, including its stopper.
2. Add the salt to the bottom of the vial.
3. Then, starting with the heaviest plant/herb, place each one inside. This does not have to be neat but, as you are adding the plants, repeat the intention of your spell jar under your breath using words such as ‘I am filled with joy.’
4. Visualise that joy as yellow light glowing in the centre of your body. With each breath you take while completing this spell jar, feel the light inside you growing brighter.
5. Once the vial is filled to the brim, light the candle and allow its wax to melt. Drip the wax into the opening of the vial and insert the cork or stopper. Continue to drip the wax around the stopper and on top of it so the jar is completely sealed by the wax. Allow to cool and feel the yellow light inside of you permeate your entire body as you grasp the spell jar in your hands.
6. Keep the vial with you or in a place where you will see it every day, such as by the front door, to remind you of the joy that is winging its way to you.
Let me know what you think of this spell in the comments below!
I’ll see you on the next turn of the Wheel: Litha (aka. the summer solstice) will be here slightly later than usual on Wednesday 24th June. Watch out for your newsletter a few days before. See you then!
Thank you so much for reading! I really appreciate your ongoing support and feedback on my Substack. As a small business and content creator, you can support me to grow by upgrading your newsletter subscription below ⬇️
Originally published on Substack
