I led this ritual for the Pagan holiday of Beltane this year, but its sentiments are appropriate throughout Beltane season (and really, all year long!). The full moon this weekend would be a wonderful time to perform this ritual. You will need three strands of ribbon, yarn, or thread – red, orange, and yellow. If you don’t have those specific colors, you can pick other colors that symbolize these themes for you, or even color the ends of some plain twine with a marker. You may also wish to have food and/or drink to ground yourself after the ritual. This ritual was originally performed with a group, but here it has been modified for individual practice.
Cast the Circle
I cast this circle of love around,
Proclaiming this as sacred ground.
With fires of passion, love, and mirth,
The groundedness and
Strength of Earth
With healing waters,
Wellsprings flow,
The playful winds around me know
Like light and love within this space,
Divinity is every place.
I call on powers young and old,
With grateful praises
I extol,
Love in this place
And all around,
The love within this sacred ground.
So mote it be.
Quarter Calls
Earth
I call to the North, to the Element of Earth, to join me in my rite. I call to the stable ground beneath my feet, to the steadfast mountains, to the growing green plants, to the world awakening with life and joy. Element of Earth, Hail and Welcome!
Air
I call to the East, to the Element of Air, to join me in my rite. I call to the warm winds of change, to the crashing thunderstorms, to the creatures in flight, and to the freedom of wide open skies. Element of Air, Hail and Welcome!
Fire
I call to the South, to the Element of Fire, to join me in my rite. I call to the warmth of the summer sun, to the blazing balefire, to the pulse quickening in all living things, and to the passion burning within each of us. Element of Fire, Hail and Welcome!
Water
I call to the West, to the Element of Water, to join me in my rite. I call to the fresh water that nourishes us, to the refreshing salty spray of the ocean, to the gentle afternoon rains, and to the depths of my own emotions. Element of Water, Hail and Welcome!
Invocation of Aphrodite
O Radiant Aphrodite Smile- and laughter-loving Goddess Please be with me As I celebrate this night Help me to look within To find the passions burning bright As the fire that sustains me In everyday life Inspire me with playful curiosity To learn and to grow To have fun and be silly So that my home may be filled With warmth and mirth Help me to find and expand the joys in my life Both big and small So that they may nourish and support me May this joy be my guiding light In these uncertain times A balm for my soul When I am weary May this joy fill my heart and fuel my actions So that I may spread more love in the world O Far-Shining, Glorious Goddess Hail and Welcome!
Embody Pleasure
To ground us into the ritual space and prepare us for our ritual work around joy and play today, I want us to do an activity together to anchor ourselves in pleasure and what feels good to us.
With our bodies, we are trained to search for the pain instead of feeling into pleasure. I want us to flip this paradigm on its head. I want us to look for joy and pleasure in our bodies instead of dwelling on what is wrong. If you’ve been in meditation or yoga or general New Age circles, you may have done a practice to scan for tension in your body and breathe into it to release it. We aren’t going to do that. We are going to do the opposite – We are going to scan our bodies for pleasure!
Pleasure can be anything that feels good in or on your body. Maybe it’s the softness of your shirt against your skin, the warmth of the sun on your face, the coolness of the air on your cheeks, a relaxed muscle in your leg, a pleasant tingle below your shoulderblade. It can be anything! Maybe your head is feeling pleasantly sleepy with contented drowsiness. Maybe you feel some openness in your chest or your belly. It could be the gentle tug of gravity keeping you grounded and reminding you of your connection to the earth. It could be the scent of fresh air or incense, the lingering taste of chocolate from an afternoon snack, or the sense of calm and alignment that come from standing up straight. Find where that feeling is in your body and focus on it.
And if you can’t find something right away, just sit with it for a while – it will come. You may even encounter some resistance to this, and that’s okay. Even though our bodies are how we interface with the world, from an early age we are conditioned with complicated relationships to them. If feelings come up for you, I ask that you honor them and sit with them in gentle compassion.
I invite you to close your eyes now. As we scan our bodies for pleasure, I want you to take deep full breaths. Really feel your lungs expand and contract, and settle into something that feels comfortable for you. Take three deep breaths, and then go at your own pace.
Once you have found that place of pleasure, breathe into it. On your inhale, see if you can expand the feeling of pleasure. If your feeling was the comforting presence of a ring on your finger, see if you can expand that feeling to beyond where the ring touches elsewhere on your finger. As you exhale, focus on expanding that pleasure to the rest of your body. Start small, with just around that area. Inhale, and feel the pleasure expand. Exhale, and gradually let it fill the rest of your body. Feel that sensation move up and down your arms and legs, up and down your spine, through your heart and head.
And when every bit of you is buzzing with that aliveness, feel into your body to see what you could do to make this moment even more pleasurable. Maybe it is a big stretch! Or moving your shoulders around. Or adjusting how you are standing. Maybe it is making some noise – a big sigh or even a yawn! Maybe humming would feel good. You could massage a sore muscle or even just your own hand. Play around with movement and stillness, and just expand into that joy for the next few minutes. Listen to what your body wants, and then do it!
Take this feeling of pleasure with you into our ritual today, and come back to this practice anytime you need a little pick me up. It’s a great break when you’ve been sitting at your desk or on the couch for too long, or just had a day filled with obligations instead of fun.
Introduction
The wheel has turned and it is Beltane season once again. And, as I feel I have said for every Beltane since 2020, the world is still on fire. It’s on fire in both the same and in different ways this year, but everyday life as we know it is still continually getting turned on its head. I don’t have to tell you about the injustices and atrocities populating the news on a daily basis. Some of these may hit closer to home than others for us as individuals, but we are all greatly affected by the chaos, sorrow, and rage of these times.
And yet, we still have to keep living. We have to go about our daily lives. We have to process our emotions, show up to work, and take care of others, often while having to act as if everything is okay. How do we do that in a world on fire? Not easily, but we can lean on our spirituality, on our loved ones, and on our inner selves to find the energy and inspiration that gets us through.
So what do we do for Beltane season in a world on fire? We lean into hope. We realize that our misery and doomscrolling serve no one. We find things to laugh about. We embrace those we love. We dig deep to discover and nurture what fuels us. And we weave these things, this ordinary and extraordinary magick, into our everyday lives.
Beltane is a holiday of passion, playfulness, and joy, and that will be the focus of our ritual today. Its timing opposite of Samhain situates it as a holiday in which to look towards the future instead of the past. At Beltane, we are surrounded by a great field of potentiality – so many possibilities before us, an infinite number of paths forward. Which will you choose? As you contemplate this question during the season of Beltane, I encourage you to think about three things: Passion, Play, and Joy.
Our ritual today will focus on these three different ways for us to weave happiness into our lives, no matter what chaos the world may be in. These three attributes also correspond to the first three chakras – Passion, symbolized by the color red and living in the root chakra; Play, symbolized by the color orange and living in the sacral chakra; and Joy, symbolized by the color yellow and living in the solar plexus chakra.
Approach the altar and take a bundle of ribbon.
Passion
Passion is our internal, unextinguishable flame. Passion fuels us and serves as a perpetual beacon of light guiding us forward.
Passion can come in many forms. Yes, there absolutely can be the element of physical intimacy that is traditionally associated with the word, but there is so much more! Passion is anything that makes you light from within, anything that you are delighted to pour your time into. Maybe that’s your personal relationships, maybe that’s learning something new, maybe that’s creating art, maybe it’s a cause you care about, maybe it’s spending time in nature.
Take a moment to think about your different passions in various areas of your life, and send that energy into your red ribbon.
Play
Play is our ardent curiosity, deep belly laughs that hurt in the most joyful way, the generative energy of creativity, and a sense of exploration.
The idea of Play is usually relegated to children, but adults need play, too! Ours may look a little different, but at its core, there is a sense of levity and determination. Play is the ability to make mistakes and keep on trying, like children do when they are first learning language or how to ride a bike. It’s a purposeful silliness that reminds us to not take life too seriously.
As adults, Play is also tied to pleasure and discovering what we enjoy doing, in both intimate moments and during regular life. Play is experimenting! Play is not being afraid of being bad at something while you learn. It’s shedding the judgement of others and doing things for yourself. It’s dancing like no one is watching!
Take a moment to think about different ways you can embrace play in various areas of your life, and send that energy into your orange ribbon.
Joy
We as human beings need joy.
Joy and pleasure are as much your birthright as breathing air and drinking water. Joy is an inherent part of our being. And we need joy to function, especially in uncertain and challenging times.
Joy is so much more than just something nice that makes our day better. Joy brings resilience. It is what keeps us going. Having something to look forward to or something that brings us comfort helps us to make it to tomorrow. In a broken world that seems to be the antithesis of happiness, joy gives us the energy to fight another day. It nourishes us and sustains us on a profound level. Just like our bodies need food, our spirit needs fuel, too. We can’t run on empty.
When life feels like a never-ending cycle of work and chores and not enough sleep, joy is a breath of fresh air, an end to the monotony, and a break in the cycle of burnout. When life feels like a battle, joy gives us something worth fighting for. When life feels like a pit of despair, joy brings us hope. Hope is protective. I know that hope may seem a bit far off these days, but even if the thing you are hoping for doesn’t come to pass, it does not erase the positive effect that hope had on you for the days, weeks, and months prior. Having those positive emotions makes us more resilient when bad things do happen (or when good things don’t). Anchoring ourselves in hope and joy can carry us through when times are chaotic and overwhelming.
Joy connects us to the deepest parts of ourselves – Our desires, our hopes, our dreams. Joy brings us comfort when facing challenging circumstances. Joy gives us a spark that cannot be extinguished – a part of ourselves that we can feel grounded in as the storm rages around us. It is an internal beacon of light in the darkness.
So let’s take Beltane season, the time around a holiday filled with joy and pleasure, to really ground ourselves in joy. How can we bring joy into our lives, in both small and big ways, so that it nourishes us to keep going, even when we feel like giving up?
To me, joy is that feeling of fulfillment deep in your soul – when your heart can’t help but sing. It is pleasure, ecstasy, elation. It is delight, bliss, and a bone-deep satisfaction. It is more enduring than transient happiness, though it can absolutely inspire happiness. It is also comfort – a warm blanket on a cold day, or a cup of your favorite tea. Joy doesn’t have to be grandiose – In fact, the most powerful joy I’ve found comes from the accumulations of all the little small moments in my day that I can more consciously infuse with happiness and pleasure.
Take a moment to think about all the different sources of joy in your life, big and small, and send that energy into your yellow ribbon.
Braid the Ribbon
Keeping in the tradition of Beltane, let’s bring a bit of the maypole magick home with us this season! We will be braiding these ribbons together, infusing it with our magickal intention. You already sent energy into the ribbons for each of the different colors for passion, play, and joy, but if you have had something else arise for you during these meditations, take a moment to infuse that energy into the ribbons now.
Think about how you want each of these qualities to weave into your future as you braid the three strands together. How will passion, play, and joy show up in your daily life? Then take the braided ribbon and hang it somewhere where you will be reminded of these qualities and of your goal.
Gratitude to Aphrodite
O Glorious Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Hope, thank you for your presence with me today. I celebrate your compassion and your kindness, your laughter and your joy, and your sacredness in the everyday. Thank you for helping me to feel into my passions, to prioritize playful curiosity, and to elevate joy, so that I may live my most vibrant life. May I carry your love in my heart always. Hail and Blessed Be!
Release the Quarters
Water
Element of Water, thank you for joining me in my rite. May I be surrounded by your healing energies as I go forth on my journey. Hail and farewell!
Fire
Element of Fire, thank you for joining me in my rite. May I be surrounded by your passionate energies as I go forth on my journey. Hail and farewell!
Air
Element of Air, thank you for joining me in my rite. May I be surrounded by your inspirational energies as I go forth on my journey. Hail and farewell!
Earth
Element of Earth, thank you for joining me in my rite. May I be surrounded by your grounding energies as I go forth on my journey. Hail and farewell!
Release the Circle
We know that love is all around, Though our circle now may be unbound. Let us celebrate, joyous here, Spreading love both far and near. So mote it be.
Are you ready to…
- Dive deeper into your spirituality
- Level up your magickal skills
- Develop a fulfilling devotional practice
- Receive guidance on a variety of spiritual topics
- Embrace your power
- Love the amazing being that you are
All with the support of myself and a community of like-minded spiritual seekers?
If your heart is singing YES, I invite you to join us in The Temple of Flower and Flame!
Priestess of Aphrodite 