Beltane Musings

Hello! I’ve returned after a hiatus, and today I’m at the end of a lovely retreat to the English countryside, to do some writing and connect with friends. Yesterday I spent the afternoon of Beltane Eve at the Rollrights, a neolithic stone circle situated near some beautiful villages in a valley in Oxfordshire, not far from the city of Banbury. My friend and writing partner Hannah and I discovered there was a handfasting with about 200 attendees at the circle itself when we arrived, and while a woman taking part assured us we we were welcome, and could stay for the Beltane circle afterwards, we made our way to the Whispering Knights, a small group of stones about a quarter mile away.

We gathered wildflowers and ivy to make crowns, and discovered a small woodland area where there was a labyrinth, marked by sawed off pieces of wood. As it happened, the builder of the labyrinth was there and he told us a bit about it. It was erected in 2017 and even has its own website. We talked with him a while, then went back to the sitting are by the Knights and made our flower crowns, ate some lunch (with rose lemonade!), and as people walked by many of them stopped to talk to us. Some of them didn’t know about the labyrinth so we mentioned it was worth a visit. Some of them asked about our flower crowns; some knew about Beltane, some didn’t. We then walked the labyrinth and left our crowns as an offering. We then went to the larger stone circle and tied ribbons on the cloutie tree and sat for a while. It was a perfectly magical day.

During my time in England I did a good deal of organizing the chapters and structure of my book The Witching Hour: How Witches Enchanted the World, and am coming away with a renewed set of ideas and a rejuvenated sense of purpose. So expect more about the book here in the coming weeks. Here’s wishing you a joyous Beltane tide, through the cross quarter on May 5th, and a most glorious and refreshing season of spring.