At Beltaine in Western Washington, the maples and alders reach full leaf. The native dogwoods bloom, their flowers showing wide, pale faces. If you bring in the May for Beltaine, you have the Goddess's full bounty of green.
Does life offer anything better than sitting by the bonfire on May Eve with your lover, with everyone else asleep, watching sparks rise toward the spring stars? The fresh-leaved trees shake their branches in the wind, and you lie back in your lover's arms. This Beltaine, we talk about trees and sex and the wild gods that bring us both.
Lisa tells us a little about wildness, having just regained hers. Catherine talks about her childhood desire to run away to the woods, and how that works for her as an adult. Mark gives us a rundown on pagan tree mythology, noting that the world tree is one of the most prevalent recurring images in European pagan spirituality.
Freya tells us how to get in shape for love. She's talking spiritual shape, ready to face a new lover without letting karma blind us to the present moment. Janice talks about using sex in ritual and her affection for her "pocket rocket," and Bestia meditates upon what we need to release to reach our full sexual and spiritual potential.
Filling out our bounteous Beltaine, Genevieve tells us about spring music, Thea about the spring stars. Leon rounds up important recent books on Wiccan history, and Tamoon makes us think when pagans should stand their ground against hard-line Christians. Sometimes that's the right thing to do.
To each their own, but I know what my religion is -- lying on the spring earth under the trees in my lover's arms, and with us the old gods.