Has summer come?
The sky today is blue yet the air is chill.
Is Beltane here?
Thousands celebrate yet I see no sign of the hawthorn blossom.
Have God and Goddess come together in love?
Which God? Which Goddess? Is love only about sex at this time or is it still more? And why not God joined to God or Goddess to Goddess or triads or groups?
Last month I bared my skin on the hills under a warm spring sun, felt the gentle breeze caress me. I felt connected to the loch before me, the land under me, the sky above me. I felt the energy of life thrumming through it all. I felt joined and totally free.
Today I feel confused, disconnected and thrown back into winter. There is snow in the hills, the land is cold and damp, the breeze cool, the sun bright but not yet feeling warm. I look for the marker of the hawthorn blossom and there is none to be found.
Many are the Beltane greetings I have seen today. But Beltane still eludes me.
Musings of a Scottish Hearth Druid and Heathen 
You present here the paradox the date of a festival and the reality of the world around us. There was one hawthorn tree I saw on Beltane with its blossom out, whilst all those around it held their buds tight. It was not warm, there was little sunshine. But it had been warm. It had been sunny. It had been May-like in April. As the climate changes I wonder how we will have to adapt our keeping of the festivals to honour what is and what will be.
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I was a lone gloomy voice in the hot, dry April, worrying whether enough rain would fall to nourish the green shoots. When the rain finally came, it felt like blessed relief, but now everything seems to have paused for a moment. Living here without a grove to share celebration, I tend to listen to the land and take my cues from its expression of the season – not just May blossom, but bluebells and chestnut blossom too, along with cow parsley and the wild white hedgerow flowers of early summer. It is not quite Beltane here yet. Though we do have plenty of ducklings!
I love your thought-provoking questions: what exactly do we celebrate when we celebrate Beltane? Something I will ponder as I wait for the turning point of the season to make itself known.
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