Of Besom weddings, Beltane and love....

Ooooooooh, I have been so negligent with this blog, indeed every bit of unessential writing!  I have had what is commonly known as “writer’s block”! I have been getting a slightly tense, hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach each time I think of writing….but I am creeping back to it and obviously here I am….in the in betweeny time I and hubby have snuck off to Coolum and Noosa for a well- earned break ( courtesy of the Sunshine Coast tourist bureau with whom I won a competition) visited family, birthdayed and tried to think of it not as getting older but rather as getting bolder…and gotten on with the general duties of being a person in the world. I have baulked at our politics, entertained children and puppies, talked to far off friends and children for many minutes and planned more wondrous adventures! I have baked in the early spring sun (which has come in bold and strong this year!), pottered in the garden and taken the body board into the sea; I have played countless games of scrabble and developed a newfound love of photography. In short I have been living my life.

Now as we creep closer to Beltane (that time of year Hubby and I see as our true commitment date) and we plan to make another vow of our love I feel it’s time to write about this practice of making a renewed choice to be together every year! Let me begin with a little explanation. Yes it is true on paper our wedding anniversary is September 3^rd, but this is a date of the formality that is our legal custom and we celebrate this joining moment for sure, but as Wiccans and individuals who love the olde traditions we believe that the choice to be together remains one to made every year and a day, and we choose Beltane as our time to do this! Nothing is sure in life except the notion of change, which is inevitable. Nature would have it that without change things stagnate and die. We, as part of our natural world attempt to mirror this and are aware that relationships as well as those individuals within them also go through the inevitabilities of change. Understanding this and allowing ourselves to work with these changes in a conscious and awakened way is the idea behind our year and a day commitment! We have noticed though that because we commit in our hearts for only this length of time we also have made a commitment to keeping alert, aware and sensitive to each other and our life’s changes on our journey together. We have always been conscious that our relationship requires work, movement and growth through change in order to stay alive, fulfilling and dynamic….

In the building moments to each wonderful Beltane since we have been together, we have searched our hearts, looked into the past year, found where we are standing and what we have gained or lost, we have talked about our commitment to each other and what it means, we have struggled through issues and found solutions, we have attempted to release baggage at the full moon, we have committed to new beginnings at each new moon , we have looked inside ourselves and searched for truth at the dark moon and so far on every Beltane we have made a conscious decision to continue this great journey together! It has been an evolutionary journey, and the love I see existing now, is a deeper, even more fulfilling one than the one that began us!

I love our year and a day commitment…I love the excitement it gives our journey and the reflectiveness it asks of us…..we are truly connected because we never take each other or this journey for granted…..and as we jump the broomstick and once again confirm our love, with the moon and stars as witness, I know I will be smiling!

A little history of Besom Weddings:  In some areas of Wales, a couple could be married by placing a birch broom at an angle across the doorway. The groom jumped over it first, followed by his bride. If neither of them knocked it out of place, the wedding was a go. If the broom fell down, it was considered that the marriage was doomed to failure, and the whole thing was called off. If the couple decided they were unhappy within the first year of marriage, they could divorce by jumping back out the door, over the broom. More information on this can be found in T. Gwynn Jones' 1930 publication, Welsh Folklore.

The age-old image of witches flying around on broomsticks casting spells is believed to have come from old fertility rites associated with nature and agricultural. As part of the seasonal Spring rites to aid the growth of newly planted crops, women from local villages would gather around fields with their besoms.  Placed between their legs as they circled the field, much like riding on a hobby horse, the idea was the higher they lept, the higher the crop would grow. 

Today folk across the globe use this tradition  to symbolize a new beginning and a sweeping away of the past.It appears to have not only Celtic origins, but Afro- American, Hungarian and Gaelic origins as well.

Betaine: Southern Hemisphere 31^st October: On the eve of Beltane all fires were extinguished and relit with embers from the Beltane fire. The Celts built two fires created from the nine sacred woods (Rowan, Apple, Dogwood, Poplar, Juniper, Cedar, Pine, Holly and Oak). The herds were ritually driven between them to purify and protect them. The fires celebrated the return of life and fruitfulness to the earth and would protect, heal and purify anything or one that passed by or jumped over.

Beltane is the Sacred Marriage and union of the God and Goddess. Beltane is also celebration of fertility, fruitfulness and the coming of summer. It is a time when the light half of the year is waxing and everything is growing and coming into full greenery and bloom. It is the last of the spring fertility festivals, and is a time when all prepare for the warm months ahead. Beltane celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life. The Goddess manifests as the May Queen and Flora. The God emerges as the May King and Jack in the Green. The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess. Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight.