Aparian

Rabbit Rabbit Day

  "Were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call them Apiarians, and, after the example of the bee, advise them to extract the honey of every sect."  - Thomas Jefferson

“The festival of the summer solstice speaks of love and light, of freedom and generosity of spirit. It is a beautiful time of year where vibrant flowers whisper to us with scented breath, forests and woodlands hang heavy in the summer’s heat and our souls become enchanted with midsummer magic.”

― Carole Carlton

....‘Yellow is the colour of early spring,’ she said, ‘just look at your garden!’ She gestured towards the borders, which were full of primulas, crocuses and daffodils. ‘The most cheerful of colours,’ she continued, ‘almost reflective in its nature and it is of course the colour of the mind.’

― Carole Carlton

“The festival of the spring equinox speaks of freshness and youth, of excitement and endless possibilities. Nature begins to quicken and early flowers open to the warmth of the strengthening sun, bringing the colours of lemon and yellow into our lives on the wings of a March wind.”

― Carole Carlton

"Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.  I have been as sincere worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks.  I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did."

-  Henry David Thoreau

Great earth mother!

We give you praise today

and ask for your blessing upon us.

As seeds spring forth

and grass grows green

and winds blow gently

and the rivers flow

and the sun shines down

upon our land,

we offer thanks to you for your blessings

and your gifts of life each spring.

"Unite and unite and let us all unite,

For summer is acome unto day,

And whither we are going we will all unite,

In the merry morning of May.  

I warn you young men everyone

For summer is acome unto day,

To go to the green-wood and fetch your May home

In the merry morning of May."

“Beltane is a rural pre-Christian prehistoric tradition which saw communities come together after long winters of isolation,” [anthropologist Pauline Bambry] says. “It marked their connection not just to nature but to each other. That need to belong to something or someone hasn’t changed. We can be just as isolated living in the city or in a town as the ancient Britons were in their round houses.” 

– Victoria Lambert, The Telegraph

“The May Queen represents everything to me. She is the symbol of life, Mother Earth, goddess, maiden, fertility, and potential. Even now that I am the May Queen I talk about her as something removed from me. I just have to trust that the moment I walk on the hill, I am her. I wouldn’t say it’s an out-of-body experience but I won’t remember a large proportion of the night.” 

– Erin Chadwick, May Queen, The Scotsman

“Beltane is the start of summer in my half of the planet, and may it be a full, rich, fecund summer. May babies be strong and crops be abundant and happy couplings begin and ripen. May maypoles be wrapped with joyous wishes and may the dancers find what they desire. May what needs to begin, begin and grow stronger. May what needs to end, slip away with dignity. May the bonfires be bright, and life go on with all its vigor.” 

– Phaedra Bonewits, “Beltane Meditation.”

“Bealltainn, as it is known in Gaelic, is a Celtic ritual that marked the transition from spring to summer and was once celebrated widely across Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. Linked closely to the agricultural calendar, traditional celebrations included driving herds of cattle between two fires, an action believed to protect and purify them, whilst ashes from the fires might be sprinkled over the soil to increase the earth’s fertility.” – Julia Rampen, The Scotsman

“…while Samhain began one kind of yearly cycle, Bealtaine began another, and both could be construed as a kind of “New Year”. In ancient Ireland the High King inaugurated the year on Samhain for his household (and, symbolically, for all the people of Ireland) with the famous ritual of Tara, but in nearby Uisneach, the sacred centre held by the druids in complementary opposition to Tara, it was on Bealtaine that the main ritual cycle was begun. In both cases sacred fires were extinguished and re-lit, though this happened at sunset on Samhain and at dawn on Bealtaine. Bealtaine was a time of opening and expansion, Samhain a time of gathering-in and shutting, and for herd-owners like the Celts this was expressed with particular vividness 

by the release of cattle into upland pastures on Bealtaine and their return to the safety of the byres on Samhain.” 

– Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal