A lot of witches and pagans use the term “Samhain Season” for the months of October and November (approximately – everyone seems to define it a bit differently) but I hardly ever see its counterpart – “Bealtaine Season”. There’s an Otherworldly high tide at this time of the year as well, though it might be a little more difficult to sense, as there are upticks in activity in the physical world and many of our mundane lives as well – getting outside more and tidying gardens in preparation for planting, making summer vacation plans – as opposed to the slowing down of the autumn and winter.
But just as Samhain is the modern Irish month of November, kicked off with Oíche Shamhna, November Eve, so too is Bealtaine the modern Irish month of May, with Oíche Bealtaine the May Eve festival. Though this year where I live, the rising tide was already quite high by the dark moon on the night of April 19th-20th, and I expect it’ll be another week or so before I actually feel the ebb.
It’s a busy time of year, for me, because the beginning of the high tide often overlaps with another of my personal festival calendars, and there are a number of mundane anniversaries as well. My other personal festival calendar follows the movements of the star Spica, and this year, Spica’s heliacal seetting was approximately April 25th. So we went straight from the dark moon (20) into that (25), and then my wedding anniversary the following day (26), and then Oíche Bealtaine/Hexxenacht (30), Bealtaine/May Day (1), my child’s birthday (3), the astrological cross quarter & full moon (5), my mother’s birthday (7), mother’s day (14), and the dark moon again (19), which is when I expect things to settle down, given my past experiences.
I wouldn’t mind Otherworldly things settling down early, though – whether it’s just that or also the astrological weather, I haven’t been sleeping well, and when I’ve been asleep I’ve often been pulled off somewhere, doing magical work instead of getting uninterrupted rest. I’m exhausted.
Despite that exhaustion, though, I’ve been outside quite a bit, getting garden beds ready for the growing season, and getting my beautiful new crabapple tree settled in. While the cherry and plum blossoms usually follow the equinox around here, it seems like this crabapple will flower along with the azaleas and rhododendrons. Those tend to be at peak bloom just after our last hard frost, which is usually just about the first of May. And then a week later, it’s time to start moving all my seedlings outside for good, so it’s a busy time of year for a garden witch like myself as well! Weeding the herb bed and transplanting seedlings and planning out what else to plant where once the ground is warm enough to germinate seeds. This year I’d also like at least one more shrub to fill in a gap in front of the house.
I try to only put native plants directly into the ground, with my crocuses being the main exception. I didn’t plant any of the daffodils or grape hyacinths or dandelions, though the pollinators seem to love them, so I let them stay. I try to proliferate what native plants show up, like the milkweed, the boneset, the wild blackberry, and the asters. the crabapple is a hybrid, not a wild type, but it’s still close enough that the native pollinators and birds should get use of it. Pretty much all of my other herbs and veggies are in raised beds or pots, in an attempt to contain them. The containment hasn’t worked well for the mint or the yarrow, but it turns out yarrow is native here as well, and the mint is a reasonable addition to my front lawn, no worse than the grass. I planted an eastern white cedar in the back yard last year, and also a passionflower vine, but I’m not sure if that actually made it through the winter. It’s supposed to be a perennial but I’ve yet to see it this spring. If I had a bigger budget, I’d love a couple of serviceberry bushes and a redbud tree and a bunch of native irises and honeysuckles… but most of that will have to wait!
Being in good relationship with my land and local spirits is one of the foundations of my practice, and native landscaping is just one of the ways I lean into that. I’ve also been working on a ritual format similar to quarter calls, that petitions large nearby land spirits or waterway spirits that form natural borders in the landscape. I used it for a small ritual with a group of friends last weekend, and called upon the Susquehanna River, the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac River, and the Appalachian Mountains. I know these landmarks, I know their spirits, and I have been developing relationships with them for years – it seems only fitting to give them offerings and to ask for their support as I do seasonal workings.
