Redefining the Beloved on Beltane

Two weeks ago, I celebrated one of my favorite days of the year: Beltane!
Beltane is a Celtic holiday that honors the midway point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. It’s a celebration of fertility, lovers, and the Beloved, traditionally enjoyed around a bonfire where people from all over the village literally communed together in love.

This year, I celebrated Beltane with a strong intention to connect with the Beloved. I did this through an impromptu Angelic Breath Healing journey the night of Beltane (May 1st), and then spent the next two days honoring this auspicious portal in community at the herbalism school I attend. We made offerings to the Earth and engaged in a visionary ceremony communing with the Beloved.

I'll admit that in spite countless ceremonies, including marrying myself at a 4,000-year-old hand-fasting stone in Avebury, England (true story!), doing the inner work of peeling back layers of false beliefs, releasing emotions and judgments around traumatic experiences, annnnd as a result becoming infinitely more grounded and connected to the sensual pleasures of my body and this life...I have not yet received the Beloved in the physical form I've desired.

There's a saying I'm sure you've heard - it says: If you want to make God laugh, tell Her your plans :)

While my intentions haven't yet unfolded as desired or expected, I have been Divinely Schooled with countless opportunities to accept, meet, embrace, and fall in Love with Love in whatever form it shows up.

I've found that the more I open to receive the Beloved, and let go of how or what form it shows up in, the more I am met with magically serendipitous experiences that inspire me to remember the Love that I am, and how Loved I am - regardless of my physical world relationship status.

Here is one such experience I'd love to share with you ~ in my Beltane Angelic Breath Healing ceremony, I received a clear inner message to arrive in England on September 7th (I am planning to spend autumn in the UK this year). The following day, I was cleaning out my bedroom closet and found the book "Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World" by John O'Donohue. I randomly flipped open to a page where O'Donohue shares how the body is just as sacred as the Spirit, how it is the angel of the Soul. He references what he called the most sensual passage in the Bible, called The Song of Songs (I am not very familiar with the Bible stories and had never heard of it). Then...the next day, as I rested in my bedroom, I looked at the stack of 40 books next to my bed and felt inspired to pull out my One Year Bible. The premise of this particular Bible is that it's split up into 365 sections, with each day of the year having a few pages of the Bible so hypothetically one could read it all in a year. I *randomly* flipped open to a page...sometimes I like to do this with books, to see what I most need to receive in the moment. And guess what page I opened to!

SEPTEMBER 7TH! And the passage underneath September 7th? The Song of Songs. I got chills all over my body, and as I started reading, my immediate thoughts were: this is the Bible?!?!

It is one of the most poetic love expressions I have ever read ...here's one of the passages:

Come, my love, let us go out to the fields and spend the night among wildflowers.
Let us get up early and go to the vineyards to see if the grapes have budded,
if the blossoms have opened,
and if the pomegranates have bloomed.
There I will give you my love.
There the mandrakes give off their fragrance,
and the finest fruits are at our door,
new delights as well as old,
which I have saved for you, my lover.

Yes, this is from the Bible. And I highly recommend reading the whole poetic expression of The Song of Songs! And yes, my Beltane breath journey told me to arrive in England on September 7th, the next day I randomly read about the Song of Songs, and the following day, I randomly open September 7th in my One Year Bible to the Song of Songs. I couldn't make this up if I tried.

All of this is to say: the Beloved is alive - and while you can experience its essence in the form of a lover or romantic partner, the Beloved is not confined to form.

To invite the Presence of the Beloved into your awareness right now, I suggest:

Close your eyes and brrrreeeathe....Allow the rhythm of your breath to connect you to your body.
Look around you and notice the pattern of light..
Feel the cloth of your shirt brush against your skin...
Close your eyes and feel the miracle of your heartbeat...
As cheesy as it may sound … the Beloved is the eternal invitation to BE HERE NOW.
 
You don’t need to wait on anyone to feel the Beloved right now, because at your truest essence, Love is who you are.
 
No matter where you’re at today in the cycle of life, what is falling away or what is emerging, know that you are seen and Loved by the Beloved.
 
Today’s New Moon in Taurus is an auspicious day to revel in this Love and experience the joy of living in your body, so I invite you to play with an activity that engages your senses and opens your awareness to the Love that you are.

To support you with this, I invite you take out your journal and reflect:
 
-How have you been disengaging from your senses lately? What things in your life make you feel closed to the Beloved?
 
-When have you felt most alive in the past? What things in your life right now help you feel alive and present in your senses?
 
-Reflect on how has the Beloved has shown up in your life in this past week. What inspired you to open to its presence?
 
-Finally, how would you like to receive Love? Be as vivid in this description as you can. What experiences would you love to receive from or with another? Now - create this offering and give it to someone else.
 
May the Beloved bless you with the experiential remembrance that you are so deeply Loved and cherished, that there is nothing you need to do to prove or earn this Love… you need only open to it within.
 
In awe and gratitude,
Madeline