Beltaine is a very interesting and dynamic time in Colorado. The snows in the lowlands have melted off, and the highland snows are beginning to melt, rushing in torrents down the awakening mountains. It is also a time of year that gives Coloradoans a glimpse of what lies in store for the year ahead. The snows of winter have fallen, and if snow pack is good water and growth will be abundant, and we will light the Beltaine fires and rejoice in the bounty of a promising year. If snow pack was low, then water will be scarce, life will suffer, and the Beltaine fires will NOT be lit because of high wildfire dangers.

In this way are Samhain and Beltaine linked. The deeper the snows of the giamos portion of the year that begins on Samhain, then the more abundant and vital the growth of the samos portion of the year that begins on Beltaine.

Beltaine is that day that the Otherworld gives us a glimpse into the energies that will play out in the summer to come. A great and important festival when the veil between the worlds grows thin, and the vibrancy of the coming summer is clearly felt. The mountains begin to call us back to walk and graze among them, and the need to be outside, under the Sun, and in the fresh air is palpable.

Our tuatha celebrates this festival with its first (and defiantly not last) camping or hiking trip for the year. We find a place of beauty and seclusion, make a small circle of stones and prepare a space with two fire pits; fire pits that are close enough to slightly singe you when you walk between the two of them. We eat, drink, laugh, have sex, joke, tease, and celebrate and enjoy the simple but important pleasures of life. Some of us may stay up the whole night; others will sleep after a long and exhausting day of reverie.

The real power of Beltaine comes with the rising of the sun the next day. We wait in the circle, which is usually situated on the top of a hill or other such place that has a good view of the horizon. We say our prayers to the Gods and Goddesses as She rises in the east. The air is cold, but loaded with the promise of the warm rays of the rising sun. It has been our experience that those who are diligent enough to greet the sun as She rises on Beltaine morning are often given powerful aisling (vision or dream) within the coming weeks.

The tuatha comes together and there is a feeling of re-union with the Land. Plans for the summer are discussed, gardens are being prepared for planting, and trips into the wilderness start being eagerly discussed. Beltaine is a time of yearning, new ventures, physical exercise, and energetic moods. Without the energies of Beltaine life would be without vim and vigor. The vitality of the Land begins to be more impacting, and life feels full and free.