In Gaelic cultures, Bealtaine is about the beginning of Summer (hinge of the year), receiving the blessings of fire, and gathering/protecting prosperity. The focus on sex, and specifically hetero sex, is a later addition with Murray and then Gardner.
Yes! And many plants have both "male" and "female" parts to create life all on their own! Or, they have roots that spead out under or above ground... Or, they have spores that float around the air to create!
yes 🙌 Yes 🙌 YES 🙌 I’m hetero and I even get uncomfortable with the whole male/female mating thing. Like it’s just not how the world works. It’s 2023, we KNOW this. It’s just so dated (and exclusionary.) Personally I choose to work with the ecstatic elements as well. It feels much more accessible that way to me.
Hello lovely! Thanks so much for commenting and watching my video! I'm glad I finally got it out the bag and from what I've been seeing of people's different posts and videos (yours included 😊) it's something I've definitely noticed. X
I’m hetero but also feel really strongly put off by the Beltane Male/Female gender polarity breeding stuff. I totally ignore all that stuff in my personal practice as a solitary Crone but it’s so hard to avoid if you go to a group Beltane celebration. I concentrated on the joyful growth energy of my young plants 🌱 Gave offerings of thanks to the nature spirits around my home. Acknowledged the Fae in a safe way. Plus ‘sacrificed’ a personal poppet in the flames 🔥 of the 9 sacred woods/trees in my cauldron 😂
Catching up on this one now, as I missed it when posted. Just wanted to share my experience, which is that as a child free by choice woman, I always found the obsession with the "mother goddess" in some aspects of fertility style Craft to be so extremely difficult. It just left me feeling like my own spirituality was telling me I was broken somehow. Beltane is one of my favourite times of year, but the polarity there has always been a struggle. Love this video! This is why Trad Craft was such a lightbulb moment for me!
First I want to say I have been watching your videos for years and I bought your first book. I love all of your content. Thank you for addressing this topic in your videos. We as gay men need to practice in a way that reflects who we are. It is within our sexuality where male and female energy unite. This is a very special thing and should be celebrated and express if not but to show heteros that within them exist the same and that the over emphasis of duality is extremely limiting. I also love the point that sex is not just for reproduction that it is for pleasure and joy as this to is reflected in nature as well.
Thank you George. Beltane has also been a struggle for me, and I am so glad that someone suggests an... expansion on how one can practice his/her/their craft and celebration during this time of year...😉
I can absolutely relate to this as a gay man and Had to find different ways to connect to Beltane, usually through nature it’s self and through primal nature 🙏
As a trans woman who loves men i feel this. Though I dont recognize beltane as beltane. Im not even pagan. But cutting all the fat here, this time of the year is just the generative forces of life. In the natural world there are many ways that life makes new life. Asexually, hermaphroditism, sexually, and various combinations. No need to make it all about the heteronormative aspects. Walpurgisnacht/Roodmas is also more my thing.
I get the idea of Beltane as a fertility festival, but I don't really connect with it either. I'm bisexual, but find the heavy emphasis in some traditions on heterosexual relations and fertility to be triggering in many ways. I respect those who resonate with it, but I appreciate your perspectives as it feels refreshing.
I honestly feel this way with a lot of things that have a focus on gender. I'm a gender non-conforming woman, pansexual and have a trans partner. Needless to say, my experience with sexuality and gender is mostly a lot of what you said; I have non-hetro experiences, consensual acts of love are sacred and it doesn't need to be about fertility. To draw from on of my inspirations, in the Feri tradition, there is an emphasis on ecstasy instead of fertility for all sexual acts (because in the Feri tradition, the cosmology traditionally says that God, pangendered and multifaceted, made love with herself to birth the world - I found both an autosexual and lesbian interpretation of this theology), and that's one of the primary reasons the vast majority of Feri practitioners are gay men, since the theology allows for a more inclusive interpretation.
I've always thought of us gay men, as somewhat akin to the fey ourselves, and therefore, Beltaine and precisely the ecstatic element is so important for us.
In Gaelic cultures, Bealtaine is about the beginning of Summer (hinge of the year), receiving the blessings of fire, and gathering/protecting prosperity. The focus on sex, and specifically hetero sex, is a later addition with Murray and then Gardner.
Yes! And many plants have both "male" and "female" parts to create life all on their own!
Or, they have roots that spead out under or above ground...
Or, they have spores that float around the air to create!
yes 🙌 Yes 🙌 YES 🙌 I’m hetero and I even get uncomfortable with the whole male/female mating thing. Like it’s just not how the world works. It’s 2023, we KNOW this. It’s just so dated (and exclusionary.)
Personally I choose to work with the ecstatic elements as well. It feels much more accessible that way to me.
Hello lovely! Thanks so much for commenting and watching my video! I'm glad I finally got it out the bag and from what I've been seeing of people's different posts and videos (yours included 😊) it's something I've definitely noticed. X
I’m hetero but also feel really strongly put off by the Beltane Male/Female gender polarity breeding stuff.
I totally ignore all that stuff in my personal practice as a solitary Crone but it’s so hard to avoid if you go to a group Beltane celebration.
I concentrated on the joyful growth energy of my young plants 🌱
Gave offerings of thanks to the nature spirits around my home. Acknowledged the Fae in a safe way.
Plus ‘sacrificed’ a personal poppet in the flames 🔥 of the 9 sacred woods/trees in my cauldron 😂
Catching up on this one now, as I missed it when posted. Just wanted to share my experience, which is that as a child free by choice woman, I always found the obsession with the "mother goddess" in some aspects of fertility style Craft to be so extremely difficult. It just left me feeling like my own spirituality was telling me I was broken somehow.
Beltane is one of my favourite times of year, but the polarity there has always been a struggle. Love this video! This is why Trad Craft was such a lightbulb moment for me!
Thank You, thank you, thank you. Thanks for sharing, thanks for being you,❤.
First I want to say I have been watching your videos for years and I bought your first book. I love all of your content. Thank you for addressing this topic in your videos. We as gay men need to practice in a way that reflects who we are. It is within our sexuality where male and female energy unite.
This is a very special thing and should be celebrated and express if not but to show heteros that within them exist the same and that the over emphasis of duality is extremely limiting. I also love the point that sex is not just for reproduction that it is for pleasure and joy as this to is reflected in nature as well.
Thank you George. Beltane has also been a struggle for me, and I am so glad that someone suggests an... expansion on how one can practice his/her/their craft and celebration during this time of year...😉
I can absolutely relate to this as a gay man and Had to find different ways to connect to Beltane, usually through nature it’s self and through primal nature 🙏
As a trans woman who loves men i feel this. Though I dont recognize beltane as beltane. Im not even pagan. But cutting all the fat here, this time of the year is just the generative forces of life. In the natural world there are many ways that life makes new life. Asexually, hermaphroditism, sexually, and various combinations. No need to make it all about the heteronormative aspects.
Walpurgisnacht/Roodmas is also more my thing.
I get the idea of Beltane as a fertility festival, but I don't really connect with it either. I'm bisexual, but find the heavy emphasis in some traditions on heterosexual relations and fertility to be triggering in many ways. I respect those who resonate with it, but I appreciate your perspectives as it feels refreshing.
Pansexual Transwoman 👋 completely agree with everything you’ve said.
I honestly feel this way with a lot of things that have a focus on gender. I'm a gender non-conforming woman, pansexual and have a trans partner. Needless to say, my experience with sexuality and gender is mostly a lot of what you said; I have non-hetro experiences, consensual acts of love are sacred and it doesn't need to be about fertility. To draw from on of my inspirations, in the Feri tradition, there is an emphasis on ecstasy instead of fertility for all sexual acts (because in the Feri tradition, the cosmology traditionally says that God, pangendered and multifaceted, made love with herself to birth the world - I found both an autosexual and lesbian interpretation of this theology), and that's one of the primary reasons the vast majority of Feri practitioners are gay men, since the theology allows for a more inclusive interpretation.
I've always thought of us gay men, as somewhat akin to the fey ourselves, and therefore, Beltaine and precisely the ecstatic element is so important for us.
I don't celebrate Beltane but I do observe Wulpugisnacht.
🖤🖤🖤