“Happiness? The colour of it must be spring green.”
Frances Mayes
Hello, darling.
Are your toes in the grass and your eyes full of hawthorn blossom?
Good, because Beltane will be with us on 1st May!
I’ve been caught up in the bountiful burst of spring creativity that I get every year! They say a writer should write every day, no matter what, but I find it is better to wait for spring and these flurries of green energy.
Just in time for beautiful Beltane.
Every year, Beltane falls on 30th April-1st May, and is quite often seen as the highlight of the witch’s spring calendar! Fertility, creativity and tempestuous passion are what Beltane is all about. This is one of the BIG four fire festivals (alongside Imbolc, Lammas and Samhain) and falls at the exact counterpoint of Samhain - the burning lightness to that All Hallows darkness.
Because some of Beltane’s many symbols include rabbits, faeries and flowering trees, it is easy to forget that this is also a festival where the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is paper-thin, just like on 31st October. This is springtime spookiness, repackaged in a pod of emerald green and nectar-coated blossoms.
It's interesting to note that folklore often tells us of the souls of the dead crossing over into fairyland (or Elfhame) instead of the afterlife, making me wonder whether the Fae are so very different from the ghouls and goblins of Halloween. Everything looks different in the light of day.
But now, back to happier, more floral-scented things!
In this bumper Beltane edition of The Green Witch, I’ll be sharing:
ways to celebrate my favourite festival of the year
a deep-dive into the flowers of Beltane
exciting news about The Divine Void podcast
an exclusive Beltane charm 🌸
my spring Q&A callout!
Blessed Beltane, dear one. I hope next week’s festival fills you up and gets your heart aglow.
Jennifer x
The Divine Void is almost here!
Oh my goodness, there’s less than a week left until The Divine Void podcast hits Spotify.
On Thursday 1st May, join me and my fellow witchcraft author Laura Derbyshire as we explore witchcraft in the liminal spaces of the world. Oh, I’m excited now! 😃
Head to Spotify and hit “follow” to get our very first intro episode straight to your phone! It’s the perfect Beltane treat.
Ask a witch anything 🌷
It’s time for my Springtime Witchcraft Q&A!
Got a witchcraft question you’ve been yearning to know the answer to? This is your chance to ask a green witch anything.
Drop me a DM, or reply to this email to send me a question directly before Wednesday 30th April. I’ll be answering your deepest, most mystical thoughts on my paid Substack membership next week! I look forward to seeing what you’re burning to ask 🤩
The stunning underdogs of May
Last Beltane, I talked about the significance of the beautiful cuckooflower.
These gorgeous sprays of pink-white flowers have enough faery legends attached to them to excite any folklore enthusiast! But not every Beltane flower has a showy back story.
Today, I wanted to explore some of my favourite lush and green wallflowers that often take the backseat in May (but are actually SO magickal).
What can I say? I love an underdog.
Garlic mustard - Otherwise known as “jack-by-the-hedge”, you may have seen garlic mustard clustering around countryside gateposts and stretching up through the hawthorn hedgerows. As with other garlic-scented plants, garlic mustard carries the energy of cleansing and purification, making it a great addition to stir-fries when you need an energy clear-out! I spoke more about garlic mustard on my paid Substack last week.
Dandelion - Ever look out the window and wonder how you’re going to get all those dandelions out of the lawn? A witch’s tip: don’t! Dandelions provide vital nutrition to pollinators at a time when other wildflowers are still thinking of coming into bloom. They are often connected with solar magick due to their beaming, yellow faces, and their fresh leaves make an excellent liver-cleansing tea. Nourish your “inconvenient” dandelion hoard and stock up!
Cow parsley - you’ll know this one from late-spring country lanes, where frothy white flowers make every walk feel like you’re treading on clouds. These sugar-spun flowers on high, waving stems give that misty, nostalgic summer-holiday feel to any evening. Also known as Queen Anne’s Lace, cow parsley was once called “mother die” to stop young children from picking it. Cow parsley is actually very edible, but the very-very-very poisonous plant hemlock is often mistaken for it, so it was a good trick to keep kids away!
What are your favourite spring flowers?
How to celebrate Beltane
Right, let’s get down to magickal business! Here are a green witch’s top ways to celebrate the ancient festival of Beltane:
Create a sacred flame - Beltane is the big fire festival of the Wheel of the Year, so channel your inner hearth witch and get a flame going. A garden bonfire, a tealight or a cauldron blaze, whatever you choose, let the fire cleanse, ignite and bless you.
And now… jump over it - Traditionally, lovers would jump over the Beltane fire hand-in-hand for luck and fertility. If fire safety (or a nosy neighbour) is a concern, set a candle on a plate inside your home and carefully jump over the flame to symbolise leaping into summer's blessings.
Make a honey cake - As bees are a potent symbol of Beltane (have you seen them all over the cherry blossom lately?), now is the time to bake with honey. Try this honey and almond cake. You can offer the first bite to the land spirits, your family or simply close your eyes and say thank you to spring with every mouthful.
Wash your face - More specifically, in the first morning dew. This Beltane custom has been around for hundreds (if not thousands) of years - young women were encouraged to wash their face in dew (either from the grass or a hawthorn tree) first thing on Beltane morning to welcome in fertility, beauty and good luck. Or if that’s not your style, just take off your shoes and walk barefoot on the lawn or in the park to get yourself grounded.
Spot some warblers - You’ll know by now that my whole life is witchcraft, cats and birdwatching, so join me with a pair of binoculars! The warblers are BACK with chiffchaffs and willow warblers marking out their territory amongst the trees. While the pair look very similar, the willow warbler has a beautiful glissando song that goes down at the end. However, the chiffchaff sounds like a staccato piano and is even more distinctive.
Update your altar - Contrary to what you may find online, the colours of Beltane are rich pinks, greens and yellows (in line with the beauty of spring). Change your altar cloth, add rose quartz and aventurine. While it’s often lovely to bring flowers indoors to adorn your altar, Beltane is the time of fairy flowers and it isn’t advisable to bring hawthorn blossom or cuckooflower inside as this will anger the Fae.
Be with the one you love - Forget Valentine’s Day, Beltane is the real time of year to get mushy. This is the time of bluebell woods, fertility and stolen kisses under the blossom trees. Spend time with your true love below the branches and remind each other of all the reasons you came together in the first place. The soppier the better.
Journal on the festival’s themes - Fertility, love, passion, beauty, creativity, the traditional start of summer, sacred union - there is so much to celebrate here.
Make a fertility charm - get in the true spirit of Beltane! See the one below.
Find more ways to celebrate Beltane in my book, The Wheel: A Witch’s Path Back to the Ancient Self.
A fertility charm with a difference
Fertility isn’t just “baby stuff” - it’s what Beltane is all about!
While one of the key themes of Beltane is fertility, there are so many other ways to think about planting and growing. What seeds did you sow at Imbolc that you’re hoping to bring to fruition in your life? Where are the areas you can have positive growth? These thoughts are all part of the fertile mindset.
Below is a fertility charm that you can create to make every surface in your life into a fertile growing point.
And, of course, yes, you can make a fertility charm if you are trying to have a baby or thinking of trying!
Let’s go and get fertile, baby.
You’ll need:
1 red candle
a small bowl of fresh water infused with rose petals overnight
a small sprig of apple blossom
1 red, white or green ribbon
matches
a bundle of garden sage for cleansing
Cleanse the area you are working in and all of the items you will be using today with the smoke from your garden sage, saying: “Earth, Air, Fire, Water, cleanse, dismiss, dispel. Replace with love, replace with light, and let all things be well.”
Light your red candle and place the blossom in front of it, letting their energies infuse the space around you.
Hold the apple blossom sprig in your right hand and gently wave it over the Beltane flame, saying:
“Seed of hope and joy and growth,
With apple and flame, new life shall flow.
Infuse this bloom with fertile light,
And grow this month my heart’s desire.”Dip your fingers in the spring water and anoint your belly, your heart or your head - whichever relates most to the area you wish to grow and become fertile. Also anoint the buds of your blossom.
Repeat the charm three times as you tie the ribbon into a loose knot around the centre of your blossom sprig. Hold this gently in your right hand and think intentionally about your charm’s outcome, imagining all your fertile wishes coming to fruition.
Hang the sprig in a south-facing window to help its magick flourish and grow. Keep it there until Litha.
I'll see you on the next turn of the Wheel: Litha (aka. the summer solstice) will be here on Saturday 21st June. Watch out for your newsletter a few days before. See you then!
Thank you so much for reading! I really appreciate your ongoing support and feedback on my Substack. If you want to share some love or wish to support me, you can upgrade your newsletter subscription below ⬇️
Happy Beltane! I love, love, love this time of the year. I'll be drinking my morning coffee with my toes in the clover lawn, watching the bees on the dandelion's I refuse to pull out of the lawn and contemplating all the ways I plan to bloom this year. Thanks for such a lovely post! 🌼
I’m making the honey cake from your recipe. I’ll let you know how it turns out!