Beltane honours life, representing the peak of spring and the beginning of summer. Mother Earth’s energies are at their strongest and most active! All of life is bursting with potent fertility and at this point in the Wheel of the Year, the potential becomes conception. 30th April is Beltane Eve and this is when the sexuality of life and the earth is at its peak. Abundant fertility, on all levels, is the central theme. The Goddess has reached Her fullness and is at her most sensual.

It is on this day that Priestesses and Priests from the Goddess Temple celebrate the Beltane rites – a public ceremony, with all attending invited to dance around the Maypole, winding the many coloured ribbons in the dance and celebration of life. During the day the ground is prepared by the Priestesses. A hole is carefully dug and lined with flowers, fruits and garlands, this is blessed as the sacred yoni or gateway and represents the gateway of all life. The Priests and men of the Temple prepare the Maypole and ceremonially activate the masculine energies within the living wood, before it is planted into the body of the Mother, the Earth.

As Beltane is the Great Wedding of the Goddess and the God, it is a popular time for Pagan Weddings or Handfastings. Here in the Glastonbury Goddess Temple we call in the sacred sensual energies of the Goddess Rhiannon and dress the Temple in vibrant reds and greens. Rhiannon is a Sovereignty Goddess,  whom the king must wed to legitimise his rule.  A Goddess of Transformation, She uses her powers for love of others or self.  She shines in our hearts as an example of true love and beauty. She appears in both the first and third branches of the Medieval Welsh stories, The Mabinogion, a narrative which grew out of the ancient myths of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses. Rhiannon is associated with the moon, horses, horseshoes, songbirds, gates, the wind, and the number 7.