In The Shadow of Beltane
In The Shadow of Beltane: Love, Magic, and the union of the God and Goddess Within.
By Roman Delgado.
Disclaimer: In this Blog Post I Speak of divinity in binary terms. This is done in order to connect with theological and mythological references. In reality the points I am trying to make can apply to any gender identification. What I speak of in gender has Nothing to do with biology and more to do with energy. What energy you identify with at the moment (or lack thereof) will help you understand the mythological and energetic points I am making.
The wheel of the year continues to turn. Time goes by in never-ending stream, and we continue to live the cycles of nature within our own lives. The days are getting longer. There is more light in the sky, the weather is warmer and flowers blossom everywhere. Life is returning to the land, and we begin to once again reflect on the joyful emotions of love and connection.
A lot of Pagans and Wiccans celebrate the warmer months and seasons with mythological themes that speak of the interaction between the God and the Goddess. Isis and Osiris, Hathor and Horus, Christ and Mary Magdalene, this list of archetypal couples that many of draw from in order to explain the changes in the world around us from darkness to light is very extensive. In truth listing all of it is not the point behind my writing.
We as Pagans and Wiccans do more than perform ritual based on the mythos of the Ancient Gods and Goddesses. We live those mythos in our everyday lives and in our magical lives and spellcraft. For us the divine is not some very far away alien concept that we struggle to connect with. The world nature is our church. Our bodies the inner sanctum of our temples! It is through this understanding that we bring to life the magic of the light half of the year.
For many of us our magical paths began with a search for a recipe for love. We were the lovesick God or Goddess searching for their ideal mate. Many witches have made the beginners mistake to start a relationship by manipulating the object of our affections by controlling them with magic in order to gain their affections.
Yet most experienced Wiccans and Pagans know not to start a relationship with a kidnaping!
Loneliness can drive us to do strange things. The pains of love can also be the sign of something much deeper embedded within our very souls. The negative patterns within our love lives echo archetypal energies world round. There are Gods and Goddesses in many cultures that used a relationship in order to gain power and control. Deceit in order to gain relief from our pain is embedded in the human psyche that it is reflected in our mythos. Nephtys, the twin sister of Isis the Great Mother of the Egyptian Pantheon was deeply in love with Osiris - the Husband of her twin sister Isis. One day she dressed as Isis and seduced Osiris ( pretending to be Isis), conceiving the god Anubis.
Why is then that we take our love into such extremely dark places? Why take the noblest of emotions into a place that twists it out of shape? The reason lies deep within our own souls and minds. I titled this blog post “In The Shadow of Beltane…” for a reason. It is a reference to something that has become pop culture occultism in recent years. It is talked about a lot. Yet very few people actually take the time to do it on the regular basis: Shadow Work!
The proverbial shadow self, described in the work of psychoanalyst Carl Jung has been embraced by the magical community really well. However most of us forget to apply it to our love lives. It is however one of the places it is most necessary. How many of us had toxic family dynamics growing up? How many of us as adults mirror the toxic dynamic of our parents and families with our romantic partners?
All those wounds are reflected in our relationships because we suppressed them into the realm of the Shadow Self, that unconscious part of our mind where we put thing that have been labeled unacceptable.
Yet pain and wounds are not the only thing that gets put in the dark space of shadow. Sometimes, we put in that space the very best of who we are. We suppress our voice, our wisdom, our strengths and even our dreams. That is also reflected in our relationships. Many of us end up in very important, committed and serious relationships with the external personification of our shadow selves. Attempting in an unconscious level to gain mastery and healing in order to integrate the aspects of our personality in shadow.
All of that lays the groundwork for the sacred work of the union of our own internal divinity. When we stop projecting our wounds unto our partners we can heal those wounds. When we cease to search for a partner that mirrors our suppressed greatness we can begin accepting who we are. It is in these moments when the suppressed versions of ourselves become integrated into our psyche, that we in turn begin to work the deepest of love magic: Self Love.
The Animus and Anima, the divine masculine within each woman; and the divine feminine within each man. These are the parings of Gods and Goddesses at a microcosmic level. They are the healthy version of the archetypes of the divine twins. For me who I have primarily studied Egyptian myths in my Pagan/ Wiccan path. I see that as Isis and Osiris. Norse Pagans may see it as Freyr and Freya, there are many more world round to look at and that is rabbit hole I won’t go down at this time.
When we as Pagans and Wiccans do ritual with the energy of the God and the Goddess work with our own energies. Both our more outward dominant energy and our internal energy, for many this may have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with the energies they are living through both in their spiritual and mundane lives.
As such the light half of the year, and the courtship and union of the God and Goddess brings to attention our own relationship with the divine within. In doing so it brings attention also to our relationships to others and how they mirror our internal life. As such the union of the God and The Goddess is a series of myths that cannot only be seen as a macrocosmic symbol of the rhythms of nature, but a microcosmic symbol of the healing of our shadow selves and our quest for wholeness by embracing the divine within.
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Come Celebrate Beltane with The Ever Green Hearth! Online Ritual and Celebration: Saturday, May 14, 2022 Details - Beltane With The Ever Green Hearth
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Roman Delgado is a Psychic Reader and Shamanic Healer at Teotl Tonalli Intuitive Arts. He is an active member of the Keepers of the Flame Coven, ATC (The Ever Green Hearth) Please check our Community Connections page to find ways to connect with Roman or other members and Affiliates of The Ever Green Hearth.