Pagan

[CherylNYC]

Originally Posted by Ts_kaijira

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In charge of our Grove Beltaine public ritual, Tommi volunteered to build the Maypole! Do any of you have favorite Maypole rituals? And if there is anyone in So. CA interested in that, search for Raven's Cry Grove for announcements of public events.

I organise our local community Beltane celebration in my Brooklyn neighborhood, and have been doing it for the last… I'm not sure. It may be eight or nine years now. My good friends who formerly put it together are lovely straight people, very dedicated to the Goddess and their spiritual lives, but their Beltane ceremony was so rigidly gender typed that it practically gave me hives. Women guarded the hole. Men planted the pole after play acting a little force against the women. Women teased the men by demanding a bigger pole. Men teased the women by demanding a smaller hole. Yikes! Unfortunately, many Pagans play act this way at Beltaine, and they have no idea how offensive it is.

My friends handed Beltane duties off to me and another dyke friend when they moved out of state, and we do it very differently. It's open to all, but we often get a strong queer presence. After the loose ribbons are tied to the top of the pole, we invite all who are feeling their male/masculine/God energy to bring the pole into the circle by passing it between their legs. All who are feeling their female/feminine/Goddess energy are invited to guard the hole. Those who are bringing the pole into the circle approach respectfully, and we who are guarding the hole discuss the merits of the pole they're presenting. After a moment of consultation we decide that it's a beautiful pole, and that we welcome them to plant it in our hole. The group parts, and the pole is planted. Then we do a ceremony and dance around the May Pole.

I currently have a huge collection of May Poles from years past hanging around my backyard because they had to be removed from the community garden where we celebrate every year. They're very pretty, but they are rotting in the rain and snow. I wish I had room to keep them somewhere they wouldn't be so exposed to the elements.