 Hello people, I'm Ginny Metheral and I am a fourth generation witch. I want to look at the magnificent and one of my favourite festivals, the witch's sabbat that we call Beltane. So the feast of Beltane is a feast of two halves. The first half is May Eve, the 30th of April, and the second half is May Day, the 1st of May. And in this video I just want to concentrate on May Eve because they're so different I think that they have to be given their own separate video. Look out for my May Day which will be coming on pretty quick after this video as I will do them at the same time. So what is Beltane? Well of course it is one of the great witch's sabbats part of that wheel of the air. Lots of people say that it was invented by the Wiccans in the 1950s, it wasn't. It is literally the biggest festival of the year for any pagan person. The sabbat of Beltane and the sabbat of Samhain or Halloween are two sides of the same coin. Samhain or Halloween is the start of the dark half of the year and Beltane celebrates that this is the start of the light half of the year. Before we start looking at that though I need to give you a little bit of information about Beltane because essentially it is a feast of two halves. We have May Eve and May Day and the May Eve start of the festival is actually a rather dark one. Traditionally May Eve was a time when the witches flew. They flew in a spiral up the mountain and we'll come back to this theme of spirals throughout this video. May Eve which falls on the 30th of April is also known as the Devil's Birthday and it is the darker half of the Beltane festival. The witches of old would gather out on May Eve in order to climb the spiral hill and make their renewal vows to the old one or the old gods whoever there may be and when the Christians came along they turned around and said well those old gods are obviously the devil. This is the time for the witches to renew their vows and set their intentions for the year so should you wish to learn telepathy this year and I've got a couple of clients who are learning telepathy with me at the moment great fun by the way then this is the year to set your spell to bring that intention to the fore. The witches of old were known to go to the sacred stones and sites around the place in order to renew these vows or these intentions or their coven it is a time of renewal for your own coven and you are there to celebrate with your coven this festival of life and death. It is the death of the dark half of the year and the birth of the light half of the year. The Serpent's Sprout which is the earth's life force and its magic is at its height the serpent would wind around things wind up the hillside wind through the spiral mazes this is where the spiral form is very much part of Beltane festivals for May Eve witches would go and fly up their spiral mountain as you can see at Glastonbury tall it is a natural mound however it's been dug into by ancient Britons to create this spiral form and you can walk this spiral form on May Eve and you'll find something pretty magical happens the world's sexual force is at its peak in this time and so there was a lot of sex magic that went on during the old May Eve maybe that's why it was considered a time not to go outside and to bar your doors April 30th being this rather wicked time when people were gathering on top of the hills and at the sacred sites and having orgies of excess sounds fun doesn't it in my book I'm too old for it nowadays but you know you young ones can go forth and multiply with this great life force the druids of old thought that you had to sacrifice in order to ensure that this new life force reached its peak and pushed the world forth into the light and this is one of the main days when human sacrifice was committed either you were chosen by lot you offered yourself or you were a slave these human sacrifices are where we see the wicker man and it's not mid summer that the wicker man is at its peak it's now potentially according to tradition this is a time where you ensure a smooth transition from the dark to the light by the sacrifice of human blood don't do that though I think that's wrong and I don't agree with it do not go around sacrificing humans please on May Eve spiral dancers would have been performed around the bonfires of old in order to energize the earth and connect with this incredible force that is at its height at the moment may eve is also one of the times like halloween where the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest it is a time for the spirits you can also see the fair and the fairy people will be out and about and extant throughout the lands at this time therefore there are a few things that you need to do in order to protect yourself fairies are known to love abducting people that's what they like to do apparently is abduct them take them away hide them in the fairy world but in order to protect yourself from being abducted you need to hang some rowan above your doorway very important hang some rowan and you'll be protected from induction by fairies it's also very important that once you've done your dancing around the bonfire and you're drinking and you're carousing and your spiral dance and all that energetic sexual frisson not to fall asleep underneath a hawthorn tree or in a bluebell wood to do so just means definite abduction by the fairies because this is a time when the spirits are around and you can communicate with them may eve was also the time where it was thought that those spirits could help you so children who are sick for example would be taken to sacred stone sites they would then be passed through hollow stones and the spirits of the dead called upon to cure them of their illnesses may eve is also the day where your libations are poured over the ground to ensure the land is renewed for the light half it'll be cider and beer in this part of the world let's make no bones about it mostly cider actually you take your cider and pour it over the ground so seriously i wasn't the pub yesterday and i ordered a pint of the local scrumpy and this bloke at the bar turned around to be so worried six point two that is you don't want to drink too much of it it's really really strong so you don't want to get in a car after you've drunk more than four pints okay yeah i won't so may eve really comes to fruition at midnight because this is the time when you can do spirit divination the spirits of the land are going to be walking about at the moment because it is the time when they can cross over from the upper realm it also is the time when you can ask them to help divination or healing or whatever you need for the future if you stand in the porch of your local church at midnight you will see the rates of the living who are going to die in the coming year passing through the porch into the church and if they come out of the church that just means they're going to have a nasty illness but they're going to recover if they stay there that sadly means that their life is going to be cut short this year so should you wish to know who's going to die amongst you in the parish go and stand in your church and doorway however beware because at midnight this is also the time when the wild hunt is really at its finest and should you hear the slathering hounds and calling horn of the wild hunt for goodness sake you must go back inside this is when the old one himself is coming on his horse his nightmare to gather up the living souls and take them to the nether world never to be seen again as this festival celebrates the beginning of the light half the year with the end of the dark so may eve is the last day that the darkness can be at its height so my cover meeting is coming up it's about the 21st i think it is i put it up i can't remember do go to patreon.com forward slash genie metheral for all the details come and join us i promise you you'll have a good time in the meantime please do like and subscribe because this really helps my channel enables me to keep making more videos for you and and in fact i can make the next mayday one if you like and subscribe so have a go and apart from that i will see you in a couple of days if not in this case a few hours