A May Festival Candle

With the festival of Beltane/May Day just two days away, here is a simple candle rite, reproduced from my book, By Candlelight: Rites for Celebration, Blessing & Prayer.  The illustrations are from The Victorian Fairy Tarot, created by Lunaea Weatherstone and illustrated by Gary A. Lippincott.

            In moderate climates, May Day (May 1st) signals the beginning of the summer season.  (The astrological cross quarter date, half way between spring equinox and summer solstice, is 15 degrees Taurus, around May 5th or 6th.)  Here in the Midwest, in the last days of April, the leaves on the trees are still quite small, and many are pinkish and yellowish tinted, so they create a visual impression of colorful dot patterns.  Shortly after the first of May, however, you turn around, and lo and behold, most of the trees are now fully leafed out.  Also, the woodland wild flowers are at their peak, garden flowers are in bloom, and the last songbirds are returning.

           At this time, the Celts held one of their most important fire festivals, known as "Beltane" (meaning "bright fire"); they made great bonfires, and some would also ritually rekindle their hearthfires.  With Samhain (Halloween), Beltane divided the year into light and dark halves, and because such transitional points were very magical, it is prominent in the fairy legends.  Around the same time, the Romans had a six day festival in honor of Flora, goddess of flowers, which they regarded as no trivial thing, as this was one of their oldest holidays.  The themes of fertility and festivity survived in customs like the May pole and May baskets.  Through the first half of the 20th century, youths in many American communities rose early to hang baskets of flowers from neighbors' door handles, and some schools arranged May pole dances.

            A modern celebration of May could take up the themes of leafing, flowering, and brightness, emphasizing the ways that all of us may cultivate unique gifts to brighten the world.  (As a verb, leaf can mean to "shoot out" or "produce leaves," and flower "to develop.")  You can celebrate these themes in your own life by lighting a candle and saying:

            As I light this candle,                                                

                        I celebrate the joyful festival May.

            As the green world bursts forth

                        in leaves and flowers,

            and the Sun's light ever increases,

            so may I fill my own world

                        with life, and light, and color.

            So may I leaf, so may I flower,

                        so may I kindle

                                    a flame of brightness.

While thinking about how you could cultivate your own gifts and share them with the world, think about recognizing other peoples' special qualities as well, that each may be valued and encouraged.  Perhaps you could also arrange some celebrational outings, as this is a time to be out in nature, doing something playful and active.

 

Valentines Day Card Search for Lovers

Because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day—a celebration of lovers—here is a one-card-search technique you can use when you are wondering how things stand between two people in a relationship, whether that be you and your partner or some other couple.

Shuffle your cards as you pose a request like, “Please tell me something about the relationship between [Name] and [Name].” Shuffle as you normally would, but when finished shuffling, place the stack of cards face up, so the picture sides are showing.  Go through the deck—pictures facing up--until you find The Lovers card.  The cards that flank it will give you insight into what each person brings to the relationship, so lay The Lovers, along with the cards that come before and after it, in a three-card spread.  The Lovers card commonly portrays a male and female couple, so, if you have a version of this card that places the woman on the left side of the picture space, consider what the leftmost card tells you about her, and what the card on the right end tells you about him.

It is significant when a court card or other type of card that portrays a potential personality type, (often called “people” cards), is backing one or both members of the male and female Lovers pair.  If of the same sex, this could reveal the “face” that the man or woman is showing to the other, because when we are in relationships, we tend to project a certain persona to our partners—often an idealized persona—in the hopes of better capturing their interest.  If such a personality card just happens to be a card you would consider the person’s normal significator, , this would indicate that he or she is acting naturally, being straight-forward, what-you-see-is-what-you-get.  If a personality card is reversed, it could indicate that the person isn’t entirely comfortable with the role he or she is playing in the relationship.

Sometimes you get a male personality card on the woman’s side or a female on the man’s side.  Among other things, this could indicate that the dynamics of this relationship bring out the man’s “anima” (inner female), or the woman’s “animus,” (inner male), or it could mean that his or her attitude toward relationships has been shaped by previous experiences with certain persons of the opposite sex.  Under some circumstances, an opposite sex figure next to the man or woman could indicate that he or she is either involved with someone else, or not quite ready to make an emotional separation from a previous partner.  In some cases, a King or Queen in those positions might warn that a partner is potentially enmeshed with Mom or Dad.  However, you should not jump to unfavorable conclusions unless you already have some solid, real-world evidence for suspecting.

If both of the flanking cards portray human figures that look inward toward The Lovers, this is a good indication of their level of interest in the relationship.  However, if characters are gazing off in the opposite direction, this could indicate that they have other distractions, and the relationship isn’t the uppermost thing on their mind right now.  Reversed people cards are significant in this context, as a reversal can change the direction in which the figure in the card is gazing.  When a human figure, whether upright or reversed, is moving in the direction away from the Lovers, it warns that that person may be distancing him/herself from the relationship.

Flanking cards that don’t portray personalities, but instead, various types of matters, could denote resources that individuals bring to a relationship, or issues that will impact the relationship.  So, the Ace of Cups or Swords next to one of the pair of Lovers could indicate an intensity of different types of feelings on the part of the partner in question.  “Twos” cards could depict the need to make adjustments to accommodate the other partner.  Pentacles cards put an emphasis on practical matters and material needs.  A Major Arcana card would have something to do with the greater significance of the relationship to the individual’s life path, whereas a Minor Arcana card would indicate that, (at least for that partner), the relationship is more immediately affected by some daily life issues.

 

ACTIVATING THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

I have been working on a book that details how to activate the magic within tarot cards.  As 2026 is a Wheel of Fortune Year, here are a few snippets from my section on The Wheel of Fortune card:

Devotions to Fortuna: Although different tarot decks’ graphics emphasize the turning wheel, the card also invokes Fortuna, who is the goddess presence behind the tarot.  Some older decks portray the goddess at the center of the wheel, while in classical art she might be portrayed carrying a cornucopia or a rudder, or standing on a ball.  The ancient Romans believed that each person could have an individual Fortuna as a spirit of good luck, (though, obviously, some people were better served than others), and so made offerings to her.  Fortuna also had many manifestations, including Fortuna Muliebris (luck of women), Fortuna Virilis (luck of young men, though invoked by women seeking a virile mate), Fortuna Publica (fortune of the greater public), and Fortuna Redux (invoking a safe return from travel).  As a way of nurturing your own good fortune, you might want to rise in the morning to greet Fortuna Huiusqce Diei” the “Fortune of this Day.”  Ask yourself, “How is my Fortune doing today?  What can I do to advance my Fortune today?”  Then, open your door wide to activate the magic of opening, while saying, “Fero Fortuna!  Fortuna Abundia!”

Spinning the Wheel: Part of the magical mindset is being game for new things.  This includes taking some chances by making some changes in your routines, pushing beyond some of your normal boundaries, and bringing some randomizers into your plans as a way of playfully spinning the wheel.  This is an area where divination can help.  For example, if planning a vacation, instead of following your usual inclinations, you could ask the tarot for advice on where to go for a magically delightful trip, then pull a card and consider what its images and meanings might suggest.  When you are willing to act on the tarot’s advice, you put yourself out in the realm where marvelous synchronicities can more readily take place.

Wheel Turning Spell: One of the best known of magical charm formulas is the “Sator Arepo” word square shown here.  It is a palindrome, meaning that it reads the same way forwards, backwards, and up and down.  This formula was popular in the Roman world, (with the earliest known example from Pompeii), and spread through all of Europe, where it was engraved on doors and walls, or written on paper and carried on the person.  Its amuletic uses ranged from promoting general well-being, to protecting from fire and other disasters.  Though its origin and meaning are not clear, one loose translation suggests it reads, “The sower Arepo holds steady the wheel.”  In this respect, it conveys the sense of steadily advancing one’s fortune.  You can help direct its forward momentum by inscribing the Sator Arepo square on paper and setting The Wheel card on top of that.

Also, here is a six-day spell for symbolically turning the wheel: write the Sator Arepo square on a piece of paper, and set it out on an altar space.  The next day, prepare another square, but with Sator shunted to the bottom, so it reads, “Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas Sator.”  On the third day, write out another square with Arepo shunted to the bottom, so the square now starts with Tenet.  Go through the same process every day, so on the sixth day, the word square is back to its original state, with Sator on the first line.  This completes your rotations.  Alternatively, you could get six candles, and inscribe the permutations of the word square on the subsequent days’ candles; when the last candle is burned down, a major change may be effected.  Orange candles are most commonly used in spells to change one’s luck.  (Note that this spell can also be used when you draw The Chariot card, as there is a similar sense of taking the wheel.)