Beltane 2014 - Too Cool for School?

Blessed Happy Beltane to you all!

Traditionally speaking, Beltane is the beginning of the 6 month Season of Fertility, ending at Lughnasadh, The Season of Harvest, on August 2^nd.

This time of year we are midway through the season of Spring, started at Ostara / Vernal Equinox. Beltane is my hands down favorite Sabbat in the Witches’ Wheel of the Year.  We started both Drawing the Circle Productions (16 years ago) & The Silver Broom Ministries (9 years ago) on Beltane.

We celebrate the sabbat & the anniversaries with a party for our coven, my clients, students & other active members within our Silver Broom Community. There is a ceremony to mark the sabbat then we build a bonfire & honor our tradition of doing shots off  an Ice Luge. 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKCU5ll3D0

This is why we now call the name of the party, “Fire & Ice.” 
Do you hear Pat Benetar in your head now? I do!

 

The Heart of Beltane

Beltane is the 4^th of the 8 sabbats & corresponds to the 4^th or Heart Chakra, which manages Emotional Power. Because of the Heart Chakra association, it has a lot of powerful symbolic coordinates to guide us through the season, if we work it right.

Tif'eret  
For example, in the Kaballah Tif’eret is the sphere of the Heart. It holds the power of Harmony & Balance. To put a fine point on it, it is EMOTIONAL harmony & balance, a tricky feat any time of the year. But at this sabbat it is highlighted so we can focus on & become empowered with Love. 

Wrath & Fortitude

The Shadow of the Heart is Wrath; that emotional anger & rage that possesses us when we are caught off guard & acting unconsciously. Its healing Grace of Fortitude is the emotional strength to slow the momentum of Wrath, open our hearts & forgive, mostly ourselves.

Marriage

Beltane is also the symbolic sacrament of Marriage, which is perfect because it is the sabbat of the Sacred Marriage between God & Goddess, Sun & Earth, which leads to the consummation of the union & the fertilizing of the land with divine seed into the womb of the earth. This is why Beltane is often referred to the ‘Sex Holiday’ & ‘fertilizing the fields’ often refers to a sacred romp outdoors with a beloved, or close to it.

On a more personal & internal level, it has to do with the known or unknown marriage vows we make to our soul. So many are looking for a soulmate who have not yet mated with their own soul. Beltane is a perfect time to write down those vows & have a wedding within the self. Do you vow to Love, Honor & Cherish yourself, etc..?
 

Sacred Truth

This speaks to the Heart Chakra’s Sacred Truth, “Love is Divine Power.” When we bring the heart into balance - Tif'eret, consistently tempers our Wrath with Fortitude - Shadow/Grace & make new Vows to Self - Marriage the Heart opens like a valve. We can access a range of emotions from contentment, through happiness & into the highest states of emotional freedom, joy, bliss & ecstasy.

But what does it take to be emotionally balanced? That’s a complicated question because we all have very different paths, psychology & physiology to consider. But there is still some common ground we can examine. The Course in Miracles states,

“Happiness is a decision I must make.” 

Not a choice, but a decision. I have learned there is a difference between the two:

• All choices have consequences. The size of the choice often determines the size of the consequence, but not always. 
• Sometimes small physical choices have gigantic consequences. But in retrospect we may find what we thought was a choice was a decision.

• A decision is life changing & takes our lives down a different path or way of being. 
• We make many choices before, during & after a larger decision. 
• Like choices, decisions have consequences. Though as I mentioned above, one may look like the other if we are not aware of what we are doing & more importantly, how we are feeling.   

Happiness is a wonderful emotion. It indicates that the Divine Power of Love is flowing through us & with practice; we can up the voltage into the higher realms of Joy, Bliss, Ecstasy & Exhilaration. 

This is the benefit of a daily spiritual practice within the Heart Chakra & makes the entire 6 month season of Beltane a lot of fun. Our hearts can blossom like spring flowers & emit a vibrational perfume that enhances all of our eternal senses, which leads me to the magick in all of this.

If Happiness is a decision that we must individually & collectively make, then we can decide to imbue its power into our lives & of course our spells. Earlier I was listening to a meditation by Deepak Chopra where he said, “Happiness is Viral.” To me this says that we have a greater power to influence the world when we deliberately decide to set our vibration at Happy & tend to it from a spark (Yule) to a candle, (Imbolc) to a fire (Ostara) to now a bonfire at Beltane.

Don’t take my word for it. Practice it for yourself, Cast spells from a place of emotional happiness & then deliberately do your best to maintain being happy for as long as you can after casting. Though what you cast for may or may not drop into physical form immediately, you will begin to see symbolic synchronicities, what Muggles call coincidences, creating a trail of bread crumbs toward what we want.

In other words, you can’t live a sad story & have a happy ending. That only happens in fiction. The key to living ‘happily ever after’ is to generate & maintain an open & happy heart every day until we eventually croak at our appointed time. This way, regardless of how long we live, we can live happy & ‘put our hearts’ & ultimately our divine power, in all that we do. It ain’t easy, but it is so very worth discovering this power we all have, but rarely consciously use.

Too Cool for School

I will however, give a small warning. Many of us have emotional shields that we've gathered, like armor around our hearts. This just happens as a reaction to life in this world. Some of us have developed a shell of shields around the heart chakra, making us ‘Too cool for school.’ 

For example, do you sit in a corner snarking at weddings when people are risking looking foolish as they drink & dance the night away? I certainly have, but I made myself outgrow that because I found it to be at its core, cowardice.

The opposite of cowardice is courage. Courage, from the French word for the heart ‘Coeur,’ is about developing the bravery to crack our emotional armor, open our hearts & act on the guidance it gives us to let go & enjoy the moment freely. Simple, but hardly easy as no one is born with courage, it must be developed.

So if you find yourself at a party, wedding, ritual/ ceremony, what have you & the cowardice of ‘too cool for school’ kicks in. Stop for a moment & ask, what am I so afraid of? Has the tribal dictates of the world bound you emotionally? Can you muster the courage to dance, laugh & participate? Is ‘too cool for school’ keeping you left back in your personal spiritual curriculum? Are you in Heart Chakra detention?

Only you can free yourself from this, but it can be done in baby steps, allowing you to mature into a spiritually mature emotional adult. As the Course in Miracles also says:

“In my vulnerability I become invulnerable” 

This is not to be taken literally, but symbolically & more important for the lessons of Beltane, emotionally. So remember this, to keep it simple:

‘Too cool for school’ leads to ‘Too cool for happy.’ 

Wouldn’t you really rather practice that 'Perfect Love & Perfect Trust' we as Witches are always going on about? Then have at it, crack open that heart chakra, bring it into balance, heed its guidance & let the Love & happiness that is divine power influence, everyone around you known or not & the world as a whole.

Blessed “Happy” Beltane,

Rev. Mark A. Lyons, President
Drawing the Circle Productions INC.
DrawingtheCircle@aol.com
631-968-8307 @ProfWitch on Twitter

Magick, Miracles & Mysticism

Many years ago I struggled to find the overlap & connections between the may thought systems & spiritual practices in my life. As long as I looked purely from the physical & intellectual eyes, it confounded me.

Then one day, after a particularly deep meditation, I was shown that there are 3 Levels of Power in all things archetypally. After some research into the work of Caroline Myss, I had one of those coveted Ah-Ha moments & saw that my life & all that I teach can be categorized into Magick. Miracles & Mysticism.

In fact, it showed me there is a teachable bridge from one end to another, mapping the energetics of creativity & healing. So, I began to teach this 13 week series as inspired & have been doing so once or twice a year ever since.

Here is the series outline that I teach. Please comment with any questions you might have:

Magick, Miracles & Mysticism
with Rev. Mark A. Lyons
Admission $30. Reservation Required

Magick, Miracles & Mysticism is a 13 class series exploring a more in-depth look at metaphysics & spirituality.

Class One: 3 Levels of Power - The Basics

Class Two: The Chakras Part 1 – Sanskrit & Sacraments

Class Three: The Chakras Part 2 The Tree of Life & Sabbats

Class Four: Archetypes Part 1 - The Basics & The Survival Family

Class Five: Archetypes Part II - The Feminine & Masculine Families

Class Six:Archetypes Part III - The Divine & Wisdom Families

Class Seven: Archetypes Part IV - The Healer & Creative Families

Class Eight: Archetypes Part V - The Action &The Wild Card Families

Class Nine: Gods & Archetypes

Class Ten: Healing

Class Eleven: Alchemy & Incarnating

Class Twelve: Divine Purpose,The Shamanic Descent & the Dark Night of the Soul

Class Thirteen: Wrap up & Application

Rev. Mark A. Lyons, President
Drawing the Circle Productions INC.
DrawingtheCircle@aol.com
631-968-8307 @ProfWitch on Twitter

Witchclass Cycle One

 

New Cycle start Monday, April 21st, from 7pm. 

$10 per class, pay as you go.

The Silver Broom

46 Railroad Ave, Sayville NY 11782

This is our longest running class series.
Amy Krinner, my best friend & High Priestess, started teaching together 16 years ago to help clarify, educate & provide feedback to the burgeoning amount of information on Witchcraft.

We offer 3 different cycles on Witchcraft:

• Witchclass Cycle One: The Basic Art & Science
• Witchclass Cycle Two: Spellbook
• Witchclass cycle Three: Gods & Goddesses.

The cycles need not be taken in order & are geared toward practical application & living a magickal life.

For more information check out our website at www.drawingthecircle.com. or drop us a message at DrawingTheCircle@aol.com.

Blessed Be

Rev. Mark A. Lyons

~~~~~~

Witchclass Cycle One Description & Curriculum:

Whether you’re a Witch, a Witch in training, or just curious, these classes are a fun introduction to the Craft.

With a focus on the Witch’s Rede: “An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will” students learn the basics in the Art & Science of Witchcraft.

Join us for another cycle of this educational & enjoyable journey through the basics of Witchcraft. This 13 week series is in its 14th year of bringing together Witches of every race, age & spiritual background. We have trained Mothers & Daughters, Sisters & Wives. We have taught husbands & brothers, boyfriends & co-workers alike. We have made friends. We have discovered family. We have woven a community strand by strand.

Classes 1 through 11 are open. Classes 12 and 13 are closed,
Private Make up classes are available upon request.

Class One – The Basics of Witchcraft: What is a Witch? What is Witchcraft? Discussions on: the Witches Rede poetic version, the 13 principals of Witchcraft, Grounding / Centering, Witchcraft as an Art & Science. What is a Book of Shadows?

Class Two – Elements & Sacred Space: What are the 5 elements? Discussion of: elemental correspondences, the Pentacle, Altars, Purifying / creating sacred space

Class Three – Basic Spell Casting: How do you cleanse & consecrate? Discussion of: proper spell ingredients, symbolic correspondences, timing Magick with the Moon, phrasing your Intent, wording, taglines & loopholes for safe & effective magick.

Class Four -Astrology ( Intermediate Spell Casting): How Astrology effects Magick & Spellwork. Planet / Sign / House / Intent correspondences. Astrological aspects & spellwork (New & Full Moon alignments)

Class Five – Gods & Goddesses (Advanced Spell Casting): How Spirit = Energy, Plugging spells into divinity, Discussion of different pantheons, Gods & Goddesses Correspondences.

Class Six – The Wheel of the Year: Discussion of: the 8 holidays (holy days) of the Witch’s year, the 4 seasonal quarters, the 4 seasonal cross quarters, Seasonal Correspondences, Long-term spellwork, Ceremony / Ritual ideas.

Class Seven – Circle Casting: What is a Magickal Circle ? What does it do & how does it work? Programming circles. 6 easy to use versatile Circle Casts How to write circle casts for all occasions. Hands on demonstration.

Class Eight – Quarter Calls: What is a Quarter Call? Differences between Elements & Elementals. The how-to’s of Quarter calling: stirring, summoning, calling. How to close Quarters & Extensive directional correspondences

Class Nine – Divination: How a Witch uses divination. We discuss: Tarot, Runes, pendulum work, scrying & other oracles in the use of witchcraft. Several quick & easy spreads to help you fine-tune your magick.

Class Ten – Magickal Tools: Elemental correspondences with the different tools. How tools are used to focus our own inner power.
Magickal Tools show & tell. Fundamental teaching that “The Power is in the Witch.

Class Eleven – Ethics & Etiquette & Cycle Review: What is expected of a proper witch in public ceremonies: Before, During & After ceremony. Ethical do’s & don’ts when; applying specific spellwork, healing, in public& when binding / banishing. A review of classes 1 – 10

Class Twelve – Ritual Design: Application of all that was learned in the first 11 classes. Basic ritual outlines from start to finish. The whole class participates in designing the Graduation Ceremony.

Class Thirteen – Graduation Ceremony: Performance of the Ritual designed in Class 12.

Certificates of Completion given to each student.

Rev. Mark A. Lyons, President
Drawing the Circle Productions INC.
DrawingtheCircle@aol.com
631-968-8307 @ProfWitch on Twitter