The Beginning of something New for Everyone

Hi everyone I am Argonxander: most of you know me by Alaxzandros in the Game. I wanted to try and get this started for the Members to see how everyone feels about Wicca. I don't mind if your beliefs are Christian or anyother. I was just hoping that maybe we can get some feelings from everyone. Myrrin and I have discused this subject on many lengths and desided that maybe someone wanted to understand Wicca as a whole or just need advise on the many ways people see Wiccan and the Pagan lifestyle.. Please feel free to post anything that comes to mind.....I will do my best daily to answer everything you ask as long as you too can keep an open mind to what if...

The reason i used the name Argonxander is because long ago I was given this Wiccan Witch name.. Argonxander.

If you ever see me answer a message with ( MM) it means ( Merry Meet) or hello.. and for one to say goodbye it is ( BB) or ( Blessed Be).

Til Our Path Once More Meet > Blessed Be

Many links have been passed before my desk and only few have really fit the meaning of things in which fit the explantion you seek.

Beltane
Edinburgh’s Beltane festival traditionally takes place on the 30th of April every year on Calton Hill.

Edinburgh’s Beltane festival originates in the Scottish and Irish Gaelic pre-Christian festival of the same name.

The name itself is thought to have derived from a Gaelic-Celtic word meaning ‘bright/sacred fire’. It was held to mark and celebrate the blossoming of spring, and coincided with the ancient pastoral event of moving livestock to their summer grazing. It did not occur on any fixed solar date (the tradition of solstices and equinoxes is later in origin) but tended to be held on the first full moon after the modern 1st of May. Some sources suggest that the blooming of the Hawthorn was the primary signal for the event before the development of centralised calendars.

It was a celebration of the fertility of the land and their animals. The main traditional element which was common to all Beltane festivals was the fire which gave it its name. All the fires of the community would be extinguished and a new, sacred ‘Need Fire’ was lit by either the village head or spiritual leader. From this source one or two bonfires were lit, and the animals of the community would be driven through or between them. It was believed that the smoke and flame of the fires would purify the herd, protecting them in the year to come and ensuring a good number of offspring. The inhabitants of the village would then take pieces of the fire to their homes and relight their hearths, and dance clockwise around the bonfires to ensure good portents for them and their families.


I post these links in hopes that you can find answers in your heart and soul of why people choose another path in life


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eea0LITNUxE
this is a wonderul song to lift the spirits of which we libe in the Fires of Beltane Guild.

http://www.circlesanctuary.org/psg/
Another good sight to understand the meanings of Beltain

I've pretty much got a blank slate going here for me, so so long as yeh don't ask for donations! I'm okay with whatever we be doing.

Myrrin wrote:

Thank you for starting this off as a place of sharing and learning for all my friend. I wonder if you could give an explaination for just what our name, Fires of Beltane, means. I get asked this alot from people as I send out my recruitment message, the name has drawn alot of interest to us.


hugs
Myrrin

Simply put, Spring Equinox, Passover, Easter, Earth Day, and Beltane (May Day) all fall within a brief six week period each year.

Beltane (alternate spellings include Beltaine, Beltene, and Bealtaine), an ancient Celtic fire-festival, falls within the astrological sign of Taurus the Bull ( <--my sign ), thereby associating the celebration with the robust life-force of eros in humans and their herds. Spring and New Life. That is where you get Bunnies handing out Eggs. The egg is the symbol of life, and what are rabbits known for? That's right reproducing. Dancing around the May Pole is also associated with Beltain. As are many other traditions most people don't even understand, but have become ingrained in the way we all celebrate certin Holidays. The Fire is for Purification, just as with Wicker Man has become an image of redemption and renewal. incidentally, this annual mock sacrifice of a large wicker-work figure (representing the vegetation spirit) may have been the origin of the misconception that Druids made human sacrifices.

Beltane and Samhain were the year’s two great fire festivals -- they divided the year in half and marked the time when the veils between the worlds were at their most vulnerable, when spirits moved freely through the portals and enchantment abounded. In respecting such powers, the celebrations called for holy fires, kindled from the trees most revered by the Celts – among these were rowan, birch, apple, oak, hawthorn, holly, and alder. Such magical woods were believed to be “specialists” in protecting and purifying people and animals from disease and infertility. Where Samhain’s autumn fires were a time of thanksgiving, Beltane’s fires welcomed the sun’s return and therefore had specially focused powers of renewal. That is why the Celts at Beltane drove their treasured herds and flocks along a narrow pathway between two banks of burning wood piles, through the holy, incense-like smoke, asking for mighty blessings upon the animals and themselves.