Beltane & Witches Night

In episode 16, Beltane & Witches Night, I talk about Beltane and Walpurgisnacht

Overview

In this vibrant episode of Money & Magic, host Chey, the WitchyBookkeeper, takes us into the heart of Beltane, celebrated on May 1st. Beltane marks the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, embodying the peak of spring and symbolizing warmth, fertility, and abundance. Chey elegantly ties the festival’s theme of rejuvenation to personal growth, urging listeners to embrace the transitioning energies as they look to cultivate their money and life goals.

With the veil between worlds thinnest during Beltane—akin to its opposite, Samhain—Chey cautions against the tempting but potentially misleading fairy rings and introduces another lesser-known celebration: Walpurgisnacht. This ‘springtime Halloween’ known as the Night of the Witches sets the stage for Beltane by opening the veil even further on the night before May 1st.

Listeners who seek practical guidance will find delight as Chey isn’t just about the mystique but also provides a free Beltane guide complete with rituals, journal prompts, and tarot spreads both for novices and experienced practitioners. Additionally, she shares how Beltane’s fire element, essential to the sabbath’s celebrations, can be honored through bonfires or the simple lighting of candles.

Whether you’re seeking tips for your Beltane celebration or curious about the enchanting traditions of this joyous time, this episode offers an enticing blend of esoteric wisdom and actionable advice. And stay tuned for the next episode, where Chey brings the podcast back to practical money matters with an insightful discussion on credit card usage.

So, gather around the bonfire or light a candle, and delve into this episode of Money & Magic to learn more about Beltane and how its magical energies can influence your financial journey!

Transcript

Welcome to money and magic, the podcast that combines the mystical with the practical to help you navigate money in the Muggle world. I’m your host, shy, remote bookkeeper and judgment free money coach. I hope this podcast helps you create a harmonious relationship with your finances that empowers you to lead your truly magical life. Let’s get started. Hey, magical human. Welcome back to money and magic. On today’s episode, we are talking about one of my favorite pagan holidays, and that is Beltane. I know I’ve probably said this about several other sabbats, but Beltane is truly one of my favorites.
And as with every other Sabbath or witchy thing we’ve discussed, this is the research that I have done for myself. This is my disclaimer that if you celebrate something differently, that is great. If you don’t believe in the things that I talk about, that’s also great. You do. You take what feels right to you and leave what doesn’t. So let’s go ahead and jump into it and talk about what the heck is Beltane. Beltane occurs on May 1, and it is called a cross quarter day because it marks the halfway point between the spring equinox, or Ostara, which we had an episode about, and the summer solstice, which happens in June. So this is considered the peak of spring.
We are technically right in the middle of spring, and this sabbath is the opposite of Samhain. So we are on the other side of the year. We are warming up, we are letting winter go, and we are ready to move into the season of fire. Beltane is a fire festival, and it actually comes from a Gaelic term that means bright fire. This is a time where the God and the goddess, or the divine masculine and the divine feminine come together and they are bringing fertility to the earth. You should be able to start seeing baby birds and rabbits and all the other little baby critters coming out and about. I don’t know about you, but when I look outside in my yard, my fruit trees are flowering, my asparagus is growing, all of the stuff. All of our perennials that went to sleep for the winter time are springing back to life here.
Soon we’ll be planting our summer veggies. So this is a time of abundance and new beginnings, leaving that cold, stagnant winter energy behind. And we are bringing in the passion and the fire energy, and we are moving right towards summer when it comes to Beltane. Being that this is the sabbath that is opposite of Samhain, the veil between worlds is very thin, and when I say between worlds. I don’t necessarily mean between the living and the dead. I mean all worlds. This time of year is really known for the fairies to come out and play. It is known for trickery from the fae.
So if you’re out walking around and you just happen to see a fairy ring, a ring of mushrooms or a ring of flowers, do not enter it. I’m telling you right now, whether you believe in fairies or not, please just take my advice and do never enter a fairy ring. This is the time of year that they really start to pop up, because the weather is great for that, and so it doesn’t look too suspicious, and they will trap you if you’re not careful. So you might be wondering, well, how the heck do I even celebrate Beltane? And one thing I love about Beltane is it’s a fire festival. So the easiest way to celebrate is to have a bonfire. If you’re not able to have a bonfire, if you live somewhere where you don’t have a yard and you can’t go out and have a fire, you can light a candle inside. If you’re not able to light a candle inside, then you could always do one of the battery operated candles. Go to a friend’s house, find some way to do something with fire, whether it be real fire or battery operated, because building a fire is a way for you to help honor the sun gods.
Fire is believed to have a lot of purifying qualities. One, a lot of people do, like controlled burns when it comes to grasslands and things like that. We have a local nature conservancy where I live, and they do a controlled burn on a lot of their properties every single year. And that is because it helps purify that ground, it helps purify the space. So the new and native plants that want to grow can now pop up because it has been cleansed and rejuvenated. So when you have a fire, it can also help cleanse and rejuvenate you. If you’ve never celebrated any of these sabbaths, or if you’ve never celebrated Beltane, also called May Day, then I also have a free Beltane guide that you can get in the show notes. And it kind of gives you a bunch of different ways you can celebrate.
One way that a lot of people choose to celebrate Beltane is by doing a hand fasting. Because this Sabbath is all it is. It is full of love and fertility and abundance. And so many people who are trying to find love or they’re wanting to conceive, they would jump over the bell. Fire. For luck, love, and fertility. Something else that I personally have done in the past, and a lot of people do this time of year with Beltane is they do a maypole, and it was super cool when I did it with a group of friends a few years ago. We literally just take a pole.
In this case, my friend’s son had an old flagpole, so he put it out in the middle of the yard for us. We taped all different colored ribbons to the top of it. We each grabbed a ribbon, we played music, and then we just danced around this pole. As we danced around the pole in a circle, then we kind of weaved in and out under each other, and we’re decorating this pole with all of these different colored ribbons. It was super cool. And when it was all over, we had this pole that had a beautiful flower up top and all these different colors. So it was something that was really fun, and I definitely recommend doing this is also a great idea for you to do with your kids because it’s fun. It’s easy.
It’s not something that is strictly tied to any type of religion. Like, yes, you’re celebrating May Day, which is a pagan holiday, but just a maypole is so much fun, especially for the kids. So definitely check that out. The biggest way to celebrate mayday or Beltane is to do something with fire. So if you can get out there, have a fire of some sort, and just thank the gods of fire for or thank the sun gods for the warmth and everything that it’s bringing back to life, because this is a very important time of year. You also want to pay attention to your dreams that you’re having this time of year. You want to kind of be mindful of what you’re thinking. We are officially out of eclipse season now, so things should kind of get back to a little less chaotic.
And so this is a great time to maybe reflect on the past seasons. What do you want to plant going into the summer, and how can you honor that yourself? Now, there’s something else that I want to talk about in this episode that I personally believe kind of goes with Beltane but isn’t necessarily talked about a whole lot, and that is the celebration of Walpurgisnacht. Now, this is a German word, so if I mispronounce that and you’re German, I do apologize. But this happens on April 30. So Beltane Eve into May 1, and Walpurgisnacht is also known as Hexenacht, or night of the witches. Walpurgisnacht is actually exactly six months from Samhain. And this is where the veil begins to thin. So by the time we get to May 1 and we’re celebrating the holiday of Beltane, the veil is already thin because of Walpurgisnaat.
So what is this? It’s actually a German folklore, that it was believed to be the night of a witches meeting on the Brocken, which is the highest peak in the Harz mountains in Germany. And there’s actually a quote from Jacob Grimm, from the Grimm fairy tales, that says there is a mountain, very high and bare, where on it is given out that witches hold their dance on Walpurgis night. And so the theories that go with this way back to German times, said that witches would dance on this mountain, conduct wild rituals, and they would meet with the devil. Now, this peak in the Harz mountains is surrounded by a dense, evergreen forest. It has a lot of rock formations kind of jutting out from the slopes and mountains. And there’s a lot of different things around this mountain that make it kind of mystical. So, of course, it makes sense that people would have chosen that as the place for the witches to hang out, because it sounds like a very witchy place to me. And this was a night for rebellion, and rumors would have it that they’d see witches flying across the sky on their brooms.
Obviously, we all know witches don’t fly on brooms, but it was very interesting at that time to hear things like that. That’s where a lot of these rumors come from. And although the celebrations of this night go farther back than the actual name of the holiday, the festival of Walpurgis night is named after the English Christian missionary saint Walpurga. She was actually said to be the saint of anti witchcraft. So I find it fitting that those two kind of go hand in hand. This day is commonly known to many witches as the springtime Halloween. A lot of witches love Samhain, but they love the night of the witches even more because it is not as commercialized. I just recently started celebrating this holiday, so it’s not something that I’m super familiar with yet, but I’m definitely learning, and I love the idea of all of the things that surround this, and being called Night of the witches just sounds so cool to me.
So regardless of whether you decide to celebrate the night of the witches, whether you decide to celebrate May Day or you choose not to celebrate any of this at all, the only thing that I want you to be very careful of, no matter what your beliefs are, is stay out of the fairy circles this time of year. Because I’m telling you, they can be crazy. Have a bonfire. Try to celebrate welcome in the cross holiday between summer and spring and know that the dark times are behind us. We’re heading towards the light and it is time to start growing. I hope this episode taught you something that you didn’t already know and if you do choose to celebrate these, I would love to hear about it. Remember, I have that free Beltane guide for you to download. So if you want to start celebrating and have nowhere to have no idea where to start, this is a great place.
It breaks down rituals and journal prompts and tarot spreads, all for the beginner and those of you that have done this for years. Either way, there’s a ton of information in there and it is completely free. I’d love for you to check it out. And like I said, if you do choose to celebrate, find me on Instagram and let me know what you did for these holidays. Or shoot me an email because I always love hearing how my listeners are accomplishing their money goals or how they’re celebrating the same holidays that I celebrate. Regardless of what you do, I just ask that you be mindful of your actions, stay out of the fairy rings and keep your mind open. You never know what this time of year might bring on the next episode. We are talking about more money stuff and we are jumping into credit cards.
Now you might think, credit cards? What the heck? But my goal is to kind of give you an overview of how I use credit cards and how I pay them off each month and how I earn rewards and all of the fun stuff on using credit cards responsibly. So that will be our next episode and I will see you there. And that’s a wrap for another spellbinding episode of Money and Magic. I hope you learned something that can help you navigate money in the Muggle world. If you have any questions, topics, or even your own money and magic story that you’d like to share, reach out to me on social media. I’d love to hear from you, you and if you have found the show insightful, I’d truly appreciate it. If you could take a moment to subscribe, leave me a review and share money and magic with your friends and family. Think of it like casting a spell to help others on their financial journeys.
As always, stand tall, shine bright and stay grounded. I’ll see you next time.

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with me on Instagram and TikTok
• Learn more about how we can work together by visiting my website 
• Check out my Money Alchemy course 101 HERE
• Download the FREE Beltane Guidebook HERE

More about Money & Magic:

Welcome to Money & Magic, the podcast that combines the mystical with the practical to help you navigate money in the muggle world. Hosted by Chey, the Witchy Bookkeeper, we explore the emotional and spiritual dimensions of money, as well as provide actionable advice on budgeting, investing, and helping you create a harmonious relationship with your finances that empowers you to lead a truly magical life. 

Whether you’re seeking financial freedom, looking to overcome money blocks, or simply want to learn how to make your financial dreams a reality, Money & Magic is here to inspire, educate, and empower you on your journey. Join us every other Wednesday and discover that, with the right mindset and a touch of magic, you can turn your financial dreams into reality.

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