For leaping toward what you desire
Between Two Fires
- 1 Light a fire. A candle, a match, a bonfire if you have one. Let it be real flame, not symbolic. If you can, light two.
- 2 Stand before it. Feel the heat on your skin. Fire does not hesitate. It moves toward what it can reach.
- 3 Name what you desire. Not what you should want. What you actually want. Say it to the fire. Be specific. Be honest. Desire is not shameful—it is fuel.
- 4 Leap. If your fire is small, step over it. If it's a candle, pass your hand through the space above the flame—quickly, with care. If you have two fires, walk between them. Let them mark you.
- 5 Carry the heat. The fire is in you now. You are allowed to want. You are allowed to move toward it.
Between Two Fires
Beltane means "bright fire." In the old practice, all hearth fires were extinguished, and two great bonfires were lit on the hilltops. Cattle were driven between them for protection. People leapt the flames for blessing, for luck, for fertility. You entered one thing; you exited another.
This is Samhain's bright mirror—the other hinge of the year when the veil thins. But where Samhain opens to the dead, Beltane opens to the living. The fair folk walk abroad. The hawthorn blooms but must not be brought indoors. Desire runs hot and is not shamed for it.
Fire transforms what it touches. To pass through flame is to consent to change. Beltane asks: what are you willing to burn for? What will you leap toward, even if you cannot see the landing?
Correspondences
- Materials
- Fire, red or white cloth, flowers, ribbon
- Plants
- Hawthorn, rowan, birch, wildflowers
- Moon
- Full or waxing gibbous
- Time
- Dusk into night, May Eve (April 30) or May Day
- Direction
- South (fire, will, passion)
I stand before the fire.
I name what I want without flinching.
I leap—not because I am certain,
but because I am willing.
Let the flame mark me.
Let the heat stay in my blood.
I am bright. I am burning.
I move toward what I desire.
Your intention: