Beltane comes with the whisper of apple blossoms.
The first inhalation of the exciting scent takes you to Emain Ablach, the Apple Estate – Avalon, the land of eternal youth.
Before Peter Pan began bringing lost children to Neverland, many of his predecessors had walked the same road. From Avalon came the tribes of the goddess Danu, who once inhabited Ireland, the fairy Morgana from the Arthurian cycle lived there, and Excalibur, Arthur’s sword, was created there.
Mortals could also get to this tempting otherworldly world – through mysterious caves and crevices, by water. And, of course, the inhabitants of the magical land themselves could take people there.
In Irish mythology, this place is called Sídhe (correctly read as “shee”, but we are more familiar with Sid). Sidhe was also the name for the inhabitants of this world – fairies.
And also the sidhe is the name of the hills. You have probably heard old legends and beliefs that under the hills fairies and elves celebrate and dance, and a person can get to their feast, but he should not try the food there or join the dance – he will return to the world of the living only after years.
Avalon has interesting dual properties – it seems to be a distant island of bliss, hidden somewhere there, in the west in the middle of the ocean. No, no, it is right here, under the hill, on the other side of the cave!
The other world turns out to be a reflection of the human world, the dark side of the coin.
Avalon is the unconscious, and the gates to it are symbolic: both beyond the oceans, and in the nearest hill, and in fact – inside each of us.
Twice a year, the thin but unbreakable border between the worlds becomes unusually permeable – on Samhain and Beltane.
Amidst the dancing and mighty fires of Beltane, it is easy to miss the fleeting scent of apple blossoms that will show the way to the unconscious.
Maybe in the old days, Walpurgis Night was so noisy and wild, so as not to notice, so as not to go into the inconvenient truth and not to look at your shadow?
What if you listen and notice? What if you gather your courage and step under the hills, dance with the fairies for a couple of centuries, flying by in one night?
Maybe we will learn something interesting about ourselves.
