Beltane: Listening at the Fire Edge
by Paul Robear

Beltane, the Gaelic May Day festival, marks the beginning of summer tomorrow. This ancient Celtic celebration of fire and fertility is a potent threshold—when the veil between worlds thins and life surges with intensity.

As I considered how to honor Beltane this year, a simple idea came: maybe I’ll just listen. Listen deeply—to the wind moving through the trees, to the warmth stirring in my own chest, to the quiet presence of the fire within.

The ancient ones knew this time well: a celebration of light, of growth, of sacred union. At the Cuyamungue Institute, our work aligns with these seasonal tides, inviting us to embody transformation through ancient, remembered technologies of the sacred.

Beltane reminds us that presence is a fire—one that kindles renewal not just in nature, but within. As we move, posture, and breathe into altered states, we cross our own sacred thresholds, just as our ancestors did. The body becomes the ritual site. And in that space, we are never alone. The wisdom of those who came before us walks with us still.

So we see Beltane not only as a festival of the land, but as an inner rite of passage. May we meet this season with open hearts, kindled spirits, and the courage to step fully into the fertile unknown.

At the Cuyamungue Institute, as we explore ancient Trance Postures and ritual as doorways to direct experience, the turning of the wheel of the year is not just symbolic—it is visceral, alive in the body.