EverGreedy...Make
a Maypole
By Natalie Zaman and Kat Clark
It's Beltane~the season of the Goddess. The earth comes back to life and we celebrate the power of creation.
British in origin, the traditional Maypole is tied with red and white ribbons; red for the God, and white for the Goddess. The red ribbons also symbolize energy, and the white, purity.
Dancers make a circle, symbolic of the feminine and the Goddess, and spiral around the Maypole, a symbol of male energy and the God. We're going to make a Maypole with the BIGGEST part of our EverGreedy pile--the trunk of the Yule tree!
By this time, you've probably stripped off all the branches so that it looks like a big stick. The rest is easy. Simply tie alternating red and white ribbons to the top of the pole. The number of ribbons depends on the number of dancers that you'll have. Think of using a magical number, for example, eight of each color to represent the eight sabbats of the year.
When you're ready to set the Maypole up for your celebration, you can use the same tree stand you used at Yule, except you may want to weigh it down with bricks or stones. You can always enlist the help of a brave vounteer to hold it steady during the dance--but you may want to warn him that he might get a bit tangled up!
If possible, alternate your dancers: male, female, male etc., and have them hold alternating color ribbons; white for the girls and red for the boys. When the music starts (we like Jethro Tull's Cup of Wonder or Beltane!), the girls will move clockwise around the Maypole. Clockwise is an invoking direction, and this sabbat celebrates the beginning of the Goddess season. The boys will move--you guessed it--counterclockwise, the direction used for closing. As your dancers move, they should also alternate passing their ribbons over and under each other--if done correctly, the ribbons will weave around the Maypole--good luck!
The season of the God is over for a time, and here we say farewell to him, but for a while...