Finding your practice where you are

With Beltane just around the corner, many Pagans are struggling to figure out how to celebrate without access to the people and places they normally turn to.  While many Pagans are somewhat solitary, and do practice at home, many others are used to being able to gather with others for festivals, or to be able to go to parks or other wild places.  We may even be finding that the stores we normally would get supplies and inspiration from are not open for us to browse and connect with others.

I think Beltane especially is challenging because it focuses on interaction, on fertility and romance.  Many of the descriptions of this Sabbat revolve around celebrating as a community, things like Maypole dances, that require space and people.  With the blooming of flowers, there is also a big involvement of nature, and even if there are natural spaces you can be out in, the world may not feel safe to you right now, which changes how you feel about going out and celebrating.

My personal practice has always been centered around using what I have.  I don't like the phrase 'making do' because it implies that you are somehow settling, like what you are doing is less than other ways of doing things.  There is absolutely a measure of not having your first choice of things, but I am a dreamer, if you ask me what my 'ideal' tools are or ritual location, my mind goes to crazy (but fun!) places. 

There is power in spending the time and money to get the specialty ingredients, in finding and going to that perfect spot, in gathering all the people together and weaving their energies...but there is also power in taking the simple, everyday things, the things that are already around you, and elevating them through ritual and intention.

It can be easy to fall into the mindset of "but I don't have..." or "but I can't..."  Having those thoughts doesn't make you a bad Pagan or a bad person!  It can feel overwhelming to try to figure out how to adapt established rituals and practices, but once you start looking for the essence of a thing, it becomes easier.

That is how I approach any type of adaptation, whether I am modifying something to fit modern life, taking a group practice and making it solitaire friendly, adapting a highly cultural practice to something more my speed or finding ways to practice with what I have on hand.  It's all about seeing what the meaning is behind something, and finding other ways to express it.

Beltane focuses on love and fertility, is often tied to the fae folk, and can represent the start of summer.  Many of the common practices support these themes, but they aren't the only way to celebrate them.

If you look at something like the Maypole, you have a lot of symbolism regarding sex and fertility.  The long pole capped with a ring or acorn, ribbons entwined together as people weave in and around each other, these all emphasize the interaction between male and female and mimic the sex act.  But this very biological act can also represent the greater creative process, where the right and left brains work together to bring a dream into reality.

Besides erecting an enormous pole in our yard and dancing around it, we can harness the Maypole energy in other ways.  We might tie a colored ribbon to a stick and dance with it in our living room.  Or we may make a Maypole inspired wand, weaving the ribbons along the length of the wand.  We might paint or draw the Maypole.  Or we could take a visualized journey and dance the Maypole there.

You might also want to break away from the Maypole image all together, and instead think about what the Maypole represents, and how you might express those energies and ideas.  If you are wanting love or fertility in your life, what can you do to call those to you?  If you are wanting to birth a creative project, how can you work towards manifesting that?

This process of breaking down a practice into it's essential parts, then rebuilding them back up into a different practice can be tricky to learn, but once you get the hang of it, the things you can do in your practice are limitless.  It no longer matters what you have or don't have, because you can find ways to work in new ways.

Sometimes this allows you to boil things down to their bare bones, and instead of a long, elaborate ritual, you now have a few very simple acts that are full of personal meaning and reflection.  But it can also allow you to tailor your entire ritual to the things that are important to you.  You can create exactly the practice you want, using things that feel potent to you, calling upon deities you connect with, and using imagery that really works for you.

It's like the difference between wearing someone else's hand-me-down clothes, which you may like the style of, but they never really fit you right, or maybe they are a bit worn around the edges, or the color just isn't right for you...and wearing an outfit you design, down to the last detail, fitted perfectly to you.

I've done rituals with offerings of crackers and cranberry juice, with crayon drawn pictures and a candle I found at the thrift store.  What brings the power is my acknowledgement of what each part means.  Once you find those connections, once you start figuring out what clicks for you, nothing can stop you.