The Spirit of May

I have fond childhood memories off the picking of mayflowers in Germany on the first day of May. Everyone would go out into the woods, have picnics and gatherings and pick a flower called "maigloekchen", which would later be made into a sweet, slightly sedating brew which we enjoyed with friends and family.

A similar traditional part of mayday celebration is the may bowl, made from sweet woodruff which by now is in full bloom in the garden. Sweet woodruff flavors the wine with its delicate white fragrant blossoms. Those of you who have access to this sweet herb should place a few blossoming sprigs in a glass bowl and pour a bottle or two of white wine over it, add a few strawberries to the concoction and enjoy a visual and culinary treat of may wine with your friends and loved ones.

The best known and very popular May Day ritual is of course the may pole. In Germany a fir tree was cut on May eve by the bachelors of the town. The branches and bark were removed except for the uppermost branches. The tree trunk was decorated with white and red ribbons, erected in the middle of the village square and guarded all night until the morning of May Day.

In the British Isles maypoles were raised well into our present time, particularly at sacred sites like the great Stonehenge in Amesbury.

Maypoles have been documented to be 80 to 130 feet tall. An important part of the maypole celebration is a round dance that takes place on mayday.

A dance of fertility and balance of male and female, the young man and woman hold the ends of the red and white ribbons that are attached to the top of the maypole and begin to dance around the pole in both directions, the boys going one way, the girls the other. As the ribbons wind around the pole and shorten, the round dance actually becomes a spiral dance with one group of dancers spiraling clockwise and the other counterclockwise; the dance becomes an expression of death and resurrection.

Tree trunks resembling the may pole have been discovered in the Celts sacred wells, which were considered portals to the underworld, and were used by druids to make offerings.

The maypole in its entirety represents the world-tree, its roots grounded in the underworld, and its branches reaching into the upper realms of spirit.

In Nordic mythology we find the legend of Odin and a tree called Yggdrasil, upon which he crucified himself for nine days and nights, until he sacrificed himself to his higher self and received the visions of the sacred runes. This is reminiscent of Christ sacrificing his physical self on the cross to be resurrected by the power of the divine spirit.

The roots of the tree represent the dark night of the soul, the descent into the darkness, the void, self doubt, fear and pain. The branches represent the reaching for the light, the eternal, life sustaining connection with the spirit, the heavenly realms of the soul.

It is also the tree trunk of the medicine man, its top piercing through the smoke-hole of his tent. It is along this trunk that the shaman rides to the upper world of spirit and the lower worlds of the dead

The maypole is a symbol of phallic energy signifying the power of the male quality of creative energy. It is the world tree and the venerated phallus, the connecting idea is that the spirit leaves the body and travels among the realms of spirit via the world tree during the shamanic journey, the near death experience or any other experience of spiritual initiation or physical death.

The spirit reenters the body after death and prior to rebirth via the phallus, entering the darkness of the womb were it is fed and nurtured into fullness and when "ripe' exits the darkness into the light through the gate of the female opening which is like the portal of life.

During the writing of this article my spirit guide IAN instructed me to go into my garden to sit under one of my trees to really feel the power of the information on a deeper spiritual level. I went into meditation under a tree and very quickly began to feel and receive the magnificent perfectionism of this life-sustaining entity.

The roots of the tree rooted in darkness draw from it the life sustaining nutrients, minerals and water essential to its survival. It channels this into each cell of the tree, each branch, the bark, leaves and flowers.

From above the tree receives light into its leaves, and using the energy of sunlight produces oxygen through photosynthesis.

Oxygen of course is the prana of life and enables us to breathe. We can survive without food or water for an extended period of time, but we will quickly diminish without the breath, the physical body cannot exist at all without oxygen.

The tree grows flowers, which turn into seeds transforming into fruit which falls from the tree onto the earth. There it decomposes into the soil where the seed begins to sprout in the darkness nurtured by the minerals, vitamins and enzymes of the decayed fruit which through its death allows for the possibility of new life. When ready, the new growth births itself by piercing through the earth into the light.

The evolutionary process serves as a metaphor of our physical, but also spiritual and emotional growth and process. By sacrificing ourselves to the darkness, our pain and fear, the dark night of the soul, we draw into ourselves life-sustaining emotional awareness and spiritual revelations that we need to grow and heal. The continuous cycle of death and rebirth we undergo while here in the body is necessary and natural, a highly positive process which leads us into enlightenment and bliss.

Just as important as growth through challenges, is the consistent awareness of the light of spirit above us, nourishing every cell with life giving light and prana.

Just like the tree drawing light into its leaves; we can draw the light of spirit into our bodies, souls and hearts by making a devoted effort to maintain a spiritual connection with the higher power of the divine, our angels, guides and higher selves.

The human body compares very much to a tree: the ROOT chakra located at the base of the spine provides for the grounding and nurturing of earth energy that we need to stay alive in the body. The CROWN chakra located at the top of the head provides the opening to draw the light of spirit into our system; in between the two is the spinal column which is just like the trunk of the tree, the maypole, yggdrasil or the shamans trunk and provides for the channeling of the energy from above and below throughout the whole system.

Very few of us have the luxury of erecting a maypole in our backyard, but we do have the option of inner celebration of the principle of the maypole. Bring your awareness to the awesome perfectionism of your physical and spiritual system. Remember your connection with the old ways, many of your ancestors celebrated the rituals of May. You are still connected through your cellular memory and can benefit from connecting yourself into consciousness of it. Think of your self as a world tree, with your roots firmly in the soil of the earth mother and your branches reaching for the light of spirit with every breath.

Mays newsletter shares a few ideas on how to celebrate the energy of May in your daily life.

Meditation: Become the Tree!

With your feet placed slightly wider than hips width apart, connect the soles of your feet with the earth energy, visualizing roots extending from your feet deep into the soil, drawing life nurturing beautiful emerald green energy back into your body. Your entire body is filled with the radiant healing emerald green earth energy.

Bring your awareness to your spine, keep your spine erect, visualize your spinal column completely aligned, each vertebrae stacked on top of the other perfectly. You feel lightness, yet an empowering strength moving through your spine.

Now bring your awareness to your upper body, extend your arms towards the sky, the palms of your hands facing upwards, your arms and hands are becoming the branches of the tree, beautiful rays of light from above are entering the palms of your hands, beginning to fill your entire being with divine light from above. The divine light heals and provides prana to every cell of your being.

You feel yourself becoming the perfect channel between the earth and the heavens. The power of spirit moves through you, the strength of the earth support you. You are a beautiful and radiant world tree.

Wishing you the happiest of May and as always may you and yours be blessed with an abundance of peace, harmony and balance.


Dorothea Delgado