Awakening Longing: The Rites of Béaltaine

Name: Awakening Longing: The Rites of Béaltaine
Start: 2026-05-02T19:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-05-02T22:00:00-07:00
Location: Church of Truth

Schedule

Sat May 02 2026 at 07:00 pm to 10:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Church of Truth | Victoria, BC

From great longing comes the clarity, passion, and magic to make great change.
Come to the circle for: Teachings, Irish storytelling, ceremonial rite, and dance celebration.
May 2, 7-9:30pm
Church of Truth
sliding scale: $30-$55
$30: subsidized
$35-45: resourced
$45-55: resourced + contributing to subsidizing others who are less resourced.
Béaltaine (bee-ELT-enn-ah) is an ancient Irish ceremonial feast to mark the seasonal passage from winter to spring. This is one of four fire festivals celebrated in Ireland from prehistory. The meaning of the word Béaltaine in Irish Gaeilge comes from the word ‘tene’, meaning ‘fire’, and the word ‘Béal’ meaning ‘mouth’; but may also refer to the early Gaulish fertility deity, ‘Belenus’. The word ‘Bel’ also means ‘bright’.
This is the festival of the mouth of the bright fire of fertility.
This festival is celebrated in the time from full moon to new moon, and it has come from a time of hunger in spring, as the crops would not have grown sufficient to feed the village, and food stores would have been depleted after winter. This time of year was the most dangerous for Irish people; requiring long hours of work to prepare and plant fields with little sustenance. It was these times when the goddess and the village was celebrated for surviving the winter.
Béaltaine also celebrates passion and connection of new love.
Hunger, longing, dreaming for nourishment, and the awakening of passion of humans meet the awakening of new growth in the Land and all Her creatures.
This is a time of great magic, as well as great vulnerability. Villagers coming together to practice rites of seasonal passage would protect the luck and continued prosperity of the village, and bring passions together to create new growth. As all Irish seasonal rites in the wheel of the year, the weaving of worlds together, the unseen worlds and the world of the village, are renewed and celebrated.
Facilitated by: Dawn Dancing Otter, BFA, M.A., D.SocSci(candidate). DDO is a ceremonialist, researcher, and scholar of Irish Rites. She is a teacher and facilitator of ritual work in decolonizing spaces, including sacred passages of birth, coming of age, taking oaths, dying, loss, and grief.
This Béaltaine evening is part teaching circle, part Irish storytelling, part ceremony, and part dance and celebration of the awakening of longing and passion.
DDO invites the community to come together to contribute presence and magic, and learn how to integrate our human natures with the forces of nature.
space is limited, early registration is recommended.
Contact: [email protected] to register.
All adult humans from all cultures are welcome.
This will be a transpersonal and ecstatic space. For safety and inclusivity, please do not bring or arrive altered by substances or journey plants. Please do not wear perfumes or strong scents.