Celebrating Beltane and Receiving From the Earth

This month we are welcoming the fire energy of Beltane, a pagan tradition celebrating the onset of Summer and the sun fueled growing season. After a very intense April, we can look forward to this fire energy burning away and transmuting everything that has come up to been seen, held with love and acceptance, and released over the past month. In the first three months of this year, I've noticed a strong collective clearing of very ancient energy blockages in our lower energy centers (solar plexus, sacral, and root), and see these clearings as an invitation to begin drawing more of our higher conscious awareness down into these primal centers of life force energy. For too long our spirituality has been falsely separated from these lower energy centers that connect and ground us to the Earth and allow us to thrive in this physical existence. This separation has kept us in a state of disconnection from the Earth and has prevented the natural flow of divine love life force energy into and out of these energy centers

When we begin to consciously work deeply with energy, it becomes clear that there is a balanced flow to all of existence, and each of us is a point which energy flows into and out of. This means that when there are imbalances in our lives, we must ask - where is the energy not flowing? Where are there blocks or conflicts? Very often the energetic blockages that disrupt our lives to get our attention are rooted in imbalanced energies of giving and receiving. What I've noticed in both myself and others is that there is a major collective blockage in the ability to receive, especially when it comes to this Earth-based physical reality. Even in the spiritual community - or maybe especially in the spiritual community - most practices around receiving focus on our higher energy centers and receiving "high vibrational" energy from the heavens as if these energies are more divine than those in physical form here on this Earth. The same is true of where we typically send prayers and blessings. Everything is sent up to the heavens, while our physical reality is largely ignored. Of course these practices of connecting with the light realms are important, but it is equally important to open our lower energy centers to the flow of giving and receiving in physicality, to and from the Earth.

It is important to clarify here that receiving is not the same as taking. Taking is a forceful act, while receiving is an act of openness and vulnerability. Being open to receive while not forcefully demanding to get that which exactly meets your expectations is a gift both to yourself as well as to the giver. If we look closely, we can see in our own lives as well as in the world around us where we've been conditioned to take from the Earth in order to survive because we are not open to receive the gifts that she gives naturally. This is deeply rooted programming that we must untangle ourselves from a little at a time, as we open ourselves up more and more to receiving what the Earth has prepared for us. Within this transition we will find that by opening to receive, we will naturally be asked to give of ourselves more freely and openly, both to the Earth and her inhabitants.  

In celebration of Beltane and the impending onset of life and vitality given by the summer sun, I encourage you to set the intention to begin giving and receiving more openly in this physical existence. Remembering that receiving with gratitude is as important as giving freely, and that a block in one flow results in a block in the other. Keep an open mind with this practice and notice after you set the intention, what are you being given? What are you asked to give in return? What does it feel like to be open to what comes into your field without specific expectations? It is amazing what transformations can occur when we let go of expectation and open to receive that which is in the highest good of ourselves and all beings rather than what we have imagined for ourselves. From this place we can begin to also give from a feeling of abundance, deeply knowing that we are safe and cared for in this existence, on this Earth. It is here that true, supportive, connection forms, and we can learn how to be interdependent beings forming mutually beneficial relationships and community from a place of love and non-attachment.