Dancing at the Crossroads

May Day, or what the Celts called Beltane, is one of my favorite days of the year. Ancient European cultures celebrated this day with fertility traditions that included feasts, dancing, and weaving bright-colored ribbons around a Maypole to encourage young men & women to frolic with one another.

With the plentiful sunshine and newly blooming flowers, it seems as though the earth itself erupts in joy, and we can't help but allow our spirits to follow suit by celebrating the color and vibrancy of the season.

One of my personal rituals this time of year is to take a "wildflower walk" in the woods near my home to catch a glimps of the earliest blooms. The photo above is of wild violets that sprout along my favorite path, and below are trout lilies that are always the first to blossom and herald spring.



One of the more rare and whimsical flowers along my walk is called the "toad trillium" because its leaves are so large that they're the perfect canopy for secretive toads. It's velvety blood-red color also lends itself to an abundance of fairy tale musings...

And then there are the spectacular white trilliums that often cover an entire hillside in the woods like a luxurious gift from nature hereself.

It's this gift of warmth & light & color that always makes my heart soar. And one of my very favorite expressions of spring joy comes from the Irish tradition called "Dancing at the Crossroads." Folklore maintains that if you grab a partner at the place where two paths meet and dance a jig with pure joy in your heart, fertility & abundance will soon be on its way. The more laughter the better, so particularly from the 18th through 19th centuries, travelers in the Irish countryside might suddenly stumble upon a group of young men & women singing & engaging in a winsome dance...

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This photo from Ireland in 1891 shows such a dance about to start. Who wouldn't want to release all their cares in the warm sunshine & allow their feet to skip to the tune of a lively melody, flirting all the while? What a marvelous way to kick off a spring romance or to simply forget your troubles and smile...

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Yet something that charming and potentially sensous would have to attract haters from one corner or another, wouldn't it? And indeed it did—by 1935, the practice of Dancing at the Crossroads was banned in Ireland by the Public Dance Halls Act, which forced these spontaneous expressions of joy to move to buildings that could be monitored & regulated. Open air dancing was considered "sinful" by the Catholic church, and the photo above captures one of the last "legal" crossroad dances in Glendalough, County Wicklow in the early 1930s before it was banned. Nevertheless, many scholars believe rural dancing was the basis for all forms of Irish dancing that are so popular today.

And I can't help it—every time I look at this sepia-toned photo of couples weaving into dance as shadows grow long and the day eases into twilight, I think about their brazen act of joy and defiance, especially on May Day. Because by the 1930s, Dancing at the Crossroads was already denounced in fire & brimstone messages from pulpits and by proper people of "high station". And yet despite the social censure, these country couples danced anyway...

Could there be a better testimony to the fertile power of Beltane?  So on my wildflower walks, even when a sadness has invaded my life, or I face a seemingly unsurmountable obstacle that seems to want to crush me into submission, I often think about these dancers who were inspired by the sun & warmth & fragrance of spring, as well as the soft dirt beneath their feet. And for just a moment, out there in a natural setting, I refuse to allow cold & brittle thoughts or restrictions to dominate my soul. And sometimes—when no one is looking—I give a silent wink to the wildflower fairies and ask the universe to open my heart to all that is good & beautiful & abundant. And then I pick up my feet in the spirit of May Day and dance... 

Irish Enchantment

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Why is it that Ireland can boast the largest number of Nobel Prize winners in Literature per capita than any other country in the world? Seamus Heaney, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw & William Butler Yeats have each been awarded the most coveted prize in literature, and the following literary luminaries were all born in Ireland: Jonathan Swift, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, James Joyce, Edna O'Brien & Bram Stoker! Many have argued that Ireland's marvelous tradition of storytelling contributes to the imagination & narrative skill of its countrymen & women. But I also like to think something else has given rise to the Emerald Isle's storytelling magic over the years—their enchanted worldview.

And what would I know of such Irish enchantment? Plenty—for my mother was raised by my Irish great grandmother who'd grown up in Ireland & experienced the "old ways" long before Ireland had even achieved independence from Britain.

Here is a picture of my great grandmother Margaret O'Hara on her wedding day in 1899. Note how very slim she appears (her raven-haired head is nearly as large as her waist!), for Ireland was not long from the famine that had plagued the country in the 19th century. But along with her fondness for Irish lace & crystal, indomitable will hardened by persecution from the Protestant Orange Order, and extroardinary hospitality that is always a hallmark of Irish culture, Margaret O'Hara brought something else along with her to the United States: an animated view of the world that is deeply rooted in a belief in magic . . .

As a girl from a poor Catholic family, Margaret O'Hara grew up in what you & I would call an "Old World" stone cottage with a sandy floor & a fire-burning hearth where they cooked all their meals—and then told legends to whittle away the dark evening hours. And it was those stories that my great grandmother repeated to my own mother when she was a girl—tales of a fairy behind every bush, ghostly banshees who scream to let you know when someone will die, and a whole score of spells (with their accompanying holy oils) that needed to be cast to insure friendly weather & a good harvest of crops. Below is my very favorite photo of my great-grandmother and my mother walking hand in hand in a field during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was a tough time in the United States, but though they had few material items to share, my great grandmother made up for it by telling my mother enchanted stories of every tree & flower & hill that coincided with Celtic myths & legends on their long walks together.

For you see, to Margaret O'Hara, those legends wouldn't have been far away or long ago at all. To the ancient Celts & even the more modern Irish like Margaret O'Hara, time was once viewed as cyclical—a series of spirals that makes the legendary past always present and very alive. In current times, we tend to think of life as linear, with one event following after the other as though life passes by on a conveyor belt. But to the Celts, time has parallel dimensions that are not a line but are rather a circle or connection of spirals. “What lies beneath” might be a more appropriate catch phrase, because instead of viewing time as a swift moving stream, the Celts viewed it as more of a lake. We who are living now are simply leaves floating on the surface of that lake. But underneath us is a vast depth of All-Time filled with ancestral spirits & legendary figures who are still active in their realm—and that dimension has influence on us in the present day. So that means the fairies of yesteryear continue to come out to play & to create mischief (especially on the Celtic holidays of Beltane & Samhain—May Day & Halloween). So you'd better know the right spells & biscuits to bake to keep the particularly naughty ones at bay! And to Margaret O'Hara, a sudden warm breeze & call of a bird just as shadows beneath trees start to mysteriously shift were all clear evidence of the fairies' activities. It goes without saying, of course, that you'd better be a good girl for Gram because if you weren't, you just might be given to the ragpicker—or even worse, to a roving band of unscrupulous fairies . . .

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Did I happen to mention that no one could curse like my mother? Oh, she never swore or took the Lord's name in vain, but believe me, she could look you in the eye & utter an old Irish curse with such spellbinding venom that you'd think for certain all hell was about to rain on your head. "A pox on you!" she'd cry to someone who dared to steal her parking spot, "may you be fed hogwash and be boiled in oil." Or to the person who coldly swiped a bargain she was about to grab, "Crows' curse upon you," she'd grumble, "and the devil take your last shilling." Far more common for her were the blessings, however—for I grew up believing there were helpful fairies & angels hovering as close as a breath, if only we had eyes to see them. "But we can always feel them with our hearts," my mother explained, "if we we stop long enough to listen"—and she was convinced that they were attracted by our laughter and joy . . . 

Is it any wonder with such an animated worldview that I grew up to write books that feature magic & whimsy intersecting with every day life such as Twixt & Robin in the Hood? Like those Emerald Isle writers that came long before me, I too was influenced by an enchanted Irish worldview that made my mother's life full of possibility & miracles—and I'm so grateful that it gave me the courage to believe . . .

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P.S. Since March is the month of Saint Patrick's Day, I just can't help but let you know about 2 new enchanting love potions/fragrances from Magickal Perfumerie that feature fairies & leprechauns. And yes, I ordered them myself! I don't receive kickbacks from this company at all—I just find their fragrances are so intoxicating & exquisite that I can't help sharing them with everyone. You can find their new fragrances at www.lovepotionperfume.com. Enjoy!

Pixie Dust Fragrance Description: Where the tall trees stand like sentinels upon the land, guarding those sacred & secret places known only to the Fae . . . the Sun has returned to the world & lain its golden warmth upon the land & the Pixies rejoice in the coming of light & scatter their delicate magic upon everything they see. Their trilling chorus of exultation awakens the birds & the flowers to herald another season of creation & the blooms which burst forth in so much chromatic glory are the surest sign that Spring is come. We can all now turn our faces to the light & smile in its beneficence . . .
Magickal Meaning of Ingredients:
VANILLA ~ Aphrodisiac, inspires happiness, playfulness, sexual arousal, lust, vitalizing.
WISTERIA ~ Welcoming of new person into your life. Youth, eloquence.
LILAC ~ Inspires peace and harmony, humility, youthfulness, protection.
HELIOTROPE ~ Clairvoyance, healing, protection, wealth, exorcism, invisibility.
MUSK ~ Self confidence and strength, sexual attractant, heightens passions and arousal.

Leprechaun Luck Fragrance Description: Golden honeysuckle blossoms will show you the money, especially when dipped in a light sweet honey, given a spritz of shiny lemon, and topped with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream and a dash of warm ginger. And because wealth attracts wealth, we’ve included a sparkly swirl of 24kt gold leaf inside every bottle!
Magickal Meanings of Ingredients:
HONEYSUCKLE ~ Bonds of love, generosity; attracts money, prosperity, clairvoyance, healing, creativity, protection.
HONEY ~ Enticing, seductive; use to bewitch a straying or hesitant lover. Happiness, fulfillment.
LEMON ~ Energizing, uplifting. Longevity, faithfulness, fidelity, friendship. Used to attract spirits.
GINGER ~ Fiery and fortifying, induces passion. Intensifies love spells and success spells. Love, money, success, power. Ginger increases sensitivity in the erogenous zones.
MILK/BUTTER/CREAM ~ Nurturing, soothing, eases troubled relationships. Goddess energy.
24kt GOLD ~ Gold is masculine in energy and a representation of the sun. It's energy is projective and aggressive, and represents wealth and prosperity.