Eve of Bealtaine/Beltane 🔥🌿

On the eve of Bealtaine, one of the great festivals of the Gaelic calendar, the ancient Irish marked the beginning of summer.

Falling on May 1st, Bealtaine is a cross-quarter day, midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. While traditionally fixed by the calendar, its true astronomical midpoint can fall a few days later.

Fire lay at the heart of the festival. Great bonfires were lit on hilltops, symbolising purification, protection, and renewal. Cattle—central to early Irish life—were often driven between twin fires to safeguard them from disease as they were moved to summer pastures.

Bealtaine was also seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld grew thin. Rituals were performed to ward off harmful spirits and to ensure prosperity in the months ahead.

From these ancient rites comes the Irish name for May: “Mí na Bealtaine.”

🔥

Bealtaine: Ireland's Fire Festival
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ST1hQWz8JeU&si=V56_vEYXHBSjs7gq

"One must live in such a way that there remains life in death." — Fray Luis de León

Ethnic faith is the spiritual link to multi-generations of ancestors.

True Paganism is race and land centered religion. It is the vital life force that inspires, breathes life, gives courage, strength & the will to protect & preserve our heritage into eternity.

Just like all ethnic groups, our blood is unique and holy. We must recognize this & safeguard it.

Christianity & Islam are one world uni-religions which are both working toward the same global homogeneous end game that lefty cultural Marxists are working towards. The idea that right wing Christianity is different than leftist multiculturalism is a hoax. Read the New Testament. It tells you that race is irrelevant, betray your kin-group to rally around the ideology working towards a one world kingdom headquartered in Jerusalem.

I don't need the blood of a Jewish messianic zealot to cleanse my soul. We need more of our Folk to realize our OWN blood is our salvation.

We must remember we are from sacred stock, bound to sacred lands.

CE

Proceed with Caution -

Stanza 1 of the Havamal:

The man who stands at a strange threshold,
Should be cautious before he cross it,
Glance this way and that:
Who knows beforehand what foes may sit
Awaiting him in the hall?
(Auden and Taylor translation)

"I noticed that the birds are always so cautious, especially the little ones. Tiny European robins and the even more microscopic blue tits are downright nervous about checking all directions thrice before landing for seed. Unlike the pigeons, they don’t hang around and eat at leisure, they grab what they can hold and bolt. It does look stressful to me.

On one hand, I’m grateful that humans build civilization that minimizes the constant threat of attack by beast or human foe. But, on the other hand, it is a reminder that we have been lulled into such sense of complacency that we are blinded to imminent threats." - CE

from "Learn from the Birds" - PDF for subs - www.subscribestar.com/OakwiseBecoming

Gold Bracteate – The Earliest Mention of Odin

This 5cm gold pendant from early 5th-century Denmark was discovered in 2020 as part of the rich Vindelev Treasure.

Front image: Man with elaborate hairstyle, horse-like animal and swastika.

Runic inscription includes the phrase: iz Wōd[a]nas weraz → "He is Odin's man"

This is the earliest known runic reference to the Norse god Odin – 150 years older than the previous record.

The inscription is long, complex, and faded, but researchers confirmed the Odin reference. The man depicted may be an unknown king or overlord.


📸 National Museum of Denmark

This is an extract from Friðþjófs saga translated into English by C. W. Heckethorn in 1854. This image comes from the Surrey Comet, the newspaper founded and published my direct ancestor Thomas Philpott (1800-1866).

If you are like me and love reading primary sources, the Surrey Comet is a valuable resource for those who enjoy Victorian Era English history. Thomas Philpott wrote about the Crimean War, the Cholera Epidemic, published his own poetry, and almost everything else on the social, political, and economic events of his day.

You can read the Surrey Comet online through the British Newspaper Archive.

Injustice cries the slave, as he rattles his chains a little louder.

With every demand, his chains get tighter.

With every plea, his case weaker.

His Suffering, his consent.