Beltane at the Rollrights

The Beltane celebration
At the Roll Rights stones
Oxfordshire’s best kept secret
Its one of the unknown’s
A mystical stone circle
Ringed by fields and trees
Upon a hill where sunlight does spill
And the wind does often tease

and today was no exception
After the ritual We
Felt the serpents icy tongue
Lap us chillingly
Even the new wild bluebells
Pealing out their song
Were wondering I feel certain
Where they had gone wrong

As We all formed the circle
50 or so friends who came
Really feeling the fellowship
With the arch druid by name
Veronica introduced herself
And helped to prepare the way
The portals then were opened
So significantly today
Calling for peace around us all
And we all were in accord
The Portals opened it breathes new life
A sensation of reward

Holding hands the circle
Intact Our hearts as one
Our thoughts too of togetherness
All hoping to see some sun
the Maypole and its ribbons
A multi coloured dream
Maz, displayed her wisdom
An invocation and we
Heard the green man’s eyes were watering
Which in fact We could then see
The May Queen clad in snowy white
With a sweet headband of May
and the Green Man and the May Queen led us all away
In precession
To the Maypole
where we danced
perchance to wonder
The darling buds of May
And fertility sweet thunder

After the romp and playfulness
In procession we all returned
To the circle and the blessings
Of the food and mead we learned
Whilst partaking of this manna
With its sustaining force
A poetic chanting rhyming story
Played out to charm of course
The May Queen and Dear Tina
Helped create as they
Told us with rhyme and reason why
We were here today
The bard too helped a little
And spoke of the various trees
And How they brought enlightenment
To the knowledge if you please

The great Oaks their longevity
The Birch a sentinel
The Hawthorn was the spirited one
the Rowan weaved a spell
An observation at that moment the sun
Was labouring through
A bank of wind blown thickish clouds
With its whiteness good and true

Its Light a shallow trail to earth
Was Soon exhausted by
The wind that shook the heartwood
And brought tears to the eye
Enlightenment in so many ways
To the magic around us
For it plays
A significant role in Each daily chore
Observation really pays

We must stop exhausting the supplies
Out there
Learn to communicate and to care
The magical herbs that already are
Sharing their force fields with each star
Then the talking stick the chance to feel
To say a few words and to maintain real
Connection with our new found friends
Around the circle until it ends

We were moved we always are in fact
Its a chance to listen and then react
An introduction a quip or ode
A song whatever we just unload
That singular strength involves us all
For on all of us we receive the call
In the aura of Roll rights our feelings
Bear fruit
With the moles below in hot pursuit
The joy one feels the exhilaration
Abandoning stress and agitation
Closing the portals the serpents tongue
Was showing its teeth too and among

Us we could feel its strength
And a deal of zeal
The chill was there an icy glare
Really made us feel
It was ho ho ho time
Joining hands we lifted our arms
And our ho’s did climb
Into the heaven across the green
To Chipping Norton’s country scene
We felt that power and that control
Which really and honestly lifted our soul

The ritual being over we all wended our way
Led by the arch druid from the Eastern gate
To say

our farewells and to re engage
With our homeward trek and another page
On The 25th and 26th of June we will be
At Stonehenge and Rollright’s
Again happily
Renewing the gifts and the ritual pose
And The spirit and fellowship that grows