Riding Goats into May - A Nod to Walpurgisnacht

The wind has been howling at the windows for three days, and although the sun has done its best to shine in between spring rains its heat cannot compete with the biting cold that the tempests have blown in. I don't mind the last gasps of winter, the final shake of Frau Holle's feather blanket that resulted in rain-snow-hail this past weekend. In my mind and dreams the Wild Hunt is riding a frenzied race across the skies to the peak of the Harz to celebrate winter's end and the coming of summer. I need a fast goat who likes altitude, because I want to go too.

We have arrived in the season of lush festivity. And let's face it, in days of old if you made it through the winter without succumbing to disease or starvation there was definitely something to celebrate. Feasting on spring greens and shoots, lighting bonfires to chase off the winter and to cense your livestock, jumping brooms and fires (and jumping each other - it's a very fertile time of year after all), were some of the activities that folks embraced as the days grew long.

The last day of April marked Hexennacht, when it was said that witches rode to their sabbath at the Brocken in the Harz mountains of Germany. The saint Walpurga/Walburga who was called upon to aid in protection from witchcraft was canonized on May 1st, conveniently overlapping her eve with the night of the witches. Walpurisnacht (Walpurga's night) became both the time when witches were out on their revels and when people would employ protections for their homes and livestock to keep them safe from witchcraft. It's a wicked merry-go-round, isn't it?

If May dawned and you made it home from the mountains or your woodland frolicking, then you might bathe yourself in the morning dew to ensure youthfulness for another year. You could find yourself spinning ribbon around a maypole with village folk, guising or dancing in a parade through the streets, or preparing to lead your cattle between two bonfires to bless them with vitality.

There are more stories of folk practices and debaucherous frolicking than I have time to tell while the hours of April slip away, but I wanted to share a few words from others here - snippets from people and books I enjoy that speak to the spirit of this celebratory time. I'll be out by the fire tonight (if the wind cooperates) and I'll lift a glass to see the Old Woman of winter off. If you hear me howling, send a howl back. I know you're out there bringing in the May in your own way.

Bernard Zuber

"Some call it Walpurgisnacht or Beltane or May Day, and the days of observance may shift minutely, but the general celebration remains the same. It is a grand day of festivity and rejoicing, an ode to vanquishing the dark and looking forward to a green and glorious future. It is a time for joyous feasting and the encouragement of growth, a time for lovers and life.

In Blacktree, however, we see Hexennacht as a night when witches fly to their own gatherings and revels. On this night, we also acknowledge and honor our genus loci and other land spirits. For us, Hexennacht is literally a night of witches; it says so right in the name. On this night, we howl at the moon, wild in our power and in love with our very nature as witches. We connect deeply with the land and spirits around us."

Besom, Stang & Sword, Christopher Orapello and Tara-Love Maguire

"Although officially sanctioned by the church as the feast of Saints Philip and James, May Day celebrations in England smothered religious veneration with fertility rites suggested by flowers and fires. The notorious lecher, King Henry VIII, took great pleasure in his court's floral masquerades and the sexual license of Mayings. The common people had fun with setting up maypoles, lighting bonfires, playing football, running races, morris dancing, and flirting. Villagers were sent into the woods where they would cut down a maypole (that most obviously phallic symbol) to erect in front of the parish church, and many young couples, it appears, got "lost" for the night in the woods to enjoy semi-clandestine love."

Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Edward Muir

"Beltane rituals are still held. Traditionally bonfires are lit. To heal infertility, people creep through bonfires, jump over them, and run between them. Once upon a time, they also made love amongst the bonfires, although to avail yourself of this power you may have to build private, personal fires."

Beltane Bonfire Spell, The Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells, Judika Illes

"Walpurgisnacht" by Albert Welti 1897

"A Munich vesper from the fourteenth century mentioned a Brockelsburg as being an abode of nocturnal ghosts and witches. Such "buck mountains," "hay mountains," or "heathen caps," where the last heathen festivals took place, were found throughout Europe. The most famous of these is the Brocken, in the Harz mountains of Germany. The "witches" usually gathered there on Walpurgis night. They danced the last winter snows away in "participation mystique." In the sagas they danced so vigorously that they danced through the soles of their shoes."

Witchcraft Medicine, Muller-Ebeling, Ratsch, Storl

Bernard Zuber

This charm may well be the 'vesper' spoken of above. I've included a small snippet here if you are the sort to quake at witches flying overhead and want a few words of protection to whisper as you drift off to dream. (I'll try not to wake you as I streak by on my goat.)

May the supreme Numen divinium,

may the holy sanctus spritius,

may the sacred sanctus dominus,

again protect me this night

from the evil creatures that roam the darkness

and I sign myself

against the black ones and the white ones

whom people call the Good ones

and who leave from Brockelsberg

- excerpt from a 14th-15th century charm,
published in Lecouteux's Phantom Armies of the Night

I wish you wildness and firelight. Frenzied joy and good feasting. Kisses and dances and all the merrymaking you desire. May your earth and home and family be fruitful.

Happy Witches' Night. Happy May!