I decided to honor the holiday today by wearing a girls’ tank top which features a creepy yet whimsical made-up deity.

Many of you may be aware that today, being May 1st, marks the pagan fertility festival known as Beltane. This means different things to different people; to me, it means that although I’m currently in San Francisco, right now a whole bunch of my spiritual brethren and sisters (sistren?) and everything in between are deep out in the woods, raising impossibly tall, freshly-stripped tree trunks into the air, recreating a ritual and tradition that dates back centuries. It also means that lots of people I know are currently fucking, or inevitably will be soon. It means a lot of magick is being created today and a lot of tribal bonds are being formed and/or strengthened.

For me, it means another day of terrible allergies, working in a stiflingly warm glass box, and performing in the penultimate performance of Jewels Of Paris, with our traditional variety show following. (OK, so if we’ve got the energy, Andrew and I plan to hit Polyglamorous afterward, too.)
I am trying to bear in mind that–although I am feeling intense spiritual pangs of wanting today–I am in fact still enacting much of the important work of Beltane: through the magick of theatre, I am raising energy through song and dance, feeding creative impulse and manifesting joy through performance, and strengthening tribal bonds with my fellow Thrillpeddlers (and this show in particular has felt intensely familial in its arc).

It isn’t a traditional Radical Faerie party in the wilds of Tennessee or NorCal or Vermont….but it’s something.

Somehow, I thought the creature depicted on this shirt represents a good deity figure for my Beltane. It depicts both life and death; creation, and cosmic energy. The writhing, fluttering, decaying, renewing Whole of it all.

Blessed be.