WELCOME!
Beltane: We Are Flowers
Come in, come in! I’m so happy you’re here. The season of Beltane, also known as May Day, marks the midway point between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice. Beltane falls on May 1st. This ancient holiday highlights themes of cross-pollination, radical self-love, the pleasure of the senses, and what it means to truly thrive.
All Creative Alchemy Cycle bundles are self-guided. I’ve created this landing page as a home base for us as we journey through the season of Beltane. We’ll also meet in person on the fourth Sunday of each month (scroll down for links.) Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Table of Contents
PART ONE: DIGITAL CONTENT
Story of the Season: a Homily for Beltane (audio & PDF)
The Great Wide Open (video)
In the Studio (video)
Collaborative Alchemy Podcast: Episode 14 with Kelcey Anyá (audio)
Fuel for the Fire: Writing prompts, links, reading lists, Spotify playlists, etc.
Further Connection: Monthly Community Zoom Call / Recording (links)
PART TWO: FOR FULL SUBSCRIBERS
CAC Network: Online communication platform
Altar Box: Description of your seasonal care package
NOTE of ENGAGEMENT:
Please do not share the link to this page with others. This content was created just for you. Thank you for your respect and understanding.
PART ONE: Digital Content
Seaonal Focus — Embodiment Practice
This season we’re focusing on embodiment as a creative practice. We will be exploring themes of creative flow and pleasure activism. We’ll connect deeply to the senses as a tool for liberatory creative expression. So grab your watercolors and let’s commune with the flowers as we talk color theory, olfactory portals, and sense-memory.
Calling You Home — A Homily
This is a great place to begin. For each of the eight bundles that make up the Creative Alchemy Cycle, I write a seasonal story to set the container for the bundle. These homilies are my way of practicing alongside you and using the creative alchemy tools to create my own work. You can download a copy using the button below and/or listen to the audio.
The Great Wide Open
My creative process always begins outside. This is where I weave the outer landscape with the inner one. We’ll walk through flowering orchards, chase bees from bloom to bloom, and enjoy the green hills of Eastern Oregon. We’ll also spend a little time in the boggy hollows of the Wallowa foothills searching for mushrooms among blooming wild strawberry.
In the Studio
After viewing The Great Wide Open, let’s head into my studio. This is where I metabolize, incubate, and process all the elements which make up my current state of creative alchemy. This season, we are connecting to the senses! Grab your watercolors and let’s commune with the flowers as we explore color-theory, olfactory portals, the chakra framework, and sense-memory.
Collaborative Alchemy Podcast
In this episode, I talk with multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and professional disruptor, Kelcey Anyá about what it means to be a catalyst for change within dominant cultural structures. We also discuss how our capacity for creative risk seems to grow in equal measure to our self-knowledge. Listen in as Kelcey shares her thoughts on representation in arts-education, womanism, the power of telling your own story, and why it’s a revolutionary act to show up, get loud, and sing your own praises in a society that has historically rendered you silent.
Fuel For The Fire
Writing prompts and further exploration, links, reading lists, spotify playlists, etc. Click on the images or buttons below to view, visit, or download.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Invitations for Further Connection
CREATIVE ALCHEMY COMMUNITY CALLS usually occur on the fourth Sunday of each month from 10:00—11:15am PST. But this month we’re meetingon the 5th Sunday! These gatherings are recorded and posted right here the day after. Sarah will send a reminder email the week before and the day before each gathering.
Recording of our May Connection Call:
PART TWO: For Full Subscribers
The Beltane Community Network & Gallery
The community network & gallery is a communication platform for those who are full subscribers! It’s like Facebook but WAY better: no advertisements, completely private, and built collectively. As a member of the Cycle you received an invitation to join our Creative Alchemy Cycle (CAC) online network via Mighty Networks. The button below will take you to the network.
About the Beltane Care Package
Your care-packages will be arriving between April 25th and 29th. These love-filled packages contain natural objects, local Eastern Oregon flavor, and art ephemera to inspire your journey, and adorn your seasonal altars.
CONTENTS of the BELTANE PACKAGE:
✦ Welcome letter and poem by Billy Collins
✦ Jar of Dried Flowers
✦ Honey Dipper Wand
✦ Honey Bee Charm
✦ 5X5 inch signed “Recieve” print
✦ Paper Butterfly (From Myth & Moth)
✦ Beeswax Tea Light
ABOUT the DRIED FLOWERS:
These are flowers that I collected from last year’s blooms: rose, lavender, calendula, and eucalyptus. May they be a reminder that this cycle is ever-changing and ever-present. There were flowers last year. There are flowers this year. And there will be flowers next year.
Gratitude.
BLOOM
by Emily Dickinson
Bloom — is Result — to meet a Flower
And casually glance
Would cause one scarcely to suspect
The minor Circumstance
Assisting in the Bright Affair
So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly
To the Meridian —
To pack the Bud — oppose the Worm —
Obtain its right of Dew —
Adjust the Heat — elude the Wind —
Escape the prowling Bee
Great Nature not to disappoint
Awaiting Her that Day —
To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility —