This season asks us to hold two truths at once: the warmth of gathering together, and the reminder that Thanksgiving lives inside a complicated history.
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Beltane: A Fire Festival of Blooming, Blessing & Becoming
The wheel has turned again, and Beltane is here. 🌸🔥
One of the great Celtic fire festivals, Beltane marks the bright halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It is a time of fertility, protection, and cleansing—when the land is bursting with life and the sun’s warmth begins to soak into the bones of the earth.
Since ancient times, Celtic people have honored Beltane with bonfires, dancing, and ritual acts of cleansing. Cattle were driven between twin fires for protection. Homes were swept clean and blessed. Hawthorn and rowan branches were hung at thresholds, and couples leapt flames to seal their vows.
Beltane is a threshold day, a moment of crossing over—from the dreaming dark of winter into the bright abundance of the growing season. It is a time for clearing space, setting intentions, and welcoming in vitality, beauty, and joy.
Herbs for the Threshold
Many of the herbs associated with this time of year are cleansing, clarifying, and protective—perfect allies for ritual work.
At Half Wild Arts, we mark Beltane with the herbs we grow and harvest on our New Hampshire farm, rooted in ancestral tradition and seasonal rhythm. Our Saining Sprays are made for moments just like this—when the veil is thin, and the world is in bloom.
Here are a few of our favorite sprays for Beltane:
🌿 Yarrow Sain
Yarrow is a powerful boundary-setter. Use this spray to protect your space, strengthen energy fields, and prepare sacred ground.
🌿 Mugwort Sain
Mugwort supports inner vision and deep cleansing. Spray to clear stagnant energy or to awaken your intuitive senses before ritual.
🌹 Rose Sain
Rose opens the heart and invites in love, beauty, and joy. Mist your body, your altar, or your home to align with the blossoming energy of the season.
Ways to Use Saining Sprays for Beltane Ritual
After sweeping your home, mist doorways and windows with Yarrow Sain to seal in protection.
Spray Mugwort Sain around your ritual tools or fire circle to clear and prepare your space.
Use Rose Sain to bless yourself or others before a celebration, gathering, or quiet moment of reflection in the garden.
Create a simple threshold ritual: stand at your front door, mist the air around you, and step forward with intention into the new season.
Wherever you are this Beltane, may you feel the warmth of the sun, the blessing of the bloom, and the fire that lives in the heart of the earth—and in you.
✨ Explore our full Sacred Celtic Herb Collection to support your Beltane rituals.
The Earth is Not Behind, and Neither Are You.
Earth Day Reflections from the Garden
This afternoon, I wandered through the garden in the golden hush of spring sunshine. The kind that warms your skin and makes everything feel tender and just beginning. I had been feeling behind—on planting, on growing, on all the invisible tasks that make up a season on a small farm. The to-do list in my mind was longer than the day.
But as I stepped out into the garden, I noticed something else:
The nettles are just starting to stretch.
St. John’s wort is waking up slowly, quietly.
The violets have arrived, whispering in the shady edges.
Even the rhubarb is still curled in on itself, waiting.
In that moment, I realized the earth is not behind.
It is simply moving at its own pace.
And it is my own impatience, not the land, that makes me feel rushed.
We talk a lot in the herbal world about aligning with the rhythms of nature. It sounds beautiful, but it is also hard. The world we live in demands urgency, production, results. Nature, on the other hand, offers us slowness. Intention. A pace that asks us to notice instead of control.
And so, this Earth Day, I am taking a breath.
Not to do more, but to trust more.
To remember that the nettle knows when to grow.
That the violet blooms in its own time.
That the earth leads—and I am here to follow.
These early spring plants are more than just the first signs of life on the farm—they are the beginning of our offerings for the season ahead. The nettle will find its way into nourishing teas. The St. John’s wort, once it soaks up the summer sun, will infuse oils that calm the body and spirit. The violets bring their gentle touch to facial care, while rhubarb marks conserved energy turning once again toward abundance.
At Half Wild Arts, everything we make begins here—with the land, the plants, and the rhythm of the seasons. Our skincare and saining sprays are handcrafted in small batches using herbs we grow with care, right here on our New Hampshire farm. Products like our Facial Set (with Rosewater Mist and Facial Serum), or our Mugwort Sain begin in moments just like this—quiet, connected, and in rhythm with the natural world.
This work is not about rushing to harvest or meeting a sales deadline. It is about honoring the slow beauty of the earth. The kind of beauty that cannot be rushed. The kind of beauty that begins underground, in roots and stillness and the patient push toward light.
As you move through this season, I invite you to walk with the land. Let the earth lead you. Trust its timing. And let your care—of self, of others, of the planet—begin not in urgency, but in reverence.
Happy Earth Day.
With love from the garden,
Ruth Ann 💜
