Blessed Beltane to All!

Blessed Beltane to All!

What exactly is Beltane? Beltane is one of eight Solar sabbats and is celebrated on May 1, or Mayday, with many of the festivities taking place the night before on May Eve. Beltane follows Imbolc and Ostara as the last of the spring fertility festivals. As Samhain is about honoring 'Death,' Beltane is about honoring 'Life.' It is the time when the sun is fully released from his bondage of winter and able to rule over summer and life once again. In modern Wicca, traditions from both the Gaelic Bealtaine and the Germanic May Day festival, like bonfires and the Maypole, are incorporated, and primarily focus on fertility.

The name Beltane means 'fire of Bel'. Belinos was one name for the Sun God, whose coronation feast is part of Beltane celebration. In old Celtic traditions, Beltane was a time of unabashed sexuality and promiscuity where couples could be unwed for one night and share with any willing partner. This was called going 'a-maying'. Children born from Beltane unions were thought to be especially blessed. Other celebrations often included maypole dancing, jumping over fires to ensure fertility, circling the fire three times (sun-wise) for good luck in the coming year just to name a few. Gatherings with friends/family/townspeople would include feasting, music, drinking, and gathering flowers. Animals such as cattle and sheep were run between the fires of Beltane to insure their fertility in the coming year. Flowers were an extremely important symbol of Beltane, as they signaled the victory of summer over winter and the blossoming of nature and the bounty it will bring.

Modern popular celebrations of Beltane still do include the maypole, plus such grain foods as oatmeal, bread and cakes are typically included in the feast, as well as fresh greens, edible flowers, and spring fruits accompany them. If you aren't planning a formal Beltane feast, try taking a walk in the woods, any wooded area or even your local park to celebrate the Sun God. Pick wildflowers or boughs with blossoms to use on your altar. They can also be made into flower wreaths and garlands, which are typical decorations for this holiday, especially when tied with ribbons and streamers. Planting seeds in a garden or flower pot is a lovely activity for Beltane, especially herbs that may be used in later rituals. May morning is traditionally a magical time for collecting wild water from dew, flowing streams, and springs, which is stored and used in future spells and rituals, especially those for beauty and love.

Colors used on the altar at Beltane are red and white (for the God and Goddess), green, yellow, pink and blue. Symbols include the Maypole, baskets, strings of beads, ribbons and flowers. Herbs include cinquefoil (five finger grass), honeysuckle, St. John's wort, rose, rosemary, and lilac. Incense used at Beltane includes frankincense, lilac and rose. Stones appropriate for Beltane are emerald, green aventurine, sapphire, rose quartz, and carnelian.

Take a walk outside, open your mind to the beauty of the season. Celebrate the season and the moment. May you all have a wonderful and blessed Beltane. Brightest blessings to all.

Announcement-I'm mobile

Merry Meet and hello to all. I have completely forgot to announce that I am mobile in my sites so please feel free to check me out via your cell phones. Have a wonderful day and Blessed Be to all.

Check out Readings from the Realm and feel free to send me questions, if you should have any. I am off 2/4, 2/5 and 2/6/12 but feel free to send requests in all the same for services. I will get back to you on Tuesday, 2/7/12.

http://m.readingsfromtherealm.vpweb.com/#/About-Us.html

What happens in Heaven when we pray.

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, 'This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.


I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally, at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section, my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed.

"How is it that there is no work going on here? I asked."

"So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments."

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings? "I asked.

"Simple," the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy, and if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness.. You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day."

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... You are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world."

"If your parents are still alive and still married.... you are very rare."

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair......."

"Ok," I said. "What now? How can I start?"

The Angel said, "If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all."

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you care to, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are..........

ATTN: Acknowledge Dept.

"Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people with whom to share it."

If you have read this far, and are thankful for all that you have been blessed with, how can you not send it on or share it?

I thank God for everything, especially all my family and friends.

Just be yourself.
Everyone else is taken.--

Truey...hooey? Something to believe in and think about.

Pam’s Story
In a recent email, I read about a woman named Pam, who knows the pain of considering abortion. More than 24 years ago, she and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant.

Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. Pam said the doctors didn't think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue.

While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we’ll name him Timothy and we’ll make him a preacher.

Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam’s youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father’s ministry in the Philippines. He also plays football. Pam’s son is Tim Tebow.

The University of Florida’s star quarterback became the first sophomore in history to win college football’s highest award, the Heisman Trophy. His current role as quarterback of the Denver Broncos has provided an incredible platform for Christian witness. As a result, he is being called The Mile-High Messiah.

Tim’s notoriety and the family’s inspiring story have given Pam numerous opportunities to speak on behalf of women’s centers across the country. Pam Tebow believes that every little baby you save matters. I pray her tribe will increase!
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always!



Dr. Gerald B. (Jerry) Kieschnick
President Emeritus, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Presidential Ambassador for Mission Advancement, Concordia University Texas

Baby Squirrel gets help.....

Here is a cute video about the obstacles of a baby squirrel and how he gets help from an unlikely source. Check it out, you just might enjoy it.


http://www.godvine.com/Baby-Squirrel-Gets-Help-from-an-Unlikely-Place-217.html

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year to everyone. Here we are in a new year and off to a new start. Have you looked over 2011 and found any aspects that you would like to change in 2012? What about new declarations? Some people want a new career and will look for a job change, some will go to school and finish up a degree or something left unfinished, some will start families and others will make some type of life changing decision like to get married, divorced, take a trip, move....the posibilities are endless. Some may start a diet or even just start to eat healthier.


Whatever your goal for 2012, here's to you! May it be a wonderful and prosperious year for all.
Brightest blessings!

Prayer-something to think about

The power of prayer never ceases to amaze me. Some people, well, they just never understand or even care to pray until something negative happens in their lives. Once something bad or negative occurs, that's when they pray and then wonder why nothing happens or the feel as though they haven't been heard and then get upset with the Divine. For those of you reading this, who fits that description, well, you have alot to learn.

PRAY THIS EVEN IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE IT!! IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTE.

I started not to do this, but as I read it.... I understood God to say, 'You need a miracle.' You never know

when God is going to bless you!! Good things happen when you least expect them to but then again, if you believe, then anything can happen. God can move mountains....

Dear Lord, I thank You for this day, I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this morning.
I'm blessed because You are a forgiving God and an understanding God...

You have done so much for me and You keep on blessing me. Forgive me this day for everything I have done, said or thought that was not pleasing to you.... I ask now for Your forgiveness. Please keep me safe from all danger and harm. Help me to start this day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude. Let me make the best of each and every day to clear my mind so that I can hear from You.

Please broaden my mind that I can accept all things. Let me not whine and whimper over things I have no control over. And give me the best response when I'm pushed beyond my limits. I know that when I can't pray, You listen to my heart. Continue to use me to do Your will. Continue to bless me that I may be a blessing to others. Keep me strong that I may help the weak... Keep me uplifted that I may have words of encouragement for others. I pray for those that are lost and can't find their way. I pray for those that are misjudged and misunderstood. I pray for those who don't know You intimately. I pray for those that don't believe.

But I thank You that I believe that God changes people and God changes things. I pray for all my sisters and brothers. For each and every family member and their households. I pray for peace, love and joy in their homes; that they are out of debt and all their needs are met. I pray that every eye that reads this knows there is no problem, circumstance, or situation greater than God. Every battle is in Your hands for You to fight. I pray that these words be received into the hearts of every eye that sees it. Amen!

God Bless and Blessed Be! (Know that you are already blessed by the person who sent this to you).