BELTANE CHANT ONE
Here we come a piping,
In Springtime and in May;
Green fruit aripening,
And Winter fled away.
The Queen she sits upon the strand,
Fair as lily, white as wand;
Seven billows on the sea,
Horses riding fast and free,
And bells beyond the sand.
Valiente, Doreen; “Witchcraft for Tomorrow”; Phoenix Publishing 1985
BELTANE CHANT TWO
The High Priestess and High Priest lead a ring dance around the bonfire. Start out with “A Tree Song” from Rudyard Kipling’s “Weland’s Sword” story in “Puck of Pook’s Hill”.
“Oh, do not tell the Priest of our Art,
Or he would call it sin;
But we shall be out in the woods all night,
A conjuring summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth
For women, cattle and corn
Now is the dun come up from the South
With Oak, and Ash and Thorn!”
Farrar, Janet and Stewart; “Eight Sabbats For Witches”; Robert Hale 1983
STAG CALL also MAYCHANT THREE
The men gather around the fire, next to their partners, and they say in unison:
“I am the stag of seven tines;
I am a wide flood on the plain;
I am a wind on the deep waters;
I am a shining tear of the sun;
I am a hawk on a cliff;
I am fair among flowers;
I am a god who sets the head afire with smoke.”
Graves, Robert; “The White Goddess”; Farrar 1970
