05/01/2022
Strong the sun rises on the first day of May
The first signs of Summer do blossom today
Birds swoop the skies, their plumage display
And rustling, the critters in the undergrowth play
Tall stand the daffodils, the bluebells ring clear
Whilst tulip buds part, two pairs of lips near
Merry the maypole is danced, old rites anew
Bare feet a-prancing in the cool morning dew
Fuel for the Bel-fire is gathered in the wood
Ribbon-wrapped wishes, pressed to the haw barb
Family and friends for the Feast prepare food
All dressed in their best most colourful garb
A king for the year, and a queen for a day
All gather together to celebrate in their way
As pure as the trilium, yet mischievous as fae
Let fly your hair and your cares this Beltaine
Methinks I might on this day take a hand
In stirring our hearts with ye olde Hymn to Pan
So dare ye to dance where you are, as you can
And in the thundering of drums, awaken the land
A Merry, Magickal
Month of May.
Blessings to All,
and
Happy Beltaine!
Hymn to Pan
Thrill with lissome lust of the light,
O man! My man!
Come careering out of the night
Of Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea
From Sicily and from Arcady!
Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards
And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards,
On a milk-white ass, come over the sea
To me, to me,
Come with Apollo in bridal dress
(Shepherdess and pythoness)
Come with Artemis, silken shod,
And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,
In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount,
The dimpled dawn of the amber fount!
Dip the purple of passionate prayer
In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,
The soul that startles in eyes of blue
To watch thy wantonness weeping through
The tangled grove, the gnarled bole
Of the living tree that is spirit and soul
And body and brain --- come over the sea,
(Io Pan! Io Pan!)
Devil or god, to me, to me,
My man! my man!
Come with trumpets sounding shrill
Over the hill!
Come with drums low muttering
From the spring!
Come with flute and come with pipe!
Am I not ripe?
I, who wait and writhe and wrestle
With air that hath no boughs to nestle
My body, weary of empty clasp,
Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp ---
Come, O come!
I am numb
With the lonely lust of devildom.
Thrust the sword through the galling fetter,
All-devourer, all-begetter;
Give me the sign of the Open Eye,
And the token erect of thorny thigh,
And the word of madness and mystery,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan,
I am a man:
Do as thou wilt, as a great god can,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awake
in the grip of the snake.
The eagle slashes with beak and claw;
The gods withdraw:
The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borne
To death on the horn
Of the Unicorn.
I am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan!
I am thy mate, I am thy man,
Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god,
Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod.
With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks
Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
And I rave; and I r**e and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man,
In the might of Pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan!
