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Beltane is a pagan, Gaelic feast day that originated among the ancient Irish and is still celebrated in parts of Ireland, England and Scotland. It is traditionally held on or around May 1st and has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in the last few decades with the rise of Neo-paganism in the West. I won’t go into great detail about the particularities of Beltane. You can just type a query into Chat GPT for a reasonably good description of the holiday’s features. Instead, I will give three reasons NOT to celebrate Beltane. The first is a purely socio-historical reason against participating in Beltane. The others are theological in nature.
1) Most “Beltanes” Are Not Really Beltane
Let’s face it, unless you are a serious researcher of Irish history, you will not likely find a genuine Beltane festival. Instead, especially if you are in America or Canada, what you will likely wind up participating in, is some kind of postmodern, Neo-capitalist, commercialized version of what was formerly a genuine religious tradition. If you find yourself in Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas, Toronto, Gary, Indiana, or anywhere in-between, and are invited to a “Beltane” festival, at least be honest with yourself about what exactly you are going to.
Most “Beltane” events outside of Ireland or Scotland are going to be little more than themed frat parties, about as sacred to the nature god “Beil” as St. Patrick’s day parades are to the Catholic Church. Moreover, even the ones in the countries of origin are probably going to be eclectic, commercialized smorgasbords of pop-cultural sounds and images. Even the organizers of the Beltane Fire Festival near Edinburgh make it quite clear that their Beltane fest is NOT an actual recreation of the original Iron Age holiday. Seriously, how could it be? Any authentic Beltane celebration would probably be either very boring to most contemporary westerners, most of whom are not farmers or herdsmen, or either very cruel, and probably illegal (think Ari Aster’s Midsommar). In short, I doubt that there will be any live animal sacrifices at any Beltane festivals in Edinburgh this May, let alone downtown Chicago.
Is this an argument against going to a Beltane party or festival. Not quite. What it is is merely pointing out that 95% of what will be promoted or advertised as a “Beltane” festival is false advertisement. If you want to go to a Beltane party to get liquored up, hooked up and to watch something get lit on fire, at least recognize that this is not really a pagan festival, but just pop-culture debauchery.
2) Celebrating Beltane is Nonsense: Nature Is Not Spiritual
However, what if one discovers a real Beltane festival? Let’s consider the possibility of finding a Beltane party that somewhat approximates the ancient druidic rite and its rituals. Moreover, let’s posit it is performed by men and women who have studied the history, and carefully researched the beliefs and practices of pre-Christian, Gaelic religion. Maybe at this more authentic Beltane celebration, the celebrants even somehow pull off sacrificing some kind of animal: a goat or, at least, a chicken.
In any case, let’s imagine these Neo-druids are able to somehow get away with a more authentic religious ceremony; one that really does honor the pagan ways. What would we make of this? Would it be good to participate in an authentically pagan Beltane, something that isn’t just glorified street theater or postmodern eclecticism?
Clearly the answer would be “no.” At least, it should be “no” if one takes truth seriously. After all, the deities and spirits of pagan religions are nonsense. They aren’t real. They do not live or exist in nature, nor does anything natural have innate powers or moral agency. Nature is not conscious. A piece of charcoal does not have mental properties, it doesn’t think, or feel, or desire (and no, I don’t care what David Chalmers thinks, for those who know what I am talking about).
The Bible speaks clearly about both the nature of nature, and the reality of pagan idols. As to the kind of animism of ancient pagan religion, the opening chapter of Genesis reveals in no uncertain terms that nature is not alive with innate powers or animating spirits.
Commenting on verse 11 of the Creation Account, Nahum Sarna clarifies the contingent nature of nature:
This creative act [“Let the earth sprout vegetation…] constitutes an exception to the norm that God’s word directly effectuates the desired product. Here the earth is depicted as the mediating element, implying that God endows it with generative powers that He now activates by His utterance. The significance of this singularity is that the source of power in what we call nature, which were personified and deified in the ancient world, are now emptied of sanctity. The productive forces of nature exist only by the will of one sovereign Creator and are not independent spiritual entities.
What the ancient druids, and norse, and Greeks, and Asiatics, and Africans, and Americans failed to see (albeit not all of them) is that nature is not itself a spiritual entity. Nature, apart from its spiritual Creator and Sustainer, is just dead, impersonal matter. What makes it nonsense to celebrate nature, at least religiously, is that nature cannot celebrate us. An elm or birch tree does not think about you when you aren’t walking around its woods. In fact, even when you are strolling across the glade, the birch or elm takes no notice of you. Rocks don’t consider you, nor care about your needs. A lilac or the Pleiades star cluster does nothing about you or for you. The reason is simple: nature literally cannot do anything about you or for you, at least not on purpose.
Nature is not sacred. It never was. God is sacred, and mankind is sacred due to his being made in God’s image. Jacques Ellul sums up this ontological fact of desacralization:
Everything is purely and simply creation. That is to say, everything is simply an object or a thing. If it comes from the Creator, it contains nothing of its divine origin, no mystery, no hidden power. The wood is made of wood; it is not the home of Pan or of goddesses. Water, the source of the ocean, is water–and nothing more. The moon is a luminary by which to measure time. Biblical creation is totally desacralizing because it is no theodicy. It is not a story of the gods and their adventures as they fight, as with some difficulty they fabricate worldly things, and as they are constantly present in them….Over against this, the polemical biblical story of the biblical creation has an effect of total spoliation. God speaks his word, and things are. This is all.
Jaques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, 56
However, unlike nature, human beings are not simple creation. Like God, and unlike poinsettias, human beings have causal powers, rational faculties and moral agency. They, people, are sacred:
Humanity alone is ‘sacred.’ Human life is the only reality that has a status above that of ‘created things.’ This powerful thought gives rise to the battle against calling natural things or functions sacred.
Ellul, 56
In sum, it is nonsense to celebrate pagan holidays that, in turn, celebrate (or worship) nature. Nature is not sacred, and, therefore, is not worthy of our religious devotion or adoration. Nature’s God, on the other hand, is. Rather than going to Beltane this Mayday, I would suggest instead going to Church, where you can properly give gratitude to the One who made the trees and the birds, the rocks and the waters. In fact, you can worship not only the Father at Church, but also the Son, “through whom all things were made, and, apart from Him, nothing was made” (John 1:3). Instead of loving the garden, which cannot love you back, why not love the garden’s Maker who can?
3) Celebrating Beltane Is Rejecting Jesus
Finally, however, there is an even more serious reason to avoid Beltane. For it is not clear that all pagan worship is directed to merely inanimate objects, to empty and lifeless idols of nature. The Bible also alludes to other spirit beings, elohim, (Psalm 82; Job 1-2; Judges 11:24) that, although created from God and ultimately subject to Him, are nevertheless immaterial, conscious moral agents with some significant, albeit limited, powers and freedom. It is often these beings, call them fallen angels or demons, that use misdirected religious devotion to nature to work out their ungodly intentions in the world.
Unfortunately for humanity, these other gods, some of which are or were part of God’s divine council (see Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm) have chosen to act as if they themselves were YHWH, the Creator of all things. In doing so, these demon-gods accept worship from human beings who they look to deceive, manipulate and, ultimately, destroy. Thus, were one to actually find a Beltane ceremony that was not just worshipping nature nonsensically, but also invoking “Beil,” the Gallic/Gaelic deity in question, then one could very well find oneself in contact with an elohim that is presenting itself as if it were God. These immaterial, spirit beings are themselves transgressors against their Creator. Michael Heiser summarizes the biblical data on the actions of these other elohim:
Free-will rebellion didn’t end with Eden. It was only the beginning–for both divine and human imagers [of God]. Transgression before (Gen 6:1-4) and after (Gen 11:1-9; Deut 32:8-9) the flood are a case in point…They set the stage for the rest of the Old Testament. Yahweh’s portion would be Israel. He cast off the other nations and assigned them to lesser gods. Those gods become divine rivals, not servants, of Yahweh. Their rule is corrupt (Ps 82). The rest of the Old Testament pits Yahweh against those gods and Israel against their nations.
Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, 123
In the New Testament, this cosmic battle between God, the God of gods, and all other immaterial beings is further advanced by the Godman– Jesus Christ. In fact, when Jesus comes on the scene to liberate humankind from the reign of these other powers, principalities and world rulers of darkness (Eph 6:12ff), the demons literally come out in legions (Mk 5:1-20).
Heiser points out that when Jesus arrives in human form, He comes to declare spiritual battle:
Immediately following this confrontation [of Jesus with “the satan” in the wilderness] Jesus ‘returns in the power of the Spirit to Galilee,’ where he preached in the region’s synagogues…At Capernaum he began his ministry with a simple yet appropriate message: ‘Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near” …. Jesus then did two things: called his first disciples (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) and healed a demon-possessed man … Let the holy war begin.
Heiser, 279-280
In his public ministry, Jesus carries out a measured assault against the false gods and demons who have, until then, only caused misery and suffering:
The defeat of demons, falling on the heels of Jesus’ victory over Satan’s temptations, marks the beginning of the re-establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. Jesus himself made this connection absolutely explicit: ‘If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you’ (Luke 11:20). And since the lesser elohim over the nations are cast as demons in the Old Testament, the implications for our study are clear: The ministry of Jesus marked the beginning of repossession of the nations and the defeat of their elohim.
Heiser, 280
In sum, if Beil, the “god” of Beltane is real, then to celebrate him is to literally choose sides against Jesus. But, to choose sides against Jesus, is to choose sides against God, Who created the elohim. While it may appear right now that this could be a safe thing to do, to worship Beil, since Jesus is no longer bodily with us, it might behoove the Beltane celebrant to consider what is coming.
Conclusion: Betting on Beil is a Losing Proposition
Jesus may be gone for the time being. Moreover, His Church, against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail (Matt 16:18), may, at the moment, seem to be dropping the ball in its battle against spiritual evil. However, this will not always be the case. After all, if Beil exists, he is nothing more than a creature. Moreover, Beil’s creator is coming to finish off the job He started and consummate that which His Church cannot achieve alone:
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in[b] blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule[c] them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Rev 19:11-16
Moreover, upon the second advent of the King of Kings, the forces of evil, of which Beil may be one among many, will not survive very long:
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence[e] had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
Rev 19:19-21
That isn’t even much of a battle, to be sure. The destruction of pitiful gods like Beil will be swift, and they, being who they are, will take with them those who have fallen prey to their deceit.
In conclusion, to bet on Beil is a losing proposition. In fact, it is the ultimate loss. And so I would encourage you, dear reader, to not bother with “Beltane” this May 1st. Do not bet on impersonal nature, which can do nothing for you, nor on some personal “god”, who longs only to hurt you. Instead, place your bet (he wrote thinking of Pascal) on the God who is not only worthy of celebration, but who wants, and who can, celebrate you.
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