About Us
Our background and aims
Gylden Community is a magickal and spiritual group. We support, promote and organise pagan events within the Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and Berkshire areas. It's a place for all those who feel drawn to nature-based beliefs and for meeting like-minded folk. You’ll find us at spiritual events throughout Southern England, celebrating sabbats, publishing regular magickal help and having lots of laughter at gigs, picnics and socials too.
Gylden Community is not a traditional pagan group. We link to our friends in Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Bracknell, Farnham and anywhere else that hosts magickal or spiritual groups. We visit to share fellowship – and they can visit us too.
As a pagan library, we share knowledge and experience with others, not only via monthly publications or online files, but also at themed discussions or fayres where we can put aside time to show others what each of us can do or have learned along our specific pathways.
Gylden Community works with Guildford & Godalming Interfaith Forum, Woking Action for Peace and other Interfaith bodies to promote spiritual tolerance. We raise funds for charity whenever possible via our presence at public fayres, including Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and Step By Step charities.
Gylden Magick magazine
Our regular monthly magazine is also on: www.facebook.com/groups/gyldenpaganfellowship/
Our May 2025 issue includes the following features:
- healing magick and the Doctrine of Signatures
- science: drink flavourings
- nature: cognitive rhythm in mammals
- science: life in the hadal zone
- crystals: pyrite
- beliefs: Spring customs and traditions
- nature: Forest Schools
- Keukenhof Tulip Festival.
- healing: empaths
- celestial forecasts for May (also published in full on Facebook)
- bone density in space.
Visit our Gylden Magick magazine archives for past issues.
Working with others
Pagan/ spiritual groups in the Gylden Community area - all are listed on meet-up or Facebook.
Arun Traditional Witchcraft (Arundel)
Association of Sussex Pagans
Basingstoke Pagan Circle
Basingstoke Pagan Moots
Berkshire Witches & Wiccans
Blackthorn Witchcraft UK (Havant)
The Circle of Ankerwycke (Staines)
CoA Southampton Witches
Colours of the Oak Moot (Bracknell)
Crawley and Horsham Pagan Moot
Godalming and Villages Moot
Guildford Mantra Meditation
Guardians of the Grove (Chichester)
Hampshire Pagans for Environmental Change (Southampton)
Horndean Positive Living Group
Horsham and West Sussex Pagans
Moon Rituals Portsmouth
North Surrey Pagan Circle (Weybridge)
Pagan Federation South Central
Reading Berkshire Pagans
Rollright Circle of Friends (Chipping Norton)
Rowan & Thorn Druid Grove (Alton)
Seasons of Albion Moot (Farnham)
The Witches' Inn (Redhill)
University of Portsmouth Pagan and Spiritual Society
University of Southampton Pagan & Witchcraft Society
Worthing Pagan Moot
Beltaine/ Beltane/ Calen Mai 2025 ©
This is a Celtic fire festival, celebrated this year on Thursday, 1 May, which is symbolic of the start of summer. For the Saxons, Beltaine was the time to move the sheep to the upland pastures. The Calen Mai is a Welsh term that refers to the calends of May, traditionally marked by the flowering of hawthorn blossoms. In Ireland, the fires of Tara were the first ones lit every year at Beltaine and all other fires were lit with a flame from Tara.
The festival of Beltaine has a tradition of maypoles, dances, bonfires and offerings to the gods. In rural areas, cattle were driven through the smoke of the balefires, blessed with health and fertility for the coming year. For many Celts, Beltaine was a time of handfasting for the god, Cernunnos, and his bride, Brighid (in Ireland) or Keridwyn (in Wales). While the Irish-Gaelic word for May is Beltaine, the literal translation is bright or brilliant fire, derived from the bonfires lit in honour of Bel, the god of light, fire, and healing.
The central fire or tein-eigenmade from sacred oak was strictly maintained by Druids. People danced through the embers and cattle were driven through them as an act of purification. Often, a torch-led procession made its way around the fields to evoke fertility in the plants. So important was the fire, that all hearth fires were extinguished so they could be rekindled from this sacred fire every year.
Some Wiccan pathways support a symbolic battle between the May Queen and the Queen of Winter at Beltaine. Some pagan groups include maypoles, decorated with green and yellow ribbons, in their Beltaine rituals and they dance around the pole in ever-complex patterns. Other pagan practices at Beltaine include spring flower magick, planting of seeds, færy magick and spirit communication. As at Samhain, Beltaine is seen as a time when the veil between worlds is thinner and you could plant a tree or shrub as remembrance for an ancestor.
For your home altar, Beltaine incense may be frankincense, patchouli or jasmine. Altar crystals might include citrine, malachite, amber, orange carnelian, sapphire or rose quartz and the colours could be yellow, green, blue or gold. Beltaine altar decorations include yellow, blue, pink or green candles, hawthorn flowers, berries and multi-coloured ribbons.
Beltaine deities depend upon each person’s pathway. As a Celtic pagan, I’d be looking toward Cernunnos or Brighid as part of my blessings, but other deities could include Artemis, Flora, Bes, Bacchus, Pan, Hera, Kokopelli or Xochiquetzal. This is not an exhaustive list, but any deities that are believed to be part of growth or fertility are welcome. Likewise, animals that are reputed to be linked with Beltaine are doves, rabbits, goats, swans and honey bees.
As to the day itself, every pagan has his or her own way of honouring the sabbat. Some may choose to worship online, in group rituals, whilst others opt for solitary ceremonies. The focus here is fertility and honouring the nature deities, looking forward to the warmth of summer, the growth of seeds and the eventual harvest of crops. Here are some magickal things that could be done:
a) Build a sacred fire outside, eg in a fire pit.
b) Chant or sing Beltaine songs.
c) Make a spring crown of flowers.
d) Make a basket of spring flowers.
e) Weaving or braiding natural plants like willow, long grass or ivy into pentacles.
f) Contacting spirits of those who have passed over.
g) Creative visualisation of your soul and its dreams blooming like colourful flowers. Beltaine plants include roses, violets, lilac, bluebells, mint, cowslips, rosemary, yarrow or thyme.
h) Beltaine is often seen as the season of the fæ. If your pagan path is one that celebrates the magickal link between mortals and the fæ, you may want to take advantage of the Beltaine season to invite them into your garden.
© 2025, Written and revised by Gylden Community Library
Blessings for Beltaine