May Flower Moon

May 2025 Witch Guide

New Moon: May 26th

First Quarter: May 4th

Full moon: May 12th

Last Quarter: May 20th

Sabbats: Beltane- May 1st

May Flower Moon

Also known as: Budding Moon(Ojibwe), Dancing Moon(Tunica), Hare Moon, Faery Moon, Flowering Moon(Ojibwe), Flower Moon, Milk Moon, Planting Moon(Dakota, Lakota), Planting Month(Cherokee), Egg Laying Moon(Cree), Sproutkale, Snake Moon(Catawba), Summer Moon(Inupiat), They Plant Moon(Oneida), Thrimilemonath & Winnemanoth

Element: Fire

Zodiac: Taurus & Gemini

Nature spirts: Elves & faeries

Deities: Aphrodite, Artemis, Bsst, Cernunnos, Diana, Flora, Horned God, Kali, Maia, Pan, Priapus & Venus

Animals: Cats, leopard & lynx

Birds: Dove, swallow & swan

Trees:  Hawthorne & rowan

Herbs: Cinnamon, dittany of Crete, elder, mint, mugwort & thyme

Colors: Brown, green, orange, pink, red & yellow

Flowers: Foxglove, lily of the valley, rose & yarrow

Scents: Rose & sandalwood

Stones:  Agate, amber, carnelian, emerald, garnet, malachite, rose quartz, ruby, tourmaline & tsavorite

Issues, intentions & powers:  Divination, enchantment, fertility, love & well-being

Energy: Abundance, creativity, faeries & spirt contact, intuition, love, material gains, money, propagation, relationships & tenacity

May is commonly referred to as the Flower Moon  and the name should be no surprise, because flowers spring forth across North America in abundance this month.

• “Flower Moon” has been attributed to Algonquin peoples, as confirmed by Christina Ruddy of The Algonquin Way Cultural Centre in Pikwakanagan, Ontario.

May’s Moon was also referred to as the “Month of Flowers” by Jonathan Carver in his 1798 publication, Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America: 1766, 1767, 1768 (pp. 250-252), as a likely Dakota name. Carver stayed with the Naudowessie (Dakota) over a period of time; his expedition covered the Great Lakes region, including the Wisconsin & Minnesota areas.

Beltane

Known as: Beltaine, May day, Roodmas & Cethsamhain

Season: Spring

Element: Fire

Symbols: Eggs, flowers, faeries, faery circle(mushrooms),  maypoles, may bush & priapic wands

Colors: Blue, brown, green, light pink, orange, rainbow spectrum, red, white & yellow

Oils/Incense: Frankincense, jasmine, lemon, lilac, mint, passion flower, pine, rose, tuberose, vanilla, woodruff & ylang ylang

Animals: Bee, cattle, frog goat & rabbit

Birds: Dove

Stones: Bloodstone, emerald, lapis lazuli, orange carnelian, rose quartz & sapphire

Mythical: Faeries

Food: Beltane cakes, cherries, dairy foods, green herbal salads, honey, lemonade, meade, May wine(made with white wine, lemon slices & woodruff milk), nuts, oatmeal cakes, oats, strawberries & sweets

Herbs/Plants: Almond, angelica, blackberry, burdock, cinquefoil, damiana, frankincense, gorse, ivy, meadowsweet, mint, mugwort, rosemary, saffron, satyrion root, St John's wort & woodruff

Flowers:  bluebell, daisy, hibiscus, honeysuckle, lilac, lily of the valley. marigold, primrose, rose, rosehip, violet & yellow cowslips

Trees: Apple, ash, birch, cedar, elder, fir, hawthorn, juniper, linden, mesquite, oak, pine, poplar, rowan & willow

Goddesses: Areil, Aphrodite, Artemis, Astarte, Bona Dea, Chin-Hua-Fu-Jen, Cybele, Danu, Diana, Dôn, Eiru, Elen, Eostre, Fand, Flora, Freya, Frigg, Horae, Maia, Niwalen, Rauni, Rhea, Rhiannon, Sarasvati, Var, Venus & Xochiquetzal

Gods: Apollo, Baal, Bacchnalia, Balder, Belenus, Bele, Beltene, Cernunnos, Chung K'uei, Cupid, Eros, Faunus, Freyr, Grannus, The Green Man, Lares, Manawyddan, Odin, Pan,Pluto, Puck, Ra & Taranis

Tarot cards: The Empress, The Emperor, The Hight Priestess & The Magician

Spellwork: Abundance, birth, cooperation, Earth magick, growth, healing, health, love, manifestation, passion, pregnancy, protection, purification & union

Issues, Intentions & Powers: Agriculture, creativity, fertility, lust, marriage, the underworld/otherworld, pleasure, psychic ability, purification, sensuality, sex, visions, warmth & youth

Activities:

•Decorate & dance around a Maypole

• Set up an outdoor altar & leave offerings to faeries

• Prepare a ritual bath with fresh flowers

• Light a bonfire or candles & dance around them

• Set aside time for self care

• Gather flowers & use them to decorate your home or altar

• Prepare a feast to celebrate with friends/family

• Make flower crowns

• Bake bannocks, oat cakes or cookies

• Hang wreaths decorated with ribbons & flowers

• Start a wish book/box/journal

• Visit sacred wells

• Participate in handfasting or romantic partnerships

• Work on/ create a community garden

• Go on a walk & give thanks to nature

• Remove litter from outdoor areas like streams & banks

• Plant flowers in your home, garden or neighborhood(check for non-invasive flowers for your area)

• Cast fertility spells/ participate in sacred sex

• Fill small baskets of flowers & small goodies, then leave them on your friends/neighbors doorstep as a gesture of goodwill & friendship

Beltane is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature and is associated with important events in Irish mythology. Also known as Cétshamhain (‘first of summer’), it marked the beginning of summer & was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, people & crops, and to encourage growth. (Today, Witches who observe the Wheel of the Year celebrate Beltane as the height of Spring.)

Special bonfires were kindled, whose flames, smoke & ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires & sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused & then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire.

These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food & drink would be offered to the aos sí. Doors, windows, byres & livestock would be decorated with yellow May flowers. They possibly did this because the yellow flowers evoked fire.

In parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush: typically a thorn bush or branch decorated with flowers, ribbons, bright shells & rushlights. Holy wells were also visited, while Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty & maintain youthfulness.

• The aos sí (often referred to as spirits or faeries) were thought to be especially active at Beltane. Like Samhain, which lies directly opposite from Beltane on the Wheel of the Year, this was seen as a time when the veil between worlds was at its thinnest. At Samhain the veil between the worlds of the living & the dead is thin enough that we can connect & convene with our beloved dead, here at Beltane it’s the veil between the human world, & the world of faeries & nature spirits that has grown thin. Offerings would be left at the ancient faerie forts, the wells & in other sacred places in an effort to appease these nature spirits to ensure a successful growing season.

Other celebrations:

•  Rosealia- May 23rd

Rosalia or Rosaria was a festival of roses celebrated on various dates, primarily in May, but scattered through mid-July. The observance is sometimes called a rosatio (“rose-adornment”) or the dies rosationis, “day of rose-adornment,” & could be celebrated also with violets. As a commemoration of the dead, the rosatio developed from the custom of placing flowers at burial sites. It was among the extensive private religious practices by means of which the Romans cared for their dead, reflecting the value placed on tradition (mos maiorum, “the way of the ancestors”), family lineage & memorials ranging from simple inscriptions to grand public works. Several dates on the Roman calendar were set aside as public holidays or memorial days devoted to the dead.

Roses had funerary significance in Greece, but were particularly associated with death & entombment among the Romans. In Greece, roses appear on funerary steles  & in epitaphs most often of girls. Flowers were traditional symbols of rejuvenation, rebirth &memory, with the red & purple of roses & violets felt to evoke the color of blood as a form of propitiation

Sources:

Farmersalmanac .com

Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kines

Wikipedia

Encyclopedia Britannica

A Witch's Book of Correspondences by Viktorija Briggs

Encyclopedia britannica

Llewellyn 2025 magical almanac Practical magic for everyday living

aianta.org/native-american-moon-names

Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials: Beltane