Over the years, I have created rituals to celebrate the Wheel of the Year with my wife and children. Music has been an essential part of the experience. Without it, it would be much more difficult to create the sense of sacred time and space and to evoke the experience I desire for each ritual. So I want to share with you my playlist for each station on the Wheel of Year. Here’s the third list. Enjoy! And share your suggestions in the comments below.

May Day / Beltane / Mid-Spring

Mythologically, at this time of the year, the Dark God is bound. In other versions, he is slain. The Stag King takes his oath to the Goddess, now the May Queen, the representative of sovereignty. The God­dess and her Consort are married. By virtue of his marriage to the Queen, her Consort is crowned and becomes the Oak King.

“The Lusty Month of May” from Camelot (musical)

GUENEVERE:
Tra la! It’s May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev’ryone goes
Blissfully astray.
Tra la! It’s here!
That shocking time of year
When tons of wicked little thoughts
Merrily appear!
It’s May! It’s May!
That gorgeous holiday
When ev’ry maiden prays that her lad
Will be a cad!
It’s mad! It’s gay!
A libelous display!
Those dreary vows that ev’ryone takes,
Ev’ryone breaks.
Ev’ryone makes divine mistakes
The lusty month of May!

Whence this fragrance wafting through the air?
What sweet feelings does its scent transmute?
Whence this perfume floating ev’rywhere?
Don’t you know it’s that dear forbidden fruit!
Tra la la la la! That dear forbidden fruit!
Tra la la la la!

GUENEVERE & CHORUS:
Tra la la la la [etc.]

GUENEVERE:
Tra la! It’s May!
The lusty month of May!
That darling month when ev’ryone throws
Self-control away.
It’s time to do
A wretched thing or two,
And try to make each precious day
One you’ll always rue!
It’s May! It’s May!
The month of “yes you may,”
The time for ev’ry frivolous whim,
Proper or “im.”
It’s wild! It’s gay!
A blot in ev’ry way.
The birds and bees with all of their vast
Amorous past
Gaze at the human race aghast,
The lusty month of May.

CHORUS:
Tra la! It’s May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev’ryone goes
Blissfully astray.
Tra la! It’s here!
That shocking time of year
When tons of wicked little thoughts
Merrily appear.
It’s May! It’s May!
The month of great dismay.

GUENEVERE:
When all the world is brimming with fun,
Wholesome or “un.”

GUENEVERE & CHORUS:
It’s mad! It’s gay!
A libelous display!
Those dreary vows that ev’ryone takes,
Ev’ryone breaks.
Ev’ryone makes divine mistakes
The lusty month of May! 

“Spring” by Bill Callahan

The wind is pushing the clouds along
Out of sight
A power is putting them away
A power that moves things neurotically
Like a widow with a rosary

Everything is awing and tired of praise
Mountains don’t need my accolades
Spring looks bad lately anyway
Like death warmed over

And the bantam is preening madly
Waiting for the light of day
And all I want to do
Is to make love
To you

With a careless mind
With a careless, careless
Who care’s what’s mine?

We call it Spring though things are dying
Connected to the land like a severed hand
I see our house on a hill on a clear blue morning
When I am out walking my eyes are still forming
The door I walk through and I see
The true Spring is in you
The true Spring is in you

My wide worlds collide
And mind-wide words collide
And seasons kaleidoscoping

And all I want to do
All I want to do
Is to make love
To you

In the fertile dirt
In the fertile dirt
With a careless mind

“Now the Green Blade Riseth”

Note, in the lyrics below, it didn’t take much to change this from a song about Jesus, to one about the pagan Horned God.

Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love who had been slain,
Thinking that He never would awake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen: 
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Forth He came at [Sprint-Time], like the risen grain,
[Horned One] who for three days in the grave had lain;
Quick from the dead the risen One is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
[Horned One]’s touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been: 
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

“All Creatures of Earth and Sky”

This is a Unitarian Universalist adaptation of “All Creatures of Our God and King”. I still had to replace the one remaining reference below to God.

All creatures of the earth and sky,
come, kindred, lift your voices high,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Bright burning sun with golden beam,
soft shining moon with silver gleam:

(Chorus)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Swift rushing wind so wild and strong,
white clouds that sail in heav’n along,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Fair rising morn in praise rejoice,
high stars of evening find a voice:

(Chorus)

Cool flowing water, pure and clear,
make music for all life to hear,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Dance, flame of fire, so strong and bright,
and bless us with your warmth and light:

(Chorus)

Embracing earth, you, day by day,
bring forth your blessings on our way,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
All herbs and fruits that richly grow,
let them the glory also show:

(Chorus)

All you of understanding heart,
forgiving others, take your part,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Let all things now the Holy bless,
and worship [Them] in humbleness:

(Chorus)