Beltane and the Body’s Awakening: Waking Up Your Ghost-Mode Self
The Neuroscience of Beltane– How Sunlight, Serotonin, and A Little Ritual Can Reboot Your System.
May 1, 2025 | Issue #08 | Happy Beltane
In this week's edition we’ll unpack:
Beltane & the Body’s Awakening – We’ll explore the ancient Celtic fire festival of Beltane and how it beautifully aligns with our biological rhythms, encouraging us to shake off the fog and re-engage with life—intentionally and vibrantly.
The Middle Way: Walking the Path of Balance – Learn how this core Buddhist teaching offers a way out of burnout and imbalance, helping us step away from extremes and find harmony in our day-to-day choices and inner dialogue.
Listening Through the Coin Flip – A simple decision-making trick that taps into your gut instinct in real-time—helping you break through indecision by recognizing what you truly want, before the coin even lands.
May these words find you well, as we untangle our thoughts and explore new ideas…
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”
Beltane and the Body’s Awakening: Waking Up Your Ghost-Mode Self
The neuroscience of Beltane– how sunlight, serotonin, and a little ritual can reboot your system.
Sometimes I’ll feel so transparent, with a milky cloudy sheen, wandering and hobbling around the house—letting out a deep sigh now and again. If we’re not careful, we can become ghosts wandering the old hallways and rooms of our lives, without even realizing it. When we’re not actively participating in our daily routines, actions, and lives, then our default character is a mere shell—a ghost of ourselves.
I get it—that’s certainly easier than waking up every day and choosing to play the game. Even if you’re only farming experience points or completing minuscule side quests. The point is to at least participate, and try to keep participating. Showing up and sitting on the sidelines waving your little pom-pom in the air is still doing something.
That’s why Beltane hits me differently.
It’s not just some distant pagan fire festival—it’s a very real, symbolic checkpoint in the game of life. A moment where nature, both outside and within, demands you wake up and step in. Celebrated traditionally on May 1st, Beltane is one of the four Celtic cross-quarter days, marking the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It honors fertility, fire, vitality, and the union of opposites—sun and earth, light and shadow, masculine and feminine.
But here’s a twist: Modern science tells us these seasonal shifts aren’t just poetic metaphors. They’re biological imperatives.
As the days grow longer and the angle of sunlight shifts, our circadian rhythms adjust. That internal timekeeper—the suprachiasmatic nucleus in our brain—reads the light and sends out hormonal signals. Melatonin production slows. Serotonin and dopamine rise. Cortisol becomes better regulated. Our bodies want to participate again. Even if you’ve been ghosting yourself all winter, this is the nudge— the flame to return.
Beltane calls us to move from spirit-form back into embodied presence. It's the moment we go from dreaming to doing. The bonfires once lit across the hills of Ireland weren’t just ritual—they were reminders.
Light the fire. Walk through it. Wake yourself back up.
And no, participating doesn’t mean overhauling your life overnight. It could mean stretching in the sun for five minutes. Saying yes to a conversation. Planting one idea. Lighting one candle.
Whatever your version of fire is—now is the time to spark it.
Fun Takeaway: Beltane isn’t just a seasonal checkpoint—it’s nature’s way of handing you the controller and saying, “It’s your turn.” Whether you’ve been floating through your days on autopilot or hiding behind low energy, this moment is your cue to return to the game. Biology, tradition, and sunlight are teaming up to help reboot your system. So light a candle, stretch toward the sun, or whisper one intention into the wind—just do something that says: “I’m here. I’m alive. I’m ready to play again.”
Philosophy of the Week:
The Middle Way
In Buddhist philosophy, The Middle Way is the path between extremes. It teaches us that true wisdom—and peace—comes not from overindulgence or harsh denial, but from balance. Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) discovered this after living a life of wealth, followed by one of intense asceticism. Neither brought him enlightenment. Only when he chose the middle path—nourishing himself just enough, practicing mindfulness without obsession—did he find clarity. The Middle Way reminds us that harmony, not extremism, leads to sustained inner growth.
So where in your life are you swinging too far?
Are you overworking without rest, or escaping too much without direction? Are your thoughts too rigid or too scattered? Moderation doesn’t mean mediocrity—it means listening closely to what each moment calls for. This week, check in with yourself daily. If you’re leaning too hard in one direction, take one small step back toward center. That’s where the wisdom lives.
The Middle Way means choosing balance over burnout, and steadiness over extremes. It’s a reminder that you don’t have to go all or nothing—just keep moving forward with awareness, one step at a time.
Day2Day Survival Tip:
Flip the Coin —
When you're stuck between two choices and can't seem to decide, try this simple trick: flip a coin. It’s not about leaving the decision to chance or what side it lands on—it’s about giving your subconscious a chance to speak up.
The moment that coin is in the air, you'll likely feel a flicker of hope for one outcome over the other. That feeling? That’s your real answer.
Our brains often get caught in analysis paralysis—looping through pros and cons, what-ifs, and worst-case scenarios. But the act of flipping a coin interrupts that mental noise. It forces you into a split-second moment of clarity, where instinct takes over. The anticipation of the result quiets the noise and amplifies your gut feeling. You're not really deciding with the coin—you're discovering what you already want deep down.
So next time you're caught between two paths—big or small—grab a coin. Pay attention to what you hope for in that brief, suspended moment. Whether you follow the coin or not, you’ve already made the most important move: you’ve listened to yourself.
Words of Wisdom:
Clarissa Pinkola Estés is a poet, Jungian psychoanalyst, and storyteller best known for her groundbreaking book Women Who Run With the Wolves. Her work is a powerful call to remember the wild, intuitive nature that lives in all of us—especially in a world that often urges us to tame, shrink, or silence it. Estés reminds us that healing comes not from perfection, but from rewilding ourselves—reconnecting to the parts of us that know how to feel, create, protect, grieve, and live fully.
She speaks to the soul’s deep need to be seen and heard—to howl when necessary, to rest when tired, and to follow the rhythm of our own inner drum. Her message is a reclamation: you are not broken, you are becoming. Your instincts are not flaws, but guides. And your longing for something more isn’t foolish—it’s ancient.
“If you have ever been called sensitive, dramatic, too much, or not enough—good. You are likely closer to your wild self than you realize. The wild woman does not want to be nice—she wants to be real. She does not seek approval—she seeks truth.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estés, paraphrased from Women Who Run With the Wolves
Let this be your invitation to stop silencing the most alive parts of you. Listen closer. They’re not lost—they’re just waiting for you to come home.
