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.See Also: Amulet; ExorcismFurther ReadingChevalier, Jean, and Alain Gheerbrant.The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols.London:Penguin, 1996.Cooper, J.C.An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols.London: Thames andHudson, 1978.BeltaneBeltane is the Irish Gaelic name for the month of May, pronounced bee-yawl-cheen. As a holiday, it is celebrated on May 1 (beginning at the pre-ceding sunset), as one of the Greater Sabbats, which, with the Lesser Sabbats,29 BELTANEModern Witches have revived the ancient custom of the May pole as part of annual Beltanecelebrations.(Circle Sanctuary archives)make up the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. The Greater Sabbatsof Brigid (February 1), Beltane (May 1, better known as May Day), Lugh-nasad (August 1), and Samhain (better known as Hallowe en November 1)are the traditional holidays peculiar to Celtic culture.Beltane, or May Day, appears to have been a festival that always tookplace at the beginning of the dependable period of good weather in northernEurope, when herdsmen could safely take their herds up to high summer pas-tures and when wild fruits and berries began to grow and ripen.Europeanfolklore is full of May Day customs, a great many of them methods for youngwomen to divine who their future husbands would be.It was a day for Maypole dances, preceded by all-night outings when people would look for flow-ering branches and other prizes, for young women to work folk-magic ritualsto divine who (and if) they would marry, and to make gifts of flowers forfriends and lovers.Its dedication as a festival of the Blessed Virgin Marymarked by an annual ritual that crowns the statue of Mary in the parishchurch with a wreath was intended by the Christian Church to co-opt itstraditional importance as a folk festival, since it has never been a feast ofMary in the official Christian Church calendar of saints days and other ob-servances.May Day, or Labor Day, on the first Monday in May, is observed asa holiday throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The night of April 30 through the night of May 1, called Walpurgisnacht,was traditionally a night on which the Witches met on the Blockula in Swe-den and on other mountain peaks in Europe for a Grand Sabbat.It is still ob-30 BINAHserved as a folk festival in the Harz Mountain region of Germany and inScandinavia as a night on which to scare away evil spirits by lighting bonfiresand making various kinds of loud noises some musical, some not.The onlyapparent source for the name Walpurgisnacht is St.Walburga, but the festivalto celebrate her falls on February 25.It also is obviously a relic of the Celticfestival of Beltane.The legends about Walpurgisnacht do, of course, inspire NeopaganWitches to hold a Sabbat on this night if they possibly can, or at least on theclosest weekend.There are many long-standing traditional festivals held nearthe date of Beltane.See Also: Bale-Fire; Sabbats; Wheel of the YearFurther ReadingCampanelli, Pauline.Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life.St.Paul, MN:Llewellyn, 1989.Kelly, Aidan A.Religious Holidays and Calendars: An Encyclopedic Handbook.Detroit,MI: Omnigraphics, 1991.BibliomancyThis word refers to the use of the Bible as a means of finding answers, makingdecisions, or bringing fortune.Through the time of the Reformation, a com-mon medieval belief in England and other European countries was that thereading of randomly chosen pages of the Bible could reveal future events orfavor a safe delivery for pregnant women.The simple laying of the Bible onchildren s heads could make them fall asleep.Decisions about the guilt of per-sons charged with the crime of Witchcraft were sometimes made by weighingthe accused against the great Bible present in every church weighing morethan the book would result in a guilty verdict.See Also: Divination; Fortune-TellingFurther ReadingShepard, Leslie A., ed.Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology.Detroit: GaleResearch Inc., 1991.BinahThe third sephira of the Cabala.Binah means understanding in Hebrew.Itis the first feminine principle, the womb of the divine mother, which receivesthe divine energy of Chokmah.Along with Kether and Binah, it makes upthe upper, or supernal, triangle of the ten sephiroth, which is also the head ofthe divine body.Binah is also symbolic of the palace.See Also: Cabala31 BINDINGFurther ReadingFortune, Dion.The Mystical Qabalah.York Beach, ME: Weiser, 1994 [1935].Myers, Stuart.Between the Worlds: Witchcraft and the Tree of Life A Program ofSpiritual Development.St.Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1995.BindingContemporary Witches regard casting negative spells as both dangerous andunethical.Nevertheless, cases of people affected by negative spells, or by un-healthy energy at large, have been reported.Such unpleasant situations canbe countered by binding spells, which annul the undesired effects of negativeinfluxes.A binding spell is typically not directed toward the author of the nega-tive spell, but simply toward the negative effects per se.However, in somecases a so-called boomerang or mirror spell can be performed.The result isthat the effects of the original negative spell return to their originator.Theperformer of the binding spell is, however, advised to specify that the effecton the person who cast the original negative spell will cease as soon as thenegative influx ceases.During a binding spell, an image made from wax or other materials repre-senting the originator is instructed on the effects that have followed the neg-ative spell, and that henceforth such effects are annulled.In the case of aboomerang spell, the representative image is also informed that until the neg-ative spell is voided, its effects will be mirrored on him or her.The binding ofthe image in black tape or cloth and, in certain rituals, the temporary burialof the image conclude the binding spell.See Also: Hex; Knot Magic; SpellsFurther ReadingRavenWolf, Silver.To Ride a Silver Broomstick: New Generation Witchcraft.St.Paul,MN: Llewellyn, 1996.Starhawk [Miriam Simos].The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of theGreat Goddess, 2d ed
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