The Blade and the Chalice

Beltane, 2009, has come and gone. It was a wonderful event bringing together over 300 people from all walks of life and interests to celebrate spring and love. We hope you will join us next year. In the meantime, please consider attending Fires of Venus, taking place Sept 24-27, 2009.

Registration for Beltane, 2010, will open in December, 2009. Please sign up for our email list to be notified when it opens.

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Among the improvements we made for 2009 was an intention towards really making the fire circle each night an event. We invited drummers to attend our event and had a few surprises planned for you. We hope you enjoyed them. Also, our fire circle was in a new location (one which we first tried out at Fires of Venus and loved) in the center of the camp uphill from the pool.

Another innovation from Fires of Venus was our Sexperiments space. For more information on that part of our event, click here. And a new space we added for this year is Babylon's Temple.

We changed the nature of our housing this year, as well. We offered Singles housing (on the side formerly known as the Lark side, and closest to our new fire circle) and Couples/Groups housing. You didn't have to be part of a couple to reserve a room on the Coupes' side of camp.

A little more information about our event:

Each year pagans, polyamorists, swingers, tantra practitioners, members of the leather community and other people with a passionate attitude towards life gather together in Northern Maryland to celebrate Beltane with a variety of rituals, workshops and experiences. We embrace life and each other in an open environment full of excitement and joy. We invite you to become part of that community.

Here, you will find a supportive environment for exploring the sexually sacred and celebrating the ecstatic. You will find others of a like mind with whom you can experience different ways of loving, different roads to achieving bliss. You'll be able to join an intentional community exploring the many facets of love and sex and the many ways they can be sacred.

In 2009, we'll have nationally and regionally known presenters offering workshops, lectures and hands-on demonstrations covering topics such as tantra, polyamory, personal intimacy, sexual orientation & gender issues, the changing definition of the family and communication skills. And of course, we will have workshops where the focus will be fun.

We’ll also have drumming and dancing around the bonfire each night, and we are putting extra effort into making our fires real events at Beltane this year. Play parties and other fun things we know you'll enjoy will be offered nightly as well. And don't miss our new Sexploration space which debuted to rave reviews at Fires of Venus 2008.

Our pansexual, clothing optional retreat attracts adults 18 & over from all backgrounds, orientations and walks of life. The only thing we ask is that you have an open mind and be nonjudgmental.

Beltane is held on a private 200-acre campground on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Northern Maryland. Only minutes from I-95, it is about 90 minutes from Philadelphia and 45 minutes from Baltimore.

Previous years' offerings can be found here.