Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Kainda
E lijah looked so much healthier than he had just hours earlier. We’d only met this morning, but it felt like a lifetime ago. We both filled up our plates and gotten mugs of cider that smelled amazing. I picked a spot for us to sit along the top riser on the far right side, so we’d be out of the way and wouldn’t disturb anyone. He’d have no clue about the ritual on below us, and I wanted to share with him the beauty in the ceremony, which meant explaining the actions we witnessed. Besides, only honored guests of the coven were allowed to participate in the ceremony. And we didn’t fit that description.
The woman wearing the emerald cloak stepped up to the podium, the high priestess. Whispering, I pointed out the coven officials to Elijah. The other high ranking coven members standing on the ground next to her. She raised her right hand over her head as she whispered a spell, causing sparks to fly from her fingertips to crack and sizzle loudly in the air. Silence descended over the crowd. A simple, but effective party trick. She waited patiently for everyone to settle into seats on the risers.
Her hood fell, exposing her tawny hair and her heart shaped face. Her face a timeless work of art where you could never really tell her true age, as High Priestess, she had to be middle-aged. It took years to climb the ranks in a coven, not to mention the training that went into the coveted position. Lips stained the color of wine curved in welcome. “Merry meet!”
“Merry meet!” The coven returned the greeting and then fell silent, eager to start the ceremony as the witching hour neared. I could feel it in the air, that magical hour when a witch’s powers reached their pentacle.
The hoods of the other two women fell. Orange cloak for the former high priestess, who now held the position of the historian within the coven. In rituals that required witches to step into the roles of the Trinity Goddess, she would portray the Crone. Her silver, blue hair braided over her left shoulder with her head piece woven into the strands of hair. The silver metal gleamed in the fire light, amber stones set within it appeared like frozen flames.
Red cloak slipped down raven locks in perfect spirals, revealing the priestess. The apprentice of the high priestess. In trinity rituals she’d portray the Maiden while the high priestess the Mother. Her ivory skin smooth as a baby, complimented by the blood-red lipstick she wore. A crescent pendant hung from a thin silver chain attached to the plain silver headband so that the moon rested on her forehead.
The high priest wore a gold crown of branches in his wavy chestnut hair, with a deer pelt draped over his shoulders. An older gentleman, my guess probably in his fifties. The stern expression he wore as he scanned the boundary of the gathering spoke of a warrior. More than likely captain of the coven guard, or had previously held the role.
The high priestess’s consort wore a golden crown atop mousy brown hair worn long passed his shoulders. A rather plain piece except for the intricate emblem front and center. The sun as one half of a whole circle, with the moon as his other half. An ancient wolf’s pelt graced his shoulders. He stared longingly up at his wife on her perch above him.
“Tonight is a lovey night for the Sabbat! Let us begin!” She lifted a large, ornate sword from the altar, handing it to the high priest.
He walked facing the flames until he had his back dead center in front of the altar, as the space set, so the altar marked due north. Raising the sword above his head, he recited an opening prayer. Then he slowly brought the sword down until the edge of the blade touched the ground. He moved in deosil creating the line for the circle, the tip of the bladed dragging through the ground giving it a visual representation. As soon as the ends touched after his third loop, he raised the blade again as the last words of the prayer left his lips. Sitting this high up, his words didn’t reach us.
The consort holding a bowl of smoking incenses in both hands walked to the eastern edge of the circle. The high priest, having given up his sword, takes the athema from the altar and takes up his position at the southern edge. The former high priestess takes up the western point with a chalice filled with blessed water. The maiden priestess takes up the northern point, holding a hand carved wooden pentacle.
“We cast this circle to protect our sacred space from negative energies and to draw to us energies of light and love. Evil and negative energy be gone!” The high priestess said, with the other ranking members of the coven repeating after her.
“I invoke the winds of the East and the powers of Air! We welcome your energies to our circle. Please grace us with your presence!” The consort said, lifting the incense over his head. Soon, the wisp of smoke rising from the incense cone turned yellow. The color representing the element.
“I invoke the winds of the South and the powers of Fire! We welcome your energies to our circle. Please grace us with your presence!” The high priest said, lifting the athema above his head. The blade soon glowed red, a tiny flame sparked from the dull tip.
“I invoke the winds of the West and the powers of Water! We welcome your energies to our circle. Please grace us with your presence!” The former high priestess said, lifting the chalice over her head. Glowing blue water splashed out of the cup, vanishing before it could get her wet.
“I invoked the winds of the North and the powers of Earth! We welcome your energies to our circle. Please grace us with your presence!” The maiden priestess said, lifting the pentagram above her head. Warm green light glowed around the edge of the symbol.
“Mother Moon, Father Sun, lend us your energies this night.” The high priestess called as the circle drawn on the ground glowed white. She lifted a silver candle, resting it in her left palm and a white taper candle in her right, holding them out as far in front of her as she could.
“Tonight, in celebration of Mabon, we ask the goddess mother Demeter to join us!” She touched the flame of the white candle to the wick of the silver candle. The goddess candle now lit, she replaced it to its stand on the altar. Taking up the gold god candle, she lifted them in front of her. “In celebration of Mabon, we ask the god of the vine Dionysus to join us!”
As soon as she replaced the god candle on its stand, silver and golden rays of light flashed up from the drawn circle for just a moment. It signalled the gods had chosen to honor their request, even if only momentarily, as many other covens would also call about them this night. The coven members around the circle slowly brought their hands down in front of them and used magic to keep their tools floating in the air above their cardinal directions. Each member stepped back from the circle.
Elijah leaned in close to me, so close his bare arm brushed my bare shoulder. Do not shiver, Kainda! He spoke, so softly, I almost couldn’t hear him. “That was very methodically beautiful.”
“Mabon is the Second Harvest. We shall now offer up a loaf of bread, a cornucopia of vegetables from our garden, and a chalice of wine.” The high priestess accepted a loaf of fresh bread from the maiden priestess, placing it gently on the altar as she went down to one knee. Rising again, she turns back, accepting a large cornucopia from the two males and repeating the offering on the altar. Finally, the old woman brings forth a decanter of wine, pouring it into the chalice the high priestess held out to her. Once the chalice was placed upon the altar, she turned back to her coven and turned the podium over to the old woman.
“Demeter mourned the loss of her daughter, Persephone, so deeply her grief made the Earth barren. The goddess of the hearth and harvest had to give up her daughter to Hades and the Underworld. In her grief, nothing grew, and the people began to starve. The other gods and goddesses came together to save the people. They negotiated a deal between the god of the Underworld and the goddess of the harvest. For half the year Persephone would live with her husband Hades in the Underworld and for the rest of the year she would rise again to live on Earth with her mother, Demeter. Fall and winter when nothing grows for half the year is when Persephone has gone home to her husband. So as our year ends with the arrival of Mabon so too does the growth of vegetation. This is the time of year when we are reminded that all things come to an end. Now is the time to contemplate all of our successes and the gains we’ve incurred. We give thanks to the Earth, Demeter, and Dionysus for the bounty we’ve received from them this year. Think forward to all we have left to do to prepare for the coming winter. There is still much to come as fall hits us full swing. While our year will come to a close with the end of the Mabon season, we look forward to new beginnings. Our coven is blessed by the gods!”
Elijah pressed his mouth close to my ear again, “I had no idea witches preached a sermon.”
If a wall had been in front of me, my head would knock into it a few times. Cutting my eyes over to him, I whispered, “Stop it! Just sit there and listen. Take it all in and enjoy the festivities.”
“It’s a little hard to enjoy myself when my nipples are freezing off, Kainda.”
Heat rushed to my face as his lips moved away from my ear. Slowly turning to look at him, it took an enormous amount of willpower not to whip around to glare at him. The glare, though, still there. I was not going to cause a scene, even if the lease on my control frayed before my eyes. Apparently some apple cider, a full belly, and a couple of complex healing rituals, had loosened him up.
“E, they aren’t going to freeze off. Now, hush! The ceremony will be over in a bit, and then we can head back to get warm.”
Elijah scooted in closer to me until our sides touched. He might be cold, but with him so close, not me though, I got a little overheated. Strange, I sat nowhere near the flames of the bonfire. I hung on my denial like a life preserver. Goosebumps rose on my skin, ready to bolt from the sabbat celebration. I needed to get some distance between us and fast.