ffetcher's experiences index

Background

The system is directionless: directions can, if you wish, be assigned to suit the place or operation. I have in mind four bowls of water each containing a small floating votive: these can be left safely to burn out. There are assignments for the elements in the ritual. If colours are used, for example for the votives, the defaults would be red (fire), black (earth), blue (water) and yellow (air), in that order clockwise.

Note that with the addition of a bowl of water within the space, a complete circle of a large number of white candles will work fine: the symbolism will also work with a single bowl of water containing a single white candle. Flame is fire, water is water and smoke is air.

The other ingredients are part of the casting ceremony. You need a single spill long enough to light all the candles. Salt represents earth and is ideally dispensed from a small bowl or spoon with a hole or notch in one side, rather than strewing pinches by hand. Wine represents spirit. Once one has drunk wines from the full barrel, the bouquet alone makes you inebriated and you will never be other. The chalice should be brim-full. The last tool is a cut flower or greenery to place in the water: a white lily might be best of all, but any symbol of a living thing will do: a leaf and berry in deepest winter, for example. It's brought by the Lover as a gift...

Ideally, the operatives, here designated "Handmaiden" and "Lover", should be naked. According to a couple of contemporary woodcuts, water can be represented by a large, full, wooden bath lined with silk to prevent splinters - hot tubbers please take one step forward. Or, equally over the top, the space could contain a soft mattress surmounted by a tent-like silk canopy. In either case the candles should be kept clear of the silk. You could of course use a barn, in which case candles should be kept clear of the straw.

Consecration

Lover:	Indeed, paradise is a place of pleasantness, which blooms with the greenness of flowers and herbs - it gives its very strength to the dry earth. As salt purifies, the earth of paradise is not darkened with evil.
Lover places the flower into the water. If there are several (for example four) water bowls, place it in the one which has been designated for water. Handmaiden takes the salt...
Handmaiden:	Just as the Earth uncovers itself and brings forth flowers after dew, so will the body receive its spirit and quicken.
...and sprinkles some from the bowl into each water bowl...
Lover:	The purest of Air gives forth a soft caressing wind, to which all things are naked.
Lover takes and lights the spill...
Handmaiden:	The dim fire engenders the bright fire of Light. The Light is given strength by the dim fire.
...and lights the candles: if elements have been assigned to them, finish with Air.
Both:	From the earth, water, wind and fire conjoined come flashes of Living Light.
Handmaiden:	As Fire is proven through Air so is Spirit proven through Spirit.
Both drink a sip from the chalice: if a little is spilled, well then, the barrel is clearly brim-full. No matter that the mattress is purest white and the wine a deep lusty red. They pour a little of the wine into each water dish.
Lover:	Living Light, be a symbol of the Living Light and make this space ready for the Body of the Living Light.
Handmaiden:	As Earth is proven through Water so is the Body proven through Flesh.
Working
Lover:	Lady Wisdom, as the Moon of Living Light, descend and dwell in your Handmaiden. You were poured forth before the beginning, you were the beloved of the Creator. You were together when the strands of the world were woven; to be consort and delight for each other night and day.
Handmaiden:	Come in the form and clothing of a Man, wonderful and beautiful, with glorious face. Come to me, take me entirely and press me to you. So will I be both outwardly satisfied and fully transported.
Lover:	How wondrously Love's Handmaiden dwells in the beloved. One dwells in the other, so that neither one knows their individuality.
Handmaiden:	But they possess and rejoice in each other mouth in mouth, heart in heart, body in body, soul in soul. One sweet divine nature flows through them both, and both are one through each other, yet will always remain individual.
Lover:	We have the strength and wisdom within Us, and without, to perform or to refrain from acts according to Our own will.
Closing
Handmaiden:	You have been at my table and I have given you my feast and my wines from the full barrel, by which we are so filled that the bouquet alone makes us inebriated, and we will never be other.
This next section can be used to snuff the candles, or not, as preferred.
Lover:	Paradise has bloomed. It has given strength to the Earth, which has blossomed.
Handmaiden:	Water has given forth dew, and the greenness of herbs.
Lover:	From air has blown a caressing wind.
Handmaiden:	Dim fire has given strength to the light of the bright fire.
Both:	Earth, water, wind and fire conjoined brought forth the Living Light. Let us be one Soul, giving to Nature all that is necessary for it, without remorse of conscience. Nature is so well ordained by the unity of Love, that nothing forbidden is asked. We have tasted the feast, and savoured the wines, and we will not speak of the secrets we have been given.

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This started out as a complete flight of fancy, inspired by Jack Gale. Using candles to represent the Living Light and thus to make the space sacred, however, are my only actual concessions to the Priestess Madeleine as envisaged by Jack. All other elements are taken directly from mediæval mystical writing. I do not wish here to imply that any of the authors were actually Free Spirits, but there's no doubting that one can make a working ritual involving sacred sex (or not as you see fit because it works platonically - you don't even need to decide until that point in the ritual) from these writings.

My original text was significantly longer: this (which I believe is the only one to have been used in anger - I certainly haven't performed it) making it any shorter would involve losing something important. The opening is necessary to set up the sacred space. The closing is necessary both for grounding and for the closing speech. The invocations are not just necessary, but the main part of the work. There's a shorter simpler working at 'Invitation to the Feast', or mail me if you want a copy of the longer version.