The Sauna Part 82

My mind drifted back to reality slowly and my body sagged against Jon as he withdrew his finger. The combination of the heat, the heady scent of the perfumed bath water and the intensity of the orgasm followed by his promise left me weak and nearly comatose. I was so relaxed I wasn’t sure I could even move. Jon brushed away the strands of damp hair that clung to my cheek and bent his head to kiss me.

“God, I love to watch you come. You’re so beautiful” he said just a little wistfully.

I roused myself slowly and sat up as I turned to face him. The smile he wore made me feel like I was wrapped in a warm blanket and I knew I could never live without him. His love made me feel glad to be alive and I silently thanked the God and Goddess for the greatest gift I had ever known.

“Jon, I love you more with every passing day. I can’t even imagine my life without you as I was never fully alive before you came into my life” I said as the tears rolled down my cheeks.

He pulled me close and held me tight, smoothing my hair with his hand. He was crying too.

“I don’t want to live without you” he murmured and we clung to each other, overcome with emotion.

A light breeze blew in and the candle flickered and guttered. It was time to make ourselves ready. We drew apart and stood up and Jon wrapped me in a towel as I dried his back and shoulders. His skin was pink from the heat, but we both glowed from the light from the God and Goddess within. I had not yet cast the circle or invoked the deities, but we knew that they were here with us this night and we knew we were blessed with their love.

I lifted my hair and he carefully fastened the Bride’s gift of moonstones and garnets about my throat and I donned my white ceremonial cloak and my pentacle earrings that I wore only for ritual. I unwrapped a second cloak, my gift to Jon that I had had made for him as a surprise. It was velvet and deep forest green in hue, and symbolic of the Holly King, the image of the God that I saw in Jon. I explained this as I draped it across his shoulders and fastened it with a silver brooch fashioned in the shape of the Celtic knot, representing eternity. I felt him tremble slightly as he took my face in his hands and kissed my lips.

It was drawing on eleven o’clock as we emerged from the bathroom and Richie and Elaine were waiting nervously in the kitchen, dressed and ready. Richie stood and slung his guitar across his back and Jon picked up the picnic basket. I asked Elaine to unbind her hair as tradition dictated that maidens wore their hair loose and flowing and she did as I bid her. I lit two candles and gave one to Lainie and we proceeded outside. I placed a wreath of flowers on Jon’s brow and he did the same for me and Richie and Elaine followed suit with the two that remained.

Richie took the cedar branches and Elaine and I gathered the garlands and we began to climb the short path up the hill in single file. Jon had not seen my altar nor the sacred spot and so I led the procession, Jon close behind me and Richie and Lainie a bit behind. We reached the clearing in a few minutes and Jon set the basket on the ground near the stone altar.

I tied the cedar branches together into a makeshift broom and swept the circle clockwise, beginning in the North, while Jon unpacked all but the cakes from the basket. I placed the four other candles at the North, South, East and West edges of the circle while Jon filled the bowl I’d brought with water from the nearby stream. Richie and Lainie stood back and watched as I outlined the circle with the garlands, making it easier to visualize. This was Jon’s first esbat too, and although he had read the rite, he was not yet familiar enough to participate fully.

I removed my cloak, as did Jon, and to my shock and surprise, Richie and Elaine remove their clothes as well. Jon and I grinned at one another and at our two friends who chose to honor us with observing these traditions. I hugged and kissed Lainie and thanked her and Jon thanked Richie with a hug as well. I then asked Jon to take them both and step outside the circle until I had cast it. They stood close together and listened as Jon explained each step.

I lit the altar candle and the incense and clapped my hands three times as I chanted my welcome to the Lord and Lady. I then proceeded to walk deosil (clockwise) around the circle carrying the altar candle as I called to the Guardians of the Watchtowers, lighting the candles at the four quadrants as I went and invoking the elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire. I repeated the circle again, this time with my athame (ritual dagger) and the incense and again I chanted the words of the ritual. I added a pinch of salt to the bowl of water with the tip of my athame and walked for the third time about the circle, chanting and sprinkling the purified water about the perimeter and the circle was cast.

Raising my athame again, I cut the doorway in the circle by drawing the invoking pentagram in the air and Jon stepped forward and asked to enter the circle. I asked him to recite the ritual greeting and he responded without hesitation before entering.

“In perfect love and perfect trust”

Next was Richie, following Jon’s example and then Lainie, who hesitated only briefly. Once inside, I drew the banishing pentacle to seal the doorway and closed the circle. I motioned for Lainie and Richie to be seated and took Jon’s hand in mine and guided him through the ritual known as “Drawing Down the Moon”, the way to invoke the Goddess to be present within me. Correspondingly, I performed the equivalent ritual to invoke the God in Jon, called “Drawing Down the Sun”.

I could sense the energy building now within the circle, like an electromagnetic charge in the air. Lainie sensed it too, though I knew she didn’t understand it, but I could tell as she began to fidget like a restless horse before a storm. Richie, on the other hand, grew calm and still and seemed to be at peace. Jon, however, was exultant and to my mind, shown with the radiance of the Sun. The energy emanating from him was enormous and I had no doubt that the Lord and Lady were within us this night.

I turned to Jon and took his left hand in mine as I unwrapped the parchment with my varar and placed the three ribbons in the cauldron. I read to him what I had written from my heart:

“Love and Light of my heart, I desire nothing more than to give myself to you in this lifetime and in all that follow, as I have in all that have gone before. You are my soul mate, my friend and my lover, my God. I bind myself to you and to you alone, now and forever, as you complete me. Never have I known more joy than that which I feel in your arms and I entrust you with my heart and soul, knowing there could never be a safer place for it than in your keeping.
Through you I experience all that is the God and all that is miraculous in love and through you alone do I breathe in all that is life and abundance. I have drunk from the well of your love and I have no taste for any that is not you, such is my thirst that only you can quench. I have grown strong in your strength and there is nothing further that I need, save you in my life. I am blessed in your love and through me, I offer you the Goddess in all her aspects. Everything I have, and everything that I am, I give freely to you with love and joy”

When I had finished, I rolled the parchment up again and placed it at his feet symbolizing my gift and commitment to love him into eternity and he knelt to take it, kissing the scroll in symbolic acceptance of my offering. I knelt before him and placed the onyx ring on his finger and recited the following ritual words:

“I have chosen you above all others. I will share with you my love and the light of the Goddess”

I took the candle with my name and lit it from the altar candle, placing it alongside the main flame and returned to take Jon’s hand. His eyes were shining with unshed tears, and he was smiling. He signaled to Richie who suddenly remembered he had a part to play and he began to pluck the notes of the melody Jon had written. Jon sang softly at first, but his voice was clear and grew stronger as he sang to me.

The song was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I was enraptured as I listened to his words of devotion and timeless love without bounds. I felt my spirit being transported to the astral plane and I envisioned us as ageless lovers, connected forever by gold and silver threads wound about us. I literally began to tremble as I tried unsuccessfully to hold back the tears that were brimming in my eyes and he squeezed my hand meaningfully to ground me. The electric energy of the God within him was palpable, like a current running from his hand into mine. He was unsteady himself as the magnetic force of the Goddess ran likewise through me and into him and our connected hands kept us standing despite the powerful forces we were channeling. I could feel the energy binding us together forever into the mists of time.

Jon finished the song and my cheeks were wet with my joyful tears as he slipped the moonstone ring onto my finger, repeating the timeless words of antiquity:

“I have chosen you above all others. I will share with you my love and the light of the God”

Jon reached for his candle beside the altar and lit it, placing it beside mine while still holding my hand. Together we moved closer to the altar and I removed the colored ribbons one by one from the cauldron and tied them around the candles as I repeated the ritual:

“These ribbons are symbols of the three faces of the Goddess and God. White is for the Maiden and the Son, who bring new beginnings and new cycles to life. Red is for the Mother and the Father, whose joining of creative energy gives birth to everything in the universe. Black is for the Wise Crone and the Keeper of the Laws. These aspects of the Goddess and God represent endings and preparation for new beginnings. Each life runs in a cycle through these three aspects. Can you accept this?”

To this question we both said “I will” in unison. Jon took the athame and raised it high above his head and I held the ritual chalice, filled with wine, and kneeling, I held it aloft to the sky. Symbolically representing the divine union of masculine and feminine energy, Jon plunged the athame into the chalice, and so consecrated the wine.

We both drank deeply from the cup and then passed it first to Richie and then to Elaine, who each took a sip. I noticed that Lainie had tears in her eyes and I reached out to her and wiped them away tenderly. The ritual was now nearly complete as Jon and I would celebrate the Great Rite in private. I went to the basket near the altar and placed a honey cake on the silver charger as an offering and poured a libation of wine onto the ground for the Goddess and God. I returned to join Jon, Lainie and Richie with the basket and we feasted on honey cakes and wine and kissed and hugged one another.

We sat together on the ground for some time talking and celebrating until the moon had risen high in the sky. Richie and Lainie began to yawn, but Jon and I were charged with energy and excitement as we neared the end of the public ceremony. Jon and I stood and we both joined hands with Lainie and Richie and kissed them good night, explaining that the remaining ritual was private and they both nodded their understanding. I cut a doorway again in the circle and we bid them farewell and I sealed the circle yet again as I turned to Jon. We stood together, arm in arm, as we watched our friends disappear down the path, lit only by the full moon and the lone candle that Lainie carried to guide them back to the house.