Brida

"The Voice will teach you the mysteries of the world, the mysteries that are imprisoned in time, and which are carried from generation to generation by witches."

He spoke without really listening to what he was saying. He was trying to remember when he had first met his Soul Mate. Solitary people lose track of time, the hours are long and the days interminable. Even so, he knew they had only been together twice before. Brida was learning very fast.

"I know the rituals and I'm to be initiated into the Great Mysteries at the Spring Equinox."

She was beginning to feel tense again.

"There's one thing, though, that I still haven't experienced--the force that everyone knows and which they revere as if it were a mystery."

The Magus understood why she had come that afternoon. It wasn't just to walk among the trees and leave two sets of footprints in the snow, footprints that were getting closer every minute.

Brida turned up her jacket collar to protect her face, whether because the cold grew more intense when they stopped walking or because she was merely trying to conceal her nervousness, she wasn't sure.

"I want to learn how to awaken the force of sex through the five senses," she said at last. "Wicca won't talk about it. She says that I'll

discover it just as I discovered the Voice."

They sat for a few minutes in silence. She wondered if she should even be talking about such a thing in the ruins of a church. But then she remembered that there are many ways of using the force. The monks who had lived there had worked through abstinence, and they would understand what she meant.

"I've tried all kinds of things. I think there must be a trick, like the trick with the phone to get me to really see the tarot cards. I think it's something Wicca doesn't want to teach me. I think she must have found it very hard to learn and wants me to experience the same difficulties."

"Was that why you came looking for me?"

Brida looked deep into his eyes.

"Yes."

She hoped her answer would convince him, but she wasn't sure of anything anymore. The walk through the snowy wood, the sunlight on the snow, the easy conversation about the ordinary things of the world, all of this had set her emotions galloping like wild horses. She had to persuade herself again that she was there for only one reason, and that she would attain her objective by whatever means possible. Because God had been a woman before he became a man.

The Magus got up from the pile of stones he was sitting on and walked over to the only wall that had not crumbled into rubble. In the middle of the wall was a door, and he stood leaning against it. The evening sun lit him from behind, and Brida could not see his face.

"There's one thing that Wicca didn't teach you," he said. "She may have forgotten to do so, or she may have wanted you to discover it alone."

"Well, here I am, alone."

And she asked herself if perhaps this had been her Teacher's plan all along, to bring her together with this man.

"I'm going to teach you," he said at last. "Come with me."

They walked to a place where the trees were taller and their trunks thicker. Brida noticed that some of them had rough-and-ready ladders attached to the trunks. At the top of each ladder was a kind of cabin.

"This must be where the hermits of the Tradition of the Sun live," she thought.

The Magus carefully examined each cabin, chose one, and asked Brida to join him.

She started to climb. Halfway up, she felt afraid, because a fall might prove fatal. Nevertheless, she resolved to go on; she was in a sacred place, protected by the spirits of the forest. The Magus had not asked if she wanted to do this, but perhaps this was considered unnecessary in the Tradition of the Sun.

When they reached the top, she gave a long sigh. She had conquered another of her fears.

"This is a good place to teach you the path," he said. "A place of ambush."

"Ambush?"

"These cabins are used by hunters. They have to be high up so that the animals don't catch the hunters' scent. During the year, the hunters leave food on the ground so that the animals get used to coming here, and then one day, they kill them."

Brida noticed some empty cartridges on the floor. She was shocked.

"Look down," he said.