Call of the witch (Tom and Zac fanfic)

Weird rituals

*Soleil*
"Hi and welcome, I am Tanya". The woman's smile is friendly and she holds out her hand to me. "Mark told me it's your birthday today, congratulations".

"Thank you". I say smiling shyly, shaking her hand.

Tanya exudes friendliness and warmth, and I immediately likes her. My eyes slide down her dress, It really is almost identical to the one that Davina had sown to me, but where mine has a flower bort, hers has silver Celtic knots along its edge.

"Come on we are going quite far into the forest, it is this way". Tanya waves me along onto a path. "Mark told me that he had explained which special astronomical phenomena we are having these days. Super full moon happening at the same time as the summer solstice. Wow it's crazy. I can't even imagine which fantastic powers are going to dance with us tonight, when both the mother and father are so close". Tanya's eyes are shining. "But how much do you know about the traditional feast we are here to celebrate". She ask.

"Not so much, besides it being the midsummer celebration for fertility".

"Yes Litha, as we call it is summer solstice, it's the day of the year where the day is the longest and the night is the shortest, from tomorrow the days are going to be shorter and when we reach the shortest day, Yule, which is winter solstice it all starts over". Tanya stops and holds a branch aside so I can pass. "In the old Celtic mythology King oak and King Holly was twins fighting for power doing to year". She continues. "People saw how the oak trees lose their leaves in the fall and that gave space for the holly which is always green behind the foliage. In the spring the oak grows its leafs back and it makes the holly disappear. In our coven we have taken up the fight of King oak and King Holly. We are going to say goodbye to King oak today".

I am listening fascinated by Tanya's tale. I have read a bit about this, when I made the magical circle, but it was still crazy that I'm going to be in a real wiccan sabbat.

"But first we are going to celebrate that it's now the Sun is closest to us". Tanya look up, throwing out her arms. "The goddess in the aspect of the Mother is highly pregnant after her reunion with the God at Beltane's fertility sabbat  and nature is in its fullest. When it's midnight, we are saying goodbye to King oak by throwing firewood made from oak on the bonfire. There you can collect your old amulets and write bad habits or something else you want to get rid of on a piece of paper and thrown into the fire".

"I have read something about people jumping over the fire at midnight. Do you do that?" I ask her curiously.

"It's not something we have practised, but it sounds like a good idea. It's always cool to try new things". Tanya laughs. "We usually just ends the ritual by thanking the nature, the goddess and the God for the gifts and then we just get our earthly connection back before we break the circle".

We finally reached the spot of the sabbat. The trip has taken us through the forest to the South-east and after that we went down a very slim overgrown path. If Tanya hadn't been here to show me the way, I would have never found it.the forest grows denser and several places there is only a small animal trail showing us the way. Then suddenly we stepped in to an opening that the big tree is had kept completely hidden.

The open space covers an area of 14 x 10 m and you can see that the coven uses it regularly for their sabbats and its esbats, because the grass is short and some places it is worn down to the bare ground. There is a big white circle painted in the grass. With a fireplaces marking each world corner, and in the middle of it stand a tall pole. In the end of the circle facing north, between the pole and the fireplace there is an altar of old three trunks. The altar is covered in flowers in every colour falling over the edge like a waterfall.  Two big white candle stands on each side of the big brass cauldron and to the right is a long black knife. I recognise it from Marks apartment: it is Athame - the rituelle knife. To the left is a beautiful wine glass.