The 2015 Summer Solstice

Ullapool and Loch Broom looking North West.

The photo: A clear Summer day on Loch Broom with the village of Ullapool in the foreground. The mountains in the background to the west face the Minch and the Isle of Lewis, They are first to get a lot of the moisture coming off the water in the form of rain or snow and contain Location Z.

Contraception and performance meds for the Solstice:  All my wards have had frameless copper bead GyneFix IUDs implanted so I’m the only one using a cervical barrier, a transparent silicone Oves cervical cap for other than dive-sex. While my wards are no longer in menstrual synchrony with me all of us are somewhere in our luteal interval so theoretically even with no effective method of birth control we should all be safe from becoming pregnant from our altar inseminations. Even so, it’s not a good idea for a woman to go unprotected during an encounter with a potent and unprotected man, which is why I had an Oves screwed down tight on my cervix. The ‘Altar Boys’ took a performance enhancing medication, Viagra or Cialis, as a precaution since performance anxiety and the cold can occasionally cause even the most amorous man’s penis to wilt. 

The Summer Solstice: We had convoyed up from His Grace’s hunting lodge to the staging area where the mess tent and dressing area are located arriving at midnight. Before dressing my wards and I as priestess of Aphrodite anointed our underarms, the inside of our thighs, behind our ears and the pulse points of our wrists with a spicy unguent the scent from which is designed to dramatically increase a man’s desire. Then we all met in the dining area where along with the men who would be our partners we consumed a full English breakfast during which they could smell the fragrant oil with which we had been anointed. After breakfast the women moved to the robing area to be helped into our full-length hooded shearling robes. I had again obtained a dispensation from the Goddess that permitted our wearing Gaynor pointes during our time on the altars while our partner’s inseminated us.  

As planned Bea, Willow, Odette and Odile took their respective places on the subtending altars at the celestial temple at Location Z along with me and our young male aristocrat partners to welcome the arrival of summer at sunrise a few minutes after 4:00 AM. At sunrise there was only a light breeze from the East and icily fog (the temperature was in the high 30s F) which made the sweet scent of the Gorse covering the area outside the ring of tone stones mixed with the earthy scent of burning peat just seem that much richer.

Returning readers will recall that at Location Z the North altar is close to the cliff edge due to the edge and the vertical tone stones there having long ago fallen into the valley hundreds of feet below, but Jack says the rock the altar and the remaining two fire pits are on is quite solid so while it looks dangerous if the wind isn’t blowing from the South the celebrant and her partner on the North altar should be quite safe. Willow always has first choice for these celebrations since she is the granddaughter of His Grace so has precedence and as usual chose to offer herself on the Eastern altar because it’s closest to the rising sun. The other girls chose to celebrate on the altars they occupied for the Vernal Equinox; Bea on the South, Odette on the Western altar and Odile on the Northern one.

Odile is the risk taker and always wants the scary one because the sheer drop is just a few feet away. The wind had been forecast to be from the west, but was from the East instead. Either way would have been ok (just so it wasn’t from the South) however the wind direction had been changing and I wasn’t going to lose a ward due to inattention to detail. So over her strenuous objections I had Odile and her solstice partner wear safety harnesses which was a first for our celebration at location Z.  Other than that there was no difference since being cold and rained on is what we have come to expect during the ritual planting of potent male seed.

The celebration ended as it always does with His Grace taking me after my younger aristocratic lover had inseminated me. I took him astride where I could give him pompoir w/o either of us working too hard. After I dismounted he helped me off the altar and escorted me back to the women’s dressing room tent where everyone else was waiting for us and I dried off and changed clothes. Then we all boarded the convoy of Land Rovers to return to the hunting lodge for the ceremonial burning of the celebrants fleece robes and the women’s pointe shoes before we all set out on the long drive back to Crag Abbey. We arrived in time for a delicious supper of roast salmon after the girls and I had wonderfully long hot soaks in tubs of scented water.

Marvin, Aphrodite and procreation: In his capacity as my psychoanalyst Marvin is helping me come to terms with the responsibility of being the Goddess Aphrodite’s Priestess charged with encouraging the consummation of physical love between men and women.  At first I felt overwhelmed by the responsibility, but he has been able to get me to relax and accept the role I have been given to train my wards and a few other close and physically gorgeous young women to encourage their friends to participate in sexual relations between consenting adults.  While our objective is primarily heterosexual couples in no way is that intended to slight Gay, Lesbian and Transgender couples who have their own vital and creative parts to play in society.

However, it is heterosexual couples on which the future of the human species depends so I have been tasked by the Goddess to stimulate the libidos of men and women with whom I come in contact with the aim of increasing the birth rate in stable relationships. Nothing in-your-face overt with lectures etc., just presenting young health men and women to each other in the most favorable settings for romance and procreation. Marvin thinks it is ironic that Aphrodite has tasked me with increasing procreation while I’m being so obsessive/compulsive about avoiding pregnancy myself by careful use of my favorite contraception method, which returning readers know is cervical barriers.

 

I’m often told during pillow talk how much a partner would like to find me pregnant from our encounter, which I think is probably a male potency fantasy as my married partners would almost certainly scramble to pay for the abortion. I see my effort to avoid pregnancy while being sexually active as a challenge to the men I’m intimate with increasing their interest in having unprotected sex with me which should carry over to their other sex partners.    

Altar Girls: Planning for the Autumnal Equinox

Autumn foliage in Scotland

The 2013 Autumnal equinox: Returning readers will recall that in my post for June 19, 2013 “Summer solstice – location Z” I was a guest and concelebrant at a ceremony celebrating the summer solstice at an ancient holy site on property belonging to His Grace in the mountains over looking Loch Broom and the Minch with the Isle of Lewis in the distance.

Now John, Lord Sandbach, and His Grace have asked me back to reprise my role as a concelebrant at location Z on the occasion of the Autumnal equinox, Sunday September 22^nd. I was delighted to be asked and plan to go, but they want me to bring along Bea, Cyndi and the Swan twins. Cyndi and Bea were out of school for the Summer solstice. However, now all the girls will be in school. So the question is: Is it worth having them cut classes for two days, the Friday before and the Monday after so they can learn about and celebrate the gods of a religion almost older than time. It’s the twins I’m thinking about as Bea and Cyndi, who has the blood of the people of the old ways flowing in her veins, are quite at home with celebrating their sexuality by ritually offering their bodies as substitute for the Goddess during the planting of seed.

As I mentioned before the girls are very smart so their studies shouldn’t suffer and professors are typically tolerant of students taking time away from class to attend family celebrations, which I consider celebrating the seasons as being, so I think they should be fine. Is it worth their time away from class? Certainly it is! They will be able to tell their daughters about being ritually penetrated as the Earth Goddess uses our bodies on the altar to bring new male DNA into the congregation of the old ways! What girl wouldn’t want to experience that? They can study on the plane and take any exams they miss when they return.

Holy site access: His Grace and Jack (John, Viscount Sandbach, his son) who is the archeologist in the family, have been improving access to location Z w/o disturbing artifacts, a process that is taking a good bit of time. Even so Jack says getting up the mountain will be much easier now that mules are being used.  Returning readers will recall that motorized vehicles were used to help get to the site for the Summer Solstice and the weather was less than ideal and that seemed to happen with distressing regularity except when a local worker brought workmen to the site in a mule cart. On those days the weather at the site was relatively clear. Himself wondered if the motors were disturbing the spirits and began using mule carts for access and on days the workers used mules the weather at the site improved considerably.  Other than improving access Jack has just tidied up a bit using natural fall from the surrounding forest floor to smooth the area around the principal and lesser altars.  He has trimmed a bit of the Gorse so the celebrants can see the tops of the surrounding stones, but has left the rest of the site wild as it must have been for hundreds of years.

Wailing stones: Jack said after he trimmed the Gorse around the stones in the circle the frequency and volume of wailing noises at the site increased. It turns out that there are holes in some of the vertical stones all around the circle – except to the north where the cliff top has fallen into the valley taking several of the northern stones with it – and the wind, which is almost constant across the mountain top blowing through the holes causes the moaning sounds that have contributed to the locals fear of the place as being haunted for as long as Himself can remember. Jack thinks the holes were intentionally placed because there are too many and are in the same location on the stones.

The Earth Goddess: Jack also thinks that location Z is a holy site a sort of open early astrological temple, to an Earth Goddess because there are a lot of beds in the brambles just below the site where doe have come to give birth. But more surprising is that the few female servants – other than the pregnant ones - who came only to the lower level of the site to work in field kitchens or deliver the workmen’s meals, have all started their periods while on the site regardless of where they were in their cycles. So now no female servant will go near the place. And, on September 22, when I will be the first offering on the principal altar for the ritual planting of seed for fall crop,. I will be CD3, one of my heaviest days. I’m taking that as a good omen.

Cyndi, Bea, and the swan twin’s participation:  Cyndi and Bea did not bleed during the Summer Solstice celebration, when they were taken during the ritual planting of seed for summer crops, but they were celebrants on several of the secondary altars so perhaps the cycles of participating women aren’t affected.  That’s something to consider and watch for. With the four secondary altars now available on the North, South, East and West of the principal altar all my girls will be major participants. The North altar is a bit too close to the cliff edge for my liking but Jack says the rock it’s on is quite solid so while it looks dangerous if the wind isn’t blowing from the South the celebrant and her partner(s) on the North altar should be quite safe. Cyndi, as the Duke’s granddaughter, had first choice and chose to offer herself on the Eastern altar because it’s closest to the rising sun. Bea chose the South, Odette picked the Western altar leaving the Northern one for Odile as she is the risk taker and wanted the scary one because the sheer drop is just a few feet away.

Fiona and Major Tree were recalled by the embassy to DC after the Washington Navy Yard shooting. His Grace and Jack will be returning to the UK with us and we leave for Scotland early in the morning this coming Saturday.