Tonight was not a festival date, as such. There were eight in all during the year, but they liked to meet more frequently and in between festival dates – like tonight – they affirmed their beliefs and shared food, drink and love. Each meeting had a different seasonal significance, and this time of year, they gave thanks in the form of food, newly harvested after a long summer of effort, in order to placate the divine beings and secure their blessing for the coming months of harshness. The autumn equinox – expected soon – was one of the most important festivals of the year, and it preceded the most important of all: Samhain, the death of the year. For now, though, the year was still alive, and summer was still generous.

Mary brought the ceremony to a close and they broke hands. People began sharing the stories of their week and helped to prepare the seating in the outer hall for their meal. A guitar was on hand and a young man picked it up and began playing. Fred let the incense continue to burn but packed away the tools with Mary’s help. There was a healing, feminine energy in the room, he noted. He wondered if one of their group was pregnant. Two of the couples were actively trying to expand their families and he noticed that both of the women looked flushed, and one refused the mulled cider.

Fred was happy: theirs was a merry group. It was balanced and warm. Only once had he experienced a dark energy within their number. It was an unhappy memory, and one that he pushed aside. The muscles in his neck and back tightened and he took a deep breath to banish the unwelcome thoughts. All notions, he reminded himself, were mere chemical reactions, and this is what he taught his students. The chain of physical events inside the mind were designed to drive action from the brain to the body. Like animals compelled to kill and provide for their young, so humans were directed by minute responses deep within DNA passed on from species to species. But the mind was the one thing that could bend those ancient urges. Fred had seen just how powerfully the intellect could be used against the body and it was something that was as awesome as it was terrifying.