“Excuse me, it’s open only on Fridays, did she say? Gosh, that was lucky for me then. I came today because it’s the fall equinox. From today, feminine energy becomes dominant again, until spring.” She was American, fresh-faced and unreserved, and she too smiled at Will. “You should do it, walk it, it’s amazing. This is a good moment, and the light’s perfect. I had to wait ages till it was clear of people. You should go for it now.”

Will nodded. “OK, thanks. Thank you.”

He felt oddly shy. He was not a religious man—well, not in any conventional way. He had certain spiritual ideas, sensed we didn’t comprehend everything there was to understand; but essentially, he didn’t buy the whole virgin-birth thing, and he definitely wasn’t one to wear whatever ideas he had about his soul on his sleeve. But he found his feet moving without his authority as they traced the route to the starting point.

Yeah, OK, he thought. I shall too. Only on Fridays…he smiled to himself…and it’s the equinox. This last was an ironic afterthought. He was amused—though not judgmental—that it was such a special day for this rather sweet girl.

There was just one entrance, and he started forward, three paces toward the altar, and then it took a left turn into a beautiful curving path that looped right back on itself. He had to watch his feet at first to follow the direction carefully, because it wasn’t all that wide. He noticed he was following the light-colored path, and that it was pricked out by the dark border. He was symbolically treading in the light and avoiding the dark.