Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Milk and Ash: A Rite of Sending
Who comes?
A boy of the People, N son of N,
that he may die to his boyhood
and be reborn a man.
Faces white with ash, the men come for the boy; but first, one final rite.
A wooden bowl in her lap, the boy's mother sits on a three-legged stool. The boy kneels at her feet.
Hands on his head, she bestows her blessing.
She gives him the milk. (So began his life as a boy; so also, now, it ends.) When he has drunk, she takes the bowl.
He rises, and turns to go. Never, as a boy, will he return.
From behind, she gives him a push between the shoulderblades.
“Go forth a boy, come back a man,” she says.
Faces white with ash, the men take the boy.
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