Stepping Into The Cauldron

Since rising this morning, I've had a painful tendon in my lower left leg.  It began as a cramp in the night, then didn't go away.

I thought that a hot bath - hot bath - with circulating water would ease the tension and tenderness in the tendon.

A natural man is, by my definition, uninhibitedly sensual.  So as well as taking the bath to heal the tendon, I also savored its wonderful warmth.  I imagined myself stepping into a cauldron of healing, slowly lowering myself into the circulating draught I had prepared.  Ah!  This to be relished.  My body adjusted to the hotness of the steamy water and took pleasure in its stimulation.  It calmed my being.

This was not the end.  Upon rising from the water, I put on my red terry-cloth robe and went outside.  I allowed the robe to fall to the deck, taking in the sensation of the old air of the night on my warm bare skin.  Wonderfulness!  What a feeling!  Arousing and enjoyable!

And my tendon is relaxed and no longer painful.

NATURE NOTES

Still no snow.  We had a flurry or two today, nothing more.

Last night we had a fire, quite a large blaze.  It was a clear night except for some haze on the edge of the northern sky, so we were able to share the blessing of the fire with the stars.  There is something about a fire that brings out wildness and the primal.  Sitting at the fire and taking in its light, warmth, and crackling flame is a return to our true nature and to the sacred.  It helps us forget for a time the submission we have made to dominant culture, a capitulation not all together holy.

I found a dead mouse yesterday morning, a nighttime victim of the two feline predators who live with us.  I took it out to Leo's altar.  By afternoon it was gone.  There are ravens about - saw two this morning - and crows.  I suspect that they are responsible for the mouse's disappearance.