Due to be published April 06 '09
URL for this RussianAngel is [http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3606/3387278607_a84c42d7ca_o.jpg] 300x450
Monday March30’09
AS THOU ART. Part 2 of 4
– Acceptance
This accomplished, you move slowly to pause under the
westerly lancet windows to stand momentarily still beside the font. Were there water
in it you had probably dipped your fingers and relished the cool clear liquid.
But the vessel is dry.
You turn face-on to the tall, multicoloured lancet windows
at the far end, past the Rood Screen and the Apse. You feel yourself mysteriously
drawn to the crossing-place. Without taking your eyes off this focal point you
lean against the font and take off your shoes. Hooking your fingers under the
heels you move slowly, bare-foot and this time methodically, up the centre Nave.
As you progress you remove first your
black and white check shirt by unbuttoning it and slipping it down your arms
under its own weight, catching it by the collar in your other hand and passing
it infront of you to hold it with your shoes. Your breasts stand proud, curving
up out of their black lace bra. The opal skin of their upper curved surfaces
catch the light and receive My silent appreciative gaze.
Next you undo your denim skirt, allowing it to drop to
the floor, deftly stepping out of it once, twice without breaking step, without
shifting your gaze. With your slow, measured step and naked now, apart from
your underwear, you take on an ephemeral look, in keeping with the place.
You reach your destination, and pause in the centre of
the crossing aisle, dressed only in your black lace bra and tiny pants. You lay
your shoes and shirt on the pew alongside you and walk up the wide shallow steps that rise to
the Apse. You look - and feel - less out of place than when you were dressed: beautiful,
statuesque in the half light, your skin imbued with pale grey.
There, centrally below the Transept you choose to
stand just where I’ve guided you, on the stone, well worn with the passage of
many feet, but the mason’s deep cut lettering still clear as the day I watched over
him as he created it:
*See Note below
AS THOU ART
SO WAS I
AS I AM
SO SHALT THOU
BEE
You sink down to sit on the stone with one thigh flat
on the floor, feeling the calming cool course through you. A sudden thrill
passes over you. The first real sensation
you remember for months.
You absent-mindedly slip your bra-straps
over your shoulders, fold the lace cups under your breasts, rotate the clip to
the front, unfasten and drop it to the floor with outstretched arm, like a
fallen leaf.
Looking down at your breasts you smile faintly and
massage them slowly with the palms of your hands, flick your nipples thrice,
cup your hands beneath and lift each breast
up, an offering to Me, then let them drop, with a single bounce - the only
movement in My Space - that seems to set the air a-quiver.
You lean back on your elbows to gaze at the towering
space above, spread your arms slowly outwards and slowly lower your torso to
cover the inscription on the floor. You feel the beckoning chill before you touch
it and brace yourself for the shock, letting out a short gasp that resembles,
in the tomb like space, the beat of wings against the dry air.
The shock transforms you: you
draw your knees up with feet apart and lay there letting the the cold, the
inscription, soak into you till you feel completely at one with all – no longer
the intruder.
________________________________________
End of Part 2
See Part 3 – Assurance, Monday March 30’09
* N O T E
The carved stone in the floor is real,
although it is actually a tombstone, situated in the churchyard of StEadburgha’s - one
mile outside Broadway on the Snowshill Road in Hereford and Worcester.
St Eadburgha was the great granddaughter of King
Alfred the Great who achieved Sainthood quite effortlessly! As a child she was offered the choice of jewels or a bible, she chose the bible and dedicated her life to the service of God.
St Eadburgha’s has been a place of worship for over a
1,000 years - since Saxon times - the present church is of cruciform plan, dating
back to the XII century and contains fine medieval and Jacobean woodwork. It's described
as “A well mannered church that has turned it’s back on the famous village
(Broadway) as if appalled at its capitulation to tourism” – “England’s best
1000 churches” by Simon Jenkinson.
The original tombstone, of course, is the dead addressing
the reader, but I enjoy the idea of the inscription being the Angel advising the girl of the gift he is is to bestow on her.
