THE INHERITANCE OF TRUST
Summary: THE PASSING ON OF KNOWLEDGE
THE INHERITANCE OF TRUSTDelilah walked through the dark forest. She was not sure where she was going or what she would find when she got there. The pull of the deep magick of the woods brought her to this journey. As she progressed down the faint path, the woods grew denser and darker. Suddenly she looked up and an old woman stood just up ahead.
“I’ve been waiting on you my child” the old woman said. “Come along now don’t dawdle.”
Delilah quickened her step and followed the woman surprised but glad that there was someone in the woods with her. The old woman led her to a small hut covered with cascading vines of honeysuckle and wild roses.
“Come now, I left the kettle on.” The old woman called out.
Delilah stepped inside the small hut. She was pleasantly surprised at what she saw.
The hut was small but clean and neat. The kettle was whistling on the wood burning stove. On the rough hewn table a china plate of cookies and two china cups with saucers sat ready. The old lady poured the hot water into a waiting tea pot poured off the water added tea and more water.
“Must make it proper or the magick won’t work”, the old woman said. “Sit child I’ve been waiting for you.”
Delilah sat as instructed and watched as the old woman gingerly swirled the pot to hasten the steeping of the tea.
“Do you know who I am?” the old woman asked her as she eyed her up and down.
“No ma’am I don’t.” Delilah replied feeling uncomfortable as the old woman looked at her.
“I’m Mother Ester. I have been healer and midwife in these here parts since I was about your age. I’m getting too old now. So I asked the Great Goddess to bring me someone to teach.” The old woman explained as she poured the hot steaming tea into the china cups. “What’s your name child?”
“My name is Delilah. Well I’ve always wanted to learn but I didn’t know where to start.” Delilah was s
till a little confused about what brought her here but she was beginning to be glad she came.
“You start with tea and a cookie.” The old woman laughed and held out the plate of cookies. “I will teach you as best I can but you must want to learn. Learning the healing ways don’t come easy. You must study hard and want to learn.”
“I’ll do my best.” Delilah sipped the piping hot tea and took a bite of a cookie.
“First things I have to check on the sick this afternoon and I want you to come with me. They need to meet you and I want to see how you do.” Mother Ester takes a sip of tea herself.
“Alright that sounds fair but Mother Ester where are your books? How will I learn the healing ways?” Delilah asked as she looked around.
“No books child. You learn by remembering and doing. You learn what goes with that and what heals this by gathering it and using it to do what it does.” Mother Ester looked at Delilah and smiled.
“I see. Will it take long to learn everything?” Delilah asked curiously but she was beginning to understand.
“Why yes! It will because sometimes new things come that have never been healed before and you must learn how to heal that too.” Mother ester chuckled. “Once there was that outbreak of the fever and I tried everything. Oh that story can wait till later. You want another cookie Delilah?
Delilah shook her head. “No thank you. So I will never learn everything?”
“That be right young lady. I still don’t know everything and I’m almost as old as the Great Goddess herself.” The old woman laughed.
“I’m not sure about this Great Goddess. Who is she, Mother Ester?” Delilah asked.
“Ah, the Great Goddess is the Virgin that makes us, the Mother that bares us, the Crone that buries us. She is all that brings life into us and all that brings death too.” Mother Ester explained as she poured more tea for herself.
“Her body is the dirt. Her bones are the rocks and stones. Her blood is the water running in the streams and rivers. Her tears are the rain. Her womb is the fertile fields. She is all that is and all that was ever or ever will be. We are both her daughters. She’s the reason we have magick.”
“She sounds very powerful.” Delilah held her cup out for a second cup of tea. “What is magick?
Mother Ester’s eyes glowed as she poured the tea into Delilah’s cup. “Magick is the powers that make us who we are. Magick makes me a healer. Magick called you here. You came because you felt it’s pull, didn’t you?”
Delilah looked down at the cup of tea. “I’m not sure why I came here but I do know I want to learn more. “
“That was the call of magick from the Great Goddess. She knows it’s time for me to pass on my knowledge and my healing to someone. Drink up! It’s almost time for me to go on my rounds.” Mother Ester stood and started
to clear the table.
Delilah finished her cookie and her tea and carried the cup and saucer to the sink.
Mother Ester threw a shawl around her shoulders and picked up a big carpet bag. “Now ask questions if you have them, Delilah, that’s how you learn.”
“Yes ma’am. Do I need to carry anything?” Delilah looked around.
“No child, just pay attention.” Mother Ester chuckled and headed for the door.
The two left the small hut and took a path that Delilah had not seen when she came. They visited many houses that day. She introduced Delilah. There were sick children with fevers and old people with pains. Mother Ester took time with each one healing and listening. Each house gave Mother Ester something for helping them.
Delilah returned the next day to the small hut. She looked around there was no one outside so she started to knock on the door.
“Come in Delilah I’ve been waiting for you.” Mother Ester called from the
inside of the hut.
Delilah opened the door to see Mother Ester fixing tea for them. “Sit child you have learning to do today.”
“Yes ma’am. What will I be learning today?” Delilah sat and took a cookie.
“Herbs and plants! I think I will teach you how to make salves today. I have enough bacon grease saved up to make a batch or two.”
“Bacon grease?” Delilah made a face that expressed her disgust with that idea.
Mother Ester laughed out loud. “Yes child! What did you think the salve was made of marshmallow crème?”
“Well I wasn’t sure. I am surprised at that though. What else is in a salve besides bacon grease?” Delilah tried to get the thought of bacon grease out of her mind and focus on something else.
“Herbs, roots and flowers are added to the melted grease. Then you skim it and cool it and put it in jars. Then you make sure you label it with the date and what it is. I made the mistake of not putting lab
els on once and I gave someone a salve for female problems instead of pain relief. Oh that was a mess. Oh but that’s a story for another time.” Mother Ester chuckled.
“Where do I get the herbs and such for the salves? Is there a store nearby?” Delilah asked.
“No store except the woods and the stream over there by that big oak. Are you finished with your tea?” Mother Ester asked with a chuckle.
“Yes ma’am I am.” Delilah stood up and cleared the table putting the dishes in the sink.
“Good! Now here is a basket and there is a patch of yellow flowers by that beech next to the path. Go pick some of those and the plants with the long green leaves and the white bell flowers.” Mother Ester set the basket on the table and went to sit in the rocker just outside the door.
Delilah took the basket and went out to pick the flowers as she was told. When she came back to the hut she was sent back out to a patch of green herbs. This proc
ess repeated two more times, until the basket was nearly overflowing. Mother Ester told her to sort them out on the table and followed Delilah inside.
“Now Delilah, tie those herbs in bundles with the string. Some of them will go in the salve and some will need to be dried.” Mother Ester handed her a ball of twine and a pair of scissors.
“Am I tying them tight enough, Mother Ester?” Delilah asked as she struggled with a bundle.
“A little tighter dear, you don’t want them to come apart in the grease.” Mother Ester replied.
Mother Ester carefully melted the grease and dropped the bundles of herbs into the pot. She stirred the pot carefully.
“Take those others and hang them from the rafters over there.” Mother Ester pointed to the rafters above the window
“Yes ma’am.” Delilah hung the bundles where Mother Ester pointed. There were several other bundles there in different stages of drying. Delilah hung the new ones
near the less dry ones.
Delilah helped Mother Ester skim the salve and put it in jars when it had cooled. When the lids were tightened and the labels were put on, Delilah asked “What does this do Mother Ester?”
“It is a pain reliever salve. That plant you picked with those pink berries helps soothe the joints and it smells good too!” Mother Ester laughed.
“Oh that’s nice.” Delilah chuckled. “Everything should have a friendly smell.”
“Well medicine doesn’t always. Now time for you to be going and don’t be late tomorrow we have to make rounds.”
“Oh yes ma’am! Good evening.” Delilah left going down the path to her home. She hurried through the darkening forest.
Every day for weeks Delilah came to the little hut in the woods and Mother Ester taught her. Herbs and recipes intermingled with stories were her lessons. Mother Ester taught her about the Great Goddess too.
Then one day something happened that would change everything. Mother Ester sent her out to do the rounds on her own.
Carpet bag in hand she went from one house to another treating the fevers and relieving the pain. Her new patients gave her trinkets and jars of jam and apple butter. She returned to mother ester’s hut with her treasures.
“Anything happen that you didn’t know how to deal with, child?” Mother Ester asked rocking in her rocker on the porch as Delilah walked up to the hut.
“No ma’am. Everything was ok” she walked in and put away the food and other things that she had been given on her rounds.
“Why are you putting your payment in my cupboards?” Mother Ester asked as she followed Delilah inside.
“Its payment for my lessons, of course.” Delilah smiled and grabbed the large basket and smiles. “We need more moss and willow bark. I’ll be right back.”
“Hurry now! It’s getting dark and the moon is new and dark tonight.” Mother Ester chuckled.
“I will.” Delilah hurried to gather the needed herbs and brings them back to the hut. She stepped inside to find Mother Ester frying chicken and stirring green beans in a cast iron pot.
“It’s too late to go through those woods tonight now. You stay here tonight.” Mother Ester said as she turned the chicken.
“Yes ma’am, thank you.” Delilah inhales the delicious scents. “I’m hungrier than I thought.” She set the table with china plates and put some crusty bread and butter on the table. The bread was from one of the patients who looked forward to the pain relieving salves that was given her.
“It’s time you stayed here and stopped going back and forth. I’m getting tired now and I need to teach you more.” Mother Ester said.
“I was thinking about that today as I was going from house to house. I want you to teach me more about the Great Goddess and Magick.” Delilah said
Yes, child. Its time you learn Her great secrets now that you will be a healer. I will tell you about the Great Goddess at night and teach you the healing ways during the day. This was the way it was done when I was your age.” Mother Ester said thoughtfully. “What I teach you, you must never tell anyone until it’s time to train your student.”
“When will that be?” Delilah laughed. “When I’m as old as the Great Goddess herself?”
“Yes child.” Mother ester chuckled. “That’s the way it has always has been.”
They sat to eat the meager meal and Mother Ester said a blessing over the food thanking the Great Goddess. They ate then Delilah cleaned up the table and the dishes. This was the first night of Mother Ester telling the mysteries of the Great Goddess.
In the morning, Delilah returned home to pack her things and say goodbye to her friends and family. She walked that faint path one more time to the small vine covered hut and took on the responsibility of he
aling these people she had become to cherish as her own.
Delilah lived with Mother Ester until one day she woke up to find that the Great Goddess had taken Mother Ester through the veil. Everyone came to the small clearing to honor the wise woman that had been there for decades. Mother Ester was laid to rest next to the wise women that had come before her.
Delilah lived many years taking care of her patients. One day, Delilah asked the Great Goddess to send her a student. The next day a young girl walked up the faint path to the vine covered hut to start her training.
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