Priest
Priestess
Mercury - white robe, unlit white candle in holder, seated E
Sulphur - red robe, unlit red candle in holder, seated SW
Salt - black robe, unlit black candle in holder, seated NW
Three tabards of cloth-of-gold
Bigass cup o' wine
Paten with a shortbread round scored in three
Braided cord of white, red and black
Single large gold candle
Censer & incense
Ewer & all the usual stuff
Priest
First we bring together, then we dissolve, we break down what
has been dissolved, we purify the divided, we united the purified
and harden it. In this way is One made from man and woman.
Priestess
Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill
of love!
On P & Ps's gesture, the three rise and come to the center altar and each set the candles down as they speak their respective line, but don't light them yet.
Mercury
O silence! O rapture! O end of things visible and invisible! This
is all mine, who am Not.
Sulphur
But for me the lustral water, the great ablution, the dissolving
of the soul in that resounding abyss.
Salt
I am shed out like spilt blood upon the mountains; the Ravens
of Dispersion have borne me utterly away.
Priestess
This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is
as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.
Ps asperses the three with "For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect."
P censes the three with "I am uplifted in thine heart, and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body."
P & Ps
There is no bond that can unite the divided but love.
The three each take the left wrist of the one to their right with their left hand; P and Ps tie the cord around their wrists, sortof interlacing everything together.
All three partners say in canon:
I love thee! I love thee!
Every breath, every word, every thought, every deed is an act
of love with thee.
The beat of my heart is the pendulum of love.
The songs of me are the soft sighs.
The thoughts of me are very rapture.
Two beats pause, then in unison:
So shall it be unto the end. We who are dust shall never fall away into the dust.
Salt
Worshipful are ye, O my lovers; let us forward to the dimmest
hollow!
Sulphur
There we will feast upon mandrake and upon moly!
Mercury
There the lovely One shall spread us His holy banquet.
Priestess
In the brown cakes of corn ye shall taste the food of the world,
and be strong.
She breaks the shortbread in three and each of the three eat a piece.
Priest
In the ruddy and awful cup of death, ye shall drink the blood of the world,
and be drunken!
He hands the three the cup and each drink from it.
P and Ps help the three into the gold tabards (the three are still bound), then each of the three lights hir candle from the central one.
P & Ps deliver whatever blessing they feel like giving, but it ought at least to end as follows:
Priestess
Now is the Pillar established in the Void; now is Asi fulfilled
of Asar; now is Hoor let down into the Animal Soul of Things like
a fiery star that falleth upon the darkness of the earth.
Priest
Gloria Patri et Matri et Filio et Filia et Spiritui Sancti Externo
et Spiritui Sancti Interno, ut erat, est, erit in Saecula Saeculorum,
Sex in Uno per Nomen Septum in Uno, ARARITA.
Priestess
Now is accomplished all that which was to be accomplished.
Priest
Aye, feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter.
All dialogue that's not from the Holy Books (Liber VII, Liber XVI, and Liber AL are the ones I drew from) is from alchemical texts.
In actual practice, it worked pretty well for the triad to give bits of cake to the Priest and Priestess too, since the cake in question was a Walker's "petticoat tail", and a third of a round was quite a lot of cookie to eat...
