[center][h1]Logos: Slough Week [/h1][/center]

For how long they did not know – how can the unknowing know of time? Through half-misted minds and base instincts they waited in the blackness, stirred by Her hand, blending, changing, from man to beast, then back to man again. Never thinking of the future, nor of a past that never was, but, waiting. 

Then as humankind became aware, was She born. Born of their need for food, for wanting, no, needing someone to help them find their purpose. And in that cave, lit only by one flame, plants became colour, and colour became a vision, and that vision became a Goddess – and She became that Goddess. The Rotten Deer, the Mother of Life, the Many Faced Seven in One.

So, it was in the beginning that She ruled as the stag and the doe and the babe and the corpse and Goddess of the Hunt. Invoked with blood and sweat and the chase. She led the hunt through the forest and it was She who bent the branches to scratch and tear and cut. For without effort, what is the point of Life? Without hunger, what would feed the spirit? Without need, all life would die. So, their sorcerer stood in bloodied skins, and raised his hands and called Her name. Then he fell to the ground and skin became fur, and feet became hooves. Blood gushed as Her antlers pushed through bone and sinew to arise with seven tines, one for each of the moving lights within the blackness above. Stood before them She held my head proud and tall – none met Her gaze, they just breathed the stench of death and the copper taint in the blood filled air. They breathed this and it filled them with the hunger, ready to face their own death in order to feed the tribe. Drums suddenly filled the silence, and the hunters danced Her dance, invoking a spirit into their bodies. Giving her more life, and more power. Until, proud in full erect manhood he screamed Her name again and again, and they span around the fire, their throats calling with the guttural call of the rutting stag, telling it’s spirit that the tribe must live! And it must die for the tribe! Then in an instant they were gone – as the drums suddenly stopped they disappeared into the forest without a sound.