#conventicle

Thursday, October 22

Daemons bringing gift(s)

Diana’s still weak from almost dying but she won’t let that stop her from visiting the place in the woods where she killed Juliette. Not that there’s much left to see as Marcus cleaned up afterwards so when she and Matthew get there, all that remains is scorched ground and a dying oak. "Above me the branches of the tree were cracked and withered. Bare limbs forked and forked again into shapes reminiscent of a stag's horns. Brown leaves swirled at my feet. Matthew had survived because I'd pushed its vitality through my veins and into his body."

Matthew is showing a new attitude towards Diana, he’s no longer as protective as before and tells her it’s because he saw her fight. “I wasn’t sure you would be able to fight if you had to. Now all I have to do is keep you from taking unnecessary risks.”

Returning to the house, it’s time for Matthew and Diana to share their plan to hide from the Congregation back in time. They want to know if it’s even possible and Emily tells them that it is but it won’t be without problems. Sarah’s all for it, as long as Diana will be able to learn how to use her magic from someone suitable. 

The house added a new room so when two daemons, Nathaniel Wilson and his wife Sophie arrive, it’s not totally unexpected. Sophie is pregnant and tells the group that she’s a daemon born to witches and that the child she’s expecting is a witch too. She’s been having dreams, but she’s not sure if the dreams are hers of those of the baby. The gift for Diana is one that has been handed down in Sophie’s family for as long as anyone can remember; a statue of the goddess Diana. Matthew recognizes it as an old chess piece he lost in a wager on All Souls’ Night centuries ago to his friend Kit.

Miriam wants to know if timetravelling would be easier to do that night. Sarah thinks the time is excellent as the distance between the living and the dead is as short as it gets then.

The house decides this is the time for a new gift. This time, an old poppet. Inside of it, Diana finds an earring. Matthew recognizes that one as well. It used to belong to Ysabeau.

focative a. referring to the activities of a concubine

conventicle n. a secret, illegal or forbidden meeting

conventicle n. a secret, illegal or forbidden meeting.

Pietism and the making of eighteenth-century Prussia By Richard L. Gawthrop Spener’s Pietism represents one very strong wave of a continual process of social and moral reform. It is interesting how Pietism was an organizational technology innovation. Pietism was organized as a conspiracy within all of the other Churches. They were organized in small cells called conventicles. A conventicle was a combination of Bible Reading Group and Group Confessional. This conventicle is the ancestor of feminist Consciousness Raising groups and 12 step programs. Doctrine was not enforced centrally but bubbled up out of the conventicle.