The First Touch
The First Touch is a sexual rite of passage for priestesses of The Faith of the First Mother. Traditionally a coming-of-age ceremony, it can also serve as an initiation ceremony for older converts to the religion. In either case, the ritual marks the transition of an initiate into a full-fledged member of the community.
For young women who have trained under their mothers since adolescence, the ceremony is meant to be their first sexual experience with another person. For older initiates who have already been with another person (or persons), a period of abstention is expected before the ceremony takes place—the length of which is left up to the initiate.
The initiate should be a virgin, or else feel like a virgin. Either way is fine.
Execution
The ritual begins with the selection of a partner by the initiate herself. Though the partner may theoretically be any person, most initiates select an individual who has been trained by the priestesses of their coven specifically for the ceremony. Initiates who desire a female partner are allowed to select one of the priestesses if they so choose.
The ceremony itself is held in the presence of at least two witnesses—priestesses who are there to guide the initiate if necessary, and to protect her at all costs. How close the witnesses stay is up to the initiate. They can be in the room, just outside the door, or anywhere else on the premises that the initate desires.
As for the mechanics of the act—the nuts and bolts, if you will—the only real expectation is that the partner will not nut and bolt. In fact, the priestess-trained partners are coached to make sure that the initiate climaxes at least once before the partner allows themself an orgasm of their own.
Why Sex?
The Faith is centered on the idea that, as the author Adrienne Rich puts it, “all human life on the planet is born of woman.” The founders believed that all people were descended, in a direct, unbroken female line, from a so-called “First Mother.” And if that was true, they reasoned, then any properly trained woman could draw upon that sacred power to create life—or to deny creation.
The training, they reasoned, could only begin in earnest once the woman in question was able to have sex herself. Before that, there could only be instruction in self-satisfaction and exploration. And so, the ceremony of The First Touch was born. It would be held after the woman had reached the age of consent—the age the coven decided, not the age dictated by men in positions of power—and it would be centered on providing a positive experience for the initiate, whatever that took.
Why Witnesses?
To outsiders, the founders of the Faith looked like they had little in common. A mix of Algonquians, European immigrants, and African slaves, they certainly looked nothing like each other. But inside, where it counts, their hearts beat as one. Inside, they had many of the same scars.
Among the hidden wounds which festered most uncomfortably inside them were those brought on by sexual trauma. Though they realized the great joys that pleasures of the flesh could bring, they also recognized there was a monstrous side to sex. And they sought to protect each other—and anyone else they brought into the fold—from enduring such terrors in the future.
"the nuts and bolts, if you will—the only real expectation is that the partner will not nut and bolt." I had to stop reading for a second I was laughing too hard. This is a great article :)
Oh, I'm so glad someone got a kick out of that one. I had to stop writing for a second when I came up with that one, because I was also laughing too hard.