14
Jean and Arno’s Handfasting
Friday the thirteenth, and a full Moon too … could there be a more magical day? This is the day
that Gerald Gardner’s Blue Plaque was to be unveiled, but to the folk of the Abus Coritani,
there was a much more important event taking place, the Handfasting of our very good
friends, Jean and Arno Hopman!
Jean puts an awful lot of time and effort into the AC and also into this newsletter, but this is
one article she doesn’t know about, I hope she won’t mind the ‘Hello magazine’ type spread!
We arrived quite early as I was conducting the ritual and wanted to make sure I had plenty of
time to set up the circle etc, but Jean, Arno and their family were already there. We met in a
beautiful room in Normanby Hall and chatted for a while. Jean looked stunning in an amazing
green dress, festooned with rose buds and ivy leaves, and the bridesmaids were a vision of
loveliness in their flower hemmed white and lilac dresses and their beautiful white feather
angel wings! We were even graced with a view of one of the young white deer that were born
there in the Spring!
When everyone who was to attend the actual ritual had arrived we made our way out into the
grounds to set up the ritual circle, to the side of the hall, beneath some wonderful old trees.
The weather was perfect (thank you to the goddess once again!) and the setting magical!
Once the circle was formed, Jean was played in by a violinist and escorted in to the circle,