Whos the person at the altar who holds the book and lights the candles and stuff?
The person — usually, but not always, female — who does that job is traditionally known as the Handmaiden, though obviously that term doesn’t work too well if the current holder of the office is male! We haven’t really settled on a good permanent name for a male Handmaiden yet, although as of this writing (April 2007) both the Toronto and Hamilton temples have a male Handmaiden and female Summoner. The male Handmaiden in Toronto prefers to be called the Hand, while the one in Hamilton has opted for being called the Fetch. One of these days we’ll come up with an official gender-neutral name, perhaps. Nomeclature aside, the Handmaiden’s job is to care for the altar tools and temple, and to assist the priesthood during ritual. If you think of a ritual as a theatrical production, the Handmaiden is kind of like a combination stage manager and props department she makes sure all the practical details are taken care of so that the priest and priestess can concentrate on doing the ritual. Sh
