Once Lelika is ready, I begin. First, I pick up the whip, the holy symbol of our goddess Loviatar. I trail it across my left palm as I speak, reciting the words of the ceremony by memory.<br/><br/>"Loviatar, in your presence we perform a ceremony of binding, teacher and student, giver and receiver of pain, love and knowledge, mistress and servant, priestess and novice. Before you, your humble servant Alison is ready to accept Lelika by my side just as your servant Lelika, new to your ways, is ready to accept me by her side. We ask that you watch over our union and bestow your blessings unto us."<br/><br/>I then approach Lelika from behind, readying the whip.<br/><br/>"Nine tails are there on the sacred scourge of our Lady, and nine tails are there on this ceremonial lash. Let it caress your flesh and remind you of the love our goddess has for us. Let the pain remind you that you are truly alive, and accept the welts with pride. Learn to love the lash, and she who wields it, Lelika."<br/><br/>Nine times, the whip falls upon her - only having leather thongs, no barbs, hooks, stones or similar. It is designed to leave red streaks across the skin, but not to break it and draw blood. The first is across her shoulders. Then her back, each one a little lower than the last. Two remain when I have covered her back with the stinging weals, and I then gently tip her body forward, so that her forehead and hands rest against the floor, and her bottom is up in the air. The final two lashes fall, across her beautiful slender rump.<br/><br/>I then return Lelika to her kneeling posture, and place the whip in her hands. This time I kneel, taking the position she is in, but parting my hair to hang forward over my breasts, not obscuring my back.<br/><br/>"Lelika, all relationships are of giving and receiving. Though it is my position to punish and discipline you as needed, and also to teach you the delight of pain, we are both to mortify the flesh of one another, sharing in pain. Your life will now involve the duty of inflicting pain upon your mistress. So just as I have done to you, now you must deliver the nine to me. I have learned to love the lash... and she who wields it."<br/><br/>My eyes shine with anticipation and delight, certain that she will do her duty well, here.