Innermost Temple

The Innermost Temple is the Nest’s dedicated space for receiving new brothers and affirming membership through water-sharing rites. Its central pool gives the Church of All Worlds’ teachings a physical setting: newcomers are invited to enter, immerse themselves, and join a community whose commitments extend beyond ordinary friendship. The Temple is at once a place of welcome and a threshold, where a person’s relation to the Nest can change through a shared ceremony.

Setting and Purpose

The Temple is a large, circular room with a soft floor and almost no furnishings. A round pool occupies its center. Patricia Paiwonski explains that new brothers are received there, and offers the choice of sharing water or simply swimming. The room’s sparse arrangement keeps attention on the pool and the people gathered around it; unlike a domestic room, it is organized around a communal rite.

The Temple is one part of a staged progression through the Church’s circles. Members may share water before reaching the later circles, but the formal ceremony of Sharing Water usually welcomes a couple into the Eighth Circle; in time, they may enter the Ninth Circle and the Nest itself. The whole Nest attends the formal service, and the new members become part of the community. Mike can recognize readiness earlier than others: he chose Sam and Ruth for water-sharing when they had only just entered the Third Circle. Dawn and Patricia sometimes identify people for special advancement and training as well, though not as early, and they generally consult Mike.

The Rite of Welcome

The Temple’s ceremonies make belonging an action rather than merely a declaration. Before sharing water with Patricia, Jill explains that the bond signifies trust, partnership, and a commitment that cannot be broken; she and Mike also make clear that Patricia is free to refuse, including for reasons of faith. Patricia chooses to accept. Mike brings the water to her without leaving his place, and the three share it in turn. The scene presents the Temple’s underlying ethic in practical form: invitation is serious, but participation must be chosen.

At a later circle ceremony, Ben Caxton sees Jill take on the image of Mother Eve in a Garden beside a serpent. She opens her arms to the candidates, and they begin to approach. Mike welcomes the first woman with a kiss, after which her robe vanishes; he then welcomes the first male candidate in the same way. Patricia leads Ben away by a longer route so the candidates can move on to the Temple of the Eighth Circle without interruption. The scene links the Temple’s progression to both spectacle and orderly passage: the candidates are received in turn, while a visitor who is not part of the immediate rite is asked to wait outside.

Readiness, Hesitation, and Belonging

The Temple is also associated with the uncertainty that precedes acceptance. After Dawn takes Ben there, they immerse, share water, and grow closer; later he awakens in darkness, briefly disoriented, and reaches for her before remembering where he is. The episode makes the ceremony part of his personal transition, not simply a public observance. His questions about what the rite means remain, even as he has begun to participate in it.

Sam and Ruth’s account clarifies how training prepares members for the formal welcome. They learned Martian and advanced through the circles, with Mike recognizing when they had begun to think in the language and offering them water while they were still in the Third Circle. Ruth describes being frightened before the Nest’s formal service and unsure whether she could join a larger community. In the Temple, the members called the couple into the pool; she entered and understood herself as received. She later assures Ben that he, too, will learn the language and discipline with the community’s help. The rite thus marks a culmination, but the Temple’s welcome is supported by instruction and continuing assistance.

A Communal Space Beyond Ceremony

The Temple’s meaning extends beyond the formal initiation. When Jubal attends a family dinner among the Nest, a glass of water passes around the table, and he offers it to the girl beside him. At the empty place at the head of the table, the remaining water rises, pours, and disappears, and the tumbler settles onto the cloth. Jubal realizes that he has taken part in a group Sharing Water associated with the Innermost Temple, probably in his honor. The ceremony appears in an ordinary meal rather than in the Temple itself, showing that the rite’s bonds can be carried into communal life.

The Temple therefore gives a visible center to the Nest’s wider system of trust, learning, and shared identity. Its pool is where newcomers are formally received, but membership is not reduced to a single entrance ceremony: the circles prepare participants, the community supports them afterward, and water-sharing recurs in daily life. The Temple’s significance lies in joining these dimensions—private readiness, public welcome, and lasting membership—within a space built around shared water.