Foster's kiss

Foster's kiss is a tattoo that signifies a believer's consecration to the Church of the New Revelation and the presence of God within the person who receives it. In the novel it is at once a religious emblem, a discreet credential for certain church gatherings, and a personal sign through which Patricia Paiwonski's faith meets Mike's and Jill's emerging spiritual community.

Meaning and conferral

Patricia explains that a priest or priestess can give Foster's kiss; the kiss represents God as present within and permanently joined to the recipient. The tattoo records that religious act, making an inward claim visible while allowing the mark itself to be concealed. Its form and location are flexible: Patricia's is modeled on the size and shape of Foster's lips, but she says a mark can be placed somewhere hidden from view, including beneath hair or clothing. The limits are practical as well as devotional: it should not be placed where a person would sit or stand on it.

The mark's meaning is presented through Patricia's understanding of eternal salvation and the Church. She associates it with being joined in holy love and eternal happiness, and explains that ordained clergy of either sex can confer it. Mike recognizes an affinity between this teaching and his own conviction that the divine is present in the person. Patricia initially finds his formulation unfamiliar, but agrees that it conveys the idea that God is within and with the believer. The kiss therefore serves as a point of translation between two religious vocabularies, even though the characters do not belong to the same church.

Patricia's hidden emblem

Patricia reveals her mark to Mike and Jill as confidential water-brother business. It lies over her heart, integrated into a larger tattoo designed by her husband, George Paiwonski, so that it resembles part of the surrounding picture rather than an obvious religious sign. Jill had assumed it was simply part of the tattoo's sunset design; only Patricia's explanation makes its significance legible. Its concealment reflects a rule of discretion: Patricia says she has not previously shown Foster's kiss to anyone who did not already wear one.

For Patricia, the mark is also a cherished personal connection to Foster. She says that Foster himself placed it there, and takes evident pride in the claim. Since he returned to Heaven nearly twenty years earlier, she explains, many later church members have received their kiss by proxy; she has the Archangel Foster Tabernacle confirm the authenticity of her own. Her individual mark thus has a special status within the church's later history, distinguishing direct contact from the more usual proxy conferral.

The sign also functions as a credential. A tattoo by itself can be imitated, so Patricia describes a further process for attending an Inner Temple Happiness meeting: visiting members send fingerprints to be checked against the Tabernacle's master file of the eternally saved, unless the local congregation already knows them. The mark's meaning is therefore not treated as self-authenticating. Church recognition and identification support what the tattoo signifies, while the hidden design allows Patricia to control who sees it.

A meeting of religious communities

When Mike and Jill offer Patricia water, they make clear that the ceremony is serious and that she is free to decline if accepting would conflict with her religion. Patricia chooses to participate. The exchange establishes trust and a permanent partnership between them, rather than requiring her to abandon her existing faith. She can remain a committed Fosterite while entering a relationship with Mike and Jill's community.

In the conversation that follows, Patricia explains Foster's kiss as a sign of God's enduring presence in the believer. Mike responds with recognition, and Patricia accepts that his language expresses a related idea. Yet the scene preserves the difference between their traditions: Jill and Mike say that they do not belong to Patricia's church, while Patricia's explanation remains rooted in Fosterite teaching. The tattoo gives this exchange a concrete focus, allowing them to discuss religious belonging through an emblem with a specific history and practice.

The paired mark and its afterlife

After Patricia has shared the story of her kiss, Mike asks to take his turn in the exchange. He kisses her first on the mouth and then at the place where Foster's kiss is marked. He considers a corresponding location on the other side of the design and kisses it as well. Patricia then sees a second set of lip marks, paired with the Fosterite emblem. She begins to faint, but quickly affirms the gift rather than rejecting it.

The second mark does not replace Foster's kiss; it stands beside it. Patricia's established religious sign remains part of her identity, while Mike's paired mark registers a new bond with him and Jill. The distinction matters: the exchange adds a relationship without erasing the older one. Shortly afterward Patricia leaves the household dressed as a conventional housewife rather than in the appearance associated with her tattooed-lady persona. She says she will be waiting and treats the departure not as a final goodbye, but in terms of eternity. The marks thus remain associated with an ongoing spiritual connection, even as the people part.

Use within the Church of All Worlds

Later, Patricia shows Foster's kiss to Ben Caxton and explains its meaning alongside the companion mark Mike gave her. As an ordained priestess, she teaches beginners in Martian and helps novice members; she and Dawn work with Fosterites to show that the Church of All Worlds need not conflict with their existing faith. In that setting, the emblem is both testimony to Patricia's Fosterite commitment and a way to introduce visitors to the spiritual claims associated with Mike's community.

The tattoo also appears in the Nest's practices of recognition and initiation. The Nest has an Innermost Temple with a central pool, where new brothers are received; membership advances through circles, and Mike may choose to offer water before a person reaches the Seventh Circle. Patricia's account of the mark and her welcome to new members connect the Fosterite emblem with this wider system without making the two rites identical. Foster's kiss belongs to one church's sacramental language; the water ceremony and circles structure belonging in another. Patricia's experience brings them into contact through trust, instruction, and a mark that can be shown selectively.

Foster's kiss is therefore more than decoration or proof of church attendance. Its concealed placement, authenticated status, and association with Foster's direct touch make it a sign with personal and institutional layers. Through Patricia, the emblem carries a durable religious identity into relationships that cross church boundaries; Mike's companion marks make that crossing visible without requiring Patricia to surrender what the original kiss means to her.