#greatrite

The Great Rite is the symbolic union of the Goddess and God at Beltane. Some pagan and Wiccan traditions use ritual sex as a celebration of the Goddess and God. Gerald Gardner, the father of Wicca, considered his religion to be a fertility and nature religion. Ritual sex in theses religions can either be literal or implied. Implied meaning the symbolic union of a chalice and athame, or other symbols of the Goddess and God. The Great Rite is the most common of these sex rituals, and is not only symbolic of the union of the Goddess and God, but symbolic of the creation of the universe through their union.

In Wiccan tradition, this is reserved for the third degree initiation, where the initiate is joined with their opposite gender. This is all completely consensual, and takes place only between the initiate and the initiator. In most cases, this is done in a symbolic way, and is meant to be a spiritual union between the initiate and the Goddess and God. Before Wicca, and likely the origins of the Great Rite, the Ancient Greeks celebrated a similar way. They honored the union of the God Zeus and the Goddess Hera. The participates of the ritual sex usually didn’t know each other and would likely never see each other again. The goal was to make the personal act of sex more impersonal, thus allowing the divine energies of Zeus and Hera to enter the participants.

Here are my ways of participating in the Great Rite. Note that some can be used in both a solitary and group context if a few things are changed around to include more or less people:

Solitary

Ritually joining the athame and chalice. This is the traditional Wiccan way of performing the Great Rite that does not involve any real sexual conduct. The chalice represents the Goddess and the athame represents the God. A solitary version of this may be you holding the chalice and the athame and joining them yourself during ritual.

Masturbation. This is a solitary way to perform the Great Rite that does involve sex magick. This method could be more or less ritualistically performed based on the practitioner and their comfort level. I also think envisioning yourself as either the Goddess or God is important to achieve this correctly. Whichever gender you identify with is fine.

Knots. This is an idea I came up with myself, inspired by the Beltane tradition of handfasting. I would pick two different colored ribbons, one corresponding to the God and the other to the Goddess. For the union section of the ritual, I would tie the two ribbons together to represent the union of the Goddess and God.

Elemental Representations. This is along the same vein as my last idea, but instead using fire to represent the God and the Sun, and water to represent the Goddess and the Moon. I would light a candle and fill my cauldron with water. When the union part of the ritual comes, I would symbolically drip some of the candle wax into the water.

Plants. This is an altogether new way of looking at this. I think someone who is uncomfortable with the idea of sex would enjoy this method. I would simply take a seed and plant it in the earth. The seed of course represents the seed of the God and the soil represents the womb of the Goddess.

Group

Ritually joining the athame and the chalice. In a coven setting, there is usually one person holding the athame and one person holding the chalice. This can be a man and a woman, or any other combination. The point is that one person represents the God and the other the Goddess.

Ritual sex. Though this is done ritualistically in a coven setting, I would personally only be comfortable doing this with my partner. Either form is okay as long as it is performed between two consenting adults.

iamamiwhoami (cheggitout on youtube)