Misunderstoid Rituals: The Great Rite

The Great Rite The Great Rite, also seen as the Sacred Marriage(hieros gamos), is a highly controversial and misunderstood ritual practiced by modern day Pagans, mainly of the Wiccan tradition. The Great Rite is most commonly performed on Beltane, the third of the Celtic spring fertility festivals. While the Great Rite can be traced back to the teachings of Gerald Gardener, it holds it’s origins in ancient history, in a time when sex was to be celebrated rather than suppressed. During these times, sexual rituals were performed to honor the deities of a culture. The Great Rite is a sacred and powerful ritual that has many implications and functions. First and foremost, the Rite symbolizes the joining of the Goddess with the God and the fertility

Beltane has been celebrated for hundreds of years, celebrating sex, love, passion, and fertility. Performing the Great Rite is a celebration of life, the joining of the deities, and the life their joining creates. The Great Rite is also sometimes used for handfastings. Handfasting is much like marriage in a sense that it is two people committing themselves to one another. Traditionally, these people live together as man and wife for a year and a day as a sort of trial run. After that year and a day, they are able to decide whether they will stay together for the remainder of their days, or if they will part ways. Today, however, handfasting is incorporated into many wedding ceremonies as two people committing themselves to each other for “so long as love shall last.” When performing the Great Rite for a handfasting ritual, the parties being handfasted perform the ritual “in truth,” likely in private. The Great Rite is also performed as the main part of the Third Degree initiation in some traditions of Wicca. In this sense, the Rite is likely performed “in token.” More seldomly, the Great Rite can be performed within a coven to raise energy to aid them during a difficult

With the rise of Christianity, sex became a taboo subject. The church even went as far as to dictate which sexual position was the least sinful. Christianity took away the magical significance of sexual interaction. However, long before the rise of Christianity, magical rituals involving sex were held to honor various Goddesses. In today’s world, the Great Rite has been perverted. Those outside of the Pagan community, and assuredly some within, are uncomfortable with the thought of performing a ritual that is based on sexual intercourse. Despite sexual intercourse being the beginning of us all, and a beautiful act in itself, people are reluctant to see the beauty in it. Many sources on the Great Rite also emphasize the necessity of the Rite being between a male and female. However, we all have both polarities, male and female within us, so the Rite should be available to all. The Rite is, after all, about the balance between male and female, in nature and in ourselves. Furthermore, the Great Rite is not always a literal sex act between two parties, nor should it ever be coerced. The Great Rite is not an orgy between a group of people. Whether the Great Rite is performed in token or in truth, it is a beautiful act meant to embody and embrace the love and passion between the deities, honor them, and bring fertility upon the world. I got this term wrong in my original