Wicca Vs Paganism

According to the school, “The Great Rite is an ancient Pagan ritual that was created by and for farmers”. This was a means to ensure that their plants would grow. Others claim that the Great Rite is a Wiccan ritual involving sexual intercourse with the purpose of drawing energy from the powerful connection between the male and female. For the sake of the school, I am going to focus on the aspect that farmers performed the ritual in order to do one thing; survive. The ritual is general has nothing to do with sex; it’s about the fertility of the land.

When I think about the Great Rite, sexual acts do come to mind. This is not the case. Yes, some covens do utilize the act of performing sexual intercourse to promote fertility. To some, this is

perfectly acceptable and would be welcomed with open arms. To me, however, I am uneasy with this form of the practice and would not be willing to join any group that does perform in the actual physical form of this ritual. I did not know that this was used by farmers to symbolize a bountiful crop. This makes sense because of the union of the man and the woman is related to the seed and the Earth.

In Modern Wicca and Paganism, the actual act is not commonly used.

Most use the athame and chalice to symbolically show the union between the two and leave it at that. With any form of magick, this is just as powerful as doing the physical action. The purpose of the Great Rite was to promote fertility. This usually took place sometime around Beltane, April 30th or May 1st. If one was to perform the actual physical part of this, it is generally accepted that they do this in the privacy of their own home. In my personal practice, I unwittingly put the Great Rite into my Beltane ritual. I do not incorporate the sexual acts into my personal beliefs; I do not think that you should have sex in front of people. I do, however, use my chalice and athame to symbolically represent the union of the Lord and Lady and that works just as well for me. Other than Beltane, we don’t usually incorporate any part of the Great Rite into our work. I don’t really like to use this for handfastings.; I don’t think that it’s appropriate. People may use this in their own personal practices because they believe that it has stronger power whenever you physically do

it.

The Great Rite is important to know because a lot of people have misconceptions about it. I believe if more people knew that it was a symbolic rite and not a sexual act, people would have a better understanding and knowledge of this part of Wicca. Other religions (more so Christians) believe that Wicca is a “sinful” group of people and this is their reason to have orgies. Not true. Just like Christians partake in bread and wine of Jesus Christ, we do what we need to do in order practice our faith.

There are a bunch of misconceptions about The Great Rite.

As I have stated above, people have the idea that we use the Great Rite as a way to have big orgies. Others think that you have to do this in order to be initiated into any type of coven. I’ve in heard some people go as far as saying that this is how Wiccans get away with raping an unsuspecting victim. Everything that is done within a coven setting is consensual and all the covens that I have been apart of have never forced anyone to do anything they haven’t been comfortable with. In the original assignment, I gave a very brief idea about how someone would use the Great Rite; Beltane. While this is correct, that is not the only reason people use it. Some use it for handfastings or initiation rites. I don’t think that either is appropriate for it, but some people do use it for those

purposes.

All in all, the Great Rite was made by farmers to help them survive and to promote fertility among the land, not so much among people. Those around the Pagan/Wiccan community do not understand exactly what we do. They spread false lies which lead to misconceptions about our rituals. Most people have sexualized this part of our history. That’s just a false understatement of what really happens; especially concerning Beltane. I believe that on a personal note, I would like to learn more about the Great Rite and maybe find a better way to incorporate into my own practices.