By Chalice and Blade: The Great Rite (part 2) :: WiccanWeb.ca :: A community for the Wiccan & Pagans in Canada

Posted by: Makarios on Friday, March 12, 2010 - 08:00 AM

By Rowan Pendragon

The Great Rite, as we have seen, can truly been seen as “great” as it helps us to tap into and unlock some of the Great Mysteries within Wicca. We touch on the power of birth and creation through this ritual act and have the ability to feel the power of the God and Goddess in union when we fully engage ourselves in the rite. A problem that faces many practitioners today, especially those on a solitary path, is understanding the different ways the rite is done and understanding the deeper meanings of the rite itself. In truth, because it’s a key to the Mysteries and the Mysteries cannot be taught and can only be experienced, there is only so much anyone can learn from another, be it from a blog, a book, or even another individual acting as a teacher. This is why it becomes so important to truly live your path if you wish to experience and unlock those deeper spiritual elements that make Wicca what it truly is. This is why it’s important to start with understanding what The Great Rite is (think of it as the “To Know” part of The Witch’s Pyramid in relation to this rite) but then you must come to experience it (“To Dare”) before you can go further.

So as we’ve talked about, The Great Rite is the union of the God and Goddess in the sacred marriage. The ritual itself pulls from many ancient cultural and their various acts of sympathetic magick to honor the union of the God and Goddess to ensure fertility. It is an act that can either be done in actuality (also called “in truth”) or in token, and is considered one of the most important and most sacred of Wiccan rituals as it truly does embody the core essence of Wicca, the joining of the God and Goddess. The rite is often performed by the High Priest and High Priestess of the coven, or it can be enacted by another couple deemed fit by the group, and it is also part of the Third Degree initiation in many Wiccan traditions when the initiate is brought into the Mysteries of this degree by participating in this rite. When performed in truth the rite is performed, in private sacred space, by the High Priest and High Priestess, while when done it token it is often performed with all members of the coven participating to lend their energy and blessings as well. This ritual, as we’ll be talking about today, is Wiccan in nature though it is thought its roots can be found in some of the OTO rituals and the Gnostic Mass.

Read the complete article: Within the Sacred Mists