The Great Rite

By Lady Joanna Blazing-Phoenix

Recently it has come to my attention that there will be festivals held in certain parts of the world on May Day, or Beltaine weekend that celebrate all manner of sexual contact. There must be somewhere that defines just what is meant by the Great Rite. So, I decided to do a little research.

According to the Witches' Bible by Janet and Stuart Farrar, the Great Rite is the ritual of the Male and Female polarity. A sexual rite, but not an orgy. The Great Rite is a sexual union performed between a man and a woman during or after ritual. However, the partners are carefully chosen, consensual, usually already in a consensual sexual union of marriage, Handfasting, or common-law. Ritual intercourse is an ancient idea, as old as humanity itself, but the very opposite of promiscuity. It is carefully timed, with a carefully selected partner. Very few of these rituals are performed with the entire circle of people watching. It is considered personal and private, and in privacy. This is done this way not for shame, but for the dignity of privacy. Sex is a gift from the Goddess to ensure procreation. Love is a gift from the Goddess to ensure sex.

Sex without love may well lead to unbalanced and disturbing consequences. Sex within the confines of a loving relationship provides the loving spark which provides the magic to sex. The Great Rite when performed is sex magic. A Symbolic Great Rite is "the Magic of Gender" according to Doreen Valiente, a celebrated Pagan Author and Historian.

The Woman's body is the altar, her procreative organs the sacred tools of the Sacred Focus. The man's body is the extension of the sacred tools. The Great Rite has nothing to do with Black Mass, which is what the Puritans want you to believe. There are perverted forms of the Rite carried out by deviants that wish to put forth corrupt sexual behaviors and hide behind the Sabbat of Beltaine.

Many of us look at such activities as crimes against the Goddess, and an affront to Pagans. We have fought for many years to gain the respect of the community, and the deviants who wish to corrupt the Beltaine holiday undo all the hard work done for that respect.