A Witches Bible - Janet Farrar, Stewar Farrar 1981
The Great Rite
The Frame
The Sabbats and Rites for Birth, Marriage and Death
To say that the Great Rite is a ritual of male/female polarity is true but sounds a little coldly technical. To say that it is a sexual rite is also true but sounds (to the uninformed) like an orgy. In fact it is neither cold nor an orgy; so let us try to put it in proportion.
It can be enacted in either of two forms. It can be (and, we would guess, in most covens usually is) purely symbolic — in which case the whole coven is present the whole time. Or it can be ’actual’ — that is to say, involving intercourse — in which case all of the coven except the man and woman concerned leave the Circle and the room, before the ritual becomes intimate, and do not return until they are summoned.
But whether it is symbolic or ’actual’, witches make no apology for its sexual nature. To them, sex is holy — a manifestation of that essential polarity which pervades and activates the whole universe, from Macrocosm to Microcosm, and without which the universe would be inert and static — in other words, would not exist. The couple enacting the Great Rite are offering themselves, with reverence and joy, as expressions of the God and Goddess aspects of the Ultimate Source. “As above, so below.” They are making themselves, to the best of their ability, channels for that divine polarity on all levels, from physical to spiritual. That is why it is called the Great Rite.
It is also why the ’actual’ Great Rite is enacted without witnesses — not through shame but for the dignity of privacy. And it is why the Great Rite in its ’actual’ form should, we feel, be enacted only by a married couple or by lovers of a marriage-like unity; because it is a magical rite, and a powerful one; and charged with the intensity of intercourse, by a couple whose relationship is less close, it may well activate links on levels for which they are unprepared and which may prove unbalanced and disturbing.
“Ritual sexual intercourse,” says Doreen Valiente, “is a very old idea indeed — probably as old as humanity itself. Obviously, it is the very opposite of promiscuity. Intercourse for ritual purposes should be with a carefully selected partner, at the right time and in the right place…. It is love and only love that can give sex the spark of magic.” (Natural Magic.)
The symbolic Great Rite, however, is a perfectly safe and beneficial ritual for two experienced witches at the level of friendship normal between members of the same coven. It is up to the High Priestess to decide who is suitable.
Perhaps a good way to express it would be to say that the ’actual’ Great Rite is sex magic, while the symbolic Great Rite is the magic of gender.
The Great Rite invocation specifically declares that the body of the woman taking part is an altar, with her womb and generative organs as its sacred focus, and reveres it as such. It should hardly be necessary to emphasize to our readers that this has nothing to do with any ’Black Mass’ — because the Black Mass itself had nothing to do with the Old Religion. The Black Mass was a Christian heresy, using perverted Christian forms, performed by sophisticated degenerates and unfrocked or corrupt priests, in which the living altar was used to desecrate the Christian Host. Such obscenity is of course utterly alien to the spirit and intent of the Great Rite.
In many sincere and honourable pagan religions, on the other hand, “there is one genuinely ancient figure — the naked woman upon the altar,” Doreen Valiente points out, and goes on: “It would be more correct to say, the naked woman who is the altar; because this is her original role…. This use of a living woman’s naked body as the altar where the forces of Life are worshipped and invoked goes back to before the beginnings of Christianity; back to the days of the ancient worship of the Great Goddess of Nature, in whom all things were one, under the image of Woman.” (An ABC of Witchcraft.)
In fact, not only the archetypal altar but every church, temple or synagogue is the body of the Goddess — psychologically, spiritually and in its historical evolution. The whole complex symbolism of ecclesiastical architecture bears this out beyond question, point by point; anyone who doubts it should read Lawrence Durdin-Robertson’s richly documented (if confusingly presented) manual The Symbolism of Temple Architecture.
So Wiccan symbolism merely does vividly and naturally what other religions do obliquely and subconsciously.
At the Sabbats, the Great Rite is usually enacted by the High Priestess and High Priest. The Sabbats are special occasions, peaks of heightened awareness and significance in the witches’ year; so it is fitting that at these festivals the coven leaders should take this key role upon themselves on the coven’s behalf. However, rigid procedures are foreign to Wicca, and there may well be occasions when they decide that another couple should be named for the Sabbat Great Rite.
The Preparation
The only extra item needed for the Great Rite, whether symbolic or ’actual’, is a veil at least a yard square. It should preferably be one of the Goddess colours — blue, green, silver or white.
The chalice should be filled with wine in readiness.
The High Priestess may also decide to change the music tape to something specially appropriate — possibly some music of personal significance to her and her partner. (For simplicity we are assuming, here and below, that it is the High Priestess and High Priest who are enacting the Rite.)
The Symbolic Ritual
If the cauldron is in the centre, it will be moved to the South of the Circle, unless the ritual indicates some other position.
The coven, except for the High Priestess and High Priest, arrange themselves around the perimeter of the Circle, man and woman alternately as far as possible, facing the centre.
The High Priestess and High Priest stand facing each other in the centre of the Circle, she with her back to the altar, he with his back to the South.
The High Priest gives the High Priestess the Fivefold Kiss.
The High Priestess then lays herself down face upwards, with her hips in the centre of the Circle, her head towards the altar, and her arms and legs outstretched to form the Pentagram.
The High Priest fetches the veil and spreads it over the High Priestess’s body, covering her from breasts to knees. He then kneels facing her, with his knees between her feet. (See Plate 4.)
The High Priest calls a woman witch by name, to bring his athame from the altar. The woman witch does so and stands with the athame in her hands, a yard to the West of the High Priestess’s hips and facing her.
The High Priest calls a man witch by name, to bring the chalice of wine from the altar. The man witch does so and stands with the chalice in his hands, a yard to the East of the High Priestess’s hips and facing her.
The High Priest delivers the Invocation:
“Assist me to erect the ancient altar, at which in days past all worshipped;
The great altar of all things.
For in old time, Woman was the altar.
Thus was the altar made and placed,
And the sacred place was the point within the centre of the Circle.
As we have of old been taught that the point within the centre is the origin of all things,
Therefore should we adore it;
Therefore whom we adore we also invoke.
O Circle of Stars,
Whereof our father is but the younger brother,
Marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite space,
Before whom time is ashamed, the mind bewildered, and the understanding dark,
Not unto thee may we attain unless thine image be love.
Therefore by seed and root, and stem and bud,
And leaf and flower and fruit do we invoke thee,
O Queen of Space, O Jewel of Light,
Continuous one of the heavens;
Let it be ever thus
That men speak not of thee as One, but as None;
And let them not speak of thee at all, since thou art continuous.1
For thou art the point within the Circle, which we adore;
The point of life, without which we would not be.
And in this way truly are erected the holy twin pillars;2
In beauty and in strength were they erected
To the wonder and glory of all men.”
The High Priest removes the veil from the High Priestess’s body, and hands it to the woman witch, from whom he takes his athame.
The High Priestess rises and kneels facing the High Priest, and takes the chalice from the man witch.
(Note that both these handings-over are done without the customary ritual kiss.)
The High Priest continues the Invocation:
“Altar of mysteries manifold,3
The sacred Circle’s secret point —
Thus do I sign thee as of old,
With kisses of my lips anoint.”
The High Priest kisses the High Priestess on the lips, and continues:
“Open for me the secret way,
The pathway of intelligence,
Beyond the gates of night and day,
Beyond the bounds of time and sense.
Behold the mystery aright —
The five true points of fellowship …”
The High Priestess holds up the chalice, and the High Priest lowers the point of his athame into the wine. (Both use both their hands for this — see Plate 19.) The High Priest continues:
“Here where the Lance and Grail unite,
And feet, and knees, and breast, and lip.”
The High Priest hands his athame to the woman witch and then places both his hands round those of the High Priestess as she holds the chalice. He kisses her, and she sips the wine; she kisses him, and he sips the wine. Both of them keep their hands round the chalice while they do this.
The High Priest then takes the chalice from the High Priestess, and they both rise to their feet.
The High Priest hands the chalice to the woman witch with a kiss, and she sips; she passes the chalice to the man witch with a kiss, and he sips. From him, the chalice is passed man-to-woman, woman-to-man, round the coven, each time with a kiss, in the normal way.
The High Priestess and High Priest then consecrate the cakes, which are passed round in the normal way.
The ’Actual’ Ritual
The ’actual’ Great Rite follows the same procedure as the symbolic one above, with the following exceptions.
The woman and man witch are not summoned, and the athame and chalice remain on the altar.
When the High Priest reaches “To the wonder and glory of all men” in the Invocation, he stops. The Maiden then fetches her athame from the altar and ritually opens a gateway in the Circle by the door of the room. The coven file through and leave the room. The Maiden steps last out of the Circle, ritually seals the gateway behind her, lays her athame on the floor outside the Circle and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.
The High Priestess and High Priest are thus left alone in the room and the Circle.
The High Priest continues the Invocation to the end, but the actual details of enacting the Rite are now a private matter for him and the High Priestess. No member of the coven may question them on it afterwards, directly or indirectly.
When they are ready to re-admit the coven, the High Priest takes his athame from the altar, ritually opens the gateway, opens the door and summons the coven. He returns his athame to the altar.
The Maiden picks up her athame on the way in and ritually seals the gateway after the coven have re-entered the Circle. She returns her athame to the altar.
Wine and cakes are now consecrated in the normal way.