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Monday 14 September 2009

Question of the Week #9 - The Great Rite

I've decided that I am going to start off each Question of the Week with some important information just to keep us all on the same page. The objective of the questions as a whole is several fold.

1) To encourage people to take a closer look at the own spirituality.
2) To encourage discussion on this blog and on others.
3) To act as a blog prompt giving people something to post about.

So in order for it to do all of these thing please post your answers to your own blog, include a link back to the original question and comment there as well. This will drive more people to your site to read your answers and also show more people the way to this blog so that they can take part in the questions as well.


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This weeks question comes from a discussion I had with a friend the other night. The Great Rite is a beautiful, symbolic or real act in circle and can have great power behind it. But is it something that you do? Lately I've been talking to many pagans as of late and it seems to be less and less common. Is the Great Rite a part of your own spiritual pracitce? Is it something that you do in every circle you hold? Maybe it is something that you reserve for Full moons or the Major holidays?

Regardless of how you work with the Great Rite or if you do at all. How did you come to the decisions you did surrounding it?

enjoy the Question and See you all next week.

1 comment:

Max said...

So I am going to go ahead and disregard your instructions and actually post my answer here, as my blog seems to have gone missing.... And I think I have managed to edit down my answer, so no one should be too offended :)

Personally - I have never, nor can I see a time, when I would be a participant in the Great Rite. While it does hold a special place in my heart, it is not a particularly nice place.

My issues with the Great Rite are twofold - first the basic fact is that in the end, under all it's trappings it is a sex ritual. Ignoring for the moment the restraints I place on sex in general (of which there are many) - I do understand that there is a time and a place for sex magic to occur, as it is indeed very powerful. I just don't see that a ritual setting with others there as being one of them. And to dumb the rite down so it can be carried out in such a fashion only serves to degrade the rite itself.

Second - it is a *straight* sex rite. Now given the whole symbolism behind it, I will, begrudgingly, agree that it is all correct and proper for it to be so. But as a queer guy - it still goes against pretty much every fiber of my being to partake in it, as it is diametrically opposite to my very nature. So for me to complete the rite, I would need to take on a role that to me is a lie, in the presence of myself, the people I am circling with, and the deities themselves, all of whom would know of the lie, and some of which would even understand the depth of such a lie.

- M