Sasha Bri - C'est La Vie "2018 Release" (Official Audio)
Merry meet, I am Colleen Criswell.
In this lecture I am going to discuss a bit about The Great Rite and what it actually
is and the purpose behind it as well as the common misconceptions about this ritual and
the confusion of this ritual and another ritual that is similar to it.
In the most simplistic terms, The Great Rite is a ritual that is performed at Beltane , which
in the Northern Hemisphere falls on May 1st and in the Southern Hemisphere falls on October
31st.
The reason it is performed on this date is because Beltane is the mark of the beginning
of the planting season, the Celebration of Beltane tends to have a lot of themes that
revolve around fertility.
Now, keep in mind that fertility in the olden days of Paganism, meant something different
than what we look at as fertility in modern terms.
In the days of ancient civilization things such as supermarkets and fast food delivery
services were not invented yet, so they had to grow food and hunt for food themselves.
The celebration of Beltane was all about making sure that the coming year the food will grow,
animals will populate in great numbers so that the people would be able to eat and survive
for another year, by this time the last of the old harvest that was stored is about gone,
so all that was left was the more hardy vegetables, usually meat that had been cured, so full
of salt and usually not the best cuts of meat are left, and of course wine and beer.
So we are looking at the bottom of the barrel at this point.
So the people, mainly the farmers, chose to create a ritual that focuses on fertility
of the Earth, and these people understood that when a man and woman had sex, a child
would be a result, so this repopulates.
Due to this understanding, they chose this sort of symbolism to perform a ritual during
Beltane.
Now, keep in mind, that though sex is seen as the symbolism, this ritual has nothing
to do with sex or sexuality, it has to do with the result of a man and a woman having
sex and creating life.
For those who are in same sex relationships, this does not diminish your sexuality nor
is it giving the idea that only a male/female relationship is a possibility, here we have
to look at science and understand that in order to create life we do need sperm and
an egg, this has nothing to do with love or sexuality, it has to do with basic biology.
So, even those in same sex relationships can still work with this ritual, it is just understanding
that we are not talking about human sexuality, we are talking about the understanding of
how life is created, and in ancient civilization, before we had the scientific breakthroughs
and so on, the understanding of the act of a man and woman having sex was what was understood
as a basic fact.
I know that there are a lot of different forms of sexuality these days, and there are those
who get upset by the Great Rite's symbolism because of this, however that is not what
this ritual is about, and when you are focusing only on that aspect of the ritual you are
missing out on a lot of important aspects involved in the ritual.
So, remember, this is not a ritual about sex, it is not about sexuality, it is about the
Earth, plants and animals, that is all.
So, first let's get into the understanding of Sympathetic Magick.
What this is, basically, is doing something on a small scale to represent something on
a much larger scale.
Sympathetic Magick can be used for a number of things, in most common uses we use it for
healing.
In poppet magick, for instance, we use the understanding of Sympathetic Magick.
We create a poppet to represent the person we are healing or that we are performing magick
on.
Yes you can use poppet magick for other forms, but in this lecture I will be using healing
as an example.
So, in the example of healing, a person creates a poppet in the image of the person who needs
healing.
So let's say Jane Doe is having issues with stomach pain.
John Doe then creates a poppet for Jane Doe and in the center of the poppet he has taken
string and knotted it up around the center of the poppet to represent the pain.
Next he would charge the poppet to give it "life" to connect it to Jane so that he
can work on helping her out.
Then in the spell he would take the string and start to un knot it and remove it slowly
from Jane, to help ease up on the pain she is feeling.
So here, we have a small scale representation of Jane and her pain, and John is helping
remove that pain from her in small scale.
This is sympathetic magick, doing something on a small scale to represent something on
a much larger scale.
So, the Great Rite, we do something on a small scale, such as using symbolism to represent
sex, to mean something on a much larger scale, meaning fertility of the plants and animals
so that they will repopulate and the people can eat and have food.
This is not about human fertility or fertility of the mind, but about the Earth being fertile
and granting life again so that the humans living there can survive.
The way the Great Rite is traditionally performed is symbolically, not physically.
So, no, a man and a woman don't traditionally sneak off and do the do as my daughter put
it, but is done symbolically using items that represent the God and the Goddess.
Who can perform the Great Rite?
Well, in a Coven, usually the leaders of the Coven will perform it, however as most people
are Solitary, any person can perform this ritual.
Traditionally we use an Athame to represent the God, though a Wand could be used instead,
and a Chalice filled with wine for the Goddess.
So the athame or wand of course we look at it as phallic shaped and therefore the male
aspect, the chalice we look to as a womb and the wine, traditionally it would be a red
wine, to represent the waters of the womb... now in today's understanding we know that
the waters of the womb are clear, not red, but the red represents the blood of the woman
which was the understanding of the people at the time because that was what was shed
when a woman was not pregnant so to them a woman's womb would be red.
The athame would be plunged into the chalice blade first to represent penetration.
Now, where that is the traditional way to perform the Great Rite, it is not the only
way.
These days there are a ton of ways we can choose to perform this ritual, and for those
who are uncomfortable with the symbolism of the athame in the chalice and those who are
sensitive to the idea of male and female joining sexually, these ways are sometimes helpful
to use:
Flowers being placed in a basket or vase can be used instead.
Fresh cut flowers are easy to get these days, though not something that was available that
much during that time, so by placing flowers in a basket or a vase you are bringing life
and growth to you.
Also, during Beltane in the Northern Hemisphere , this date falls on May 1st which corresponds
with May Day, and the tradition of the May Basket, which was a small woven basket with
flowers on it which would be left on the door of random people to bring a little love and
happiness into the world.
Later on this custom was rebooted in the 60's and 70's by using construction paper to weave
the baskets, so one could use this as a new form of performing the Great Rite, using colors
that represent the God and Goddess, or the idea of the Earth and Sun, to weave together,
then add flowers to the basket to represent the life that is renewed from that union.
This is a great activity to do with small kids to help explain the Great Rite for a
family orientated Beltane ritual.
Another way is to actually put seeds in the ground yourself.
Plant yourself a little garden or a potted plant to represent the Great Rite in a more
literal way.
Again, the whole point of The Great Rite is because we are starting the planting season,
so by planting the seeds yourself, you are doing a literal version of the Great Rite's
purpose and focusing that energy on a larger scale as to the world wide understanding that
all the farms around you will grow crops and life will completely return.
Or, for immediate results, plant a small plant in a planter.
By the way, the Great Rite is where the euphemism of a man planting his seed comes from.
The more you know.....
So, with this ritual it would not be used for mental fertility or creative fertility,
because the symbolism would not make sense, and it would not work properly.
So, no, the Great Rite is not used for getting knowledge and understanding and creative inspiration,
you would do other things for that.
By understanding the correspondences for creativity, for instance the color yellow is traditionally
seen as a color associated with creativity, where you could plant a yellow flower and
under the flower have a petition to help that creativity grow, yes, that would be a possible
ritual, and even though you are using the idea of planting something to help in aide
in that process, this is not the Great Rite or an example of that.
A key thing here is that the Great Rite is specifically for the regrowth of the plants
and animals on the earth.
This would not be for that.
Another thing this ritual is not used for is human fertility.
This is a big misconception.
A lot of people seem to think that the Great Rite is something that is used for a Handfasting
or Marriage ceremony.
It is not.
And, if you took the Entrance Exam and put in your Going Back Over essay that it is used
in this sort of ceremony I will always say the following
Unless you are planning on having a reality show on TLC, this is not something appropriate
for a handfasting or marriage.
Remember, the Great Rite is something done on the small scale to represent something
on the large scale, as in world wide.... so not really appropriate.
So why to many books and even information on Handfasting include this misinformation?
It is actually very simple, they are confusing The Great Rite with another ceremony called
Hieros Gamos.
The reason why it is often confused with this is understandable, because a lot of the time
they use similar symbolism.
Hieros Gamos comes from the Greek, and is a sexual ritual that is traditionally included
in a Handfasting ceremony.
The bride and groom take on the representation of the deities, usually the couple's patron
deities or they could be a God and Goddess that represent love and marriage.
This ritual is also seen in numerous other cultures such as in Hinduism, the Ancient
Near East, Buddhism and others.
Usually this is only performed with a man and a woman, it is used in handfasting to
represent the union of the couple and is usually done with the athame held by the groom, being
placed in the chalice of wine held by the bride and him inserting the blade into the
challice.
This ritual can also be done physically, after the Handfasting ceremony, in private, with
the bride and groom consummating the marriage.
This is why there the idea the Great Rite is performed physically, because the Hieros
Gamos is sometimes performed as a physical rite instead of symbolic.
Other things the Hieros Gamos can be used for is the precursor for what is known as
Sex Magick.
Hieros Gamos can be part of Sex Magick rituals and there are numerous other forms of Sex
Magick that help in raising energy, either as a solo practitioner or with a partner,
and this is something that is totally different and again gets confused with The Great Rite.
Why did this all get confused?
Well, this happened with the creation of Wicca.
Gerald Gardner didn't really fully research things, let's be honest, he confused the two
terms up and due to this there is a lot of misinformation and countless books and Wiccan
writers who have continued on with Gardner's misinformed understanding of The Great Rite.
Gardner adopted the idea of the Hireos Gamos, and mislabeled it The Great Rite, and chose
to include it as part of the Third Degree Initiation ritual.
This ritual was meant to be a symbolic ritual, however some groups who are offshoots of Wicca,
chose to do the physical representation of this ritual, which brings a whole other issue.
First, let's understand Gardner's thinking in this.
As we understand the Hireos Gamos, the two participants take on the representation of
the deities.
Now, when we understand the purpose of the Third Degree Initiation, this means that the
initiate has achieved the practice and study that will grant them the title of a High Priest
or High Priestess.
When they have this title, during Coven rituals, they then invoke the God or Goddess and they
represent them during Coven rituals.
Priests and Priestesses usually represent the Elementals during rituals.
During an initiation ceremony the person performing it is always the opposite sex than the initiate.
So, one represents the God the other the Goddess, and the ritual is performed to solidify that.
Seems simple enough, and again, when Gardner chose this as part of the initiation ceremony,
it makes sense, and his view was that it was to be symbolic, not physical.
As I stated, there are some groups who choose to do a physical version of this...and let
me tell you, be leery of any group who expects you to do this physically.
Now, if you are a solitary practitioner or are working with a partner who you are in
a committed relationship with, sure, go for it, however if it is for a coven and they
expect you to have sex with your High Priest or High Priestess, or in front of the coven....
red flags should be raised as this is not appropriate and more than likely you are not
joining a legit group.
So, hopefully this clears up a lot of confusion about the Great Rite and helps you understand
the difference between the Great Rite and Hireos Gamos, how they are used, why they
are used and when they shouldn't be used.
Thank you for joining me, Merry Part.
Đăng ký:
Đăng Nhận xét (Atom)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét