The Great Rite
(Alternative Verse Version of Priest's Declamation)
Assist me to build
As the Mighty Ones willed
An altar of praise
From beginning of days.
Thus doth it lie
'Twixt the points of the sky
For thus was it placed
When the Goddess embraced
The Horn'd One, her Lord,
Who taught her the Word
That quickened the womb
And conquered the tomb.
Be thus as of yore,
The shrine we adore, [kiss]
The feast without fail,
The life-giving Grail. [kiss]
Before it uprear
The Miraculous Spear [touches own phallus]
And invoke in this sign
The Goddess divine ! [kiss]
Thou who at noon of night doth reign
Queen of the starry realms above,
Not unto thee may we attain
Unless thine image be of love. [kiss]
By moon-ray's silver shaft of power,
By green leaf breaking from the bud,
By seed that springeth into flower,
By life that courseth in the blood, [kiss]
By rushing wind and leaping fire,
By flowing water and green earth,
Pour us the wine of our desire
From out thy Cauldron of Rebirth. [kiss]
Here may we see in vision clear
Thy secret strange unveiled at length,
Thy wondrous Twin Pillars rear
Erect in beauty and in strength. [kisses on the breasts]
Altar of mysteries manifold,
The Sacred Circle's central point
Thus do I sign thee as of old;
With kisses of my lips anoint. [kisses of the Third Degree Sigil]
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,
Here where the Lance and Grail unite,
And feet and knees and breast and lip.
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-This replaces the Priest's declamation in the standard Great Rite.
-It was published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way".
-They say it was written by Doreen Valiente, and included in GBG's
Text C.
