Going Deeper

Lesson 4 of 12 ยท 9 min

Traditional Wiccan concepts

Why this lesson explains rather than instructs

These are the parts of Wicca people hear about and rarely get told the truth about. They belong to initiatory coven practice, and some of their forms are oathbound. You should know what they mean. Pretty Little Wiccan does not hand out DIY versions of other people's initiatory rites.

Modern Wiccan practice

Drawing Down the Moon

In traditional Wiccan ritual, the High Priest invokes the Goddess into the High Priestess, who then speaks and acts as her within the rite. It is the central devotional moment of much coven practice, and the associated text known as the Charge of the Goddess was largely written by Doreen Valiente, drawing on earlier occult material including Charles Leland's Aradia.

Traditions vary

Drawing Down, outside covens

Solitary practitioners sometimes adapt the broader idea as a devotional invitation rather than full possessory invocation. Traditions differ about whether that is meaningful or merely borrowed vocabulary, and Pretty Little Wiccan takes no side.

Historical context

The Great Rite

A ritual enacting union, understood as the joining of Goddess and God. It is performed in two forms: symbolically, by lowering an athame into a chalice, which is the common and public version; or 'in true', as actual sex between consenting partners, in private. The symbolic form is what most Wiccans have ever encountered.

Worth knowing

Consent, plainly

The Great Rite in true is between existing partners, in private, and freely chosen. No group, teacher or initiator has any business proposing it to a student, and no tradition requires it of you. Any pressure in that direction is abuse using religious vocabulary, and you should leave.

Traditions vary

Skyclad practice

Skyclad means working naked, and Gardnerian practice in particular has used it, with various explanations offered about equality and about energy. Many covens do not work skyclad; many Wiccans never have. It is not a marker of seriousness. Nobody should be pressured, photographed, or told their practice is lesser for wearing clothes.

Historical context

The scourge and the athame

Gardner's material includes a scourge, used lightly and symbolically in some initiatory rites, which is why it appears in old tool lists. It is included here as history and context. It is not a beginner tool, and this app does not teach its use.

Worth remembering

Know what these rites are and where they come from. Anyone pressing an initiatory or sexual rite on a beginner is the problem.

Where this comes fromShow

Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2019)

On the composition of Wiccan ritual, the Charge of the Goddess and Gardner's sources.

Doreen Valiente, The Rebirth of Witchcraft (1989)

A practitioner account of what she wrote and rewrote, including the Charge.

Where reliable evidence is limited, we say so rather than filling the gap.

Next: Gender, polarity & sexuality

Where historians disagree, this app says so. Where traditions differ, no single one is presented as the correct Wicca. Our approach

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