Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

SACRED MARRIAGE

An ancient rite of re-genesis, central to many Pagan faiths and at the core of the third degree of Initiation in Wicca.

It is first accounted in Sumerian cuneiform texts inscribed in the 3rd millennium BC but probably dates from a much earlier period of prehistory.

In Sumerian belief, the essence of the Sacred Marriage was the union between god and Goddess, symbolizing the male and female elements of nature who, through their divine intercourse in the spring of the year, brought new life to the world. The earliest deities to whom the rite is attributed were the Sumerian Goddess of life, Inana, and her dying-and-rising consort Dumuzi. In Babylonian tradition the pair became Ishtar and Tammuz.

Throughout Mesopotamia, the festival was held in April or May at the time of harvest when the effects of drought could also be at their most severe. Inana was the womb of the earth tilled by the peasant farmer and it was necessary to fertilize the womb with the godly semen that came from the skies in the form of rain. At the climax of the festival, a bed made of cedar and rushes was prepared in a bower and the high priestess of the Goddess was received by the king in sexual partnership among great paraphernalia and in public view.

An old Sumerian hymn captures rather overtly the magickal essence of the rite:

As for me, my vulva. For me the piled-high hillock,
Me, the maid, who will plough it for me?
My vulva, the watered ground - for me,
Me, the Q¥een, who will station the ox there?
To which is framed the rapturous response:
o Lordly Lady, the king will plough it for you,
Dumuzi the king will plough it for you.

In Wicca, the symbolic device associated with the Sacred Marriage is the upward pointingPentagram, the symbol of life, crowned with a small triangle. The essence of the rite reflects the union of Goddess and god, and the tracing of the final line of the pentagram back to the Goddess from whence it began at the time of the first degree of Initiation.

see also: GREAT RITE, The; INITIATION

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc