ab:great.txt 16jan90 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. -------- -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.