\u201cOn the Mountain\u201d by Louis Janmot. From WikiMedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSex figures in a lot of Beltane celebrations, and for good reason; there\u2019s probably sex going on outside your window right now. It doesn\u2019t snow where I live in California, but there\u2019s so much pollen blowing around in the air that it kind of looks like it does. My stuffy nose is not responding well to plant sex right now, though it does smell delightful outside. I\u2019m not aware of anyone asking people to ignore the realities of the natural world in their rituals. <\/p>\n
The problem for many of us, is when sex and the natural world are ONLY represented by female and male coupling<\/strong>. The Goddess and God aren\u2019t literally having sex in my garden to begin with, so why do so many insist that such representations are the only appropriate ones at Beltane? Maybe the Goddess reproduces asexually? She\u2019s a deity after all, and I\u2019m sure she could just replicate herself if she wanted to.<\/p>\nWhen I envision Beltane I see the young Horned God engaged in a variety of behaviors. He\u2019s with the Maiden, but he\u2019s also flirting with the Sun God, and he\u2019s most likely taking care of himself and fertilizing the world with his member and his hand. There\u2019s a fourth version of him that\u2019s probably just reading a book too. No one is asking anyone to deny any of these aspects. I just believe we paint an incomplete picture when we only focus on one of them instead of all of them. <\/p>\n
And only<\/strong> expressing fertility as the union of male\/female is shitty and doesn\u2019t represent how the world works. That\u2019s not anyone hating sex, it\u2019s someone looking at the world around them and seeing something more out there. The cherry tree in my backyard has cherries on it because it\u2019s self-pollinating. It certainly didn\u2019t hop out of its pot and hump another cherry tree. <\/p>\nThere are also times when I believe an overly sexually and heterosexual Beltane is simply inappropriate. What you do behind closed doors with your coven is your business, but maybe if you\u2019re leading the community ritual at a public park you should write a ritual for the entire community? I don\u2019t think that\u2019s too much to ask. <\/p>\n
How we build rituals, especially at Beltane, is really important to. Perhaps a ritual where groups are split into \u201cboys\u201d and \u201cgirls\u201d doesn\u2019t work so much anymore? Accepting that is not an abandonment of sex, it\u2019s simply not being a jackass. And Paganism has always had a creeper problem with people seeing \u201cPaganism\u201d as a gateway to get away with all sorts of inappropriate (often sexual) behavior. Instead of creating a situation where that happens, maybe we build different sorts of rituals where that\u2019s much less likely to happen?<\/p>\n
Modern Paganism has generally been sex positive over the last seven decades, and building inclusive rituals doesn\u2019t change that. Doing something other than \u201cpenis goes into vagina\u201d doesn\u2019t fundamentally change Beltane or Witchcraft, and the flowers will continue to bloom regardless. No one is asking a particular myth to be forgotten, it\u2019s just that some of us believe a few of our myths are incomplete. <\/p>\n
If your Beltane is all about human sex, then go at it, make sure it\u2019s safe and consensual, and have fun! If your ritual circle is down with an orgy no one is trying to stop you. I\u2019m super supportive of all of those things, and maybe even a bit jealous of the latter. But the majority of our dalliances at Beltane occur outside the circle, and they are engaged in by a wide-range of people and sexualities. Wanting that to be expressed in ritual isn\u2019t anti-sex, it\u2019s about expressing a bigger picture of sexuality. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
But the majority of our dalliances at Beltane occur outside the circle, and they are engaged in by a wide-range of people and sexualities. Wanting that to be expressed in ritual isn\u2019t anti-sex, it\u2019s about expressing a bigger picture of sexuality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":11885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[221,374,41,1394,795,54,117,1391,22,93],"class_list":["post-11876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beltane","tag-god","tag-goddess","tag-inclusive-ritual","tag-ritual","tag-sabbats","tag-sex","tag-sexuality","tag-wicca","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n
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