From: ba@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (B.A. Davis-Howe)
Subject: Re: Polarity in ritual
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 02:46:12 GMT

mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner) writes:

>Does anyone have practical suggestions for creating public ritual that
>doesn't alienate les/bi/gay people with heterosexist or overly
>polarity-based imagery, while at the same time not alienating or
>excluding heterosexuals?  It's possible to come up with completely
>inoffensive stuff, but it tends to be pablum.  We need better than that.

>I've sometimes felt that because my working partner in the Craft is
>male, some participants are going to see anything we do together as
>polarity-based heterosexual ritual.  I have no idea what to do about
>that.

My first suggestion is to dump most of the anthropomorphic imagery.  This solves
two problems at once.  This deals with the heterosexism and deals with some
people's discomfort with Gods.  This suggestion is *only* for public ritual.

For private group ritual, a much deeper process needs to happen--not just for
issues of heterosexism, but to make the ritual powerful.  All of the members
of the group should be involved in shaping what occurs in ritual, and there
should be real effort to work on shared symbolism for the group.  This
symbolism has to be something which is meaningful for all the present members
of the group.

One example of non-heterosexist sexual symbolism is the myth which inspired
me concerning the Twin Gods.  I had heard about the Twin Gods in a few versions,
and had never really found meaning in them.  (I was still fairly newly 
committed to the Craft, though I had been studying Wicca for several years.)
One day, pretty much out of nowhere, this myth just came to me.  I will 
probably be using this myth for the Great Rite in a handfasting which I am
celebrating later this year.  (The couple is two men.)


                         THE DANCE OF THE TWINS
(Copyright 1992 B.A. Davis-Howe)

In the time before the world was, the Lady had twin sons.  One was fair-skinned,
bright-eyed, and stunning to behold.  The other was dark-skinned, steely-eyed,
and forbidding in appearance.  As they grew to manhood, the Lady found the
Bright God attractive, and took him as lover.  The Dark God grew jealous and
fought with the Bright one.  After a time, the Dark God struck his brother down.
When his anger had passed and he saw his brother lying there he wept.  While
he was weeeping, the Lady looked long at him--really *looking* at him for the
very first time.  Though he was not as brilliant as his twin, he had a deep
beauty.  He was stark, and intense, and very powerful.  In seeing him in the
fire of his grief, she was drawn to him.  She comforted him, and in time they
became lovers.  Six months later she delivered a child--the Bright God reborn
from the seed of himself.  When the Bright God was grown, he became jealous in
his turn, and attacked the Dark God.  The Dark God did not want to kill the 
Bright God again, so the Bright God killed the Dark God easily.  Again, the
surviving twin mourned the death of his brother and the Lady consoled him.
As these things must, it repeated again, with the Dark God being reborn six
months later.  Again the Dark God and Bright God fought, but this time, as
they fought, each remembered the death of the other and remembered that they
were indeed twins to each other.  And so they embraced, made love, and knew
that they were both separate and a part of each other.

[This is one version of the words, it should be *told* rather than *recited*.
The basic story is learned, but each telling should be spontaneous.  During the
narration, a mime can take place, with the Priestess of the Day and two Priests
enacting the three roles.  If possible, have two musicians, one playing a wind
instrument for the Bright God and one playing a drum for the Dark God.  The
volume of each instrument should increase and decrease with the power of the
God.  Both Gods should have regalia to distinguish them--the simplest is 
handing the athame to the Dark God and the wand to the Bright God.  Use your
imagination in making the Priest/esses look appropriate.  Any names which are 
meaningful to the group can be used for the Gods and the Goddess.  
A shorter version, without narration, and enacting only one fight can be used
for the Sabbats which mark the changing of the God for the group.  (For example,
at Samhain, I would be happy to have it start with the pipe strong at first and
the Bright God dancing, then the Dark God comes and fights him.  The drum 
would start soft and increase as the Dark God wears the Bright God down. 
Meanwhile, the pipe is weakening until the final victory where the Dark God
dances alone to the sound of the drum.)]

Comments are encouraged...Enjoy!


              Merry meet, merry part, merry meet again,
                               Br'anArthur

Queer, Peculiar, and Wyrd! :-)

******************************************************************************
Newage is hypoallergenic spirituality--
it's for people who are allergic to the word religion.
                                   --Jon Jay Obermark