Nourishment and Sacrifice: are you a god?

As a pagan, my spiritual framework recognizes both goddesses and gods. Deity finds expression in both, and in fact, one of the most sacred communions in my tradition is the union between the Goddess and the God, what some call the Great Rite. For most pagans, as a practical matter, our reverence and practice of the Great Rite is often more symbolic. That said, it is powerful symbolism that resonates deeply.

It’s important at this point that I pause to acknowledge a few things. The more blog posts I write, the more I realize that this seems to be a regular occurrence, that moment before I dive in proper where I recognize the diversity of both humanity and pagan practice. (Absolutely nothing is 100 percent true for 100 percent of pagans 100 percent of the time…) Yes, the focus on a Goddess and God in the Great Rite is heteronormative and cis-gendered, but nothing in that requires the invalidation of gender fluidity, trans identity, or other forms of sexuality. One of the most exciting things to see in pagan circles in recent years has been LGBTQ+ members of the community exploring pagan practice as it intersects with their experiences of gender and sexual preference. Many of the basic concepts I’m going to cover here become much richer and more nuanced and deeper when you get past the presumptions of cis-het sexuality. I’m leaving that deeper view for others to cover, mostly…