Approaching Beltane Two: Arriving at the Alchemical Wedding

Perhaps the woman who needs to be freed most is the woman inside of every man?

The Alchemical Wedding, Emily Balavet

We really had to break up our talk on the union of the Beloved and the Lover at Beltane. There was too much, and I can’t even claim to be covering it all in this post. Most of our associations with the Lover and the Beloved at Beltane come from Wicca and the marriage of the generic God and his equally generic Goddess. Pagans make much of this and you can see a heavy handed example of this in one of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s last books, Lady of Avalon where, at the Beltane orgy—there’s always an orgy—the Year King and Maiden come together (fuck), and as soon as the Gawen the year king, comes inside of his beloved’s vagina—I’m not kidding—everyone else feels a surge of power moving through the hills and the standing stones which “releases a tension” and then essentially enables everyone else to go out and, well, fuck in the fields all night. The next day we are told, they set up the Maypole, as an example of the joining of man and woman, God and Goddess.

This is not the time to be a prude. I am not going to lie and say I have never employed sex magic or offered my sex up as magic. I am not even going to say that it hasn’t been part of Beltane, but I am going to call nonsense on the Marion Zimmer Bradley Beltane orgy men- and-women-fucking-renews-the-earth business. It’s not her business. She adopted it from heavily heterosexists and sex obsessed neo pagans she lived among. Alexandrian witches practiced nude simulated sex for the Third Degree and the Building of the Altar. Maxine Sanders declared that the Alexandrians were “a fertility cult”. But this is bullshit. Not only is it bullshit for all modern witches who, unlike people who lived thousands of years ago, know full well that men and women fucking don’t make plants grow, it’s never been true for Cochranists and other occultists who are associations of the wise, not fertility cults. Before I leave this fertility cult shit—which has done a lot of damage—behind, I would say that even, no especially, in the distant past, those priests and priestesses of “fertility cults” did not think their fucking empowered the land or made plants grow. Those priests and priestesses knew they were entering into the mystery of growth and fertility inherent in creation, and so they also were seekers of wisdom.

So what is this business of the joining of the Beloved and the Lover, especially, in a queer context? John Passio in his podcast on the occult reminds us of the medieval concept of the Alchemical Marriage, a major part of the Western mysteries. The work of Alchemy is the joining not of opposites, but of ones complimentary sides. Passio is not the first to point out that is the reconciliation of the masculine and feminine inside of each of us, the yin and yang, man and woman, princess and princes, king and queen. Queer people, especially “effeminate” men and “butch” already have a leg up on this. This is why they are so often persecuted. They are a sign and a symbol, a powerful magical force that threatens the status quo.  In a way, this is why modern ideologies, especially religious ones and definitely mainstream pagan (I do mean white people recreating magical systems as opposed to African and Spanish and many other people who never forgot magic) don’t event know what to do with trans people.  I have criticized Marion Zimmer Bradley so here I will quote her: The woman who needs to be freed most, is the woman inside of every man. Here we are going toward the Alchemical Wedding. I’m only just touching upon this business of the Alchemical Wedding, as unfortunately, I only just briefly touched upon Alchemy last year, but Alchemy is the true word for what we who are called witches do, and it is the heart of our Work. It is our Work. That this Work is not simply drudgery, but lovework, not simply throwing things together, but gently bringing together the lost parts of ourselves, that this is not just putting together, but joining, is the very message of the Alchemical Wedding, and so much more important than orgies and Maypoles.

I’ve already said a lot, but I want to close on how I started, because in the old church readings and Catholic rituals, I’ve seen other ties between the Alchemical Wedding and Easter. The canticle sung in religious offices through Easter is

Alleluia.
Salvation, glory, and power to our God:
[alleluia]
his judgments are honest and true.
Alleluia, alleuia.

Alleluia.
Sing praise to our God, all you his servants,
[alleluia]
all you who worship him, great and small.
Alleluia, alleluia.

The Lord our all-powerful God is King;
[alleluia]
let us rejoice, sing praise, and give him glory.
Alleluia, alleluia.

The wedding feast of the Lamb has begun,
[alleluia]
and his bride is prepared to welcome him.
Alleluia, alleluia.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
[alleluia]
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Alleluia, alleluia.

This is adapted without much change from the end of the Book of Revelation, which is the end of the entire Bible. It is the culmination of all things. Many Christians think it is Jesus’ marriage to the Church (though they aren’t entirely sure what that means)  I agree, though Jesus and Church I think means something they never guessed. The Resurrection, the union, the Communion and the Wedding Feasts of the Lamb are the same, and Wedding Feast of the Lamb IS the Alchemical Wedding.

When we return, we will discuss the light of the sacred Beltane fire, and the color green..... what? Yeah.