Editing Wicca (section)

===Sex magic===

Other traditions wear robes with cords tied around the waist or even normal street clothes. In certain traditions, ritualised [[sex magic]] is performed in the form of the [[Great Rite]], whereby a High Priest and High Priestess invoke the God and Goddess to possess them before performing [[sexual intercourse]] to raise magical energy for use in spellwork. In nearly all cases it is instead performed "in token", thereby merely symbolically, using the athame to symbolise the penis and the chalice to symbolise the womb.{{sfn|Farrar|Farrar|1984|pp=156–174}}

[[Gerald Gardner]], the man many consider the father of Wicca, believed strongly in sex magic. Much of Gardner's witch practice centered around the power of sex and its liberation, and that one of the most important aspects of the neo-pagan revival has been its ties, not just to sexual liberation, but also to [[feminism]] and women's liberation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Hugh B. |date=2006-10-04 |title=The Goddess and the Great Rite: Sex Magic and Feminism in the Neo-Pagan Revival |chapter=The Goddess and the Great Rite ''Sex'' Magic and Feminism in the Neo-Pagan Revival |pages=162–190 |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/california-scholarship-online/book/28586/chapter/238856112 |language=en |doi=10.1525/california/9780520247765.003.0008|isbn=9780520247765 }}</ref>

For some Wiccans, the ritual space is a "space of resistance, in which the sexual morals of Christianity and patriarchy can be subverted", and for this reason they have adopted techniques from the [[BDSM]] subculture into their rituals.{{sfn|Pearson|2005a|p=36}}

Publicly, many Wiccan groups have tended to excise the role of sex magic from their image.{{sfn|Pearson|2005a|p=32}} This has served both to escape the tabloid [[sensationalism]] that has targeted the religion since the 1950s and the concerns surrounding the [[Satanic ritual abuse]] hysteria in the 1980s and 1990s.{{sfn|Pearson|2005a|p=32}}

Some Wiccan Traditions substitute a Communion style rite in honor of the God and Goddess rather than the symbolic Great Rite in their Esbat ritual.