The Five Fold Kiss

So, for those who haven't heard yet, here it is, in detail: The five fold kiss is a ritual kiss given at initation and as a portion of the Great Rite ceremony.
A kiss is placed by the priestess or priest upon either the ritual partner/leader, or on the initiate. This kiss is usually exchanged between people of the opposite sex. The person who is leading the ritual places the kiss upon both of the other person's feet, knees, one kiss on or above the groin, and on either breast and finally the lips. This comes to nine kisses in all.

I'm guessing that a few intrepid readers are now staring at the previous paragraph, thinking in horror or sick fascination, the groin? And so I must go on my first divergent discussion about how pagan views of sexuality alter -- and that Wiccans, in some ways, are actually less sexual than mainstream culture, especially in a religion that reveres sex as the most sacred act of creation. Let's go through the gory details, first, since that's probably on the mind of the uninitiated anyway.

The kiss is not sexual -- even when people are performing ritual in the nude. No tongue, no lingering. A quick peck is placed upon each body part while a sacred blessing is said, usually this, taken from the Farrar's A Witches' Bible:

Kiss on each feet:
Blessed Be Thy Feet, which have brought Thee in these Ways

Kiss on each knee:
Blessed be Thy Knees, which shall Kneel at the Sacred Altar

Kiss on the groin:
Blessed be thy Sex, without which we would not Be Kiss on the breasts (I do not distinguish for men -- they have them too, regardless of what they don't use them for):
Blessed Be Thy Breasts, Formed in Beauty/Strength

Kiss on the lips:
Blessed Be thy Lips, which shall utter the Sacred Names

Then, during an initation, the initiate goes through another process associated with meeting the deities. During a Sabbat or other ritual of worship, the Priest and Priestess whip out their blade and chalice and do the Great Rite -- and this is almost always symbolic. Now that readers know what it is, a few of the genuinely curious (the voyeurs have left by now) probably want to know why the five fold kiss is used -- what symbology does it represent? So I trot out some of the books/workhorses of Wicca to give you the most complete answer I can. And I find nothing.

I suspect that the Fivefold Kiss is a Mystery in some traditions, since I've seen it mentioned several places, but now that I think about it, I've never really seen it formally explained. If it is a Mystery in my tradition, nobody told me, so I'm going to go ahead and take a stab at explaining it. It's a mark that you are a part of Divinity -- that you have given yourself to the God and Goddess, totally, and that your entire being is blessed by that commitment.

Sound sick and cultish? That's okay, that's kind of what I think about baptism. You know, where you commit to raise that child knowing only one religion and viewing it as the only way to be close to God? Not to antagonize, just to point out that what is defined as extreme depends entirely on who's looking from what perspective. And I'm hearing a calm voice telling me that's all I should explain...

Reproduced with permission of Medea's Chariot, Thank you

http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/amethystbt/Fivefold.html