Ever wonder what the origin of "Blessed Be" was? Here's an interesting article that was sent to me on the subject...
What do you say when you meet someone that you think might be Wiccan? Well, if you are like most of the Wiccans I know, you "test" your theory with a "Blessed Be" and a smile. If the individual in question looks at you like you have three heads, then the Pentagram they are wearing is likely a fashion statement. Of course, the appropriate response is to chime back the same trite greeting, smiling from ear to ear. The problem is, Blessed Be should be anything but a trite greeting.
The phrase Blessed Be originated as part of a ritual. This ritual is used as appropriate follow-up to the invocation of the God and/or Goddess. It maybe used as a formal greeting between a working couple. It is also used as part of the initiation process in some traditions. It requires love, respect and trust. It is a ritual that you would never perform on someone you were not completely comfortable with. The ritual, called the Five-Fold Kiss is performed as follows:
The Priest kneels before the Priestess.He kisses the feet of HPS and says "Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these ways." He then kisses the knees of the Priestess and says "Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred altar." He kisses the belly of the Priestess and says "Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be." She spreads her arms wide. He kisses the breasts of the Priestess and says "Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty." He concludes, kissing the lips of the Priestess, in full embrace, lenght to length, and says "Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the Sacred Names." The Priestess spreads her arms wide and embraces the Priest.It would be equally appropriate for the Priestess to perform this ritual on the Priest. As you can see, the Five-Fold Kiss is a beautiful, intimate ritual. It is also much too conspicuous to be performed in a public setting. In the same way that knotwork is used in Magick to reinforce, or substitute for the repetition of, a given ritual, "Blessed Be" was used as an abbreviated form of this elaborate rite. Simply saying "Blessed Be" was made to be the equivalent of performing the Five-Fold Kiss. This made it much more reasonable to use this formal greeting publically. I believe that as time went on, this greeting was picked up and adopted by the community, in a sort of "monkey see, monkey do" manner. As it's use became more and more commonplace, fewer and fewer Wiccans were aware of the implications of what they were saying, until its original significance had almost completely diminished.
