The Great Rite is a fertility ritual in Wicca wherein the presiding Priest and Priestess enact the sacred marriage of the Goddess and God. In some traditions, this is a literal sexual joining; in others, the sexual partnership is represented by dipping the wand or athame into the chalice to signify the sacred union of male and female. The Great Rite symbolizes the act of divine creation through the union of the Virgin Goddess with the Horned God.