The Five Fold Kiss in Witchcraft: What It Is, What It Means, and Why It Matters

If you've read about the Five Fold Kiss in a witchcraft book, whether Stewart Farrar's 'What Witches Do' or another source, or encountered it online, chances are the description gave you pause.

A person kneels before an initiate and kisses five points on their body: feet, knees, abdomen, chest, and lips. Each kiss is spoken with a blessing. The whole thing is done in a room full of people.

On paper, it sounds intimate in a way that may feel uncomfortable, but it's also worth examining, because what the Five Fold Kiss is actually doing is nothing like what it looks like from the outside.

What the Five Fold Kiss Is

The Five Fold Kiss is a blessing. It appears in initiations and is used in other rites as well. The person administering the kiss kneels before the recipient, not the other way around. The kneeling carries its own meaning: in the Craft, the one performing the blessing humbles themselves before the one receiving it. There is no hierarchy of power in this act, the giver serves and the receiver is honoured.

Each kiss is accompanied by a spoken blessing:

"Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these ways." The path the initiate has walked: every choice, every search, every doubt, is acknowledged.

"Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred altar." The commitment to the work ahead is named.

"Blessed be thy womb/phallus, without which we would not be." This kiss is placed on the abdomen, not on the genitals. The generative force of the body is declared sacred.

"Blessed be thy breast, formed in beauty and in strength." This kiss is placed on the chest. The whole person is affirmed.

"Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the sacred names." All initiates are entrusted with the secret names of the Gods. Their voices carry sacred words that can only be spoken in a circle.

The short form of this blessing, the "Blessed Be", originates here, in this rite. Within traditional circles, "Blessed Be" carries the weight of the full blessing it abbreviates. It is sacred, and it is reserved for those who have been properly initiated within the tradition.

What the Five Fold Kiss Is in Traditional Witchcraft

The Five Fold Kiss is not person A kissing person B. It is an act of adoration directed at the divine with Kabbalistic significance.

The one who kneels is not relating to the individual in front of them as a friend, a stranger, or a human being with a personal history. In that moment, the body before them represents the God or the Goddess. The kiss is directed at the divine presence. The giver's role is to recognise and honour what the receiver carries, whether the initiate fully understands it yet or not.

Where many religions treat the body as shameful or a prison to be escaped, the Craft takes the opposite position. We are part of the world, and we celebrate it. The body is the receptacle that carries the most important things a person has: their soul, their history, their life. The Five Fold Kiss declares this through direct contact. The blessing is the theological statement that the flesh is sacred.

This is also why trust is central to the Craft. The Five Fold Kiss is not an excuse for harassment or a means of seduction. Every person who performs it, without exception, understands its meaning, carries the right motivation, and acts with absolute reverence.

Why It Makes People Uncomfortable

Most of us carry cultural conditioning that reads certain types of physical touch as sexual. Sometimes it's difficult to separate "someone's lips touched my body" from "something sexual happened." The Five Fold Kiss sits right on that fault line.

The register must always be, not as desire, but as an act of adoration. These are different experiences, and the tradition teaches its practitioners to know the difference. Everyone who performs the Five Fold Kiss must hold that distinction clearly in their intention, in their gaze, in their conduct. There is no room for ambiguity here.

If the discomfort still looms over the act, it deserves honest engagement. If you read the description and felt alarmed, don't dismiss it, instead, ask yourself what specifically triggered it. Was it the nudity? The physical proximity? The vulnerability of the act? Or the need to trust the intentions of the giver? Each of these touches different concerns, and will provide different insights.

That being said, physical contact and vulnerability run through the entire practice of traditional witchcraft, not just the Five Fold Kiss, but in other parts of a ritual, especially when working in skyclad. Knowing this now, before committing to a traditional path, is better than discovering it later.

What This Means for Seekers

If you are considering initiation into a traditional coven and the Five Fold Kiss concerns you, the best thing you can do is keep reading, keep asking questions, and give yourself time. Understanding what the body means inside the circle, what polarity means, what the Gods represent, changes how the rite reads. Many people who were initially uncomfortable found that once they understood the framework, their discomfort dissolved because they were able to comprehend what the act actually was.

If, after study and reflection, the physical intimacy of the tradition is not something you can embrace, that is all good. Traditional witchcraft is one path among many. Other expressions of the Craft place less emphasis on physical contact and ritual nudity. Finding the right path matters more than forcing yourself into the wrong one.

But if the discomfort comes from unfamiliarity rather than a deep boundary, if it is the strangeness of the act rather than the act itself, then the training period exists precisely for this. It is the space where understanding builds, trust develops, and the relationship between you and the coven becomes strong enough to hold what comes next. The initiation itself will ask you to face the unknown. That is part of what makes it a threshold and trust is what carries you through it.

This post reflects the North Coven's perspective. Other covens may hold different views and approaches.

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The North Coven is an Alexandrian coven in Ottawa and Quebec City, Canada. If you have questions about the tradition or about initiation, send us a message.