Tag Archives: Hecate

Well Ive gone and done it now haven’t I?

I know I’ve been quiet over the last few months, basically since the Hekate: Her Sacred Fires rite, but Hekate has been keeping me very busy, just when I think that I might get a break for a while something new comes up. You get the distinct impression sometimes that no matter how much you do the response is going to be like the proverbial school report of; bright girl but could try harder.

There are two reasons why Ive been so quiet, firstly, and I have alluded to it before, a writing project that has been in the works on and off for some time has been coming to fruition, but seeing as it is now in black and white on the Avalonia web-site under their forthcoming titles see here I cannot shy away from it any longer; this peice of work is a magickal obligation made several years ago, and I had rather hoped I had found a loop hole by contributing to Sacred Fires, but no, apparently I am not going to get away with it that easily, so “Liber Hekate” is currently undergoing severe labour pains. The end however is in sight so watch this space for more information.

Secondly, I’ve been in cahoots with the wonderful author and priestess Sorita d’Este, far too many late night discussions have ensued since the launch of Hekate: Her Sacred Fires, most of them revolving around how the ever growing community of priests, priestesses and devotees of Hekate can best be supported and served. Lovely lady that she is, she has spent many hours deliberating and I think has come up with a wonderful solution, needless to say I can only wholeheartedly support this venture in any way I can, especially as I suspect it is partially my fault anyway. It’s in its early infancy and membership applications will not be open for a few weeks yet, but go and have a look at Covenant of Hekate and have a read about it yourself.

β€œDo not wait for leaders; do it alone”

The title of this post is an excerpt from a direct quote made by Mother Theresa of Calcutta, a Nobel Peace prize winner and all around inspirational and beautiful woman. These words are actually something I feel quite strongly about. I’ve been trying to write this post for a very long time, in fact it has sat in my draft box of this site for nearly a year; I come back to it, tinker with it, I review my own personal thoughts and feelings by re-reading it from time to time, but now I think it is time to post it, but please excuse me if it is a rambling post as this is the culmination of a train of thought going over many months, Ive tried to edit it into a readable format, but just shout if it doesn’t make sense I will try and clarify.

Hekate and Hermes have some fairly undeniable links, both on occasion are messenger to the gods and both perform the role of psychopomp, guide to the dead; now that of course can be taken literally and they can be called to aid the passing of souls but it can also mean that they can take away from you, especially in the case of Hekate the ghosts of things that have gone before, things that are unhealthy, habits, emotions and memories long past that tie you, that prevent you from progressing forward; after all she is the Goddess of the restless dead and what can be more restless than those nasty annoying little things from the past that you hang on to for no good readon but bring up time and again and allow to fester in your heart and mind.

For years I hankered after a mentor, somebody who would hold my hand, who would be there for me when rather than if, I envitiably screwed up, I suppose I wanted a parent, somebody to wipe my magickal arse and dispose of the dirty nappies. I got my mentor and surprise, surprise, I still had to wipe up my own dirty messes. A good teacher actually doesn’t stop you cocking up, they just teach you how to deal with it. One of the things my mentor and me talked about over the years was the concept of fear, and how it can stop you from “becoming”. Possibly one of the wisest things they ever told me was that fear and being wary produce similar chemical responses in the body, of course the hard part is working out which is which, for the aim of course should be that you are aware but not living in fear.

Being alone for most is a huge fear, we sit online or turn the TV on rather than sit in visual and/or auditory silence, we strive for somebody to tell us what to do so we don’t have to be alone with our own thoughts and actions. Approaching deities such as Hekate also seem to elicit similar responses, although I am pretty sure that is the result of media hype, but of course your mileage may vary. Being alone with Hekate to my knowledge has never killed anybody or driven anybody insane, unless possibly they were predisposed to insanity anyway. And approaching her alone or within group seems to elicit similar responses, yes you might find out things about yourself you don’t like, and yes you might be tempted to hide behind your ego and blame somebody else for what you see, but you will reap the consequences of that; yes you might get a bitch slap, normally from hiding from the former example; but seriously we all read the news headlines, when was the last time you read a headline entitled “Witch found dead in satanic circle attacked by her own demons”?

Most of the serious practitioners I know are in pretty rude health both mentally and physically and going strong even if they are a little bit beautifully wrecked. Somedays you just have to realise that you have to grab the bull by the proverbial horns (an there is a whole Hekate related post I could write about that) and do it; if you think you are being called then why are you scared? That being said of course anything you try is of your own volition and for legal purposes I cannot sanction πŸ˜‰ Seriously though ask yourself what you are scared of, you might be surprised by the answer; in a group ritual recently I was asked to “give” something to Hekate, to my surprise right at the last minute, I asked her to take my fear, in return she asked my to agree to five more years of service; I didn’t even know I had something to fear, took me a week or two but now I do, but it isn’t fear it is being aware of a whole new aspect of serving and being proud to call myself a priestess of Hekate.

Never underestimate the Power of Hekate

So, the post man arrived yesterday morning and in his bag of goodies was my contirbutor copy of Hekate: Sacred Fires. I ripped open the cardboard packaging like a child on christmas morning and greedily flicked through.

I wanted so desperately to sit down and read right there and then but events an obligations conspired against me, patience was never my strong point, but eventually late afternoon I sat down to read.

I finally finished it some 24hrs later, I am wrung out both intellectually and emotionally, my full review can be found here.

I just want to use this post not only to point out the review, which I hope will be of use to those that read this blog, but to thank my long suffering family; my husband in particular, who has reminded me to eat, and plied me with rich red wine and chocolate in the intervening period between opening and closing this book, suffice to say, her presence is pretty damn strong, and the secret little promise to myself to take a break for a while from all things Hekate, might, just might, have to go on hold, there is still so much more to learn, do and experience.

The Rite of Her Sacred Fires

Just a few more days to go before the Global Ritual I mentioned in my previous post takes place, and I confess to feeling very excited. For anybody who hasn’t been over to the facebook group or the Sacred Fires website, here is the information copied from the dedicated Facebook group:

We are inviting you to join us in a worldwide day of celebrating and honouring the Goddess Hekate on the Full Moon, Thursday 27th May 2010 and to participate with hundreds, maybe even thousands of others around the world in THE RITE OF HER SACRED FIRES. This ritual has been prepared by the author and priestess Sorita d’Este as an act of devotion to the Goddess Hekate and to coincide with the completion of a very special project in which more than 50 people from all over the world share their visions, experiences and ideas on the Goddess Hekate.

SEE http://www.sacredfires.co.uk/ for more information on the project.

SEE http://sacredfires.co.uk/?page_id=64 for more information on the RITE OF HER SACRED FIRES – including a printable PDF (English, Esperanto, Spanish, German, Greek and Swedish currently available)

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This is the first ceremony of its kind being organised for Hekate – the same words being spoken, candles and fires being lit – all over the world on one day for the Goddess Hekate! Join us in making this a very special event!

There are already groups and individuals who have committed to joining in from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Namibia, Chile, Mexico, Brasil, Argentina, U.S.A., Canada, Finland, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, England, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and many more …
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Hekate – Her Sacred Fires

Back in December last year I recieved an email asking if I would like to contribute to this anthology; it didn’t take a lot of thinking about to be honest. For a long time now my work with Hekate has lead me in very creative directions. So first an essay and then a peice of artwork swiftly followed. The release date of this book has now been announced and pre orders for what promises to be a mind blowing read are available from the 20th of May and is being published by Avalonia Books. To say I am excited and enthused about this project would be an understatement, from the little bits I have been lucky to see in production, I think this book will have something to offer to everybody, no matter how you experience the Goddess Hekate. I expect to also learn a lot about how others view and work with her as well and would encourage anybody with half an interest in this Goddess to get their sticky mits on a copy a.s.a.p. Of course for the cautious amongst you, I shall be reviewing it in a thorough and non biased manner as soon as I recieve my contributor copy πŸ˜‰

To co-incide with this labour of love, for that is what it is, over 45 contributors, that have written from just about every continent of the globe, the editor Sorita d’Este has written an organised a world wide ritual taking place on the 27th May 2010; the full moon, a very auspicious time if I may say so. The aim is to get as many people who either have an existing relationship with this deity or wish to learn more about her to perform this rite as a devotional offering. The precise details will be released here and also here on the 20th, the aim is to get at least 1000 people participating from all over the globe, but the more the merrier. I do hope to virtually see you all there.

I’m going slightly mad.

I have a beautiful journal, it is leather bound, the pages are a creamy yellow colour. The reason I like this journal is that it has a little place at the top of each page to insert the appropriate date and time, so you only need to write in it when appropriate, I used to use a page per day diary but that would often frustrate me, some days I needed more than a page, sometimes I might not write anything down for days.

I am not a daily journal keeper. I’m not a morning person either, yet some how in the last fortnight I have found myself getting up at increasingly more obscene hours of the morning to expand on some recieved work from the Lady Hekate.

Im very organised, knowing my weaknesses and how totally disfunctional I am at silly o clock in the morning I make sure I have everything ready the night before, candles, meditation stool, no floor for me at the moment I am afraid due to a rather nasty ankle injury that seems to be taking forever to heal, tarot cards if neccessary, journal and pen.

The very first thing I do is write the date, moon phase and time of the work in that little slot at the top of the page that I am so fond of. I always start a new page, even if the previous page only has a few lines on it, each peice of work, each day in fact to my mind requires a clean sheet. I always do this, no exceptions. Its too easy to start scribbling other wise in years to come you will look back and wonder when the notes referred to. Its also a good ready reckoner for spotting patterns too, you can see if your more sensitive to recieved work, for example, at certain times of the month or even times of the day. You can use this to better plan any subsequent work. Actually the uses are too many for me to go into here. That isn’t what this post is about.

So there I was this morning, I sat and wrote the appropriate headings, did the work that I needed to do, picked up my journal and looked around for my pen. The resounding message from todays work was, “It’s not enough to just write about it, you must experience it”, I felt it was worthy of note for a number of reasons. For myself, as somebody who draws heavily from academic texts it can be way too easy to fixate on my bookish nature and not actually “do” or “be”. Now some may argue that sincere and heartfelt research in the persuit of gnosis is an act of magick in its own right. But I disagree with that to some extent, somethings you have to actually do to really understand the mechanics, take driving a car for example, you can read a manual, study the highway code, you can even pass the theory test; but you really do not understand what driving is until you get behind the wheel and you can only comprehend the finer nuances with repeated practise and experience.

I grappled for the pen in the half light, and it wasn’t there, I moved the journal, it wasn’t there, I felt under and around my meditation stool and yes, you got it, it wasn’t there. I decided to finish up, find the pen which I had convinced myself must have just rolled under a chair or something. I looked everywhere, I even went out into the garden, wondering if one of my feline friends has snuck in whilst I was away with the fairies and stolen my pen and taken it away to play with. Three quarters of an hour I looked for that damn pen, eventually I laughed and gave up; after all perhaps for today I would just experience it rather than write about it.

I shuffled upstairs with a coffee in my hand, wandered into the bathroom where my daughter was cleaning her teeth. Mummy she said, through a foamy mouth of minty paste, why have you got a pen in your hair?

Taking note of the signs

Some days magick just isn’t on the cards, and perhaps it is a wiser person than me that recognises these signs. I maybe should have taken note when my bank suddenly had no record of my details and after a long conversation the account was unearthed with with incorrect, address, d.o.b and mothers maiden name. Maybe I should have taken note when running my pre ritual bath the water turned a putrid yellow. Maybe even the point should have got through when the neighbours who barely say more than “Morning” on a day to day basis invited me in for a cuppa when I popped round to warn them about the water, all of this conspiring to leave me less and less prepared for the task looming imminently ahead of me.

But Im a stubborn person and Im no stranger to the whole anything that can go wrong will go wrong pre ritual catastrophe, so I settled down in the dying light to perform my designated task, and then it came. Not angry, not irritated or impatient, just a firm statement. “This is not for you, there are other things going on, you do not need to be here” Maybe I should have taken note then, but I had commited to this work so I continued on, outside interferance is also not an unknown occurance. “Did you not get the hint earlier” at this point it was almost a sigh like a tired parent trying really hard not to be annoyed with an over precocious child. “Ok you can carry on, but you will just be going through the motions”. So I quickly and quietly withdrew.

To be honest this was a new experience in its own right, Im not used to being told to sod off, especially when the work was expressly sanctioned by herself. I sat quietly for a minute wondering what it was that I did wrong, wondering if my scrambling around and dithering with the mundane earlier in the day had been the catalyst for what I felt was a “ticking off”. A few minutes later, I decided that I wasn’t going to get an immediate answer so cleared up and prepared to perform a license to depart, I use a stock formula, probably recognisable by well, just about anybody of a particular school of thought, “I call upon any spirits here present trapped here by these my magickal rites, to return unto their rightful place, harming none along the way, but being prepared to return if I should call” at which point the neighbours cat which adopted me some six months ago charged out the bushes and practically knocked me over in his attempt to jump in my lap. Giggles I am afraid took the best of me, but you know what, that is okay too, banishing with laughter is a very valid tool in its own right. Lets face it any of you who may have attempted the Sparean inspired death posture and the drawing of obsessions through a mirror will know that even if you can attempt it successfully, when you finally catch sight of yourself in the mirror your going to laugh at the sheer obsurdity of it; its like an in built fail safe mechanism, laughter really is a beautiful thing.

Anyway later the laughter continued, perhaps it needed to, I have still yet to find out, but just as I was settling down to type my notes up, my smallest timidest cat (actually is timidest a real word?) came to me and dropped a present at my feet, the biggest bumble bee I have ever seen, it must have been as long as my thumb. I bent to pick up this treasured gift from a loyal companion, percieving it to be a sad and broken offering, bereft at the loss of life but inderstanding that this is the nature of all things and honored that my tiny wee girl who is normally scared of the shadow of her own tail should choose to share such victory with me. When it roused it self crawled through my fingers and flew into the air.

I jumped to open the french windows at the back of the lounge onto what was now almost a completely dark night, hoping beyond hope that this brave surviour would find its way out, yet knowing that to encourage him to do so would be condemning this little soul to a certain doom, bees rarely survive in the dark outside the hive, especially at this time of the year, if they are lucky they find a warm place to hole up until the morning and then try and find thier way home. An uncertain feat nowadays, as there is much debate and discussion in the agricultural communities, some people believe the bees have lost their ability to waggle dance, which is percieved as not only a road map for good nectar but the indicators for a safe round trip home.

This lovely visitor has chosen to reside the night in the safety of my home and has tucked itself in the warmth behind one of my wall lights, in the morning I shall open all the doors and windows in the hopes that it finds its way. But a good friend told me a tale this evening a tale that perhaps I should take note of, the story fo melissa.

Apparently the minoan-mycenean “Mistress” goddess Potnia, who named her priestesses “Melissa” meaning Bee, was also associated in later times due to her epithet of “Mistress of the Beasts” with Artemis, a deity who was very much syncretised with Hekate especially in the PGM. And of course those who are familiar with herself will know that there is an undeniable if unprovable connection with Hekate and the Minoan Snake goddess who may have once been called Ariadne the daughter of Helios.

Interesting in its own right as in certain recensions Medea is the grand daughter of helios and a priestess of Hekate; Ariadne also aided Theseus to overcome the minotaur when he took shelter in an old womans hut of (amongst other things) the woman, “hecale” possibly the only time I might even suggest that my titaness might be a crone but as I have written elsewhere the gods were only old and ugly if they were hiding out or had a plan see here.