| Hekate Soteira by Cricket |
| Hail Hekate, lovely Goddess of the threshold, Three-faced Goddess of the crossroads, Light-bringer and keeper of keys of the earth, Companion Goddess who guides lost souls and hears the cries of the living and dead, She who leads with twin torches across all purgatories and sees in all directions, who sees into the past, present and future at once, Ageless Mother who walks between worlds, Bright Goddess who stands like a beacon for all of the in-between, Goddess of change who inhabits the edge of all time and space— Blessed art thou who hears the darkest fears of all life, Blessed art thou who guides the soul through its darkness. |
Hekate (pronounced both heh-KAH-tay and heh-kah-TAY) is an ancient Goddess whose myth has become
extremely rich and variegated—in other words, fairly confusing over time. If the God of the old testament is old,
Hekate could be His grandmother. She is a popular Goddess today, but her popularity goes hand in hand with a
great deal of speculation and hearsay. What is true and what is not depends on whom you ask, whether they are
scholars or contemporary devotees of the Goddess, or perhaps both. In any case, Hekate is a Goddess who cannot
help but inspire the imagination, whether in Her liminal attributes or in Her more fear-inspiring.
Many people agree that Hekate first appeared in Thrace or Anatolia, or some even say in Egypt, but She most
significantly became well-established in ancient Greece as a attendant Goddess, frequently appearing in tales with
Persephone or Demeter, where She is most usually cited as both Persephone’s and Hades’ confidante. Hekate
therefore also played an important role in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Her role in ancient Greece was intrinsic to the
communication between removed and distressed parties, and between past and future states of knowing, from the
bereft to the enlightened. With torches in hand and a ready ear, Hekate conveyed messages from the land of the
living to the land of the dead, accompanied by her dogs.
Hekate was the sole survivor of the takeover of the Titans by the Olympian Gods, and She remained honored
by Zeus above all other Goddesses after the massacre. Daughter of Perses the Destroyer and of Asteria, the Starry
One, who was Goddess of prophecy and necromancy, Hekate was perhaps too powerful of a Goddess in her earlier
places of worship to simply abandon when the newer era of Gods took over. Her worship continued well into the
Hellenistic period and into Roman life, where her darker aspects grew more significant, and perhaps have gradually
colored the popular consciousness with a negative perception of witches.
But long before to her residence in ancient Greece, Hekate was likely worshipped in a far less one-dimensional
manner as that in which she has come to be known today. She was probably a Goddess of childbirth and agriculture,
as well as a Goddess of death and transitions. Contemporary belief emphasizes Hekate’s crone aspect, associated
with nocturnal beasts and even with mischief, most commonly with the dark or waning moon, but some brilliantly posit
that her status as a virgin Goddess affords her some leeway in how She can be worshipped today. If not as crone,
then perhaps as maiden, with Persephone as mother/wife of Hades, and with Demeter as crone, who causes the
fields to wither when she cannot find Persephone, or so Sorita D’Este suggests in Hekate: Keys to the Crossroads
(30).
I personally like this shifting of roles, especially considering the one-dimensional way that we have come to
understand virgins and crones in western society. Popular myth is that a virgin is a young, nubile girl, ready to be
stolen or violated by a strong man, but in the ancient world, to be a virgin Goddess meant that whether sexually
active or not, a Goddess chose to retain her autonomy and independence, as Gadon explains. (Once and Future
Goddess, 191) Most people in our youth-obsessed culture fear old age and old women, who are perhaps seen as a
herald of mortality, hence the crone archetype has become cheapened and degraded, becoming a repository for all
of our cultural self-loathing, guilt and fear. It’s unfortunate that so many of us have lost the sense of awe and wonder
at the changing of the seasons and the changing of our bodies, and have lost the fascination with the overlap
between youth and old age, and the similarities between them. The crone is even more luminous than the virgin in
many ways.
Today we have inherited a rather fixed view of Hekate, perhaps due to much of the surviving Greek and Roman
literature, which emphasizes her role as patron of self-serving witches like Medeia and Circe, but and also from
Shakespeare. Even in popular TV shows, Hekate is often associated with the demonic. These perspectives have
given occasion to the belief that modern witches call upon powerful dark forces to assist them, because without
sorcery, women are supposedly powerless. According to Tim Ward in Savage Breast, “Fairy tale witches live in
forests, on the boundary of the wild. Their pots bubble with threshold creatures like snakes and bats, frogs and
newts, which they use to cook up powerful spells.” (154) The fairy tale witch is a fearsome character because she is
literally a crucible of sublimated desire, and long-suppressed desires contain the potential to explode. Hekate is
probably a model for this stereotype. On the other hand, despite being frequently associated with dark things, the
more one looks into her story, the more one sees that Hekate is neither simply a crone Goddess, nor simply a
Goddess of witches. If one is specifically looking at her symbolism differently, Hekate can also primarily be seen as a
beacon in the liminal realm who helps seekers to self-actualize. This to me is the most productive way to work with
Hekate today.
All of the following attributes reflect the fact that Hekate is an extremely powerful
Goddess, with very strong representatives on the mortal plane. The entire month of November is said to be sacred
to Hekate, as are December 31st, and August 13th, and new and dark moons are said to be the best time to work
with Her. According to the Farrars and D’Este, dogs, horses and snakes are sacred to her, and She is even said to
occasionally have three heads, some of which are these animals. The yew and the willow are sacred to her, as are
sapphires, moonstone, pearl, lodestone, meteorite, copper and gold. Mullet fish and garlic and honey are sacred to
her. Her Tarot card is the High Priestess and all threes in suits belong to her, as do poisonous and fragrant plants,
such as cypress, opium, aconite, anise, apples, belladonna, onion, poppy, mugwort, myrrh, saffron and camphor.
Honey and almond cakes and other more garlicky offerings are suitable to Hekate on any of her monthly feast
nights, during the month of November in totality. Torches, daggers, horns, chthonic altars (altars built directly on the
ground), or altars built before doorways are all ways to outwardly pay homage to Hekate. (The Witches Goddess,
227 and D’Este, 28-29)
The following is a very basic preliminary list of Hekate’s appearance in art, literature, culture, but perhaps
details the most widely cited sources of Hekate’s story:
(Anonymous) “Homeric” 7th Century B.C.E. Hymn to Demeter
Hesiod’s Theogony
Shakespeare Macbeth.
Apollonius Rhodius 3rd Century B.C.E. Argonautica
Ovid 8th Century C.E. Metamorphoses
Orphic Hymns, the Greek Magical Papyri, Proclus Diadochus’ “To Hekate and Janus”, and Sophocles’ “Hymn to
Helios and Hekate”.
Chaldean Oracles, 2nd Century A.D.
Works Cited
D’Este, Sorita. Hekate: Keys to the Crossroads. London: Avalonia Books, 2006.
Farrar, Janet and Stewart. The Witches’ Goddess. London: Phoenix Publishing, 1987.
Gadon, Elinor. The Once and Future Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1989.
Ward, Tim. Savage Beast. Winchester, England: O Books, 2006.
Sources
Baring, Anne and Cashford, Jules. The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image. Middlesex, England.
Viking, 1991.
Budapest, Zsuzsanna. New York: Harper Collins, 1989.
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch’s Mythology. New York: Crown Publishers, 1979.
Moura, Ann (Aoumiel). Green Witchcraft. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1996.
extremely rich and variegated—in other words, fairly confusing over time. If the God of the old testament is old,
Hekate could be His grandmother. She is a popular Goddess today, but her popularity goes hand in hand with a
great deal of speculation and hearsay. What is true and what is not depends on whom you ask, whether they are
scholars or contemporary devotees of the Goddess, or perhaps both. In any case, Hekate is a Goddess who cannot
help but inspire the imagination, whether in Her liminal attributes or in Her more fear-inspiring.
Many people agree that Hekate first appeared in Thrace or Anatolia, or some even say in Egypt, but She most
significantly became well-established in ancient Greece as a attendant Goddess, frequently appearing in tales with
Persephone or Demeter, where She is most usually cited as both Persephone’s and Hades’ confidante. Hekate
therefore also played an important role in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Her role in ancient Greece was intrinsic to the
communication between removed and distressed parties, and between past and future states of knowing, from the
bereft to the enlightened. With torches in hand and a ready ear, Hekate conveyed messages from the land of the
living to the land of the dead, accompanied by her dogs.
Hekate was the sole survivor of the takeover of the Titans by the Olympian Gods, and She remained honored
by Zeus above all other Goddesses after the massacre. Daughter of Perses the Destroyer and of Asteria, the Starry
One, who was Goddess of prophecy and necromancy, Hekate was perhaps too powerful of a Goddess in her earlier
places of worship to simply abandon when the newer era of Gods took over. Her worship continued well into the
Hellenistic period and into Roman life, where her darker aspects grew more significant, and perhaps have gradually
colored the popular consciousness with a negative perception of witches.
But long before to her residence in ancient Greece, Hekate was likely worshipped in a far less one-dimensional
manner as that in which she has come to be known today. She was probably a Goddess of childbirth and agriculture,
as well as a Goddess of death and transitions. Contemporary belief emphasizes Hekate’s crone aspect, associated
with nocturnal beasts and even with mischief, most commonly with the dark or waning moon, but some brilliantly posit
that her status as a virgin Goddess affords her some leeway in how She can be worshipped today. If not as crone,
then perhaps as maiden, with Persephone as mother/wife of Hades, and with Demeter as crone, who causes the
fields to wither when she cannot find Persephone, or so Sorita D’Este suggests in Hekate: Keys to the Crossroads
(30).
I personally like this shifting of roles, especially considering the one-dimensional way that we have come to
understand virgins and crones in western society. Popular myth is that a virgin is a young, nubile girl, ready to be
stolen or violated by a strong man, but in the ancient world, to be a virgin Goddess meant that whether sexually
active or not, a Goddess chose to retain her autonomy and independence, as Gadon explains. (Once and Future
Goddess, 191) Most people in our youth-obsessed culture fear old age and old women, who are perhaps seen as a
herald of mortality, hence the crone archetype has become cheapened and degraded, becoming a repository for all
of our cultural self-loathing, guilt and fear. It’s unfortunate that so many of us have lost the sense of awe and wonder
at the changing of the seasons and the changing of our bodies, and have lost the fascination with the overlap
between youth and old age, and the similarities between them. The crone is even more luminous than the virgin in
many ways.
Today we have inherited a rather fixed view of Hekate, perhaps due to much of the surviving Greek and Roman
literature, which emphasizes her role as patron of self-serving witches like Medeia and Circe, but and also from
Shakespeare. Even in popular TV shows, Hekate is often associated with the demonic. These perspectives have
given occasion to the belief that modern witches call upon powerful dark forces to assist them, because without
sorcery, women are supposedly powerless. According to Tim Ward in Savage Breast, “Fairy tale witches live in
forests, on the boundary of the wild. Their pots bubble with threshold creatures like snakes and bats, frogs and
newts, which they use to cook up powerful spells.” (154) The fairy tale witch is a fearsome character because she is
literally a crucible of sublimated desire, and long-suppressed desires contain the potential to explode. Hekate is
probably a model for this stereotype. On the other hand, despite being frequently associated with dark things, the
more one looks into her story, the more one sees that Hekate is neither simply a crone Goddess, nor simply a
Goddess of witches. If one is specifically looking at her symbolism differently, Hekate can also primarily be seen as a
beacon in the liminal realm who helps seekers to self-actualize. This to me is the most productive way to work with
Hekate today.
All of the following attributes reflect the fact that Hekate is an extremely powerful
Goddess, with very strong representatives on the mortal plane. The entire month of November is said to be sacred
to Hekate, as are December 31st, and August 13th, and new and dark moons are said to be the best time to work
with Her. According to the Farrars and D’Este, dogs, horses and snakes are sacred to her, and She is even said to
occasionally have three heads, some of which are these animals. The yew and the willow are sacred to her, as are
sapphires, moonstone, pearl, lodestone, meteorite, copper and gold. Mullet fish and garlic and honey are sacred to
her. Her Tarot card is the High Priestess and all threes in suits belong to her, as do poisonous and fragrant plants,
such as cypress, opium, aconite, anise, apples, belladonna, onion, poppy, mugwort, myrrh, saffron and camphor.
Honey and almond cakes and other more garlicky offerings are suitable to Hekate on any of her monthly feast
nights, during the month of November in totality. Torches, daggers, horns, chthonic altars (altars built directly on the
ground), or altars built before doorways are all ways to outwardly pay homage to Hekate. (The Witches Goddess,
227 and D’Este, 28-29)
The following is a very basic preliminary list of Hekate’s appearance in art, literature, culture, but perhaps
details the most widely cited sources of Hekate’s story:
(Anonymous) “Homeric” 7th Century B.C.E. Hymn to Demeter
Hesiod’s Theogony
Shakespeare Macbeth.
Apollonius Rhodius 3rd Century B.C.E. Argonautica
Ovid 8th Century C.E. Metamorphoses
Orphic Hymns, the Greek Magical Papyri, Proclus Diadochus’ “To Hekate and Janus”, and Sophocles’ “Hymn to
Helios and Hekate”.
Chaldean Oracles, 2nd Century A.D.
Works Cited
D’Este, Sorita. Hekate: Keys to the Crossroads. London: Avalonia Books, 2006.
Farrar, Janet and Stewart. The Witches’ Goddess. London: Phoenix Publishing, 1987.
Gadon, Elinor. The Once and Future Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1989.
Ward, Tim. Savage Beast. Winchester, England: O Books, 2006.
Sources
Baring, Anne and Cashford, Jules. The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image. Middlesex, England.
Viking, 1991.
Budapest, Zsuzsanna. New York: Harper Collins, 1989.
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch’s Mythology. New York: Crown Publishers, 1979.
Moura, Ann (Aoumiel). Green Witchcraft. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1996.
Ritual
As a Goddess who inhabits thresholds, who is the living threshold Herself, Hekate can teach a great deal in
deep meditation. The following ritual is designed to discover your soul’s true desire, and is best performed when you
feel intellectually or emotionally stuck over an issue that you intuitively know has a simple resolution. It is best
performed on a dark or new moon, when you have time before and after to synchronize with what you are about to do
and what you have seen. Please adapt the ritual according to your preferences.
First clean the ritual space with a wash of lavender or mint scented water. Decorate your work space with black,
blue, purple, and white candles. Try to find an ambient album with bells, chimes and the sound of lake water, or
dripping water and put it on. If you don’t have time to make the incense below, sprinkle some mugwort, patchouli,
myrrh and mint over a charcoal block, or simply dab a stick of patchouli or sandalwood incense with cypress or
camphor oil. If you prefer to work in a smokeless environment, use essential oils on a diffuser. It’s nice to have a little
bowl of almonds and a plate full of garlic on the altar, perhaps with a little vase full of fresh mint or dandelions. Light
the candles, smudge the area and cast a circle. If you are prone to falling asleep, find a comfortable sitting position.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself waking up somewhere else in the middle of the night, in a grassy clearing
surrounded by apple trees, on a rocky beach, or anywhere else that feels natural. You look in your hand and realize
that you have a sapphire pendant that you will present to Hekate. Although you are alone, you have no reason to be
afraid, because you have a purpose here. Gradually sit up and explore your surroundings, allowing yourself to be
guided by whatever light is present, or by whatever spirit animals present themselves to you. Follow your guide until
you begin to climb a little hill. After a while, the trees and shrubs give way to reveal a rocky mountain wall, with a cave
in the center of it. Approach the cave and take notice of any symbols or objects or plants or animals that may inhabit
the edges of it. If you find something of interest, take a moment to examine it.
As you step into the cave and move forward into the black dampness, the sounds of your footsteps become
magnified. Eventually you sense a light in the distance. You carefully make your way towards it, and discover a
pathway leading deep into the cave, with torches lit every twenty feet. Follow this path until you reach a clearing deep
in the heart of the cave, where the path opens onto a circular chamber surrounded by torches stuck into the copper
colored walls, with a large marble reflecting pool in the center of it. On the other side of the clearing there are three
dark doorways leading away. Before them stands a beautiful statuesque woman with long hair and white flowing
robes.
She has an impressive crescent moon circlet around her brow, and she holds a torch in both hands. Her
expression is even and fixed. She has been waiting for you to come. She welcomes you closer to the reflecting pool,
and you lean over, catching your reflection mingled with the torchlight and the strange shadows of the stalactites in
the water. In time, the shapes begin to blur and images come to you from the deepest corners of your heart. You see
familiar patterns turning into new ones, and you see important situations that you might have overlooked. One by
one, the images on the pool begin to synthesize into a story or path that you are seeing for the first time.
You pull away from the water and see Hekate standing across from you with a smile on her face. You walk slowly
towards her and bow before her, presenting the sapphire pendant. She hands you a torch and takes the pendant
with her free hand, then gestures towards one of the three doorways with the other torch. You bow to her again and
venture towards this doorway, where you will discover this destiny for as long as you would like, noting any symbols,
pictures, scenes, characters that present themselves to you before eventually coming to another doorway on the
other side, which lets out into the same place you originally woke up. When you are ready, begin to reconnect with
your body in your ritual space, and then open your eyes. Write about your experience until it is all out of you.
If you learned something helpful during this journey, it may also be helpful to perform a candle spell to focus
your energies on the path that Hekate showed you. Each Hekate journey is different and She may show you different
things every time. Blessings on your journey to work with this Goddess.
As a Goddess who inhabits thresholds, who is the living threshold Herself, Hekate can teach a great deal in
deep meditation. The following ritual is designed to discover your soul’s true desire, and is best performed when you
feel intellectually or emotionally stuck over an issue that you intuitively know has a simple resolution. It is best
performed on a dark or new moon, when you have time before and after to synchronize with what you are about to do
and what you have seen. Please adapt the ritual according to your preferences.
First clean the ritual space with a wash of lavender or mint scented water. Decorate your work space with black,
blue, purple, and white candles. Try to find an ambient album with bells, chimes and the sound of lake water, or
dripping water and put it on. If you don’t have time to make the incense below, sprinkle some mugwort, patchouli,
myrrh and mint over a charcoal block, or simply dab a stick of patchouli or sandalwood incense with cypress or
camphor oil. If you prefer to work in a smokeless environment, use essential oils on a diffuser. It’s nice to have a little
bowl of almonds and a plate full of garlic on the altar, perhaps with a little vase full of fresh mint or dandelions. Light
the candles, smudge the area and cast a circle. If you are prone to falling asleep, find a comfortable sitting position.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself waking up somewhere else in the middle of the night, in a grassy clearing
surrounded by apple trees, on a rocky beach, or anywhere else that feels natural. You look in your hand and realize
that you have a sapphire pendant that you will present to Hekate. Although you are alone, you have no reason to be
afraid, because you have a purpose here. Gradually sit up and explore your surroundings, allowing yourself to be
guided by whatever light is present, or by whatever spirit animals present themselves to you. Follow your guide until
you begin to climb a little hill. After a while, the trees and shrubs give way to reveal a rocky mountain wall, with a cave
in the center of it. Approach the cave and take notice of any symbols or objects or plants or animals that may inhabit
the edges of it. If you find something of interest, take a moment to examine it.
As you step into the cave and move forward into the black dampness, the sounds of your footsteps become
magnified. Eventually you sense a light in the distance. You carefully make your way towards it, and discover a
pathway leading deep into the cave, with torches lit every twenty feet. Follow this path until you reach a clearing deep
in the heart of the cave, where the path opens onto a circular chamber surrounded by torches stuck into the copper
colored walls, with a large marble reflecting pool in the center of it. On the other side of the clearing there are three
dark doorways leading away. Before them stands a beautiful statuesque woman with long hair and white flowing
robes.
She has an impressive crescent moon circlet around her brow, and she holds a torch in both hands. Her
expression is even and fixed. She has been waiting for you to come. She welcomes you closer to the reflecting pool,
and you lean over, catching your reflection mingled with the torchlight and the strange shadows of the stalactites in
the water. In time, the shapes begin to blur and images come to you from the deepest corners of your heart. You see
familiar patterns turning into new ones, and you see important situations that you might have overlooked. One by
one, the images on the pool begin to synthesize into a story or path that you are seeing for the first time.
You pull away from the water and see Hekate standing across from you with a smile on her face. You walk slowly
towards her and bow before her, presenting the sapphire pendant. She hands you a torch and takes the pendant
with her free hand, then gestures towards one of the three doorways with the other torch. You bow to her again and
venture towards this doorway, where you will discover this destiny for as long as you would like, noting any symbols,
pictures, scenes, characters that present themselves to you before eventually coming to another doorway on the
other side, which lets out into the same place you originally woke up. When you are ready, begin to reconnect with
your body in your ritual space, and then open your eyes. Write about your experience until it is all out of you.
If you learned something helpful during this journey, it may also be helpful to perform a candle spell to focus
your energies on the path that Hekate showed you. Each Hekate journey is different and She may show you different
things every time. Blessings on your journey to work with this Goddess.
| Short Hekate Prayer (Interchange the pronouns to first person singular if desired.) The world is a crossroads moving under your feet and walking towards you. You lead all paths to it. Hekate Cakes 1 cup flour ½ cup oatmeal ¼ cup finely ground almonds ½ tsp baking soda ¼ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt ½ cup softened butter ¼ cup honey (or molasses) ¼ cup brown sugar 1 egg splash of milk 1 tsp vanilla extract pinch of cloves pinch of cardamom ¼ tsp allspice ½ tsp cinnamon 2 Tbs poppy and/or anise seeds handful of whole unsalted almonds ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, stir together the butter, honey, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, stirring until even, adding flour or milk as necessary. Shape into circles or crescents and lay on an oiled baking sheet. Press whole almonds into each individual cake. Bake for about 12 minutes, until lightly golden. Sprinkle the tops with confectioner’s sugar. Serve with a hot mint tea! Be sure to leave out a few for Hekate, perhaps alongside a bulb of garlic and a sprig of mint, ideally on an altar near to the ground, an altar near a door, or by a three-way crossroads. Once you put down the offering, walk away and do not look back. Poem for Hekate Enodia 1. Hekate of the Crossroads Her face is full of branches like an idea inadequately researched or a sweater so delicate only a thought could wear it like your longing to re-experience the year the forest woke up and leaned close like a moon wanting to show you something precise in a pile of leaves like a plastic unicorn tied to a string. Her face is like a mirror under six inches of running water where you catch your reflection as you lean over the red bridge that you crossed every day as a child where you leaned over and saw yourself blurred and interposed with the face of someone older and made of marble with a series of roads behind it. 2. Hekate Light-Bringer Between this road and the next lies a world that bleeds into our speaking a language of forms rather than one of sound. The yews circle round like a belt tightening this blue wilderness until it weighs the same as an idea, an idea that is identical to the wilderness you wake up to in sleep before stumbling towards the woman holding a torch on the other side of the river. 3. Triple-Faced Hekate Like trying to hear a reverberating chord that only the divine can hear, we are not born with three faces that see into the past, future and present, that can predict a specific pain, we are born with one that can only see the candied gloss of what is before it. |