Tag: Hekate

Life As The Witch – Recognizing Our Goddess, HEKATE (Hecate)

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Hekate: A Modern Implications

These days, Hekate is often still seen as the Goddess of Witchcraft and Dark Magick, a Dark Crone, because of her connection to the line between life and death. Her chthonic roots are attributed to her aspects as a Death Goddess, but in truth she is not solely death aspected. Her nature is one of transformation, and though change can be terrifying and damaging, it can also be beatific. To think of Her only as a chthonic, Underworld Goddess is to ignore part of her nature.

These days we too often see things in terms of diametric, opposites (light/dark, masculine, feminine, God/Goddess, as if the vast universe is written in binary, nothing more than ones and zeros. While these dichotomies play a role in the nature of the universe, they are also simplified depictions. Deity cannot be contained in the use of dichotomy, because deity transcends those terms.

Hekate is neither light nor dark; she is the very scale of graduation, present at the exact point at which one type of gray becomes another, between every gradient and at either end of the spectrum. Each change is her territory, and there are billions of transformations every day.

Hekate’s connection to magic is another aspect of her nature. Through magic we take what is only potential and pull it into reality, imprinting the mundane world with what could be. And this is one of the biggest changes of all, the transformation for which Hekate has always been particularly revered. Magick is transformation, and it’s from this that Hekate’s association with it is.

In invoking Heckate we can learn to accept changes in our lives, both positive and negative, and we can also create change in our own worlds. She aids the completion and manifestation of spells and when called for divinatory purposes she can help to reveal the truth more readily. She can part the Veil, to allow clearer vision or communion with the dead. Hekate is a protector of children, especially when they walk hard paths, but also in the journey into adulthood.

Hekate guards the crossroads, both those that line our physical reality and those that mark our passage through life, through our spirituality, and through the journey that is existence.

Reference:

Excerpt from:”The Transformative Nature of Hekate”

by Marion Sipe

Llewellyn’s 2012 Magical Living Companion

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HEKATE THOU MOTHER OF MIGHT

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HEKATE THOU MOTHER OF MIGHT
by Jeanne Riegler

“Hecate, thou mother of might
Goddess of magick, of storms, of night.
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Dispensing justice from they lofty throne

Watching now with piercing eye
As thy moon palace doth glide the sky
All of life on the planet Earth
Selecting, weighing and measuring it’s worth

Grant us of thy wisdom sublime
Reveal to us the secrets of time
Help us winnow truth from lies
Harken now, please hear out cries

Hekate, thou mother of might
Goddess of crossroads, bearer of light
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Descend unto us from they lofty throne

Walk amongst us and reveal now
The mysteries of thy shining brow
Past, present and future merge
Let us feel thy power surge

Bestow healing upon this planet
Release the songs of thy stones of granite
Help us, strengthen us, in our resolve
To banish all hate, let it dissolve

Hekate, thou mother of might
Goddess of love, giver of sight
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Ensconced upon thy lofty throne
Acknowledge us, who by our own choice
Have chosen to listen to thy voice
Help us spread wisdom, truth, love and light
To save Earth from her desperate plight

We bide the Wiccan Reed to fulfill
“And ye harm none, do what thou will…”
Help us grow in serving thee
As we will, so mote it be.

Hekate, thou mother of might
Robed in splendor, beauteous, bright
Moon maiden, mother and crone
Shine upon us from thy lofty throne.”

Today We Honor The Goddess Hecate

Hecate – Dark Goddess of Magic & Sorcery

By Patti Wigington

Hecate (sometimes spelled Hekate) was originally a Thracian, and pre-Olympian Greek goddess, and ruled over the realms of earth and fertility rituals. As a goddess of childbirth, she was often invoked for rites of puberty, and in some cases watched over maidens who were beginning to menstruate. Eventually, Hecate evolved to become a goddess of magic and sorcery. She was venerated as a mother goddess, and during the Ptolemaic period in Alexandria was elevated to her position as goddess of ghosts and the spirit world.

Much like the Celtic hearth goddess Brighid, Hecate is a guardian of crossroads, and often symbolized by a spinning wheel. In addition to her connection to Brighid, she is associated with Diana Lucifera, who is the Roman Diana in her aspect as light-bearer. Hecate is often portrayed wearing the keys to the spirit world at her belt, accompanied by a three-headed hound, and surrounded by lit torches.

The epic poet Hesiod tells us Hecate was the only child of Asteria, a star goddess who was the aunt of Apollo and Artemis. The event of Hecate’s birth was tied to the reappearance of Phoebe, a lunar goddess, who appeared during the darkest phase of the moon.

Today, many contemporary Pagans and Wiccans honor Hecate in her guise as a Dark Goddess, although it would be incorrect to refer to her as an aspect of the Crone, because of her connection to childbirth and maidenhood. It’s more likely that her role as “dark goddess” comes from her connection to the spirit world, ghosts, the dark moon, and magic. She is known as a goddess who is not to be invoked lightly, or by those who are calling upon her frivolously. She is honored on November 30, the night of Hecate Trivia, the night of the crossroads.