Category Archives: Hecate

The Rite of Hekate Eurippa – A response to the Greek Wildfires

I would be surprised if we hadn’t all read a report something like this in the last few days.

Wildfires north of Athens leapt back to life on Thursday as searing conditions persisted and emergency crews battled blazes across Greece for a third day running. Red flames and sparks glowed in the night on the outskirts of the Greek capital, residents fled suburbs, asylum seekers were evacuated and authorities warned of more blazes on Friday as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) and gale force winds were expected. Twelve people were taken to hospital including two volunteer firefighters who were treated for burns in intensive care, health officials said. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said emergency services faced a difficult night with westerly winds set to strengthen and he urged people to comply with evacuation orders and avoid unnecessary travel. “We are dealing with unprecedented conditions as many days of heatwave have turned the whole country into a powder keg,” he said in a special televised address. – Reuters Aug 5

The Message

You’d be forgiven for having read it, and unless it somehow it directly affected you and yours passing on by with a sorry shake of the head. That’s exactly what I did for my sins. After all much of the world is crashing and burning in one way or another. But something happened this morning that made me sit up and take notice.

I went to do my usual weekly shop. There on the sanitation station was an ornamental key. I never ignore a key when it randomly appears in my life, especially one so bizarre as a small brass key in the middle of Aldi. Mere moments later a dear friend and Priestess contacted me asking if we could do anything to help the Ranch-Eros horse sanctuary who are in dire need after the devastating fires in Greece. Horses are sacred to Hekate and she even has her own horse headed aspect “Hekate Eurippa”.

Yes Hekate, well played my dear, well played, the Message was received.

What has happened since then is mindblowing, amazing, and restores my faith the Pagan and Goddess community. We have a facebook page – Horses For Hekate, a just giving page (which is already at 21% of goal in less than 3 hours) also by the same name (click here to donate) and now we have a ritual for all those that are so inclined can use as part of their dark moon rites tomorrow night. I do find it amazing that what we have this weekend is a new moon in leo, one that is part of what some call a “Lionsgate Portal” where the constellation Leo, the Sun and the Dog star Sirius align in a very specific manner and is considered by some to be very cosmologically important. For me the importance is that its Leo and Sirius, the dog and the lion are together at new moon, 3 very sacred symbols for the Goddess Hekate. The Chaldean Oracles actually state that “if you call upon me often you will perceive everything in lion-form.” C’mon this is starting to get to be a perfect a storm.

If you can please share this ritual it is free for all to use, the prayer is by the wonderful Mabh Savage and all I ask is if you use it you credit her, I also ask that you consider donating either your cash or maybe an item or service to the Silent Auction which will be announced properly in the coming days – we’ve already got some amazing donations so please come and look. And finally if all you can do is give your energy that is as important, please consider taking part in this rite both this weekend and every new moon until we reach our goal.

So without further ado here it is The Rite of Hekate Eurippa (ps if you like the FB page you can download it as PDF to work from at your altar).

HEKATE EURIPPA DARK MOON RITUAL

Set your sacred space in your normal way, this isn’t about fancy and fan-fair this is about raising energy and heartfelt devotion to the Goddess. Simple is good all that is needed for this rite is yourself, a singing bowl and a candle but you of course can make your preparations as you like. You may like to add flowers, incense, grain, wine, garlic, eggs or honey as offerings, these are all traditional to the Goddess and will be well received.

Opening Invocation:

Observe the fire burns without form, hear the voice that whispers from it.

Behold the soul, Dark Hekate, Numeric, Harmonic, Chaotic, Chthonic

I strike the Bell, I/we light the flame, we call you by your sacred names.

Ring bell/strike bowl 3x3x3

Light Candle

The Summoning

Hear our call, she who is our chosen accomplice, to whose presence this rite is dedicated.

Three times three we call as is your right, three times, for earth and sea and sky.

Hearken to your dread hounds calling, turn your magic wheel Hekate, Eurippa hear our prayers.

Hekate of the Many Names – Polyonumos, Come forth from the sea, Stand at our head with your ravening hosts.

Hearken to your dread hounds calling, turn your magic wheel Hekate, Eurippa hear our prayers.

Hekate of the Many Ways – Polytropos, Come forth from the earth, Stand at our head with your ravening hosts.

Hearken to your dread hounds calling, turn your magic wheel Hekate, Eurippa hear our prayers.

Hekate of the Many Ways – Polymorphikos, Come forth from the sky, Stand at our head with your ravening hosts.

Hearken to your dread hounds calling, turn your magic wheel Hekate, Eurippa hear our prayers.

The Prayer to Eurippa by Mabh Savage

Hail Hekate Eurippa

Horse headed

A horse leaping from her shoulder

Creature of fire

A fiery soul

So no flames need come near

As twin torches light

The night instead.

Speed away from danger

Solid and safe

Swift and sure

Hekate Eurippa

Horse finder

She of the animals

And of the land

Guide your charges

Away from harm

The fire without form,

Form barriers of protection

Let your fire breathing head

Protect its kin

Let the horses leap away

As you raise your hydra head

Towards the sphere of water

Cooling and drenching the land

We call to you Great Lady

From our land to theirs

Eyes upward to the skies

Minds joined across seas

Liminally poised

We pray for protection

Hekate Eurippa

With offerings and libations

We pray for safety

For horses and people

And the other inhabitants

Of Kria Vrisi (Κρύα Βρύση)

Rancheros Farm

And the surrounding areas

Affected by wildfires

Hands on heart

Mouth and brow

We send our prayer to you now

Hail Hekate Eurippa

Hail Hekate Kleidouchos

Hail Hekate.

HERE IS WHERE YOU MAY LIKE TO DANCE, SING, MEDITATE, SPEAK DEEPLY FROM THE HEART OR EVEN JUST SIT QUIETLY AND SEND YOUR ENERGY OUT ACROSS THE SEAS TO THE GODDESS AND THE HORSES ON HER LAND.

The Closing

I strike the Bell, I/we put out the flame, we thank you with your sacred names.

Polyonumos, Polytropos, Polymorphikos, Eurippa,

By Air, and Land and Sea Farewell this night Blessed Be!

En Erobos Phos!

Tara xXx

Fairies and Eggshells

1 Reply

An infestation of uninvited fae can be a nuisance and whilst I absolutely do not think you should go round wantonly banishing the good folk there are times when posting up a magickal “Trespassers will be prosecuted” sign is really handy. The problem is, once you start working with them, they do like to invite their friends. A great and very cheap way of popping up that sign is with Cascarilla, a.k.a ground eggshells. Although I have been using it for some years and was taught it as hoodoo/folk magic skill, I’ve not seen it in mainstream western practises until quite recently, which surprises me because there is a considerable amount of lore surrounding it – especially with the Fae, so let’s have a look.

In German, French, Polish, Irish, Welsh and English folklore stories can be found where a wily human gets rid of a faery problem using eggshells. Brewing with eggshells to confuse a changeling enough to trick it into revealing its true nature is very common as is cooking in eggshells, the poet W.B Yeats recants the woeful tale of Mrs Sullivan who upon suspecting that her child was in fact a Faerie goes through the motion of cooking a meal for all the reapers in the field in just a single egg shell.

The Welsh folklorist John Rhys, tells two distinct tales of mothers who believing that their children have been whisked away by the Benith y Mamau (the mothers blessings) attempt to bake using only eggshells again to trick the changeling into revealing themselves and the prolific folklorist Evan Wentz retells a number of Breton tales where water is boiled in shells roasting before the fire thus causing a faery to cry out, ‘I have seen the acorn before the oak; I have seen the egg before the chicken: I have never seen the equal to this.’*

There are literally dozens of tales with variations on this same egg theme, and the words the faery speaks are so similar that when I discovered it I felt it necessary to do some digging to try and find the source. I’ve found all sort of suggestions to the origins of the eggshell theory, some think that the original source is the 16th century writer Reginald Scot who explained that this connection to the Fae is because both Faeries and Witches can, “saile in an egge shell, a cockle or muscle shell, through and under the tempestuous seas.”

Wirt Sykes* another welsh folklorist claimed that he could trace the origins of the egg shell story back to 7th Century Gaul, however the general use of eggshells in magic can be traced even further still. In the 1st century C.E. the Roman historian Pliny waxed lyrical about the medicinal and magical properties of eggs stating that people would immediately break or pierce the shells of eggs with a spoon after eating them to ward off evil spells. Eggshells were also part of “demon traps” found in middle eastern countries to disarm unwanted spirits, and sometimes, whole eggs were placed at the threshold to appease the threshold guardians specifically Hekate, who unsurprisingly is linked very closely with the Fae.

This practise is old, old, old and whichever way you look at it eggshells are faery kryptonite.

So why wouldn’t we use this resource in our regular ritual practises? It’s very simple, wash your shells out and peel out the membrane whilst they are still ‘moist’ and then either bake them and grind them to create brown cascarillia or just let them dry and grind them to make white. I’ve yet to find a definite answer as to why you would use one type over another but as so many of the traditional tales involve cooking with, roasting or heating eggshells as part of the banishing ritual I tend to make the brown kind. The uses are endless bathe in it to cleanse yourself of any unwanted influences from the spirit realm (including rude Fae), place it along your doors and window sills to keep the grobblies out of your home and even place it around your boundaries on your property to aid in your magical shielding. It doesn’t hurt to carry a little sachet of it in your witchy napsack when your out hunting fae either.

Finally I am always up for a good chant when I do this kind of work, and Wirt Sykes very cleverly worked out that the Welsh and the Breton of the words that the Fae speak when they are outed makes a very pleasing rhyme.

‘I have seen the acorn before I saw the oak: I have seen the egg before I saw the white hen: I have never seen the like of this.’

‘Gweliz mez ken gwelet derven,

Gweliz vi ken gwelet iar wenn,

Erioez ne wiliz evelhenn’

Let’s face it the Welsh is way cooler and sounds nice and arcane, really adds to the ambience.

*Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (Walter Yeeling), 1878-1965. The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries (pp. 127-128). HardPress Publishing. Kindle Edition.

* Wirt Sikes. British Goblins: Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (p. 54). Organization. Kindle Edition.

And So the Wheel of Hekate slowly turns

Hekate: A Devotional

And in the absence of facts…..Modern Festivals to Hekate

4 Replies

If there is one subject that is guaranteed to get some folks hot under the collar it has to be the trend of celebrating thoroughly modern and historically inaccurate festivals. It is a practise that until just a few years ago I disagreed with quite vehemently. Looking back now it is fair to say that in the early days of writing Temple of Hekate I felt that it was very important that people understood how the ancient Attic calendar really worked and wrote upon it at some length. Although those pages didn’t make the editorial cuts I felt strongly enough about it that at a later date I posted a blog entry so the details were available for all to see. This opinion hasn’t been a passing fad either, but as I stated when I discussed the Deipnon way back in 2009 and is worthy of repeating, I am not a reconstructionist, far from it. But I was and still am very heavily invested in debunking some of the more common “myths” that I had stumbled over myself in my early days of research and practise, so I tended to shy away from the modern, the unverified, and the inaccurate.

I’ve done some perspective changing since that time, quite surprisingly so. I think the first inkling of the change was when we realised that Her Sacred Fires was here to stay. Now hurtling towards its 7th anniversary and showing no signs of slowing down we appear to have created a thoroughly modern festival enjoyed by thousands. And this isn’t the only one. August the 13th is another, a modern date fixed as the result of a mis-understanding of how the Attic calendar worked, but it has grown and swollen and truly become a thing, a world-wide thing. A thing that people can get behind, work together with, create and share and laugh and love. How can this thing be bad?

Furthermore we have literally just celebrated Hekate’s Day on the 16th of November in The Sanctuary of Hekate Enodia. When Mima, my friend and CoH Torchbearer who co-runs the Sanctuary with me suggested we do something to mark the date I nearly fell off my chair. This festival doesn’t even have the dubious honour of being a festival that once existed and got dumped into a modern calendar. This festival has, as far as I am aware, no historical precedence whatsoever. In fact it is the epitome of everything I hate about modern practise, a new thing pretending to be something old. And then it hit me, it’s not the celebration that I hate, in fact I love a good excuse for our Sanctuary to come together and do work. It is the belief that it dates back to some long ago historical practise that fills me with dread.

So we put up some information regarding the provenance of the festival and ahead we went. And all I can say was that the connection between some of the group was quite startling. We were all working remotely but the imagery shared was so similar. So similar that I had to feel that we were getting nothing less than a resounding stamp of approval for our actions and the work and effort we have all been putting in recently. We certainly shall be celebrating this date again, along with Her Sacred Fires and August 13th (which traditionally is the Roman festival Nemoralia and the ill dated Festival of Kourotrophos, Artemis and Hekate – which should actually be celebrated on 16 Metageitnion but let’s not split hairs). At the end of the day the religion of the Greeks and Romans and many others was fluid, it grew and changed and was subject to regional variations. Somethings were adopted, others allowed to pass into memory only, some lost to the ages. If we fail to recognise that then we fall into dogma and fundamentalism. An ethos I decided I did not agree with a long long time ago.

So we shall celebrate these rites, knowing their true nature we shall perform them anyway. We shall lift our heads proudly and say, we created this in honour of the Goddess Hekate, we honour you just as our ancestors did but in times and climes appropriate to us.

En Erebos Phos!