Hekate: A Devotional

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

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!

Wait for the Bright Constellation of the Bear to Decline

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I have spent the last few days immersing myself in the folklore and magic of Brittany. My main intention was to visit some sites renowned for their Fairy lore and others for their Arthurian connections. Both are topics I am currently writing about for various projects and I often find that visiting a place connected with my work can spur my imagination and get my creative juices flowing, and it has certainly been the case with this visit, but not always in the way that I have imagined.

Today I took the time to visit the Tumulus of Kercado. A tumulus is a burial or ceremonial mound normally of the megalithic or Neolithic period which has maintained its earth work, where as a Dolmen is normally the menhirs (standing stones) and table-stone covering it without the earthwork which would have originally covered it. The Tumulus of Kercado according to the leaflet I procured at the gate is dated to around 4500BCE and is considered to be one of the most complete of its kind, and although it isn’t as big or impressive as the Tumulus of St Michel which I visited yesterday, it actually had a stronger atmosphere, possibly this could be attributed to not having a ruddy great Christian Chapel built on the top of it.

But I digress.

Carved upon the roof of the table-stone, inside the chamber is a “double headed axe” a symbol quite common both in the Megalithic monuments of Brittany and else where in the world. Some scholars have argued quite persuasively that these Axe engravings were a method of stellar and solar time keeping which automatically got me thinking of Hekate. Firstly her connection to the stars through her mother Asteria. But more importantly her potential connection with the Snake Priestess. In Minoan myth, Priestesses were said to carry into ritual the Labrys, another form of double headed Axe.

Whilst there is no proof that the Minoan Snake Goddesses statues dating from 1600BCE and found on Knossos during excavations in the early 20th Century, were either images of Priestesses of Hekate, or even Hekate herself, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that leads many (myself included) to believe there is a connection of some form. One of our most famous descriptions of Hekate comes from Apollonius of Rhodes who claimed that when Jason called upon Hekate Brimo she arrived “garlanded by fearsome snakes that coiled themselves round twigs of oak; the twinkle of a thousand torches lit the scene; and hounds of the underworld barked shrilly all around her”. And her connection with snakes continues for some of the infamous lead/curse tablets found around ancient temples call upon Hekate who is depicted upon the lead strip with snakes. And Medea who depending upon the myth being told was either a Priestess of Hekate or possibly even a Granddaughter had the ability to charm the snakes, and called them forth to aid her in her creation of poisons and also as offerings to the Goddess herself.

But what is very curious about the quote by Apollonius is that he claims that Jason has to wait until for the “bright constellation of the Bear to decline, and then, when all the air from heaven to earth was still” before he could perform his rite to Hekate. Which leads me back to where I started, the Double Axe in Kercado is believed by some to be a form of Astrolabe, circling around Polaris just as the great Bear constellation does. This carvings dimensions allow for calculation of the Equinoxes, the Solstices, as well as moonrise and sunrise. How clever is that, now I wonder is this why the Minoan Priestesses were carrying Labrys’ too? Would it be amazing if we could prove that?!

Though Jove loved Asterie, daughter of a Titan, she scorned him.

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We know considerably more about Asteria than her partner Perses, the most common recurring story being that she is the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Pheobe, the wife of Perses, mother of Hekate and the Goddess of Oracles, dream incubation, and the night sky. Her name meaning starry or falling star is quite possibly a homage to her father who was considered the axis of the Heavens around which the constellations revolved. Whilst her mother was the Goddess who presided over the axis of earth and was considered a Goddess of Oracles, being the last female divinity to preside over Delphi before she passed it onto Apollon.

Although Asteria was the wife of Perses, her love life is not one that ran smooth, and as such I would never consider asking her for help with relationship issues. Except maybe in the case of fleeing an inappropriate or abusive relationship or to get rid of predatory sexual advances. The reason for this being that after the Titanic war she was pursued by Zeus who was positively infatuated with her; although he was a bit of a Lothario so this wasn’t uncommon behaviour. Anyway, Asteria refused his advances and a good old chase scene ensued with Asteria choosing to take the form of a Quail to escape the Gods advances. Finally in desperation she threw herself into the sea where she transformed into the Island that became known as Delos.

But things weren’t over yet, for years the Island of Delos was said to float around the Aegean with no fixed location, the reason for this being that whilst Zeus gave up the hunt, his brother Poseidon took up the chase also becoming completely infatuated with the beleaguered Goddess. The Island is said to have finally rested in its current location when the Goddess allowed a Temple to Apollon to be built upon her shores.

There is no Orphic Hymn dedicated to Asteria that I know of, but an adaptation of the hymn “To the Stars” would be a very appropriate invocation when calling upon the goddess to honour her or to aid you in prophecy.

TO ASTERIA

With holy voice, I call to thee, oh starry one on high

Pure sacred light and Goddess of the Night

Celestial Star, progeny of Earth and Sky

In silver ribbons beaming far your light

Brilliant rays around the heaven ye throw

Eternal Fires, the source of all below

With flames significant of Fate ye shine

And aptly rule for men a path divine.

Hail, glittering, joyful, silver streaking fires!

Propitious shine on all my just desires,

These sacred rites regard with conscious rays

And aid our word devoted to your praise.

And Perses who was preeminent among all men in wisdom!

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Following on from yesterday’s post, it is only logical to now spend some time getting to know Perses. This isn’t easy because he’s a bit of an enigmatic character, even the fabulous resource Theoi is a little light on information. And I think this is why some people shy away from him. I have heard people argue that he should never be invoked under any circumstance, but why should that be?

I suspect mostly this is because he is an unknown quantity, and those who are perhaps a little faint of heart are put off by his epithet “The Destroyer”. But I would argue that this very title alone is why we should be calling upon him alongside Hekate in many of our rituals, but more of that shortly.

So what do we know about him? Well we know that he is one of three children born to the Titans Krios and Eurybia. He married the Goddess Asteria and his only child is the Goddess Hekate. We know that some considered that he presided over the constellation Perseus (although others associated him with the Dog Star Sirius). He is often thought of as a God of war, presiding over the start of the campaign season, and he was known as The Destroyer, his name possibly stemming from a root word which means to lay waste.

And yet according to Hesiod he was also known as being preeminent among all men in wisdom, what a contradiction! A bit like his wonderfully complicated offspring. What is it they say? Like father like daughter!

So here we have a Titanic God, father of the Goddess Hekate, and he is wise, and he is a warrior and he is capable of destroying and laying waste to all around him, I can think of a whole host of reasons why I would want to invoke him, not least because, you know, he’s Hekate’s dad and it might be nice to just say thanks for making such a cool daughter. Anyway here are a few ideas:

Cursing and Retribution*
Removal of Blockages
Aid in overcoming addictions and/or bad habits
Guidance in difficult situations
Clarity in quarrels or confrontational situations
Aid in making fair assessments and judgements
Help in healing and getting rid of serious illness*

*Disclaimer 1 – Yes I am aware there is the rule of three, and karma and a whole host of other very good reasons why we shouldn’t curse, not least that we are supposed to be evolved human beings. But the ancient world was full of defixiones (curse tablets), petitions for retribution and binding spells, it was a recognised practise and one quite regularly associated with his daughter. Morals were different then and actually the moral compass for some still sees retribution as a valid path now. So why wouldn’t we want to call on a God called the Destroyer, sort of makes sense if you’re that way inclined doesn’t it?

*Disclaimer 2 – Petitioning Gods and Goddess for help in healing is no substitute for consulting a fully qualified medical professional. It should be considered as a complement rather than an alternative to modern medical techniques. You must also be very careful about wording of these petitions, the universe has a wickedly twisted sense of humour, if you ask for help healing a cancer in your hand, be very careful to ask that your limbs stay intact and with full recovery to rude health, you really don’t want to get cured by having an amputation now do you? And this is another reason why people possibly shy away, it doesn’t do to be slap dash in situations like this.