Not a big rambling blog today, instead Ive added a new page to the site, this is a review of the most excellent book Hekate Soteira by Sarah Iles Johnson, to read it you can either follow this link or click on the link in the menu on the left hand side. I do hope you enjoy.
Tag Archives: Hekate
Deipna Hekate 30 Posiedion
Fire Fire Burning Bright
Fire casts a shadowed light
Take the torch and light the way
Carry it til Dawn each day
For I cannot abide those who will not carry the light given to them
It is not a gift given lightly and never to one who cannot bear the weight of fire.
(recieved 20:15-20:37 16th December 2009)
How to invoke Hekate
I have a new toy, Ive been playing with Google Analytics for a while and one of the nice things you can do is actually see how people came across your site or blog; one that has come up a number of times recently is “How to Call on Hekate”.
What a very valid question and one that I hadn’t ever considered writing about. I suppose firstly because my normal knee jerk ornery response would be, well how long is a peice of string? In fact I think that actually was my first thought when I read those keywords, but on contemplation, I remember being absolutely flummoxed back in the day, I had read the Pagan/Witch/Magick 101 primers and moved on, to, well the likes of Crowley and the Haute Magick crew. I remember crying hot tears of anger and frustration because I wanted to work with a deity but really it isn’t that obvious “how” it actually happens, and there is sufficent enough material out there with conflicting views that there seemed to be no definitive answer, all I wanted was somebody to show me, just once, in practise how they did it.
And then there was the whole evokation and invocation malarky, I didn’t really want to invoke anything but when you read the Wicca-esque 101 primers it is invoke this and invoke that, evokation it seems doesn’t get a look in. But I did know that I didn’t want a possession, I wanted a conversation. Firstly I was lucky to happen across a copy of Franz Bardons “The Practise of Magical Evocation”, which I thoroughly recommend, especially if your into bells, smells, pomp and circumstance and then I eventually found somebody who showed me the whys and the wherefores and was very careful to make sure that I didn’t take thier (or anybody elses) way as some form of dogmatic scripture. And from then I was encouraged to develop my own practise.
Obviously I cannot “show” you how with the written word, as I came to realise after the fact, this is why so many traditions are called mystery traditions, because it can’t be written down only experienced, but also my cynical side sometimes wonders if some self professed initiates of these traditions haven’t got a clue either, its as much a mystery to them as it is to everybody else. In truth when calling Hekate, the only thing you really need is an open mind and an open heart, but I know that statement in its own right is of no help to anybody who is reading this post with interest. So I would suggest you start simply, use something that has been tried and tested, after all, why re-invent the wheel, if your like me, you will be happy to admit that flowery words are not your strong point and best left to mystics and poets.
So I would suggest you find yourself a quiet place, a circle if you feel you need it, although who are you protecting yourself from? A special place, a three way crossroad, a deserted beach, hell the bottom of your garden, as long as it is somewhere where you aren’t going to be disturbed. Don’t listen to this anywhere your going to be “comfortable” clap trap I keep hearing cited though, it doesn’t matter where you choose, it could be your most favourite “happy” place in the world but the first time you do this you are going to be far from “comfortable”, your heart is going to be in your throat, pounding, possibly sweating and shaking, your tummy giving it large like a scene from a bad alien movie.
So there you are knees knocking, possibly slightly crouching at the bottom of your garden so the neighbours can’t see you over the fence, you can guarantee your garden will have suddenly become infested with midges, or slugs, or the latest “in place” for the neighbourhood cats, or as I discovered the first time I did a specific operation with a new entity, of intense interest to the Police Helicopter, no seriously there is nothing so off putting as a big bugger off flood light suddenly lighting up your nocturnal doings. Anyway, so there you are, hopefully by this point youve actually giggled at the ridiculousness of the whole situation and some of the discomfort has passed as a result.
If it hasn’t then you really do need to lighten up just a wee bit. So what do you say, well how about using the Prayer for Selene for any spell from the Greek Magical Papyri:
“Come to me, O Beloved Mistress, Three-faced
Selene; kindly hear my Sacred Chants;
Night’s Ornament, young, bringing Light to Mortals,
O Child of Morn who ride upon the Fierce Bulls,
O Queen who drive Your Car on Equal Course
With Helios, who with the Triple Forms
Of Triple Graces dance in Revel with
The Stars. You’re Justice and the Moira’s Threads:
Klotho and Lachesis and Atropos
Three-headed, You’re Persephone, Megaira,
Allekto, Many-Formed, who arm Your Hands
With Dreaded, Murky Lamps, who shake Your Locks
Of fearful Serpents on Your Brow, who sound
The Roar of Bulls out from Your Mouths, whose Womb
Is decked out with the Scales of Creeping Things,
With Pois’nous Rows of Serpents down the Back,
Bound down Your Backs with Horrifying Chains
Night-Crier, Bull-faced, loving Solitude,
Bull-headed, You have Eyes of Bulls, the Voice
Of Dogs; You hide Your Forms in Shanks of Lions,
Your Ankle is Wolf-shaped, Fierce Dogs are dear
To You, wherefore they call You Hekate,
Many-named, Mene, cleaving Air just like
Dart-shooter Artemis, Persephone,
Shooter of Deer, night shining, triple-sounding,
Triple-headed, triple-voiced Selene
Triple-pointed, triple-faced, triple-necked,
And Goddess of the Triple Ways, who hold
Untiring Flaming Fire in Triple Baskets,
And You who oft frequent the Triple Way
And rule the Triple Decades, unto me
Who’m calling You be gracious and with Kindness
Give Heed, You who protect the Spacious World
At night, before whom Daimons quake in Fear
And Gods Immortal tremble, Goddess who
Exalt Men, You of Many Names, who bear
Fair Offspring, Bull-eyed, Horned, Mother of Gods
And Men, and Nature, Mother of All Things,
For You frequent Olympos, and the broad
And boundless Chasm You traverse. Beginning
And End are You, and You Alone rule All.
For All Things are from You, and in You do
All Things, Eternal One, come to their End.
As Everlasting Band around Your Temples
You wear Great Kronos’ Chains, unbreakable
And unremovable, and You hold in
Your Hands a Golden Scepter. Letters ’round
Your Scepter Kronos wrote Himself and gave
To You to wear that All Things stay steadfast:
Subduer and subdued, Mankind’s Subduer,
And Force-subduer; Chaos, too, You rule.
Hail, Goddess, and attend Your Epithets,
I burn for You this Spice, O Child of Zeus,
Dart-shooter, Heav’nly One, Goddess of Harbors,
Who roam the Mountains, Goddess of Crossroads,
O Nether and Nocturnal, and Infernal,
Goddess of Dark, Quiet and Frightful One,
O You who have Your Meal amid the Graves,
Night, Darkness, Broad Chaos: Necessity
Hard to escape are You; You’re Moira and
Erinys, Torment, Justice and Destroyer,
And You keep Kerberos in Chains, with Scales
Of Serpents are You dark, O You with Hair
Of Serpents, Serpent-girded, who drink Blood,
Who bring Death and Destruction, and who feast
On Hearts, Flesh Eater, who devour Those Dead
Untimely, and You who make Grief resound
And spread Madness, come to my Sacrifices,
And now for me do You fulfill this Matter.”
~Online Source
And the rest, well perhaps you can write to me and share your experiences of what comes next because honestly it can be as simple as that, enjoy.
Disclaimer: Any persons attempting to perform the operation described below, do so at thier own risk; the author of this site does not and will not accept any responsibility for the outcome of this operation. You’re bigs boys and girls folks, I shouldn’t have to post this up, you wouldn’t jump off a cliff if I told you to, now would you?
Greek Temple Architecture
Not living in Greece and never having had the priviledge of visiting (although I am hoping to rectify that in the very near future), my primary concern with ancient sites has been pretty much academic, what statuary was found there, what steles or archeological artifacts have been found in the environs, that may or may not support the work that I do with Hekate, that might enrich my personal practises. I will be honest it had never occured to me to consider the possible astronomical orientation of the major temples. But I came across this interesting article online this morning and I thought it was worth linking to it especially as the Temple of Hekate in Sicily gets a specific mention.
Dr Salt found that 40 of 41 temples that he analysed in Sicily were oriented towards the eastern horizon. A statistical analysis all but eliminated the possibility that this was due to chance. The sole exception was the Temple of Hekate, which he suggests may have been built to honour a Moon goddess.
~Times Online
You can find the full article Here
Did you know?
I own 6 tarot decks, no neither did I, until I took the time to root them out and count them up and that isn’t including the 3 blank decks I found still in the cellophane wrapping their original purpose now lost in the mists of time. I also have the pencil sketches of the Major Arcana for a deck of my own based upon the Guardians and Tresures of Britain. Not bad for somebody who doesn’t read cards…or should that be didn’t read cards….or maybe it should be somebody that didn’t fess up to reading the cards.
The problem was that I was never trained and I could not in all honesty say I was self taught because my very first deck (which actually is no longer with me but in better hands – Im a bit absive with my decks, ask me to do a “chaos” spread for you one day if we ever meet) was the Rider Waite and an accompanying “Idiots Guide” style book, I hated it, hated it with a passion, so I gave it away. But I did read, at one point fairly often, but it was intuitively, I knew nothing of the traditional symbology or so I thought. So when people asked me if I would give them a reading (because all occultists know the cards don’t they?) I would change the subject, get a very bad cough, or suddenly be unable to find my deck. Hmm maybe that is why I have so many decks, I kept hiding them in safe places so I accidently on purpose couldn’t find them, and then I really couldn’t.
Anyway I’m getting of track a bit, where was I, Oh yes, I would have been very happily preserving this little charade until a couple of acts of syncronicity occured. Yup, damn that syncronicity, I tell you when the revolution comes it will be the first up against the wall and shot, my life will then be so much easier. Firstly I had quite an indepth discussion with a fellow student of the mysteries regarding oracular aspects of working with Hekate. And secondly I discovered that a very well respected and talented teacher of the Tarot was running a weekend long workshop at a local MBS store. I still don’t really know what possessed me to book myself on the course, as lovely and clever and talented as they are, I normally find that, although in theory the MBS crowd and occultists should have a common ground, in reality, whilst they may only be standing 5 ft appart, there is a great yawning, gaping, abyss that separates them; as a result the idea of spending a weekend in such company would normally send me screaming down the high street tearing my hair and renting my clothes with much gnashing of teeth and beating of breast.
Well, I was pleasantly surprised, firstly it is possible that there may be validity in the statement that all occultists know the cards, it appears my years of scribbling, underling, highlighting and general wanton destruction of my copy of 777 for various “doings” may have paid off, because it turns out I had a bloody good idea of what was actually going on in the cards from a traditional point of view, secondly I have been asked by the owner of the shop to put together some talks and she was specifically interested in me facilitating a weekend Hekate workshop. Now I initially balked at the idea, she basicially inferred that I was going to have to “Goddess” it up a bit, not really my style, but apparently who am I to judge because every time I think about it this song pops into my head U2 – Mysterious Ways Click on the Link and really listen to the lyrics, go on I dare you, because if that isn’t an Oracular message, then I’m the irrepresible spirit of Monkey!