We celebrated the Rite Of Her Sacred Fires with 5 devotees, outside during a thunderstorm. The air was filled with power an the Goddess spoke through her oracular Priestess. The most important message that we remembered was: Never forget- you are the ritual.
Here are some pictures of my witches garden, herbs for healing and witchcraft, a witches ladder and the altar of Hekate.
Last year i moved into the house of my partner and in spring i started to create my garden in the old orchard. In Walpurgisnight i had a beautiful celebration with some other witches in the garden, with candle magic, knot spells, drumms and a lot of laughter in the night in company with the spirits and Gods….
Now in february you can join the devotional month of purification for the third time and ask Hekate to clean you and give you new energy.
I designed the ritual 2016 for my COH sanctuary to give people all over the world the possibility to join one of the projects of my sanctuary no matter where you live.
You can read more about the ritual here:
https://archetypicalwitchcraft.wordpress.com/devotional-month-of-purification/
And you can find here a Facebook page where you can share your experiences, your altar pictures, your questions etc.:
Three years ago I started to create a modern Hekateion, you can see the different stages of this project in these articles: creating a Hekateion part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
Some weeks after I started this project my life began to change a lot and this change continued until this year (divorce can turn the life really upside down) and the process to finish my Hekateion came to rest through all the change in my life. But the statues were used in my private rituals with and for Hekate and in the group rituals of the Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia. After the rite of her sacred fires in Mai 2017 a rush of creativity began to flow through me again and I began to continue to work on the Hekateion and two weeks ago I finished the project.
The statues are now housed in the temple room in my new home and they are completely coloured (the statues of Deities were usually painted and not white as many imagine it today), they are filled with special herbs, stones, snake skin, dog hair, gemstones, sacred objects and oil lamps burn on the round altar when the Hekateion is in use. The statues are coloured in Hekates sacred colours (black, red and white), serpents coil around the shoulders of her, I changed the bowl into a torch (and it is possible to remove the clay flames and burn tea lights or ethanol fires in the bowl that is now the top of the torch), sacred tools of Hekate are on the altar (like the whip, knives, pomegranates, Oinochoe and magical tools as well that i use in my hekatean witchcraft and magic, a statue of Anubis in dog/jackal form is on the altar (for her connection to dogs and the underworld), bowls with incense, water and seeds are around the statues to symbolise her influence over earth, sea and sky, three skulls are on the altar as well, these are filled with dirt from graves and of course offerings are arranged on the altar as well. The pole is coloured in dark violet and is sprinkled with gold colour, to symbolise the night sky and the Axis Mundi and on top of the pole is the statue that I used as sanctuary image, when I opened the Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia several years ago.
The Hekateion is in the centre of my temple room, where i store my herbs, incense, tinctures, oils and the tools for herbal magic and in this room i work most of my magic (when i work indoors) and my devotional rites for Hekate and in the meetings of the Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia the Hekateion is the focal point of the rituals and devotees can spend time near the Hekateion on their own as well to meditate or dwell in her presence.
Last year i have written this ritual and it addresses the Goddess Hekate in her aspekt as Soteira (saviour) and has the goal to cleanse, bless and empower you. You can join this rite during the whole month of february and celebrate this rite in your home.
You will find the rite in english here:
You can also add comments here on this article.
I welcome you to join the rite and the devotional month of purification.
Some months ago I had to leave my house (through my divorce) and moved from my village into a small town (30 km away from my old village). Through my move into the new area, I had to leave behind my crossroad shrine. I cared for this shrine for several years and the crossroad was on a very special place. The hill on which I created the shrine was on an old Germanic cult place and after Christianisation this place was used as gallows hill until the 19th century. You can see a picture of this shrine as first picture in this article.
In my house I had a separated ritual room, which I used for the group ceremonies of the Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia, now I live in a 2 room flat. And to organise open group rituals in this flat is a challenge. So I searched for a place in which I could organise the sanctuary rituals outdoors.
I did long walks in my area and explored the forests and hills, the nature here is beautiful and the forests are deep, but I have not found a place that really draw me to erect there a ritual place. The same was true for the crossroads. Crossroads are everywhere and I looked for a crossroad that I could use for my Deipnon practices. Over the years I preferred crossroads that were outside of the villages I lived. When I began to honour Hekate as teenager, I began to use a small crossroad outside of the village on a small hill; the crossroad was nothing special, just a Y shaped intersection. But I felt the presence of Hekate there strongly and got signs on this place after I gave her offerings and did rituals on this place. I used this crossroad until I was 26 (and began to use it when I was 14 years old) so I used this spot for a long time. When my ex-husband and I bought our house in another village I had to leave this crossroad and found the crossroad that I spoke about already. I used this crossroad for 6 years and on this crossroad I felt Hekate much stronger than on the other crossroad. It felt like Hekate inhabited the complete hill and that the spirits were all around me, watching me and consuming the energy of the offerings. The hill felt alive and full of spirits and entities and after the rites I often heard dogs barking down in the village or owls screaming in the night.
Here in my new area I used several crossroads for my Hekate worship and the Deipnon practices in the last months. But no crossroad spoke to me, no signs, no barking of dogs in the night, no feeling of Hekate inhabiting the crossroad- everything felt disconnected for me. So as I have said crossroads are everywhere, but are not all crossroads the same? Are some crossroads more special than other ones? Or am I just petted that I had used this very special crossroads for so many years that normal crossroads are nothing special anymore? I don´t know. So I began to leave the offerings of my rites on the local cemetery and here I felt more connection again and felt the spirits around me interacting with the offerings again- this completely was missing on the crossroads that I used here in my rites.
Some weeks ago I found a hill in my area, called the Heiliger Berg (holy hill) and I explored this hill. There is a pagan ring wall and the remains of an old church (build in the 10th century and it was given up in the 17th century). I went several times to this hill, did walks through the woods and gave offerings to the nymphs and local spirits of the place. Through coincidence I found a very beautiful old quarry while I walked with my partner and my dogs through the forest. This place feels like a forsaken old temple, overgrown with honeysuckle, that builds a natural roof over the quarry. In the quarry there was already a stone pile that looked like an altar.
On the winter solstice I celebrated a ritual for Hekate in this place and used the stone pile as altar for her, when I gave her honey as offering, crows all around me began to scream and wind blew through the quarry that was wind still before. I plan to build a shrine for Hekate in this place and my partner already helped me to set up a huge rock and I will add more stones around this rock on my coming visits. I will use this place for the rituals of the Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia and will start to organise open seasonal rituals throughout the coming year. Maybe a modern grove sanctuary will evolve out of this place with time- like the sacred grove of Hekate in Colchis or her sacred grove on the Avernean Lake at Cumae (the grove where the oracular priestess of Hekate opened the door to Hades for the hero Aeneas).
In Antiquity many Gods and Goddess were worshipped in sacred groves, these were special groves in which shrines and altars of the Deities were present and the cults were celebrated with rites and offerings. Sacred groves were common in ancient Greece, the roman Imperium and also very common as sacred places of the Germanic and Celtic regions. One of the most famous grove sanctuaries was the sacred grove of Diana Nemorensis near Rome. In this sacred grove Diana Trivia was worshipped and Hekate was connected to this place as well (maybe through syncretism). I think in modern paganism it would be a quite good way of worship, to dedicate shrines and altars for Gods and Goddesses and the local nymphs and spirits in the woods and forests, so that new sacred forests will grow and evolve with time. Sure the question is how these shrines and altars will be accepted if the groves are not private property. But I will see how this will evolve with the Hekate shrine in the forests of the Heiligen Berg in my area.
On the full moon in May our beloved Rite Of Her Sacred Fires was celebrated by people all around the world. I had organised an open group ritual in the Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia. It was the first ritual in my new home. In my old home I had the luxury to have a separate room in the house, for the sanctuary. Now in a two room flat- things are quite different. The sanctuary space is now in a room that I use for rituals, magic and as sleeping room as well. So it was a challenge to organise the rite into this room (especially with the fact that we celebrated the rite with 10 people). But everything worked fine.
Some hours before the official meeting begun, I began to prepare the temple room. The room was cleansed with sacred herbs and resins and I blessed the sacred space with the old powers of sea, sky and land. I prepared the Hekateion (the threefold depiction of Hekate around a pillar) and lighted the candle flames around the Hekateion and in the temple room. The statues were blessed with sacred water and I invoked the presence of Hekate into the statues and asked her to ensoul them. Then I gave her sacred water, incense and rose petals as offerings to welcome her. I felt her presence strongly and her divine fires filled the sacred space fuelling the room with her protection, blessings and love, the Goddess got alive in her prepared sanctuary- so her devotees could now arrive.
Devotee after devotee arrived in my home and we sat together on the terrace and talked with each other until the ritual began in the early evening hours. Before the ritual begun, each person had the opportunity to visit the sanctuary on their own. I have put a bowl with spring water and herbs in front of the sanctuary- and each person hat to cleanse themselves before entering the sacred space each one brought an offering for Hekate and put it on the altar, and everyone burned a jasmine incense stick as offering and poured rose petals and sacred water over the altar. And each person was able to spend private time in the sanctuary, for prayers, meditation or to just enjoy the atmosphere in the sacred space. After some time lots of incense sticks burned in a bowl filled with sand and the altar was filled with offerings that each person brought with them garlic, onions, apples, pomegranates and one person brought a beeswax candle that was formed like an owl as offering.
In the early evening the Rite Of Her Sacred Fires was celebrated and during the ritual each person lighted a sacred flame. The ritual was quite moving for me and filled with power and I think each person was able to get in touch with Hekate and her blessings and to get some strength and guidance through her
During this ritual it was the first time, that we used an invocation to give a message from Hekate through an oracular priestess. During the last sanctuary rituals a close friend of me (named Nin) was “used” by Hekate to give messages without any preparations- it just happened spontaneous during the rituals and Hekate spoke through her. In this ritual we decided to prepare an opportunity that Hekate gets her voice in a prepared manner. And it worked very fine. Nin spoke in trance the following message (we had not recorded her words- but the message was reconstructed through passages that different people still knew after the ritual and I have translated it into English):
“I am the creator of life
From the darkness I gave birth to the light
And my light was the first star and he was admired by all who gazed upon him,
Don’t be afraid of the darkness, because the light is created from the darkness.
Without darkness there is no light. Life and death are interwoven, cycles that are repeated again and again,
Follow me into the night and don´t be afraid, because in the night you are protected by my power.
My flames are burning within your hearts, because you are my children, you carry my light into the world; all who have my flames burning within themselves are my children.
You are born from the night into the light and you move back into the night again.”
The Rite of Her Sacred Fires connects people through the whole world with each other. During the last seven years this ritual evolved into a modern festival for Hekate and her sacred fires illuminate the darkness. I personal think every time when a flame is lighted in the darkness we honour Hekate. May you all carry her flames within your hearts and light flames for her in the darkness and I am convinced that her power will give you strength and guidance and her blessings and protection. May her sacred fires illuminate the darkness- and may her torchbearers and key bearers always find one another.
Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia
Devotional month of purification
In many modern magical traditions February is a time for purification. I have designed this rite as devotional ritual that can be performed on a regular basis during February. For example on a daily basis, several times a week or once a week.
In Antiquity Hekate was strongly connected with purification of persons or the household- and in this ritual we will address Hekate in her roles as a Goddess of purification- but also in her aspects as the Goddess who has powers over the spheres of earth, sea and sky and who is the ensouler of the cosmos and the shining great saviour.
You will need:
A devotional shrine to Hekate with a picture, image or statue of the Goddess.
Two candles to illuminate the shrine
One white, red or yellow pillar candle
An apple or pomegranate (as offering)
Three bowls
Garlic, Onion or an egg
Water (if possible source water)
Lavender, basil, rosemary or hyssop
Incense (for this rite with cleansing properties, for example pine resin, sage, lavender, olibanum,sandalwood- you can use smudge sticks for example).
Preparation:
Prepare the devotional shrine for Hekate; the statue/image/picture of the Goddess should be in the background centre of the shrine. Put a candle to the left and right side of the statue/image of the Goddess; put the apple/pomegranate in front of the image of Hekate. Put the white/yellow/ red candle in front of the apple/pomegranate. And arrange the three bowls in a triangle around the candle. Fill one bowl with the spring water and put a little bit of the herb (lavender/hyssop/rosemary/basil) into the water, fill the other bowl with the garlic (or onion/egg) and use the third bowl for the incense (fill it with sand if you use charcoal incense or put the smudge stick into the bowl)
The Rite:
Part 1: Lighting the flames.
Light the two candles that are on the left and right side of the statue/image of Hekate on your shrine. Speak:
“I light these divine flames in the name of the great Goddess Hekate, may her divine fire be present on this shrine, and may her light bring protection and blessings.”
Focus for a moment on the flames see and feel the light that the flames create. Watch the fire. See and feel the atmosphere that the fire creates on your shrine.
Close your eyes take three deep breaths and relax.
Calm down Imagine the stars burning bright above you in the sky (even if it is day- the stars are there).Imagine that their silver light flows down into your body and fills you out. You begin to shine in silver light. Imagine the depths of the earth below you. Imagine a golden shining serpent that crawls up to you. This serpent is pure life source- the serpent is climbing in coils around your body and the life force of the earth fills you out. You begin to glow in a golden light.
Imagine and feel the ouranic fire of the stars and the chthonic serpent power filling you out. Imagine that in your breast a spark begins to shine, the light of this spark gets brighter and brighter until a radiant sun burns within your breast.
Open your eyes and see the shrine before you.
Hold your hands over the shrine and imagine that the ouranic and chthonic powers flow through your hands into the shrine. Imagine that they begin to shine. Speak again and again the Ephesian letters: Askion, Kataskion, Lix, Tetrax, Damnameneus, Aisia.And imagine that a sphere of light surrounds you and your shrine. The shrine is the centre of this sacred sphere. The divine fire of your shrine flames is filling this sphere around you.
If you feel it is enough bring your hand back to your breast. And stop to speak the Ephesian letters.
Part 2: Inviting the Goddess:
Burn some incense and say: “I burn this incense for the great Hekate, may this smell welcome her on this shrine”.
Close your eyes… Relax and imagine a beautiful young maiden. She wears a pure white dress with golden ornaments; on her feet she has golden sandals. Her hair is brown but shines with a light of gold and an aura of light is around the Goddess. On her head she has a shining golden diadem. And a saffron coloured veil is around her shoulders. In her hands she holds long burning torches. Around her neck is a necklace with a gold key.
Imagine that she stands behind your shrine. So that the candles on the shrine burn in front of her.
Raise your hands up to the sky. Begin to whisper again and again- Io Hekate, Io Pasikrateia… whisper this again and again with closed eyes. Imagine the Goddess standing on your shrine while you whisper this again and again. Let your words get louder and louder (or as loud as you are able to speak them in your home) and when you feel it is enough, open your eyes and speak:
“Hekate Pasikrateia- great and powerful Goddess,
heavenly, earthly, underworldly,
Key holding queen of the cosmos,
ensouler of life,
bearer of divine fire,
you who have power over earth, seas and sky,
almighty queen
Be here on this shrine,
and bring your protection, blessings and love!”
Let your hands sink down pointing towards your shrine; touch your shrine with your hands.Open yourself to her presence. Focus on your inner view of Hekate and watch the shrine with your physical eyes (you can speak again and again Io Hekate, Io Pasikrateia- until you feel her presence on her shrine- but that is optional)
Part 3: Offering to the Goddess.
Burn again some incense and take the incense into your hands and let it circle three times over the shrine and let the smoke touch the image of the Goddess. Speak: “I offer you this incense Io Hekate, Io Pasikrateia.”
Put the incense back to the shrine.
Take the apple/pomegranate into your hands, imagine that the apple begin to glow in your hands, shining like gold. And speak:
„ Hekate shining maiden, bringer of light, torch bearing queen
accept these offerings. Be gracious to my rite. “
Put the apple/pomegranate back to the shrine.
Part 4 purification spell:
Pray to Hekate and ask her to help you to clean yourself from all negativity and harmfull influences.
Take the garlic/onion/egg out of the first bowl and hold it in your hands. Imagine that all negative energies flow like a dark energy out of your body, aura and soul into the garlic/onion/egg and that it draws all negative influences out of you. You can focus on specific topics that you want to banish- for example fear, sadness, illness or you can just focus on everything that is negative no matter if you brought it over you yourself- or others (no matter if with intention or not). Let all negativity flow into the garlic/onion/egg and speak again and again: “IO Hekate Io Chtonia”. When you feel it is enough say in your own words that you free yourself from all negative influences in the name of Hekate Chtonia.
Take the water into your hands. Ask Hekate Einalia in your own words to bless the water. To fill it with her love and light. Imagine that Hekate holds her burning torches into the water and the water begins to glow into a wine-red light. Sprinkle the water again and again over yourself and speak again and again: Io Hekate Io Einalia. While you do this imagine that the water cleanses you and the love of the Goddess fills you. When you feel it is enough ask Hekate Einalia to clean you and to bless you and put some water unto your brow and bless yourself in the name of Hekate Einalia.
Now take the incense out of the third bowl and pray to Hekate Ourania to bless and clean you. Smudge yourself with the incense; imagine that you begin to glow and to shine and that all remaining negativity leaves you. Speak again and again:” Io Hekate Io Ourania”. When you feel it is enough smudge yourself a last time with the incense and bless yourself in the name of Hekate Ourania.
Now take the red/yellow/white candle and light it on the flames of the other candles. Hold it in front of you- so that the reflection of it light can reach you. Now ask Hekate Soteira to clean you with her light. Imagine that the Goddess stands with her torches in front of you and she puts her burning torches into your direction, the fire of her torches begin to clean you, to bless you, to heal you and transform you. Imagine that her fires are burning within you and you are shining like a bright star in the darkness- blessed by her burning torches. While you imagine that speak again and again: “IO Hekate, Io Megiste, Epiphanestate, Soteira. Let her divine fire transform you. When you feel it is enough open your eyes and look into the fire. Pray to Hekate Soteira and ask her to bless her with her divine fire of love, truth and belief. Imagine again that her fire burns bright within you. Then put the burning candle back to its place. The divine fire of Hekate burns now surrounded by the symbols of earth, sea and sky on your shrine.
Part 6: Thanking and ending the rite.
Now you can meditate, enjoy the presence of Hekate, do divination, play instruments, dance or do other devotional acts to Hekate. Or thank her and close the rite.
Thank her with your own words. Ask her to guide you with her light. To protect you and your home and to bring her blessings into your life.
Imagine that she disappears from the shrine- but a spark of her presence, power and energy stays connected to the statue/image and in the flames on your shrine.
Imagine that the sacred sphere around you begins to fade away; it flows into the flames on your shrine and into your heart.
Touch the ground with your hands and imagine that all energy that is too much flows down into the earth
Notes:
The Epithets that I use in this rite:
The Epithet Pasikrateia means the all-powerful one or the almighty one. The epithet comes from the Greek Magical Papyri. Chtonia, Einalia and Ourania are connected to Hekate´s power over the earth, sea and sky. The Epithets are used in the Theogony of Hesiod and in the Orphic Hymn to Hekate. Megiste means the greatest. Epiphanestate means the most manifest one or the most shining/bright one. Soteira means saviour. These were the main Epithets that were used in the temple of Lagina for Hekate. In this temple Hekate was worshiped as a local form of the Anatolian Great Mother- similar like Kybele or Atremis of Ephesos. Together these Epithets mean the greatest most shining saviour.
Repeating:
You can do this ritual on a daily basis during February or as often as it is possible for you. But the ritual is designed for a regular basis and will build up power and energy with each repeating of the rite.
You have to give Hekate the apple/pomegranate just when you do the rite the first time and can let it stay on the shrine. When it begins to get bad you have to bring it to a crossroad and use a new apple/pomegranate that you have to offer her now again. So you just have to do the offering the first time when you do the ritual or if you have to exchange the offering after some time. Several Hekateia (statues of the three-formed Hekate) had apples or pomegranate in her hands.
The herbs:
Rosemary, lavender, hyssop and basil have a long history as healing herbs. And are still used in folk magic a lot as cleansing herbs.
Garlic, onions and eggs:
These have a long history in purification rites and healing folk magic. You can use for each rite one bulb of garlic or one egg or one onion. Or you can use the same onion/garlic/egg several times until you feel that it is full. Bring the egg/garlic/onion to a crossroad and leave it there. When you leave the crossroad don´t turn back. You can also leave the remainings of the incense on the crossroad. And the water that was used during the rites.
Love, truth and belief:
These were the three virtues of Hekate in the Chaldean Oracles.
Other inspirations:
It would be wise to clean your home during this month of purification- you can use the incense that you have used during the rite. And you can sprinkle the blessed water in all rooms of your home. You can also use eggs/garlic/onions as magnets for negative energies in your home.
Do devotional walks and feel the elements and get in touch with them. For example when you bring the remainings of the ritual to the crossroad. Pray on the crossroad to Hekate Chtonia- geht in touch with the earth and give all negativity to the earth in her name.
Do nightly walks and watch the stars. Imagine that the purificating fire of the stars flows into you and cleans you from all negativity. Pray to Hekate Ourania to clean you with her star-fire.
Visit the sea and clean yourself with the sea water or visit sources and clean yourself with the fresh water that flows from the womb of the underworld. Pray to Hekate Einalia.
While I walked to my crossroad to lay my offerings there down, I noticed that the poplar trees have already their buds. In antiquity poplar was a tree that was connected to the underworld. And the buds have a long history in flying ointments and salves- also as incense for spirit contacts. So I collected the well smelling buds after I left the crossroad on my way back home.
In my mortar and pestle there was still a lot of remaining herbs and essential oil from my incense crafting yesterday. So I filled the mortar with oil, some poplar buds, cypress needles and juniper berries to create a oil blend for Hekate in her aspects as mistress of spirits.
Where Three Roads Meet... 