Tales from the Sanctuary-Rite Of Her Sacred Fires

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.

 

 

 

Advertisement

Creating a Hekateion- a devotional project, donations are welcome

In antiquity Hekate Hekate was often depicted as Hekateion.

Three beautiful maidens depicted around a central pillar.

These figures were quite popular and the Hekateia had several symbols in the hands of the Goddess. Torches, Oinochoe (libation pitcher), Phiale (libation bowl), fruit and dogs to the feet of the Goddess. In roman time keys, serpents, crescent moon, dagger and whip were added as well.

I organise open rituals for Hekate since some years and opened a COH Sanctuary this year in which open group rituals in honour of Hekate are celebrated.

During trance work and meditations I often felt that Hekate wants a statue where she is depicted with Oinochoe and Phiale, for the sanctuary rituals.

But so far the modern statues that are sold don’t depict her with these ancient symbols.

Today I was able to get a very beautiful roman statue that wears an Oinochoe and a Phiale

(I think the statue depicts a nymph).

The statue is quite large (over one meter) and today i was meditating about how to colour this statue as a representation of Hekate.

During this meditation it got quite clear that she wants a Hekateion. So I will buy two of these statues again (so that I have three identical statues) and a fitting Greek Polos (pillar). And will create a Hekateion for the sanctuary room, Thie Hekateion will be used in the group rituals, when it is finished.

The statues will be hand painted by an quite talented local artist and other elements will be added to the Hekateion, for example jewellery, burning torches (oil lamps in torch form),

serpents, dog statues to the feet of the Goddess.

And the statue will be ensouled in a ritual.

At the moment I still need around 300 Euro- for the project and will begin to save money for it.

In antiquity statues, shrines and temples were often erected through donations.

Donations are very welcome for this project. And can be given via paybal with my e-mailadress:

florian-schlie@gmx.net

Consecration and opening of the CoH Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia

In the last weeks it was quite silent here on my blog. This was because i was quite busy in the last weeks. I prepared to consecrate a CoH Sanctuary and had a lot of other spiritual and every-day life stuff to handle too.

I consecrated the Sanctuary of Hekate Pasikrateia on the 21st March. With the CoH instructions for this consecration rite. On the pics you can see the altar from the Coh rite.  On the first pic the statue of Hekate is still veiled. When the rite began. The second pic shows the altar after the rite.

On the 22nd March some friends and guests were invited into our home and we celebrated the opening of the Sanctuary with a small feast. In the evening we had a rite in the temple room to honour Hekate and to connect us with her during the rite. We honoured Demeter and Persephone too and celebrated the journey of Persephone back from the underworld to the earth. We did some trance work in which i re-told the story of Persephones abduction through the God Hades and about the roles of Hekate in this myths- i guided the guests of the ritual through a trance yourney to experience the returning of Persephone back from the realms of Hades. And to experience Hekate as guide on this journey. At the same time the trance experience was weaved to the symbolism to bring each guest now back from their personal underworld- to be renewed, cleansed from the past, healed and to be reborn into all things new. We did some knot magic and put the cords that we used for this into a small Philadelphus coronarius tree (these treese get flowers that smell like jasmine- and more so during the night) and i will plant this tree on the crossroad near the crossroad shrine. I think all guests enjoyed the feast and the ritual. I look forward to more events like this in the near future.

Herbs and experiments with Godforms…

On the weekend I was busy to fill some of my dried herbs into big jars. I harvested a lot of herbs in my witch-garden and dried them in the temple room. I separated the leaves from the stems and filled the the leaves of green mints, spearmint, lemon balm and lemon verbena into the jars. I created a powder from the stems of the mints- that I will use as incense and for herbal powders. From some stems of the lemon verbena and the mints I created smudge sticks. Usual I create these from fresh herbs and let them than dry as bundle- it is an experiment if it will work to burn the stems of the herbs as smudge sticks, too.

I blessed the powder and the smudge sticks on my Hekate-Shrine in the temple room.

 

During the weekend I was quite busy in the temple room. I worked every day on the goal to recharge the temple room again with energy and to ground Hekates power in the room. I have used techniques from ceremonial magick (some of these had their roots in the greco-roman magic of late antiquity). In the last years I used more techniques and symbolism from the Traditional Witchcraft background in my personal practice (and will keep using them when it is about witchcraft). So it was an alternation to switch back to this stuff for me. For me the techniques from the ceremonial magick work better for me personal to create a permanent sacred space. The techniques from the Traditional Witchcraft background work for me more to open a door into the underworld and to bring the witch nearer to this realm. I was surprised that the ceremonial stuff worked still so well after so many years where I rarely used them and drew my personal practice from quite different practices and symbolism. But it felt not really like I broke with this stuff, when I used it now again. But I have to say that I don’t use the Christian-jewisch elements of ceremonial magick (like calling on angels or using names of Yahweh). Instead I change those stuff and use symbolism that is drawn from Hekate (and I did this in the past, too). But today it was much easier, because I know more of the Theurgy and magic of late antiquity (where she was quite important).

 

On this blog I read a very interesting article about the creating of Godforms. This practice was not new to me and I used mental pictures of Gods in my work with Gods and spirits. But I never tried to nourish these mental pictures with energy to make them more physical when it is about my working with Gods (when it is about spirit work, this came into being natural). In my personal practice I invoked the presence of Hekate into her statue(s) or into the room (or circle) in general. The article of the author spoke to me and I tried out her method to create Godforms.

Instead of using the Greek vocals I chanted the Ephesian Letters (Askei Kataskei Lix Tetrax, Damnameneus Aisia) again and again and nourished the mental picture of Hekate with the energy I raised through that. With the goal in mind to bring the mental image of Hekate into the etheric/astral realm and make it more physical. I didn’t had high expectations, but in the smoke of the incense I was able to see the shape of the Goddess- like a mirage in the room and I was able to feel her presence strong in the room.

I will continue to work with this method and will see how it will evolve in future.