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.
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.
Where Three Roads Meet... 