Creating a Hekateion 2

I have blessed and cleansed the first statue with the power of the three realms, incense (sky), sacred water (sea) and a mixture of herbs (earth). And asked Hekate to bless the statue with her divine fire.

I started to colour the statue and already got the central pillar. First I had in mind to buy a Greek column, but these are quite expensive in the size that I need for the statues. So I decided to use a wood pole and my husband connected it with the table that will be used as the altar, on which the Hekateion will stand soon.

I have created herbal bags that are filled with herbs that are connected to Hekate and with other symbolic objects. I will put these bags into the statues as heart. The statues will be filled with this bag and other items to strengthen the connection to Hekate and they will help to ensoul the statues, or to animate it- how it was called in ancient Theurgy.

I blessed and empowered the bags on my sanctuary shrine and petitioned Hekate to fill these bags with her love, protection and power, that they will strengthen the connection to her, that she sends daimons and spirits to fill these bags as mediators and to animate the bags (and than the statues soon). I have used a recipe from late antiquity as basis. Rue, bay leaves, gum (which was gum arabicum I think, but I used the good smelling ambra gum instead), myrrh, olibanum and in the original recipe the crushed tails of lizards that live near houses. I used snake skin instead. And I added other herbs that are connected to Hekate too and hair of a bag dog, beeswax (because of her connection to honey) and amethysts (I personal connect these with Hekate, I don’t know ancient references for this). The bags will be put into the statues when they are finished.

I cleansed and blessed the altar table and the pole with incense, sacred water and herbs, I gave an offering of honey to the nymph of the tree that was used to create the pole and asked her to be welcome, to get a share in the offerings that will be given in future to Hekate and to aid me and other devotees in our worship of Hekate. After I have done this I noticed that I never did the same for the nymphs of other wood materials that I used so far as shrines or altars- so I invited the nymph(s) of the trees who were used to build the tables that I use as altar. And did the same for her (or them). And played the drum for the nymphs and the other spirits who surrounded me in my rite.

Now I wait until the other statues arrive, tomorrow I will speak with the artist who will help me in my project and I look forward to carry on my work.

Advertisement

The Stang

The witches in folklore and on old woodcuts did not only rid on the broom, when they flow through the night. But also on the stang.

The stang is a pole of wood with an crotch on top of it. It looks like a pitchfork. Some believe this stangs were distaffs, other thinks they were stove forks.

But the stang is not so strongly connected with our modern archetype of the witch, here the broom is on top. But in the old days, the stang was seen as a witchcraft tool.

What the broom is for me in my home and garden, the stang is for me when i am out and about.

And many traditional witches today, have reclaimed the stang for their witchcraft as a working tool.

You can find much informations about the stang and the symbolism of it online, because many traditions and solitary witches are using it in their workings today again. Here i will write about my own symbolism.

For me the stang is a very similar to the broom, like the broom the stang is a all-round working tool. Everything i wrote about the broom, fits also for the stang.

I have two stangs, one that i use as a walking stick, the other is a kind of ward in my ritual room and stands next to the protective broom on my hearth shrine.

I use the broom in my rites and workings that i make in my home or my garden. When i go out into the fields and forests, i take with me my stang. I use it as as walking stick. When i am walking through the land I do store the life energy in it and i use it for rites and workings in the woods and fields, in the same way I use the broom in my home.

For me it is not only a symbol of the world tree, but a symbol for the crossroads, the meeting place of the witches, the threshold between the worlds and the sacred threeway of the Goddess Hekate (and on the magical table of Pergamom- a Y shaped rune was used as special symbol for Hekate- it looked like the stang). And at the same time the stang is for me a symbol for the Horned Lord of the sabbath, the two ends of the stang are symbols for his horns. And if you put a lantern or a candle between the two ends, it gets a symbol for the fire of the God.

The broom and the stang are for me symols of the axis mundi, the world tree that connects all worlds with each other (material world, etheric world and empyrean world). Hekates sacred oak tree, entwined with her snakes, the twigs in the heaven and the roots deep in the underworld.