“In antiquity, Hekate was loved and
revered as the goddess of the dark moon. People looked to her as a guardian
against unseen dangers and spiritual foes.
All was well until Persephone, the goddess of spring, was kidnapped by Hades
and ordered to live in the underworld for three months each year. Persephone
was afraid to make the journey down to the land of the dead alone, so year
after year Hekate lovingly guided her through the dark passageway and back.
Over time Hekate became known as Persephone's attendant. But because Persephone
was also the queen of the lower world, who ruled over the dead with her
husband, Hades, Hekate's role as a guardian goddess soon became twisted and
distorted until she was known as the evil witch goddess who stalked the night,
looking for innocent people to bewitch and carry off to the underworld.
Today few know the great goddess Hekate. Those who do are blessed with her
compassion for a soul lost in the realm of evil. Some are given a key.”
― Into the Cold Fire
Oh Hecate was such a guardian. She saw the abduction of Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, and she gathered up a torch to go to the underworld to help find her. There were, in ancient days, (and some today) created pillars to stand at the doorway of their home, and at crossroads, to keep evil things from happening to their home and their families, especially their daughters. Of course, over time, she was made out to be evil. She dared to find Persephone. She stayed in the underworld to walk Persephone back to the underworld each year. It was the men who blamed her for trying to carry away Persephone back to her mother and home, that the “evil, black witch’ ideology came from.
Artists (male, of course) decided to create artworks around this ideology. This further implanted the idea of Hecate: The Witch. It is why we see witches in October. Someone who did not want Persephone brought home to her mother, ever, at all. Fall and winter’s grip is blamed on Hecate because she brought Persephone back and the deal made.
Today, she is known as the Goddess at the crossroads (remember how men tried to sing that the devil waits at the crossroads? Yes, the ideology is still there).
Hecate represents the mother and the crone and all faces of woman. It is her dark side most often depicted; the angry goddess who sought Persephone and brought her from her captivity, for a time each year. There are followers, and promoters, of her dark side. She is most often attached to the Cronehood of a woman’s life. She waits at the crossroad of our lives. Many times, her guardianship had to be a lonely place full of night owls, night sounds, and wolves howling at the moon in her distress at the loss of a mother’s daughter.
We all have our own dark side; our angry side, our resentful and retribution’s woe within us. This aspect is most apt to show up during crescent moon. It is then we need to make peace with our past, with our wounds, with our desire for ‘payback karma’ ideology. If we learn as much as we can about her ancient symbolizations, and aspects, she is one we can call to to walk us on to our passing this life and journeying on to our next. In Greece, her name was changed to Diana and they celebrate her in August. But the Western World bought into the dark side as evil and so we celebrate Halloween. Instead of the dark idea of the thinning of the veil said to happen now, perhaps we should find ways to celebrate the goodness of this time of year.
She is associated with silver and gold, with deer and dog and snake. Her plant is the rosebush and laurel. Her colors are black and white and red.
As we gather to grieve the lost generations of children in Residential School, grab we must remember and listen to the horrific stories when Colonization was a gruel cruel entity in Canada’s history. We have only been taught one side of history (the conqueror’s of course) and we must imagine how all those mothers grieved the loss of their children and the absolute loss when children were not ever returned home – and lie in unmarked pits and graves throughout the land. Image if that happened to you or I today. Would we not be fierce-some?
As of today, I will no longer do black witches or promote the Western World’s money-making Halloween ideology. How seriously do we need to promote the comfort and compassion for hurting mother’s in the world? That should be our focus.
©Carol Desjarlais 10.3.21
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