All Fool’s Day: Hecate

 

 

All Fool’s Day.  A Leo kind of day.  Blue is your dominant color.  And Hecate’s month begins.

All Fool’s Day could have originated from the Roman festival for Cybele. The festival was called Hilaria (Festival of Joy) and began on March 25^th.  It was a celebration of indulgences.  There were games and amusement park activities, and there were masquerades that included wearing a disguise and they could be anyone they wanted.  There was a great deal of tricking and mocking even leaders.

By the 18^th Century, it showed up in Britain.  In Scotland it lasted two days and “hunting the gowk” was played where people were sent on fake errands (gowk is the name of a cuckoo bird).  The second day of festivities was called ‘Tailie Day’ where pranks were played on people’s butts.  For instance, notes secretly hung on someone’s backside that said ‘Kick Me”. 

Still it is being researched to find out who celebrated April’s Fool’s Day.  Some have decided that April Fool’s Day was just the first day of spring with Spring continually fooling us into thinking it has arrived, only to have winter give another blast. 

Who knows?  It is just that we celebrate things without knowing the whole truth of it. 

Hecate is the goddess of April.  Under her influence you may fall into listening to your darker side, intentions.  Time to acknowledge and make peace with our shadow self. 

Hecate is the maiden, the mother and the crone all at once.  She is the goddess of the shadow world.  She sees the past, the present and the future all at once.   She cares little for our mewling.  She will cause us epiphanies that we might have rather not remembered or known.  It is her that has us remember things of our dark nature and has us up all night filled with regret until we do something about it.  She does not force us to walk through that dark valley of suffering, but she will walk with us and guide us through it.  She is that that braces our back, helps us gather courage and helps us be brave and go through what must be gone through for us to be truly free.  Her influence is the strongest for three days of the dark moon.  She offers us healing through knowing.

There are no tricks and this work is not a fool’s errand.  It is hard, emotional, painful work that needs getting through.  We are both, wise women and fool.  When we stand at the crossroads of knowing, we can choose to stay in the dark or we can work through to the light.

Here, let us share that dark and light work.  Things are easier to get through if we do it together. 

©Carol Desjarlais 4.1.23