The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I've been studying up on Hekate for some time now, including books, the internet, and even this forum. I feel like she is calling me, but she is making me work for it. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I have gleaned enough information to give me a basic understanding (that is, the best we can ever hope to understand of the Divine) of this magnificent Goddess. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on how She interacts with you? I understand that communication with the Divine is a very personal thing, so only share what feels right to you. I'm not demanding every detail. =) I just feel that Hekate and I could communicate better if I know to approach her properly. Does this make sense? Any help would be greatly appreciated. =)

That's a difficult question to answer actually.

When I am just speaking to Hekate I find that to sit and ponder ponder the three keys brings me very close to her.  To imagine the procession of the Key as I believe it occured at Lagina aides me.  To listen to the howl of the hounds upon the night winds often lets me know she is listening.

Yet other times I raise a fire and sit at a liminal spot.  For me it is a place where land, water and air all meet in a three legged juncture.  Water rising from the spring brings up the deep earth energies and chthonic connection.  The land a small juncture that marks a boundary between the land I sit on and the pond that forms one side and the spring run off on the other.  A depression in the landscape that funnels the wind down to it.

I then make a fire upon a barren section to make offerings and pour libations to her Sea and Heaven facets.  Near it is a sunken depression where I make libations and offerings to her chthonic facet and earth associations.

I will add Cedar or Pine to the flame that is wet in order to create a smoke that I peer into and scrye upon.  Then observe the shifting and shimmering that takes place in the smoke.  Other times I will scrye upon the moonlite waters and watch the shifting eddies as they play upon the reflection and sink into the images.

Sometimes I draw and draw and image she has given me.  It shall be a tatoo when I get it just right but I am still working on that facet.  But todate it is a styalized Y that shows a serpent wrapped about the leg of the Y.  Between the flanking arms are three archaic styled keys that form a tri-headed image.  Upon each arm in the Y is an image of a dagger.  At the foot of the Y are two dice hung from a string and form the number three, an ace and a duce on the two dice.  Half mooned behind the image is a peak, a star & moon and waves to show her three dominions of influence.  

NOt sure that's what your asking for but those are some of the ways I connect to her.

In my experience, I can say She is a quite direct sort of deity

I very much agree there.  When she wants you to notice her she will reach out and "Touch" you.  Gentley at first if your new but then the wallop against the head after you've been hers for a bit.  Then if it doesn't get through after that in my experience it can become painful.
 

The precise moment I connected the dots and got her point, She would withdraw and wait until I made a conscious choice to follow in Her wake.

Agree with that to a degree as well.  Usually for me its waiting to see what I shall do with what she has shown or revealed to me.  If I get it its not to bad if I don't then I can expect a slap to the head, even if only symbolically.

Shared Personal Gnosis is that Her being 'The Distant One' or 'The One Who Works From Far' translate in stretched of time when She is very present in your daily life... and then times She is so quiet you might think She is completely gone. In reality, chances are She is just watching and waiting until the moment She deems best to make Her presence known again.

For me I never think of her as the "Distant One" or "One who works from Far"  to me she is always the "Shinning One" or "The Illuminated One".  She is always Tri-formus and shows her three dominions and What lies before, what lies behind and what what might have been.  She also guides me upon the tree as I step upon all three levels of Chthonic, Material and Celestial levels of the demensions.

Divination is the means I prefer to communicate with Her when I need contacting Her first- I got the Goddess Oracle Deck by Kris Whalder that seems to be perfect for this.

That venue with cards always results in her being silent for me.

Dreams -very surreal ones- seem to be  another favorite means of Hers to get Her point across. In at least two histances I asked for specification on which offerings She wanted and I received my response that way.

Dreams are a big one for me as well but never surreal.  They are so clear and intense in thier clarity and presence that it is almost more like a vision or prohpetic dream than a regular dream.

Anything else you want to know? I am usually very enthusiastically chatty on this subject.

I am the same when it comes to Hekate / Hecate.  My problem is I usually live it so closely that I think other's wouldn't be interested in certain facets so do not consider them important enough to speak on.

In my experience, I can say She is a quite direct sort of deity - the moments of my life when I was not receptive to the message She was trying to convey, I could count on  running into movies and songs and books all with the same underlying message she was trying to hammer in my divination session.
The precise moment I connected the dots and got her point, She would withdraw and wait until I made a conscious choice to follow in Her wake.

Shared Personal Gnosis is that Her being 'The Distant One' or 'The One Who Works From Far' translate in stretched of time when She is very present in your daily life... and then times She is so quiet you might think She is completely gone. In reality, chances are She is just watching and waiting until the moment She deems best to make Her presence known again.

Divination is the means I prefer to communicate with Her when I need contacting Her first- I got the Goddess Oracle Deck by Kris Whalder that seems to be perfect for this.

Dreams -very surreal ones- seem to be  another favorite means of Hers to get Her point across. In at least two histances I asked for specification on which offerings She wanted and I received my response that way.

Anything else you want to know? I am usually very enthusiastically chatty on this subject.

 
Yes, I picked up that she vacillates between being quite direct or withdrawn. So now I know. =) I felt her very strongly for some time yesterday, then when I was trying to contact her, it was as if She was like, "Hey, I'm not at your beck and call. I'll come back when its time."
And yes, please, share any information you wish. =) If it is easier for you, you can private message me or something? =) I want to learn all about her. She keeps reappearing in my life, and I know it is for a reason. =) Thank you so much.

Like I told SkySamuelle, if you would like to share more, feel free to message me or something. =) These threads can get pretty long. I'm very eager to learn more about Her, and I'd rather hear it from Her followers as opposed to the general internet.

OK will do.  This is from something I did a few years ago but might be intersting to you.

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OK as this day closes and the 13th prepares to give way to the 14th Hekate calls upon me to give honor and Libations to her. For a few weeks have I been trying to put it all together as a few of you now.

A few days ago I asked for a time as I was sort of torn. Let's face it, the 16th of November is one of the nights of sacrifice to Hekate through what is known as a Hekate Supper at the crossroads. The 30th of November is a sacred night to Hekate and also a festival night. So yes I was sort of torn as to which night to go with. So as I stated I asked of Hekate the night and when and where.

So you might imagine my surprise when the date I was given was the night of the 13th. Clearly has nothing to do with the 16th or 30th but that is the date I was given.

Even the offering was sort of in the air until early this morning. I had been informed of Eggs, Honey, and Milk a few days ago. Last night Apple Juice was added and this morning water was added as the final element. So tonight I shall have 5 containers containing, Honey, Water, Apple Juice, Milk and Egg. I shall take a small portion into me and pour a libation to Hekate with the rest.

Milk is to represent the animals of the land and nursing of the young.
Eggs are to represent both the notion of birth and offering to the spirits of the dead.
Honey is to represent the creation and un-spoiling purity and the gold of spirit
Apple Juice the fruits of nature and the bountiful land
Water to represent the source of life and growth.

Ironically this started out as an honoring to Artemis / Bast & Hekate but Artemis has indicated it is not to her, as has Bast. Hekate is the primary in this honoring to thanks for the assistance and protection while she watched over my grandsons in the hospital. Artemis and Bast shall be honored and libations poured on their date, which is yet to come.

Even as I am encouraged to do the ceremony and ritual so to am I compelled to place this upon the net here and at another site. Her reasoning I do not know but it is to be part of the honoring so I place it before all as she has instructed.

Not sure anyone really wants to hear but I figured since I started the story I should at least provide the conclusion to the book. If nothing else it's one way for me to recall.
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Since I was doing an honoring and libations I figured I'd take a hot bath and cleanse myself before hand. As I sat in the hot water I though about doing a scrying using the soapsuds. Basically what one does is push their hand down into the hot water and cause the surface to distort then watch to see what shapes and forms the film takes as the currents and heat act upon them.

For me the form of a woman with arms extended and two torches appeared in front of me. As I watched the heat currents caused the image to move and pull apart until it was replaced with the death mask of an open jawed skull. That then was pulled apart and I saw the images of three people appear in single file in what appeared to be running forms. That broke apart then the images of dogs appeared behind the final remaining human image from the last display.

While this was ongoing the image of a wolf's head and moon appeared in the corner of the tub and pretty much stayed the whole time. About the edges various dragons (Oriental) forms appeared and moved with the currents. Most times appearing as if they were riding in a storm and diving and flying in the clouds.

Other images appeared with some resembling the walking cross and some that reminded me of Celtic knot designs. Then other's that were created then pulled apart in the currents created as you splashed the surface to create the next viewing.

It also started to rain abt 6 PM and continued to rain the rest of the night and into the next morning. Varying from periods of heavy rain to a misty rain that almost looked like faint snow. Luckily the wood and stuff I had put up at the spot was covered so it did not get wet.

I started my ceremony at 11 PM. At the time I placed my statue of Hekate before the opening I would use as a ground mouth to receive the libations. To the right of her a green candle was lit that represented the mountains and wild places. To the left of her I placed a blue scented candle to represent her influence upon the waves. This candle was placed inside a globe that made it look like a ships light.

To the right I created a fire that marked the intersection of the lines where Water rose from the spring and flowed upon the land. The land jutted into the spring bed and overlapped it. The point was at the end of a V shaped ravine where the wind was funneled down off of the mountain. Most of the smoke from the fire rising up and billowing out across the pond or blowing across the statue of Hekate.

Behind me and to the right of the fire I placed the bowl of Beans and lustral eggs for the Hekate Supper offering. This will be left out till the morning of the 17th.

I didn't create a circle but I did invite the Spirits of Place and local land spirits to come. I invited the spirits of the elements and spirits of the winds to come also. Of course I also invited Hekate and the spirits of the deceased that were with her on the dark moon run.

I made my first libation offering at 11:30 then continued with the final libation being at 12:15. As I made the offerings I would rise and make the offering and ovation to Hekate, take a drink of the offering then pour the remained into the land mouth to carry it to the underworld. Between libations I would sit upon the ground at a point between the fire and the altar to Hekate. Will admit the ground was pretty wet so I was sitting on a piece of cardboard I had used to bring everything up to the spot.

As I made the libations I also used some sparkler's we had left over from the 4th of July. I placed a sparkler to her left and right and used to represent her twin torches. I did this twice, then later I lit three of them and placed them before the statue to represent her three faces with the last face for what is to come being a little later than the first two so it burnt a few minutes after the other two had gone out.

I will add I had forgotten just how raw eggs tasted. The Honey was fine but since it was a little cool it got real thick so was slow pouring it out.

As I sat there I spoke to Hekate and just spoke or talked about what ever came to mind as well as giving her my thanks for looking out for my grandsons while they struggled to survive. Thanks for watching out over my family. Of course there were other things but today in the light they seem only important to me or inspirations of the moment.

At first I wondered if Hekate was present, as the rain was cold and seeping into everything. Yet then my hands started to warm up and I could feel the energy rising from the Earth and into my hands. My fingers tingling and warmth was going up both arms.

I spoke for a while, sat and listened for a while then would speak some more. In total the ceremony went from 11 PM to 1 am. It had run as she indicated from the late hours of the 13th into the early hours of the 14th.

During the ceremony the green candle burnt up pretty quickly and was just a holed out core at the end. I simply feed it to the fire to be consumed. The blue candle had not burnt as fast so was more remaining to it at the end. Yet like the green one the blue one to was feed to the flames. The plastic containers I had used to hold the offering were not burnt though, as that did not feel appropriate to me. The cardboard I sat upon and the remaining paper from starting the fire were also feed to the flames. Once all had been consumed I used the bag I carried the wood up in as a bucket to take water from the spring hose and put out the remaining coals.

During the ceremony but after I had finished the libations I moved her statue near the main fire. As I spoke to it a blemish in the statue appeared to me. Looking at the statue the flames would reflect upon a small spot just beneath what would be her left eye looking at the statue. As you looked it seemed to be a tear. Couple that with the dancing shadows across the face and you could almost swear that she was dancing with it.

I should point out that about the same time I had the sudden urge to start chanting her name out loud and just started doing a dance myself for about 10 minutes. Just before I moved the statue the smoke from the fire shifted so that it settled down upon her statue and wrapped it in a cloak of whitish smoke for a few minutes then shifted back to blowing out over the pond. Yet there was no shift in the wind at the time simply a shift in the smoke.

Yet I was not alone either. Earlier in the day I had come in to start gathering things together and found my wife filling each offering bottle with the substance required. She remembered my list and had washed the bottles and started filling them for me. Tracked down a lighter so I could light the fire and had that with the offerings as well. So it was in truth an offering and ceremony from the two of us. A ceremony she never asked to attend or the reason why I had to perform it, only knowing that it was something I had to do. She was watching our grandsons at the time.

Today I am tired and rundown but the energy was worth it.

Well that's pretty much what happened last night. Happened at that spot where the three elemental roads converge yet all four were present in the form of Earth, Wind, Fire and Water and the final element of Spirit.

This ceremony was done in Nov 2009.

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Just to note its not the only way but the way it all unfolded for me at the time and what I was guided and compelled to do on that night and the weeks leeding up to it.

Yes, I picked up that she vacillates between being quite direct or withdrawn. So now I know. =) I felt her very strongly for some time yesterday, then when I was trying to contact her, it was as if She was like, "Hey, I'm not at your beck and call. I'll come back when its time."
And yes, please, share any information you wish. =) If it is easier for you, you can private message me or something? =) I want to learn all about her. She keeps reappearing in my life, and I know it is for a reason. =) Thank you so much.

 
Let's see- the first signs of Hekate's presence in my life, back to way , way before I knew She was not a crone, were the large, wolfish dogs that occasionally followed me back to home when I returned to home fro college. I had to walk alone a not quite crowdy, logish path that made me nervous when it was dark. I never fed those dogs, never tried to approach them because they were big and wildish, roaming around the univirsity buildings- still, it happened quite often that one of them followed me back from distance, always when it was dark, and then stopped right at the door of my apartment building. Seriously - the dog always stayed a couple of steps back, standing without moving a muscle, while i fumbled with my keys and then turned and trotted back.

I won't say it was some great supernatural occurrence, but sure it struck me as freaky, even then. Still, I had very little interest in Hekate in those days - the little i knew about her didn't exactly struck anything in me... and i had just started to get familiar with wicca.

To this day, I can't connect with the image of Hekate as a crone - i don't exclude She can reveal Herself in that fashion to other devotees, as She is a brilliant shapeshifter, but when She comes to me, it's always as either a snake or a young, pale woman with raven hair and dark, penetrating, burning eyes. Which is why I always call Her 'coal-eyed' in my prayers.

The closest I came to capture the expression She had when I encountered Her is  in those two portraits:

http://violaserpeverde.deviantart.com/gallery/25674747#/d1qwipw
http://violaserpeverde.deviantart.com/gallery/25674747#/d2n40eu

Altough Hekate's Wheel is used in my first devotional piece of art to Her, I should say, I always failed to truly connect at it as a 'wheel'. When I look at it, I just see the Labyrinth, the maze of the human mind - that links to Hekate's function as Torch-Bearer to me, because Her twin torches reveal our inner demons, our shadow side.

She is both the treshold of Initiation and the flame that burns our most deeply buried emotional baggage - Mystical wisdom and animalistic fierceness. In my yeyes, She is the mistress of inner transformation, and since magic is, under many aspects, pure transformation, I  see this as a link to Her title as guide of witches.

In ritual, I feel She encouraged me to be more intuitive than formal and, on a random side - one offering She actively encouraged from me, which I was so not expecting,  it's mestrual blood.

In my case, I'm not sure that it was so much a call from Hecate, as it was a push in her direction from Juno.

I approached her very simply and honestly. I set up a shrine for her, offered things that I thought she might enjoy, and introduced myself. I told her a bit about me and why I wanted to get to know her, etc. At the beginning, my initial feeling was that Hecate looked at me as someone who came with good references, so she'd give me a shot!

Since then, I believe she's been communicating with me through those nagging thoughts that won't go away. For example, the three way crossroads or tri-via. I was driven to find one close to home that I could visit regularly. I walked around my neighborhood, looked at maps, searched high and low for a place that I felt would be appropriate. I couldn't find a darned thing. So, I made a small scale tri-via out of different types of flat stone beads for her shrine. Each "road" represents a different realm. Earth (the seas are part of the earth in my mind), sky, and underworld. This symbolic tri-via is where I leave offerings for her.

However, I did promise that when I owned property of my own, I would either find an actual tri-via, or I would build one outside.

I guess she's happy with this compromise because I'm not up all night thinking about it anymore.

 
Well that is interesting. =) I'm glad you shared, because I've been a bit nervous about approaching her. I can feel her presence, but I didn't want to be too forward. Perhaps she would appreciate a little bit of initiative/straight-forwardness on my part, because I'm usually pretty timid. I feel as if she is like, "Okay, girl, get yourself together."
Once again, thank you =)

You put into words that which I could not explain. Many thanks!
I tend to feel Hekate more than I see or hear her. Its like her presence permeates my skin, and touches my soul directly. It's so nice to hear a devotee of hers explain this a little bit. =) I guess I just didn't want her calling and such to be all in my head. I actually wrote a few hymns for her last night, and what you said can be found there. =)
I thank you so much for sharing. And the dog thing- pretty cool. Freaky, but cool.  It's crazy cause I have three dogs that just kinda came into my life. And they are my everything. =)

 
I am the one who needs to thank you. I swear I everytime I was stepping by them 'how your gods let you know they are there' I was tormenting myself over my inability of putting it in words without feeling like a psycho.

The bit where Her presence 'permeates' the skin bit fits pretty well - i often feel like somethig is overflowing from me and if this something had not a definite mood or came announced by barking dogs, i would wonder why i am suddently 'all charged up'.:

If you are looking for ritual material to 'welcome Her in', in a manner of speaking, you might maybe being interested in looking at this:

http://sacredfires.co.uk/the-rite-of-her-sacred-fires/rite-of-her-sacred-fires-ritual-text

It's not really a dedication ritual or anything similiar to that, but more like a formal expression of thanks for Her guidance and presence, and at the same time a way to manifest your willingness to learn from Her.

I should add that the two times I performed this rite, toward the end of it my arms ended shooting out to snuff the candle flame out with my ritual blade - and everytime the sensation was that fire spark crawled up my arm and enveloped me .