owl & crow

If you see an old woman walking down the road one dark moonless night, take heed, because that may be the “Distant One” who has words of wisdom for you.

Be kind to the woman who stands at the crossroads for that is said to be the threshold to the underworld, the realm of Hecate and the maiden-turned-queen, Persephone.

And if you come upon such a crossroads, leave an offering for Hecate’s supper.

If you honor her, she will honor you by showing up whenever you need help, whenever you stand at a crossroads and need to make an important decision, a choice about which direction to take.

She is the one who will stand beside you and help you summon the courage to step into your power, to listen to that inner voice that knows what is the right decision for you in that moment.

She is the one who will help you hear the answers that your ancestors have to give you if you will but ask and listen.

She is the one who protects you in remote places, when you have lost your bearings, when you feel trapped, hemmed in, without a safety net.

She is the one who is the Dark Mother, who will hold you in the blackness until the first streams of light illuminate your path.

She is the one who midwifes you through your own birth, death, and rebirth and who helps lost souls pass over.

Hecate is the one of the oldest manifestations of the triple goddess and her power is in threes:  

She embodies the three faces of the goddess: maiden, mother and crone. Sometimes she is depicted as having three animal heads: lion, snake and dog or at other times the dog, horse, and bear.

She travels with three black hounds or some say the three-headed dog, Cerebrus.

She stands at the crossroads where three roads meet. From there, she can see into the dimensions of past, present and future.

She is the moon in its three phases of waxing, waning, and full.

She walks between the three realms of earth, sky, and the underworld, where she presides over the passages of birth, life, and death or of birth, death and rebirth, a reflection of the moon’s phases.

She represents the three stages of the mysteries of agriculture: the green corn (Kore, the young maiden), the ripe ear (Persephone, the queen) and the harvested corn, symbolized by Hecate, herself.

She is a goddess of magic and transformation and carries three sacred objects: a key, a rope and a dagger. Use these symbols to help you unlock the wisdom of the ancient mysteries.

The key is the way into the underworld, where we must go to transmute fear into love and bring unconscious stirrings into the conscious light of day.

The rope is the umbilical cord that when cut allows us to experience rebirth, renewal and enter a new cycle.

The dagger, like Kali’s sword, cuts through the illusion of control and duality and allows us to see things in greater dimension, no longer in black and white, either/or possibilities. She helps us give up control when its needed to allow magical transformation to occur.

Hecate represents our medial nature, our ability to see beyond the ordinary, and thus she can help bring magic and mystery into our lives.

Hecate, daughter of Nyx or Ancient Night, is with us now, during the dark, new moon (presently in Scorpio) and especially on Samhain, October 31.

It is on October 31 that the veil between the worlds is said to be most transparent, and a good time to converse with the ancestors, leave offerings, and discard what no longer serves us into the fire. What do you need to release? Halloween is a good night to name it and cast it into the fire.

Hecate stirs the cauldron of creativity. What is brewing in your cauldron tonight? The new moon is a good time to start a new project or claim a path you want to take and step onto the road with Hecate at your side.

Thank you for all the great comments on my last post on The Dark Mother: Snake Goddess. And the winner of my SoulWork book, In the Lap of the Goddess, is: Tabitha! May you all release what no longer serves you and have a magical transformation.

For those of you who would like to purchase the ebook, I am offering a 20% discount until 11/11/11. So you can get the 57-page ebook for $16 instead of $20. Just go to my order page and click on “add to cart” and then enter the coupon code: soulcollage2011.

In my creative cauldron, I am brewing a 5-week telecourse (each week we meet and work with a different goddess from my book) to go with my SoulWork book, which I hope to birth in the New Year. So stay tuned!

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This entry was posted by Stephanie on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 9:49 am and is filed under Myth, goddess. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.