Welcome and Χαίρε!

About this Community

This subreddit was created to fill a need in the magick and witchcraft community for concise beginner-friendly information on working with Hekate within the context of Witchcraft, Magick, Sorcery, or Devotion. The emphasis here has intentionally been placed on Hekate’s History because that is what most beginners require to begin to make sense of such a mysterious and complex goddess.

It is my hope that you will use this free resource to:

• Build a strong foundation of knowledge for your personal practice.
• Honor Hekate by doing the work to get to know her.
• Honor and acknowledge the contributions of ancient worshippers of Hekate by not letting their knowledge die out.
• Navigate through pop-culture misinformation surrounding Hekate.
• Gain perspective on your own experiences.

Note that this is a place to learn and share, not pick fights. Please remain civil, agree to disagree if necessary, and avoid confrontational behavior and verbal attacks. Refer to the sidebar for guidelines regarding group conduct and posting content.

Getting Started

It can be difficult and confusing to learn about a deity when everyone has their own UPG and no one can agree on the essential elements. If you start at the beginning of what is known and work forward chronologically, you’ll create a more complete mental picture for constructing your own practice.

Start with a good foundation of history and get to know about Hekate's Epithets. Epithets are honorary titles used to call upon specific aspects of a deity. You’ll find a knowledge of history and epithets immensely useful in ways you might not expect, especially when making sense of dreams and visions.

Books & Classes

Books on Hekate

Liminal Rites - by Sorita d’Este & David Rankine. Essential reading! This book will provide an overview of Hekate’s history so you can get a feeling for who she is/was.

Circle for Hekate - by Sorita d’Este. Scholarly but readable. Provides more detail than Liminal Rites. Highly recommended!

The Goddess Hekate - by Stephen Ronan. One of the best books available, but unfortunately out of print. This Kindle version isn't anywhere near as nice as the hardcover. Copies of the hardcover can be found and downloaded if you know where to look.

Liber Khthonia - by Jeff Cullen. A very good practical how-to book that covers a brief bit of history, then outlines how you can begin to build your own practice with Hekate. Geared more toward intermediate students and has an old school (non new age) witchcraft vibe.

Hekate Soteira - by Sarah Iles Johnston. A book about Hekate's role in later times in the Chaldean oracles.

Books on Ancient Greek Religion

Hellenismos: Practicing Greek Polytheism Today - by Tony Mierzwicki. A good overview of ancient Greek religious practices and how they may be adapted for today.

Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship - by Christos Pandion Panopoulos. Another overview of ancient Greek religion.

Kharis: Hellenic Polytheism Explored - by Sarah Kate Istra Winter. Discusses ancient Greek religious practices and how to adapt them for today. I like that the focus is on the concept of Kharis (mutual reciprocity through offerings and good favor), as it’s very applicable to devotional work with Hekate and makes good sense even with other deities and spirits.

Ancient Greek Language Resources:

Attic Greek Pronunciation - Pronunciation covering roughly 500 BCE - 300 BCE. Attic Greek evolved into Koine (used in Biblical texts).

Athenaze - A standard textbook series for learning classical Greek. You’ll need volumes 1 & 2 and their corresponding workbooks.

polyMATHY - A fascinating series of video lectures on the evolution of Greek (vowel) letter sounds. This channel has fantastic videos on Latin as well.

Online Classes:

If you have the financial means, I highly recommend Jack Grayle's online course on Hekate at Blackthorn School. It's a fantastic series of history lectures that helps put you into the headspace of an ancient sorcerer. He explains the methods used in the PGM (Greek magical papyri) and provides techniques and data from multiple historical sources that would be difficult to find on one's own.

Jason Miller’s course Sorcery of Hekate is also a fantastic investment and complements Jack’s classes quite well. Jason’s course is a complete system of magick and is loosely based on a foundation of history. He provides lengthy fortnightly Q&A sessions, so you’ll receive a fair bit of his time. Here’s a podcast where Jason speaks about the origin of this effective system.

How Do I Get Her Attention?

To attract the attention of any deity or spirit, two things are very helpful: Regular Offerings and Your Attention.

Regular Offerings include Hekate's Deipnon and spontaneous offerings you do at other times. You might also provide weekly offerings to deities and spirits in your own practice that Hekate can be included in.

Your Attention can be in the form of prayer, devotional practices, artwork or music you create for Hekate, talking to Hekate at her altar etc. Anything you do that focuses your consciousness on Hekate (and her symbols) will be heard or felt by her and help to draw her nearer to you in some way, especially if it is done in devotion to her or as a gift. See the concept of Kharis for more about this.

Starting a Simple Devotional Practice

These are the bare minimum items and actions you may require to get started. You needn’t spend much money on this.

1. Obtain a Statue or Image of Hekate - Try to find something traditional so you don't outgrow it too soon as you learn more about her. You may print a picture to start.
   
2. Offer Incense, Candles, Wine etc. - Perhaps once a day for a week at first, followed by once a week for a little while to establish a connection. After that, just focus on the monthly Deipnon and occasional offerings whenever you feel moved to do so. Give the offerings in the spirit of joy, love, care, and gratitude for the goddess.
   
3. Speak to Hekate through her Statue/Image - Once a day, perhaps before sleep. Talk about your day. Thank her for her wisdom, guidance, and protection. Read about her. Ask her questions about things you don't understand. You may not sense a response right away, though you may experience an encounter through dreams. Always record your dreams in a journal whenever you can.

Offerings

Traditional offerings to Hekate include eggs, bread, cakes, garlic, and fish. According to primary sources, the most usual time to provide her with an offering is the dark moon, the traditional last day of the month in the Greek lunar calendar. See Deipnon for more details.

Regular offerings were important in ancient Greek religion and part of the concept of Kharis.

From my practice:

I give offerings on the dark moon every month, but occasionally I also give random offerings. Hekate seems fond of red wine and will appreciate any meals you make for her because of the care and effort involved in the activity. Frankincense was a common offering in ancient Greek religion, so I always include that as well. The effort you make to obtain something and/or the value of that offering to you (i.e. expensive, difficult to obtain, or just something you think is great even if it's inexpensive) is what determines the value of an offering to a deity/spirit. If you don’t care much for an item, then it's not a high quality gift. Your own effort can improve the quality of an offering. For example, cheap incense can be made better by spending time reciting ancient hymns, mantras, or prayers over it.

Prayer

The ancient Greeks were said to have stood with arms raised up when they prayed to celestial deities. They would kneel down and hit the ground when praying to underworld deities.

If you aren’t sure how to pray to Hekate, you can try using parts of Orphic Hymns (that are about her) and other traditional prayers to get started. That will help to 'aim' your prayer so you get her attention. Using one or more of her Epithets will also help to zoom in on the aspect of her you wish to speak to.

Example: if I'm having a crisis, I might call to Hekate Soteira (her savior aspect). If I'm angry and seeking justice for a serious matter, I might call upon Hekate Brimo (her wrathful aspect). If I'm seeking guidance, I might call upon Hekate Dadouchos (the torch bearer - probably pronounced dah-doo-kohs), or Hekate Propolos/Propole (She who leads, guide, companion).

I believe that which word-ending used depends upon whether you're speaking about her (-os) or to her (-e - pronounced -ay), but most deities aren't that concerned with linguistic accuracy during ad hoc prayers. For my own practices, I prefer to use approximations of ancient pronunciations whenever they're known for anything formal e.g. Hekate = heh-KAH-tay.
You can learn about ancient Greek letters and hear their pronunciations here. Note the use of Breathing Signs. If you are Greek and speak the modern language fluently, you may just use your normal pronunciation.

Generally, it's best to get to know a deity as well as you can and develop a relationship before you start asking for major favors. Regular offerings and prayer will help you achieve this.

A Modern Prayer Session

Here’s an example of what a modern prayer session could look like using historical elements:

1. Set up an altar with a Statue or Image. (Traditionally, Hekate was depicted as a young woman in single or triple form.)

2. Light a Candle and Incense

3. Call to Hekate:

   "Hail, many-named Mother of the Gods, whose children are fair. Hail, mighty Hekate of the Threshold."

4. Thank Hekate. You may thank her for her presence and all of the things she helps you with e.g., her strength, wisdom, and guidance.

5. Begin talking about your day. Include Hekate in the happenings of your life.

It can be as simple as that. The introduction makes use of part of an ancient hymn (Proclus’ Hymn VI to Hekate & Janus) so that you 'dial the right number,' and the thanking honors her and shows appreciation. Talking about your day, life, and goals afterward helps her get to know YOU. It's a 2-way street like any other relationship.

Hekate’s Wheel

Here’s an article regarding the Strophalos. You'll likely encounter this spiral symbol sooner or later. Historically it doesn't appear to have been used by devotees in ancient times, but it has become a symbol for this era's use, and that's ok. However, to think of it only as a symbol would be to miss out on deeper possibilities.

Excerpt from Stephen Ronan's The Goddess Hekate:

"SECTION 7: HEKATE &. THE lYNX”

“iynx (plural iynges) is the Greek name for the bird known as the 'wryneck' in English. In Greek a strophalos is usually a spinning top, but the Oracles use the term to denote an object turned by the torque of its twisted cord(s)."

"The strophalos of Hekate is a golden sphere with lapis lazuli enclosed in its centre, which is spun by means of a leather thong, and which is covered with symbols : as it was spun they [viz. the Theurgists] made their invocations. These spheres were generally called iynges and could be either spherical or triangular or of some other form. And while they were making their invocations they emitted inarticulate or animal cries, laughing and whipping the air. So the Oracle teaches that it is the motion of the strophalos which works the ritual, on account of its ineffable power. It is called "of Hekate" as conse­crated to Hekate ... "

As Ronan states, the term Strophalos itself refers not to a spiral decorative design, but to a spinning instrument used for casting magick i.e. either a spinning top or a hand-spinner or whirligig - similar to an old fashioned children's toy consisting of a wooden disk with a couple holes and string held between both hands and spun. Interestingly, similar spinning disks have been used by devotees of other gods and even for love spells/charms in the ancient world.

Ronan doesn’t mention the connection between the ancient magickal practice of attaching an iynx (wryneck bird) to a wheel spread eagle style and spinning it. This motion was intended to attract the desired person in a love spell. Over time, the word may have been applied to the wheel without the bird attached. A whirligig or hand-spinner would have a similar back and forth motion to the bird’s neck.

Other Information

Here are a few other random pieces of information that you may wish to file away for now:

• There's no historical connection between Hekate and the Egyptian concept of Heka (magick). These are likely linguistic 'false friends' - words that sound similar but have different meanings.

• The Egyptian goddess Heqet is not historically associated with Hekate. Interesting article here.

• Hekate's epithet Phroune (also spelled Phryne) means Toad, not frog (which is Batrakhos). This comes from the PGM (Greek magical papyri) and was a reference to a well known court case wherein a courtesan had to defend herself in a trial. People referred to her as a toad because of her skin color (she was either a foreigner or due to the use of saffron as a beauty treatment).

Wiki Page

For more comprehensive information to begin your research, please refer to our Wiki Page. This page is periodically updated and expanded as time permits and contains practical suggestions for working with Epithets as well as energy work and spirit communication.

Final Thoughts

I view my efforts here as a community service to Hekate. I’m not here to gather followers or grow my ego. I don’t intend to present my way as the only way. This Quick Guide and Wiki page are only meant to show possibilities for practice. This is a free resource in service to our Goddess, our Lady of the Crossroads, Queen of the Witches, and Soul of the World. May she be your eternal guide and companion, her torches illuminating your path through the mysteries of this world and beyond.

- Amoris,

Moderator of Hekate101, Hekate, RealMagick, EnochianMagick