Goddess of the Week

Hekate last came up eleven months ago, in full riot of May. I have to admit that I find it strange that a Goddess of the Dark should keep coming up in Spring. Last time She spoke of tempering the light and growth with a little bit of darkness; it is good, I suppose, to remember that the light grows from the darkness, as the flowers of spring grow out of the dark earth. All that has come before us, the visions, the dark times, our Underworld journeys, have contributed to the glory we create and we are.

Hekate is a Greek Goddess, said to be of Thrakian origin (parts of modern Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey). She is a Titaness, one of the older race of Deities, the daughter of Asteria ('Starry One') and Perses ('Destroyer'). Sometimes Nyx, the Goddess of night, is said to be Her mother instead of Asteria; at any rate She is associated with the night sky.

In the war against the Titanes She is said to have sided with the Olympian Deities; this is the reason given for why, after the Titanes were overthrown, She was still given honors by Zeus, Who allowed Her to keep Her power over the realms of sea, sky, and earth (including that under the earth). I mean, that's the spin that's been put on it, anyway. The Titanes were said to have been cast into Tartaros, the Underworld; but as that was one of Hekate's realms already, how should casting Her there take away Her power? So I have my doubts.

At any rate Hekate always maintained a certain independence, an apartness from the other Deities; when Kore was taken away to the Underworld, few save Hekate helped Demeter in Her search. They were all too afraid of Zeus.

Hekate is associated with the Moon, especially the dark Moon; and She was said in late times to be an eerie sort, walking the night trailing spectral hounds and ghosts. She is a Goddess of witchcraft and the night, of herbs and spells. She is also accorded a psychopomp, one Who guides the soul to the Underworld, much as Hermes does, and in fact She is occasionally said to be His consort, in His guise as Hermes Khthonios, Hermes of the Underworld.

But She also leads the soul out of the Underworld. For though Kore must spend part of the year in the Underworld as Queen Persephone, Hekate remains with Her as minister and adviser. And when the Maiden returns to the upper world to be greeted by the full glory of Spring, Hekate brings Her forth into the light.

She is also the Goddess of crossroads, especially those where three roads meet, and She was given offerings at little shrines at some of them; and She is said, also, to protect the lonely traveler on dark roads. Which is why I think I have always found Her somewhat comforting, though it is very much at odds with Her ghosty reputation. But choices, and the path trodden, and being able to see in the dark: that is what Hekate is about.

So, this week's theme then is that of dark journeys that lead to the light. Where are you on that journey? Are you still in the dark on that lonely road, or have you come out into the Spring and warmth? How has that journey shaped your experience of the light? How has it created or given birth to the light? How have you changed?

And what turnings has that, is that, journey taken or taking? What crossroads have you, do you, face? Where three roads meet, remember there are two choices forward, and always, one choice back.

What does She say?

Firm your feet on the ground. In the stillness of night the wind dies down. Listen now. Scent the air. Be not afraid. I am here, and you are with me. We are akin, you and I, if you call yourself Witch; I will guide and protect. Call on me and I will help you.

Now look. What else is with you in the dark? You bring something with you, always. That may be good or bad, depending on what it is. Look.

But know that to be reborn you must always die first. The serpent sheds Her skin; do you think this is painless? It is hard, it is always hard. This is as it must be. But I am here, and I am a Guide in the place between.

Where do you wish to go?

References: the ever-excellent Theoi, of course.

Goddess of the Week

This week's pick is Nyx, the Greek Goddess of the night, which is what Her name means. She is is one of the primeval Deities called the Protogenoi, or First-born, Who include Deities like Gaea (Earth), Thalassa (the Sea), and Khronos (Time). She is daughter of Khaos and sister of Erebos (Darkness), by Whom She had a daughter Hemera (Day) and a son Aither (Light).

Nyx also gave birth to many children on Her own, without a father. As night is an ambiguous time that can be both restful and frightening, we find among Her offspring on the one hand Deities like the Moirai (the Fates, Klotho, Lakhesis and Atropos), Moros (Doom), Ker (Violent Death), Oizys (Woe), and Nemesis, and on the other hand gentler Deities like the Oneiroi (Dreams), the Hesperides (the four Goddesses of the evening), and the Goddess Philotes (Sex); though She is perhaps most famous for Her two sons Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death, but the gentle kind).

She was said to have great black wings and to dress in dark colors; and She rode in a chariot drawn by black horses, the stars following behind Her.

She was an oracular Goddess, unsurprisingly, with an oracle at the Greek city of Megara, and She was invoked in witchcraft (or at least She was in Ovid's stories of Medea and Kirke).

I was rather surprised that She came up today, as this is the week of the summer solstice in my part of the world, when the sun is at its highest and strongest and the night is at its lowest ebb. I am not sure what to make of that, except maybe that it is a continuation of the theme that there is darkness to be found even in the times of greatest brightness. After all, at Yule time we focus on the light to be found in the time when the dark is most powerful; but at Midsummer we tend to focus entirely on the light.

But I don't think this is about the Year, really, and that long cycle of dark and light; Nyx is about the shorter cycles, the clockwork regularity of night and day. This is something smallish, something in your hand right now. What is changing over to the dark for you now?

She is also, I think, about the fertility of the dark and the night, the inspiration to be had in dreams and visions, even at this time of year, not usually considered the time to be going within. What have you been dreaming about? What visions have you had recently? What has your Night given birth to, both the frightening and the peaceful? What shadows are being cast by the bright light of Midsummer?

Also, within the darkness you hold in your hand right now, what is Sleep and what is Death? They are twins, it is true; but it is very important to discern one from the other now.

So I ask Her, as usual, What do You have to say to us?

I am darkness and mist, night and fog, confusion, the veiled stars, black, night as a presence. Not an absence of light, but a living thing unto itself; and this is a time of darkness now, whether you want to see it or not.

You always think the North is the only place in the world. I am here to remind you that it is, right now, Yule just as much as it is Midsummer. That is the darkness. That is the message of how to be complete. As the Earth is, always.

Not that I celebrate those holidays anyway; I'm Greek not a Celt after all. My summer festival is Skira, Sunshades. The year is not to be teased into points. That is just you humans wanting to make everything nice and neat, the year into eight equal wedges, eight separate pieces cut up into a chart, a paper folded, boundaries delineated. It is not as sharp, as defined, as you would like it to be. Get used to it.

Summer is summer; it is a plateau, not a point; you expect things to be in focus, to have a definite end and beginning. Who can say at what second night begins? It is a process, a blending, an in-between time, not a threshold or a point when everything changes, like a goal post you tag and then run the opposite way from.

I am here to tell you it is far murkier than you want it to be. It is primal, I am primal; and my children are powerful and ancient. I myself am born from chaos, literally, the swirling storm-clouds, the change and the potential for destruction and creation, tornado or gentle rain. You never can predict things, you know.

Take heed, look at my children. There are many of them, more than you have named; look at them all, see how They are present in your life. How have you given birth to Them yourself?

What do you think?

References again from Theoi, especially the article on Nyx.