Hecate calls out from the darkness. Her steps follow the sound of hounds, daughter of Titans, child of justice and destruction. She is a frequent ally of witches and magick makers, a being whose depth and dark resounds and requests something more. Hecate asks you to arrive clear and steady; she asks you to consider your power and its impact.

Unlike other deities in Greek mythology, Hecate is first mentioned by name in Hesiod’s Theogony. She’s not in the Iliad or the Linear B texts like other godds. She seems to come from the underworld of history, which may seem strange given that she is a goddess so widely celebrated, cherished, and feared. One would think she would be easy to trace, for her name appears in movies, plays, and books.

Scholars repeatedly note how challenging it is to pinpoint her beginning; however, perhaps that is the point. A deity of the liminal spaces cannot arrive with clear answers. Perhaps it is better, after all, to remember that crossroads offer multiple ways to explore and travel. They offer choices and decision points. This goddess is not easily contained, explained, or controlled. Hecate arrives exactly, to paraphrase Tolkien, as she means to. And as she likes.

The dread Goddess of Night, according to Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, is Hecate. She is a goddess with several beginnings, a slight disappearance, and a resurgence in modern times. As a deity who has been revered, maligned, and misunderstood, she is possibility. Her origin takes us down a few roads: Minoan, Hittites, modern-day Turkey, Sicily, Libya, Bulgaria, Syria, Roman, etc.

Why so many options? Like other godds, Hecate was known, and is known, by many names. The older godds often are. I think of the reference to Isis having ten thousand names. Hecate’s stories uncover many names, too. Iphimedia, for example, was revealed in the Catalogue of Women, which was thought to be written by Hesiod. There is also a reference to Hatkatta, or Divine Queen, in the Hittite civilization, which is close to the name Hekate and thought to be a connection. Or somehow Hecate may be related to Kybele, as she had many of the same symbols and traveled with Hermes and Hecate.

Hecate’s most common and cited beginning is her image as a lunar goddess, Bendis, in Thrace, or modern-day Turkey. She had two torches. Like other Greek godds, Hecate may have been an import from the Middle East, traveling over other waters to land in Greece where the Greeks worshiped her in cults. According to The Chaldean Oracles, Hecate was eventually taken in by the Romans toward the end of their empire. These fragments name Hecate as a sort of Cosmic Soul, someone who acted as a mediator between the worlds. Hecate also appears in the Greek Magical Papyri and curse tablets and in epigraphs on gravesites.

This traveler and revealer is not one for clear answers, which is how Hecate shows up as a deity in my life. There is a mystery, always. There is always more to seek, to find. To know.

Like other godds, Hecate is linked to different parents by different writers, including:

Perses, Titan godd of Destruction

Zeus and Asteria, Olympian godd of Sky and Thunder and Titaness/minor godd (Starry One)

Nyx, Primordial goddess of Night

Aristaios, Minor Greek godd associated with hunting, agriculture, and handicrafts

Demeter, Olympian goddess of the harvest, fertility, and earth

While the importance of Hecate is something you can decide for yourself, what is clear is that Hesiod thought highly of her. Notably, she had more lines than any other deity in Theogony. After describing how Zeus gave Hecate a place of honor in the starry skies and among the immortal godds, Hesiod reminds the reader that if she receives prayers from a person, that person will be given great blessings as she has the power to bestow all the rights of those born of Ouranos and Gaia who were Titans. After reading Theogony, the first piece of writing in which Hecate is mentioned, Hecate held onto the same rights and powers as Titans, even under Zeus’ reign, so she is seen as a Titan.

Modern representations of Hecate describe her as a dark and old force. While this is enticing and a shared experience among devotees, it is wise to remember this is a more recent image. The confusion, I imagine, comes from Hecate being a triple-faced goddess, which fits well with Robert Graves’ writings about the maiden, mother, and crone symbology. However, that was written long after Hecate was mentioned in writings.

The pervasive imagery of darkness and the connection to the dead make it easier to place her into the crone role. Or perhaps Hecate’s wisdom could only be attributed to a crone instead of a younger goddess. Looking at older statues of Hecate, you will see her as a strong, powerful, and beautiful figure. Even in the triple form, she is seen as the same age in all forms. I hypothesize that the crone attribution could also be an intentional/unintentional dismissal of Hecate’s wisdom by patriarchy, as older women are often less valued in society.

While there are stories of Hecate having children, artists often depict this powerful goddess wearing a knee-length dress,  typically associated with a maiden or virgin. And Hecate acts as a mother-like figure to Persephone, rather than a crone. Sources describe Hecate as the parent of powerful beings, including Circe and Medea.

Hecate arrives in many forms and with many features, walking through art and stories that conjure visions of mystery and death, of travels between worlds and wonders. However, she becomes less concrete and increasingly complex in these various images. The psychopomp is familiar and perhaps mistaken for someone else. She is one of the nights and the darkness, traveling with great wisdom and magick.

When Demeter is wracked with grief and rage after her daughter, Persephone (Kore), is taken, Hecate arrives. It isn’t clear who took the maiden or where she was taken, so Demeter wanders the earth for nine days, and on the tenth day, Hecate meets her. Hecate has not seen where Persephone was taken, but she heard Persephone cry out. Hecate offers to help Demeter ask Helios for help, as Hecate knows Helios (the Sun) sees everything that happens in the world.

Later in the story, Hecate helps Persephone return to the upper world once an agreement is made with Hades to reside part of the year in the underworld with him and part of the year in the upper world with Demeter. The Eleusinian Mysteries feature Hecate as a guide for Persephone, assisting her on her annual journey down and back up to the upper world.

One of the most familiar images of Hecate is of her as the torch bearer. This imagery is seen in Greek pottery, where her hands are full of torches as she moves between worlds. Hecate carries two torches, representing the Evening and Morning stars, or Selene and Helios.

Whether because of associations with the underworld, death, and ghosts, or because of her possible birth by Nyx, Hecate is often described as night or part of night.

Hekate was sometimes identified with Iphigenia, a goddess worshipped by the tribes of the Tauric Chersonese (present-day Crimea on the Black Sea). According to Hesiod, Iphigenia was Agamemnon’s daughter, brought to the region by Artemis and transformed into the Tauric goddess.

While the spooky bits of Hecate are often the ones that attract interest and followers, they are not without depth or substance. Hecate’s ability to travel between worlds enables her to serve as a wise guide and necessary psychopomp. Her connection to the shades and shadows of death offers insight into the realms beyond and their continued relevance to the living.

In Greek mythology, godds of the underworld were called chthonic or chthonian. These deities were also associated with living under the Earth, as the Greek word khthónios is defined as ‘in, under, or beneath the earth.’ Hecate shares this descriptor with Hades, Persephone, Demeter, Hermes, the Furies, and others.

Hecate could help with necromancy (conjuring the spirits of the dead for magickal purposes and influence) as a Chthonic godd. You called upon her powers to traverse that which one could not navigate as one of the living. This ability echoes the story of Hecate as a mediator between the worlds in The Chaldean Oracles.

To honor Hecate, you might celebrate her at deipnon, the Greek word for ‘dinner,’ and related to Hecate’s Supper, which takes place on the dark moon or new moon. This is a rite of honoring and a rite of purification, appeasing any angry ghosts that might be in your home. It is said this supper can help to appease any souls that might want vengeance. In addition, this practice helps to honor Hecate and to make up for any wrongdoings against her, so she continues to offer her blessings. Some offeringsto give during this time include food scraps, garlic, eggs, or leeks. These are to be placed at a crossroads or represent a crossroads for Hecate. Or you can leave them at a place that has air, water, and land in one space.

To devote yourself to Hecate is to align yourself with the liminal. This is a place of mystery and magick, a place where torches light the way and show you what lies between what you know and what you may learn from her.

This script uses text and information from Pagan Portals: Hecate as researched, written, and edited by Irisanya Moon.

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/our-books/pagan-portals-hecate-goddess-magick-witchcraft

Irisanya Moon (she/they) is an author, witch, teacher, poet, and Reclaiming initiate who has practiced magick for 20+ years. She blends grounded, graceful, and radically authentic facilitation to inspire transformation and liberation at the personal and collective levels.