Hekate, Breaking Boundaries

Hekate

New devotees often ask what should be done to follow Hekate properly. How should one understand the goddess, or what is the best way to approach her? And the truth is that although I have been asked this many times, it becomes harder and harder to answer. For me, the goddess is like a prism of infinite faces, She shows to each person exactly where their soul needs from her: as help, reflection, guidance, support, teaching, or mystery. I will not repeat here, nor speak at length about the Covenant of Hekate or any of its Sanctuaries with their TBs and KBs, which are certainly among the best paths nowadays. Some of us faced that question more than a decade—or even two—ago, with only one or two books available at the time, written in a language we could not understand, which we typed word by word into search engines to translate. I remain a faithful lover of the classical sources, but I also understand the importance of allowing the goddess to reveal herself in our own time, just as she wishes. Learning to listen to her without depending solely on third parties or filters to interpret her for us.

Perhaps it was the lack of access to sources other than the classical ones, or the limited world that shared with me my devotion to her. That made me bold enough from the beginning to take her as the Great Master.

It was thus that, only a month after beginning my first devotional period with her, I boarded a plane that almost by accident appeared on 29 January 2010. And so I arrived in Hellas, where I now live. I came searching for Hekate but found the other gods as well: Athena on the Acropolis seized my energy during that very first weekend. I still remember my surprise, back in Madrid, watching the video of my entry into the site and noticing a black dog sitting exactly where the statue of Hekate Epipyrgidia once stood.

But it was upon returning from that journey that Hekate shattered all my expectations. Andrea Angelos had just called a ritual in Madrid to celebrate her annual devotion—the very ritual after which she entrusted me with the care of the altar born in that ceremony. I began speaking with the only person in the forum where I used to share my experiences of magic and paganism at the time, someone who also seemed fond of Hekate. My son was very small and still woke me at night. I have always been an owl at heart, a lover of Artemis’ realm, so I used those wakeful hours to connect for a while. That is how I began to talk with Sheikah, an eclectic Wiccan devotee from Valencia who seemed utterly enchanted by Hekate.

I did not invite her—she and another friend decided to come to Madrid for Andrea’s ritual on their own. My friend suggested that perhaps she could stay at my place rather than pay for a hotel, which in Madrid can be outrageously expensive. When Sheikah told me, I thought it a little odd, but I said yes. It was not the first time I had hosted a pagan I had only met online, and until then, those had always been wonderful experiences. Coming from Hekate, what could go wrong? Preparing the trip turned us into inseparables. We spent two weeks speaking daily about the event, the offerings, what we would bring, and the signs Hekate was sending. She began appearing everywhere—in private messages, in gatherings, in the conversations: Sheikah did this, Sheikah said that, Sheikah will bring this…

She arrived a day before the ritual, together with A, a dear friend from the north of Spain. When the doorbell rang, I could not see her at first; she was hiding behind him. But when she stepped forward, I knew Hekate had brought to my door a person who would change my life forever. In that instant, I could never have imagined the dimension of it all. Yet, I pushed A aside, telling him to move because the one behind him was one of mine.

Much happened after that. Following the ritual, she returned with me to my home and stayed a few more days. We had time to process everything we had lived, and most importantly, someone to help me set up the altar and take the first steps. From the beginning, she wanted to be part of the group that would form around it. Andrea confirmed it was an excellent idea, and after bringing the ritual into my house, she told us we made an excellent team.

We raised the altar together for the first time the very next day. That evening she left, returning to Valencia, leaving me with the feeling that she had taken a part of me with her. She returned fifteen days later to work with the altar, and since then, I believe we have been apart a total of only three months. We fell in love. We directed together the first Temple of Hekate in Madrid and, three and a half years later, we married.

At our union ceremony, the first libation, the first hymn, and the first offering were to Hekate. And although I have spent the twelve years since then hearing that Hekate has no epithet for love, that she cannot be a match-making goddess, and that we should not have done it that way. I say that Hekate can be whatever she wishes. She is infinite, older than time itself. Epithets, classical sources, traditions: they are extraordinary guides for knowing her, for beginning, for reaching her, for going deeper… but personal experience and listening to what the goddess opens for you is just as vital. The path that Enodia shows you is yours, only yours. To walk it merely following the instructions given to others will keep you from understanding what only you yourself can understand and accomplish with your own steps.

In my view, epithets are of immense value, but they are no more than labels that make the gods more approachable to our humanity. So my advice is this: study the classical sources, immerse yourself in them, walk the path of the ancestors—but do not forget your own steps. Listen. Let it be she who guides you.

The goddess of thresholds, the guardian of mysteries, the goddess of the new moon, magic, sorceries, and seekers was the very one who guided the love of my life to the doorstep of my home. And as I have said before, while epithets and traditions are precious guides, the deepest devotion lies in the unique journey she opens within each of us.

Amaimaketon Basilian's Altar