top of page

Interview with Hedera Omoiophis

Hello fellow devotees! it's been a while but I'm excited to share with you the amazing interviews that we have received from devotees all over the world.

So go and grab some coffee and tea and prepare to discover how our fellow devotees experience the Goddess.


EB: Please, share a bit about you. Anything you'd like the readers to know about who you are.

H: This is with great pleasure that I participate to this project of interviews! So, about myself, I am French but living at the border of France and Germany and considering the border region as my home, working in France, living most of the time in Germany. I am teacher of history and geography in a secondary school (collège) and I am having a doctoral degree in Ancient roman history. My field of research is linked to ancient roman religion (public and private various types of practices), the role of women in religion and how they experience citizenship through it.


EB: How did Hekate enter your life?

During my PhD, which was a very tough period of my life, I got very sick, diagnosed with anxiety depression. I literally went through what I felt as hell. For 3 months, I barely slept more than 3 hours per night, sometimes not at all and my nights were only filled by horrible anxiety. It was physical more than mental, something I had never experienced, that I was not able to control. I was feeling imprisoned, cursed to not get rest, sleep and peace. Being sleep deprived drives mad, and I also knew it can eventually lead to death. At some point, I couldn't eat anymore. I nearly didn't eat for 2 weeks. Being already rather a slender person, I lost a lot of weight.

Before all of this, it had been many years that I was involved in witchcraft and goddesses practices. I knew who Hekate was, but I had never tried to approach her specifically. I didn't feel close or appealed to Her. Yet, on one special night, I clearly felt Her. It was in November and I felt as if She « pushed me » in the deepest depth of torment.  I realized afterwards that this night had been a dark moon, which I didn't know when this happened. I really had no reason to first think of Hekate as I had not developed any specific relationship to Her. Yet I just « knew » it was Her.


Months went by, as I described. When I reached the worst, not sleeping, not eating, having the body constantly shaking, feeling helpless in a foreign country, I began at the same time receiving some signs. I saw the post of a FB contact, mentioning the book Dark Nights of the Soul, written by Thomas Moore. I felt a call and bought it. I read the chapter about depression, based on Hekate as goddess and archetype. It resonated deeply, deeply in myself. In the same time, with the few energy I still had, I began looking for a psychiatrist able to speak english. Through all of that, it seemed that I was highly guided and protected, for honestly, I found completely by chance the best doctor I could imagine: patient, kind, and highly competent. He listened to me as much as I needed, he reassured me, and he found right away the medication I needed. It took a few weeks to recover, but I know that this saved me.



Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore.
Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore.


During all that period, I felt Hekate more and more around me and I truly felt that She had guided me through this darkness to find the proper therapist, and to find in myself the strength to return to the light. That was somehow paradoxical as I had first felt Her pushing me in hell. Yet the more I was reading about Her and the more all paradox disappeared for me. I knew that She (and also my ancestors) had protected me, that I had to go through this for some reasons. Indeed, from that dark time in my life and my recovery bloomed so many wonderful things: I finished properly my doctoral thesis, I embraced life which a renewed joy and pleasure of living, and on the Hekatean path, I met incredible people, lived most sacred and powerful experiences. Never again I could want to fall in such a hell, yet I know how much I owe to this period of my life. I feel  more grateful than ever for so many things, of among them, the special relationship I have since then with Hekate, who saved me by lighting my way and showing me the direction out of hell. This has been one of the strongest life changing experience I had in my life



EB: When did you first hear about Her?

H: The first time I heard of Her was probably around 11, when I was fond of greek mythology and fascinated by the moon goddess, especially Selene.


EB: Are there any particular books or articles that resonated with you and defined your relationship with Hekate? If yes, which ones?

H: As I already mentioned, Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore, a Jungian psychoanalyst, contains an incredible chapter about Hekate which was played a huge role for me. I would advise it to anyone who goes through depression and wants to call on the help of Hekate during the process of healing.

The other most important book I would absolutely recommend is Jack Grayle's Hekataeon. It is a modern devotional, magical and initiatory book for anyone who wants to deeply commit to Hekate. It is not an attempt to recreate ancient actual rituals (which we don't know about) but it is based on a strong knowledge of ancient sources and the way they are used in most powerful. I tried practices from many authors or paths but the rites from this book have proven for me the most powerful and making the strongest contact with Hekate. My practice is not only defined by the rites from this book but most of how I approach Hekate (in many ways) follows what I learned through it.



Hekataeon by Jack Grayle
Hekataeon by Jack Grayle


EB: How did you find out Hekate's call? from that moment onwards... how did you start a "relationship" with Her? (Through daily devotions, for example).

H: As soon as I regained better health, I decided to create an altar for Hekate as felt I was bound to a lifetime of gratitude. I began having there candles and incense burning. I offered on a regular basis also prayers, sometimes other plant or food offerings. I began looking on the internet for specific modern traditions centered on Hekate, and this is how I discovered CoH. I then decided to make the Rite of Dedication and become a member of CoH. It has been my very first step to express my will to dedicate myself to Hekate and willingly keep devotion to Her.


EB: How do you feel your practice has evolved through time?

H: I mainly use the Hekataeon as the basis of my individual practices, and I also got used to creating my own rituals and practices as time passed. The minimum for me is lighting candles and incense to my altar and making a prayer or invocation according to the circumstances. It can be short and improvised or longer and based on the orphic hymn of Hekate or other ancient or modern prayers. I recite many of Hekate's epithets to start calling Her, and in the end, I ask for Her blessings, which are always for me: courage in my day and peace in my night, to know what is good and right and the ability to do act in this way.


EB: Are you part of a "tradition"? Is there anything related to this tradition that includes Hekate in your practice?

H: I tried practices from different sources and traditions. I participated to different types of rituals, like those organised by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule in Le Chalet Crépuscule (Belgium), where I keep going going every time a gathering is organised. I met some amazing people there and I feel belonging to them and what is oganized there. There is a sense of sacred, both deeply ancient and chaotic, and of communion lived there that is absolutely unique and to which I feel « at home ».

Of course as a member if CoH, I also celebrate the Rite of Her Sacred Fires (which has been several times held in le Chalet Crépuscule as well).


EB: Do you celebrate Deipnon? How do you celebrate it?

H: I do celebrate Deipnon but most of the time I keep it simple. I don't always have the time to make a full ritual but the regularity of doing it seems to me the most important. It is a monthly specific devotion to Hekate and even when I keep it simple, with offerings of food or incense with some specific hymn, it is important for me to remember be aware that it is a special day of devotion in the months. For me, the Deipnon is like a regular meeting with Hekate. I sometimes feel more or less close to Her as it is like any relationship, there are times when we feel closer than other. But having this monthly meeting ensures that there is always one specific moment in the month when I will come with the will of being deeply connected to Hekate. It is like a privilege space and time of crossroads when my relationship with Her is nurtured as I give my own offerings to Her.


EB: And on another note, why you decide to become a member of the CoH?

H: I wanted to be part of a larger community and tradition and it was for me one of the first steps to commit to Her and to give to my gratitude the shape of an official commitment.


EB: Is there anything else about yourself, your practice, or your Sanctuary that you'd like to add?

H: During the period of sickness I mentioned, as I was also writing my thesis, I was working on the Homeric Hymn of Demeter. I re-read that hymn in a new way. I identified very much with the despair of Demeter, left wandering the earth during nine days and nights without sleeping nor eating, with no-one for helping her. But on the tenth day, it is Hekate who came to her with Her torches and offered what Her help. I could deeply feel the compassion of Hekate, who is the only one who came to help. That has been the same for me and for this reason, on the first page of my doctoral thesis, I wrote this quote from the Homeric Hymn. It was also a dedication of this doctoral thesis to Hekate, without whom I could not have finished writing it. For this reason, the compassionate (yet also terrible) side of Hekate is a side I feel very close to. That way, I am especially honoring Her as Hekate Soteira and Hekate Atalos (Compassionnate), also as Borborophorba (Eater of Filth).


Near Rome, in Aricia, there was an ancient sanctuary dedicated to Diana as Trivia, who had her sacred holiday on August 15th. I already had some connection with Diana so I feel also close to Hekate as Trivia (of the three ways), the name which the Romans were usually using for Her. An ancient stele of Diana was found in a forest of the region where I live, so I also often go honoring Diana both as Diana Mistress of the Forest and Hekate Trivia in this place. Maybe someday, I consider organising public rites there for the Deipnon or Noumenia. Since long, I think of creating a shrine or a sanctuary but it also requires time and I wouldn't do anything unless I am sure I would be able to have enough time for all what it involves. But I do hope that this day will come.



Hedera, we are deeply grateful with you for sharing your inspiring story with us.


1 Comment

Rated 0 out of 5 stars.
No ratings yet

Add a rating
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

I really enjoyed this interview it's great to get another's perspective and experience with Hekate.

Like

©2022 by The Covenant of Hekate.  All rights reserved. 
Articles & photos © as stated,otherwise gifted in good faith to the Covenant of Hekate.  
You are welcome to share public links to pages on this site with others for non-commercial purposes.  If you wish to quote or reuse images shared on this site you have to first obtain written permission from the Covenant of Hekate or the copyright holders.  

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
bottom of page