Hecate
Hecate
She was the only to remain her powers, to become the triple-headed demon goddess regarded
by the ancient Greeks as the queen of darkness, death, sexual perversity and, most of all,
witchcraft. [Dictionary of the Occult. Page- 112] Hecate is the goddess of the no moon or
darkness [as opposed to Diana, goddess of the full moon].
Hecate, in Greek mythology, is a powerful goddess who became the patron of magic
and witchcraft. Hecate has three aspects: goddess of fertility and plenty; goddess of the
Moon; and queen of the night, ghosts and shades. In her moon-goddess aspect, she is often
part of a trinity with Selene and Diana/Artemis. Hecate possesses infernal power, roaming the
earth at night with a pack of red-eyed hell hounds and a retinue of dead souls. She is visible
only to dogs, and if dogs howl in the night, it means Hecate is about. She is the cause of
nightmares and insanity and is so terrifying that many ancients referred to her only as The
Nameless One. She is the goddess of the dark of the moon, the destroyer of life but also the
restorer of life. In one myth, she turns into a bear or boar and kills her own son, then brings
him back to life. In her dark aspect, she wears a necklace made of testicles; her hair is made
of writhing snakes which petrify, like the Medusa.
Hecate is the goddess of all crossroads, looking in three directions at the same
time. In ancient times, three headed statues of her were set up at many intersections and
secret rites were performed under a full moon to appease her. Statues of Hecate carrying
torches or swords were erected in front of homes to keep evil spirits at bay. Hecate has been
associated with many incantations, sacrifices and rituals throughout history. In ancient times,
people sought to appease her by leaving chicken hearts and honey cakes outside their doors.
On the last day of the month, offerings of honey, onions, fish and eggs were left at crossroads,
along with sacrifices of puppies, infant girls and she-lambs. Sorcerers gathered at crossroads
to pay homage to her and such infernal servants as the Empusa, a hobgoblin; the Cercopsis, a
poltergeist; and the Mormo, a ghoul.
One petition for her patronage was recorded in the 3rd century by Hippolytus in
Philosophumena:
Come, infernal, terrestrial, and heavenly Bombo [Hecate], goddess of the broad roadways,
of the crossroad, thou who goest to and fro at night, torch in hand, enemy of the day. Friend
and lover of darkness, thou who doest rejoice when the bitches are howling and warm blood
is spilled, thou who art walking amid the phantom and in the place of tombs, thou whose
thirst is blood, thou who dost strike chill fear into mortal hearts, Gorgo, Mormo, Moon of a
thousand forms, cast a propitious eye upon our sacrifice.
As the goddess of all forms of magic and witchcraft, Hecate was far more important
in antiquity than the mythical sorceress Circe, who was sometimes said to be her daughter, or
the witch Medea, also sometimes said to be Hecates daughter, who helped Jason steal the
Golden Fleece.
In modern Witchcraft, Hecate is usually associated with the lunar trinity, the Triple
Goddess. She rules over the waning and dark moon, a two-week period that is best for magic
that deals with banishing, releasing, planning and introspection. She is invoked for justice.
Mab, Queen [Mabb] Welsh folkloric figure. In Ireland the great goddess Medb was
diminished over time into a quasi-historical queen of the same name. In Welsh the same
process resulted in this Fairy Queen who offers only a hint of earlier divinity. Queen Mab is
best known from the reference in Shakespeares Romeo Juliet, where she appears as the
fairies midwife, a role traditionally played by a human victim of fairy kidnapping. Queen
Mabs other duty according to Shakespeare, was to bring night-mares once again, a role
rarely ascribed to Medb but common among mischievous fairies; her playfulness has led
some scholars to derive her name from the Welsh term for child, Mab. Which also appears in
the collection of myths called the Mabinogion. Shakespeare borrowed British and Welsh fairy
lore at will; although vivid, his portraits of mythological beings are not necessarily accurate.
[Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Page 300]
The Tuatha De Danaan [the people of the god whose mother is Dana] were also
recorded to possess great gifts of magic and druidism and after being defeated by the
Milesians were forced to establish an underground kingdom known as Otherworld or Sidh'e,
meaning Hollow Hills and became known as The Lords of the Sidh'e [pronounced 'Shee'] and
maybe it is from this that the stories of Faerie Folk originated. [Fairy being a derivative of
fey, relating especially to fate] The transcendent intellect of the Sidh'e later became known
amongst Druids as the Web of the Wise or Web of Wyrd.
Mab appears as the Queen of the Fairies, Titania in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer
Night's Dream' and Titania stems from the Greek pre-Olympian god race of the Titans and is
also associated with Diana the Moon Goddess. She appears differently in Romeo and Juliet.
Queen Mab known also in Celtic folklore as 'Queen Wolf; whose name means
mead' is widely considered to relate to the Mother aspect of The Triple Goddess expressing
love, protection, physical sexuality and fertility but also including the more darker sides such
as fierceness, revenge and war against her enemies.
[http://www.mabjohn.supanet.com/index2.html]
[Macbeth]