Hecate A5 Notebook

Hecate. Goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy. She was the only child of the Titanes Perses and Asteria from whom she received her power over heaven, earth, and sea. Hecate was also a goddess of the crossroads, the place where her offerings were made, and so the goddess guided her worshippers throughout the best paths. She is most often shown holding a pair of torches. Families believed that having Hecate in your home would ward off evil and bring in prosperity. In later periods she is depicted in triple form, either with three heads or three bodies with backs against each other, because she had traits of a young, mother and ancient woman. It was also believed that her three heads were so she could see in all three directions, the past, present and future. This led to crossroads being seen as sacred. I have illustrated that with her 4 arms, representing her three sides for right, middle and left. This leaves room for your imagination to interperate how the other forms look. Hecate has many familiars, most known of those being a dog and a serpent. All of her familiars have interesting metamorphoses stories, and I highly recommend you look more into that, if you're interested in learning more about her. She was largely seen as a protector, especially of those who had been shun or oppressed, those less conventional much like herself. The 30th of November is a day solely devoted to the goddess. Those wishing to honour her believe they can do so in several ways: adopting a dog, volunteering at a shelter or taking care of neglected places as it was common for the goddess to take care of those who were neglected or abandoned. The records of the goddesses worship are extremely old considering that Hecate is a very ancient goddess and her worship was also present in ancient Greece long before the arrival of the worship of the Olympic gods. It is said that if dog barking is heard during a ritual in which one works with her, Hecate is around.