Hecate is the Greek goddess of the crossroads

Hecate is the Greek goddess of the crossroads. Properly pronounce her name is "E-CA-TA" or "e-CO-ta, the H is silent. She stands at the crossroads of your life and protects you from taking the wrong road. She is the High Priestess of the underworld in her aspect in the story of the abduction of Phersephone. She will help you embrace the darkness of self. In the beginning all is darkness the void. We begin life in the womb in darkness and are born to the light.

Before the God of Christianity said “let there be light.” there was only chaos.

. Then there is the darkness of the subconscious, the unknown that we all must embrace to know ourselves. This is one of Hercate’s aspects to as the Maiden Goddess. For she is a triple Goddess. She is a moon Goddess, the Goddess of the dark side of the moon.; symbolizing the parts of our self we cannot see. That she has three faces is significant. For she is the Goddess of the crossroads which has four ways, so she can show you that fourth way, the way that will bring you to know yourself and, in knowing yourself ,you will find joy.

She is a moon Goddess, she was described as shining or luminous. She can see in the dark for she always carries a lantern. She carries on her shoulder an owl for wisdom. She can see past, present and future and bring one through the dark night of the soul. Because she is the Goddess of darkness she brings answers in dreams, and through intuition.

In the earliest times no one knows quite where her story began but she was an earth Goddess. She was the helped women give birth and protected and helped raise the children. She was in this aspect considered the Goddess of the wilderness thus the crossroads to unknown places.

Most of us are not very comfortable with change and new beginnings, however life makes demands on us to change. The more we try to control things and hang onto sameness the more harshly things are ripped away. Hercate encourages us to flow with the river of life, to face the parts of our self within where we would rather not look. She says, “Fear not you would not be given this challenge if you did not have the power to meet it.“ She takes your hand and leads you through the hidden meanings and intuitively helps you find your way.

As her story evolved she became the Halloween witch. . Her nose is crooked with a huge wart on the end, hair grows out of this wart. As aging and dying are ugly things to be hidden in the Western world it interests me that the crone aspect of the Goddess would be turned into something ugly and pathetic. Another place in the dark we dare not look. Hecate can be a great help as we grow old and die. She will go with us into the underworld and prepare us with initiation for rebirth for she is the Goddess of death and rebirth. Hecate played a role that, in contemporary times, we would describe as a caregiver helping the elderly make a smooth and painless passage into the next life and staying with them, if need be, in the otherworld to help until they are reborn into a new life.

Since she is the protector of women more women used her powers in this regard then men. It is hardly surprising that a woman who needed to make a trip alone at night would say a brief prayer to Hecate to seek her protection. During Medieval times, pagans were being tortured based on their belief in the Goddess. Patriarchy reigned and the fear of feminine power caused the Church to demonize Hecate. She was made infamous as the crone; old, wrinkled, ugly, warts protruding from her nose and chin, mysterious, dark and loathsome. Many mistakenly call Her the destroyer, but She is not for if you destroy something, that something is forever gone. She is a transformer, she allows us to let go and recreate ourselves. She challenges us to change, to live our dreams and goals. She will show you the way so you do not have to retrace your steps. We cannot have our dreams until we let go and make room for the new.

Copyrighted 2004 Judi Singleton