The Full Moon Rite

Last night, under the yellow light of the rising Super Moon, I carried out the first Full Moon Rite from the Covenant of Hekate (CoH). The Rite itself, whilst simple in its structure, is completely felxible to suit the needs of any who would carry it out, also enabling people who are away from home for instance to mark the occasion.

In a similar vein to the Rite of Her Sacred Fires, carried out globally on May 27th 2010, the Lunar energies seek to connect all us Hekateans the world over. The outcome of the Rite is to connect with those energies whilst creating some creative votive offering to Hekate - which can be as simple or elaborate as ones imagination and means allow.

As I have recently moved into the smaller room in the house with my shrines and books, the first thing I had to do was set up my worship area. I decided to employ a deep, built-in cupbaord for this which I lined with simple black fabric. Once I'd fumigated the cupboard with frankincense, myrrh and a mix I had commissioned called "Grecian Temple", I began to assemble the shrine.

I've sort of unconsciously decided that the cupboard space is primarily going to be my Hekate shrine, with slight alterations and move around to accomodate larger festival and ritual celebrations. Currently Dionysos seems perfectly contect with his smaller space and I am looking into how both He and Pan would mind if they had to become "shrine buddies" - I'll be divining on this more in the future for some answers. For the main Hekate shrine though, I included all my usual items:

~My 3 Hekate statues
~Libation bowl and jug
~Incense burner

~Red central CoH ritual candle

~Red Cord (CoH devotee ritual item)
~Ritual knife and wand
~Hekate's Wheel plaque
~Small ornaments of a skull, key and owl

I also added, my Selenite sphere as I found this to be a fitting addition for the occasion. So once I had the shrine ready, I left a stick of Hekate incense burning and went for my pre-ritual shower. Once again, stepping into the shower (just before turning the water on) my ears were met by three, deep barks from a dog outside - something I'm encountering a lot recently prior to all my Hekatean workings. Once showered, I doned my robes and stephanos (decorated for the Spring Equinox) and got ready to start the Rite.

I played Jade Sol Luna's "Hekate Nyctipolus" in the background, set myrrh resin smouldering on the burner and began. I had decided that as this was the first time I have done this particular Full Moon Rite that I would stick to it almost to the letter, only adding in the offering of a small libation of wine, but in time I'm sure I'll adapt and customise as I feel the urge and necessity. As it was, I found the whole thing to be rewarding. With the light of the moon pouring in through the window, offset only by the flicker of candles I invoked My Lady and then prepared to create my votive offering.

Two nights previous I had finally decided on which of a few ideas I would go with, and that was a decorative mask. Having all the pieces I needed to hand, I set to work. Sipping Cianti and absent-mindedly chanting along to Jade's CD I completed all the base painting and started picking out detail. Feeling that I wouldn't complete the project in a single sitting, I closed the ritual and changed out of my robes. However, with the moonlight still emmanating from high above and the warmth of the wine starting to flow in my veins, I felt compelled to continue - and so I did.

In little over 4 hours, completed the mask and hung it as a focal point at the back of the shrine, thus:

I was more than over the moon with the outcome, even though it was completely removed from the initial idea I'd had going into the ritual. The time seemed to flow really well and I didn't make hardly any mistakes. If I had to put a name to my creation then the title "Key-Bearing Queen of the Whole Cosmos" does keep springing to mind, what with the silver crescent moons in the headress, jewels and veil with accents like stars, the silver key central on the forehead and the colours of black and night blue.

May Hekate be as pleased with my offering to Her as I am to have crafted it for Her!

O Hekate Luna! Ego Reginum Triviarum Honoro!

Seven Days of Hekate: Dedication

Friday and Saturday were important Hekate-wise as this was the time I chose to carry out my Rite of the Red Cord, to personally finalise my acceptance into the Covenant of Hekate. In part the Rite was similar to the Rite of the Devotee of Her Sacred Fires which is carried out prior to applying for membership but finally the "mystery" surrounding the red cord detailed in that ritual was finally revealed in a simple yet profoundly powerful way.

On preparing for the Rite I was very excited when a dog started barking outside; it was one of those hearty, echoing barks which lasted for some minutes and I took this to be a good sign. During, I had "Hekate Nytcipolus" playing in the background (and I will be reviewing this CD in my next post) and because I had the house to myself I could turn it up a little louder so it really added to the ambience of the task at hand.

I often find it hard to recall details sometimes in recalling ritual as I can get a little lost in myself and also due to the nature of the "members only" dedication I won't be going into specifics regarding what I did.

On the flip side to that, I can share with you something I did to add a personal element to my Dedication and that was to get a tattoo to mark the occasion (and myself). Now I've already had a tattoo of Hekate on my right forearm which was completed by the wonderfully talented Donna at Infinite Ink but upon being accepted into the CoH and recieving the Rite of the Red Cord to carry out, I made the choice to hold off carrying it out and booked myself in to have something small done.

I took the symbol of the Covenant and the Orphic Oath, two things which I have found resonate strongly with me on a personal level, and asked for the symbol line drawing to be stylised a little whilst still keeping the specific and important details such as the 3 waves and the seven-rayed stars.

It took just over 2hrs to complete and I won't deny that it hurt a little more than my other tattoos but it was all worth it and pain is a transitional thing, I could feel it almost melting into me and though uncomfortable at times I knew I was doing this for Hekate and I endured it as part of showing my dedication to Her.

This marks a new leg of my journey, the start of a new direction on my Path and I'm pleased to know that Hekate is within and without, guiding me along the way for I am a child of earth and starry heaven!

Seven Days of Hekate: #1

This post marks the start of a little project I want to carry out over the next (hopefully) seven days straight. In each post I'll either muse, share, explain create something for the blog which I hope you will find interesting.

Today I want to talk about the little travel shrine I put together to bring with me to Cornwall whilst I visited my parents. As my main shrine has once again expanded and I wouldn't like to risk transporting my larger statues for fear of them getting damaged, I looked at putting together something portable and convenient that I would be able to take with me on this and any other trip away from home.

Yes I know I don't really need to have something like this but I find it is handy (for me anyways) to have something to focus on, to go through my little ritual "habits" even if on a small scale. There's something devotional about setting up your little piece of the Sacred Divine once you've settled in; just that little extra homely touch.

So, firstly I found a playing card box I've had for a couple of years. It is sturdy wood with a nice floral carving on the lid. It did have a wooden divide inside, but I removed this to give the inside a larger space.

Next I got a black silk square which would act as both an altar cloth and a little bit of protection for the other items that would go in. I then stumbled upon a lovely little pewter figure of Hekate I had otherwise forgotten about hiding in another box along with a small skull icon, an old key and a piece of Chiastolite, the "cross stone", which put me in mind of a crossroads.

I found a small incense cone holder made from wood with copper and mirror-mosiac pieces that I thought would make a lovely little pedestal for the Hekate figurine and I also took the little metal Anubis dog from my main altar, which I use to represent Hekate's hound(s). Finally I took a card from my original Tarot Deck - the Moon, which depicts triple Hekate; an image I've always liked.

Bundled all together it was a perfect - and powerful - little collection of items. I also brought two LED votive "candles" that, although they don't fit in the box, add a subtle glow of candlelight whilst being safe to use (especially in hotels where lighting incense and candles could be risky). Just to cap things off I popped in a vial of Hekate oil and my Hekate Witches Ladder.

I'm really pleased with the way I've laid it out on the top of the chest of drawers in my room and despite its simplicity, it definately feels like I've brought a little bit of Hekate with me! As a sidenote, I'm currently thinking of a way to make a sort of diorama-style shrine out of the main box, which would be used both as a centre piece and potentially as the shrine itself. Once I get started on this project I'll document the progress here, naturally.

I'm not 100% sure what the next entry will be, these Seven Days posts are going to be a little more off the cuff, so to speak, but rest assured it'll be something undoubtedly Hekatean!