{"id":1044,"date":"2016-11-28T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T22:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2018-01-24T13:32:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T03:32:06","slug":"looking-back-on-my-beliefs-about-hekate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/11\/looking-back-on-my-beliefs-about-hekate.html","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back On My Beliefs About Hekate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Something I like to do is look back on my life, my choices, beliefs and opinions and consider how I have changed over time. \u00a0With that in mind I would often browse through my comments and discussions on my old forum\u00a0The Pagan Veil, which I closed down earlier this year. \u00a0Before I shut it down though I happened to copy a few specific comments of mine that I found interesting, figuring that I might be able to use them for a blog post at some point.<\/p>\n

This blog post features one of those comments. \u00a0I thought it would be fun to actually share with others how I have and haven\u2019t changed. \u00a0The following is my reply to a discussion asking about Patron deities, from June of 2011. \u00a0After that I will take a look at how my views have changed over the past 5 years, and how they haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I am not sure i ever had \u201cmoment\u201d when i felt my Goddess, I have been Pagan since i was a child, even though i had no name for my religion, and i have felt the presence of someone since the beginning, but i cannot remember a moment of knowing\u2026<\/p>\n

My Goddess is Hecate, ever since i saw her name, before knowing anything about her, I knew that was the name of the Essence which guided me in life\u2026<\/p>\n

Over the years as my life, my outlook, views, personality and lifestyle have changed, so has my belief in Her\u2026 It is like I have adapted her and changed her to suit my life and experiences, for a while i was worried how she would feel about my audacity in doing that\u2026<\/p>\n

I have since realised that I haven\u2019t changed her at all, but that as i have evolved in mind and soul, so my perceptions of her have grown and changed\u2026 I simply see more now than i did once\u2026<\/p>\n

I think the worry was more that my views on Hecate don\u2019t always mesh well with other peoples views on her, as I see her not only as the Queen of the Night, and the Dead\u2026 She is a protector of children, and i believe she perversely fits with the Maiden, Mistress and Mother aspects of the Pentadeia as well as her usual Crone aspect\u2026 For me Hecate is like the One of the Five (that would be the One of the Triple Goddess in translation), like a mix of them all together\u2026<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, i still see her more in her Crone aspect as Prytania Queen of the Dead, but i have come to realise that she has so much more to offer than only one aspect in the evolution of women\u2026<\/p>\n

As for the Gods, i don\u2019t really have a patron god, but i do love to work with Hermes\u2026 I\u2019ve never had more fun with a deity i swear\u2026 About the only thing that Hecate seems to be missing for me, is an amazing sense of humour\u2026 oh well, can\u2019t have everything lol\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First the practical stuff.\u00a0 Seemingly my Shift key was sticky, \u201cI\u201d is rarely capitalised \u2013 but perhaps I was just lazy. And then there is the ellipsis\u2026 It\u2019s an addiction\u2026 Hard to break\u2026 \u00a0Also, I no longer spell Her name with a C, Hecate is now Hekate, this comes from being a devotee of the Covenant of Hekate for the most part.<\/p>\n

Reading this old comment of mine I see something, odd. \u00a0Something false. \u00a0An outright lie. \u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, i still see her more in her Crone aspect as Prytania Queen of the Dead,<\/em>\u201d I wrote back then, and it was complete and utter bull.<\/p>\n

If you read an earlier part of the comment I actually explain the lie, \u201cI think the worry was more that my views on Hecate don\u2019t always mesh well with other peoples views on her, as I see her not only as the Queen of the Night, and the Dead\u2026\u201d<\/em> I told a lie, and even explained why I told the lie \u2013 without letting on that I was telling the lie. \u00a0I was willing, then, to admit to seeing Hekate as more than just the Crone. \u00a0But I wasn\u2019t yet bold enough to admit that I had never seen her as the Crone, and in fact I kind of found it upsetting when I saw her described as a Crone.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m fine with it now. \u00a0I can admit to the truth, because I am a grown up and can do things like that. \u00a0Also, it\u2019s widely known to Hekate devotees that she really isn\u2019t a Crone and never has been<\/a>. \u00a0But I didn\u2019t know back then that other people knew that.<\/p>\n

How stupid is that? Like, yeh, I am the only person that has experienced the truth of Hekate \u2013 no one else knows, therefore they will attack me with their big meany-head words. \u00a0How naive and self-absorbed. And I thought I was pretty self-aware. \u00a0I still do, and now I have to wonder if I really am as self-aware as I currently assume. \u00a0Will I look back on this post in five years time and roll my eyes at myself? \u00a0Seems rather likely actually.<\/p>\n

\"Hekate\"
Public domain via wikimedia commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back to the original post. \u00a0Honestly, I pretty much agree with everything I wrote back then, outside of the lie I told. \u00a0Hekate is, I know, the presence that has been with me for most of my life, perhaps all of my life \u2013 even before I knew Her name or read about Her. \u00a0When I did read Her name for the first time, I knew it was Her. \u00a0When I read about Her mythology, my certainty solidified.<\/p>\n

My outlook on Her and who She is has changed much over the years. \u00a0And yes, it is still changing since that original comment \u2013 not as much, not as quickly, not as vastly, but it is still changing and evolving. \u00a0My relationship with Her has changed over time, many times, not always in an upwards direction. \u00a0But we are currently moving up now. \u00a0This is not to say that we have had problems, so much as my life has had problems that has made me complacent and neglectful of my religious life.<\/p>\n

The Pentadeia perhaps requires some explanation \u2013 simply put it is an extension on the Triple Goddess. \u00a0The Pentadeia is a five-fold Goddess, covering the usual three aspects but also includes the pre-pubescent girl and the non-virgin non-mother. \u00a0I no longer prescribe to the Pentadeia personally, but if anyone is interested in it I did do a post on it back in 2012 and it is here on this blog<\/a>. \u00a0So I no longer place Hekate into the five-fold or Triple Goddess, because I don\u2019t believe in such myself any more. \u00a0So that part has also changed, quite a bit.<\/p>\n

And then the last bit of the comment. \u00a0The Gods. \u00a0Do I have a \u201cpatron\u201d God? \u00a0This is also still the same, I have no God who I am as close to as I am with Hekate. \u00a0But yes,\u00a0Hermes is still the God I have the best relationship with, who I pray to most, who I have fun with. \u00a0But I am also in the beginning of trying to get to know Prometheus<\/a>, so this may change. \u00a0I still haven\u2019t really found a lot of humour in Hekate. \u00a0Others say She has a pretty good sense of humour, dark and sarcastic \u2013 which is exactly my sense of humour, so who knows why I can\u2019t see it in Her.<\/p>\n

Things change, people change, even if in only subtle ways. I have changed many of my beliefs and opinions over the years, as I have gained knowledge and experience. \u00a0But sometimes things also stay the same, even through the changes. \u00a0No matter how much my beliefs and practices have changed, I have never let go of the Goddess I was originally devoted to. \u00a0I think perhaps I never will.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Things change, people change, even if in only subtle ways. I have changed many of my beliefs and opinions over the years, as I have gained knowledge and experience. But sometimes things also stay the same, even through the changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,46],"tags":[22,113,8,9,40,32,19,29,25],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-personal","tag-deities","tag-hecate","tag-hekate","tag-hellenismos","tag-nature-of-the-gods","tag-paganism","tag-personal","tag-polytheism","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking Back On My Beliefs About Hekate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Things change, people change, even if in only subtle ways. 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