Showing all posts tagged Hekate

In art, sorcerer's workbench

From the Sorcerer’s Workbench: Samhain 2023

Author Satyr MagosPosted on


Hail and well met, friends. Thank you for joining me as I finally and proudly present my inaugural Samhain Line: six new designs and three unique pieces of jewelry perfect for spooky season.

Some of these have been in the works for a long time. Some of them were designed exclusively for this line. All of them are fantastic and much-needed additions to the Sorcerer’s Workshop. Would you like a tour?

Devotional Image of Persephone

An image of Persephone embracing her three aspects of Dread Queen (the skull), goddess of spring and flowers (the flowering vines), and patron of the immortalizing Eleusinian Mysteries (the skull’s mushrooms crown).

I received this image during an oracular session this spring, not long before Beltane, and is the flagship design of my inaugural Samhain Line.

The pendant is one inch across and 3/16ths of an inch thick, solid and made to last, with a loop that can be used to attach a cord or chain or any kind of bail.

The pendant is available in sterling silver or red bronze.

These pendants are not consecrated. That is your responsibility to perform in accordance with your traditions.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1573405735/dread-queen-persephone-devotional

Devotional Image of Baphomet

A devotional image in my signature style, featuring my take on Eliphas Levi’s iconic image of Baphomet as the Goat of Mendes.

To me, Baphomet is the queer and genderqueer god/dess of witchcraft and chaos magick. Their sexual and gender ambiguity is the point. Their theriomorphic imagery is the point. The fact that they are on the one hand a newly-revealed divinity and on the other hand share imagery with gods more ancient than the written word are the point. Their passage through modern Gnosticism as a vision of Sophia and/or the God Above God is the point.

* Talisman is one inch in diameter with an image on each side.

* Available as a pendant with an upeye suitable for a 3mm chain or with three rings suitable for stringing as a rosary piece.

* Available in sterling silver, shibuichi (a 3:1 copper:silver art metal alloy), yellow brass, or red bronze.

This piece is not consecrated. That is your responsibility to do in accordance with your tradition or gnosis.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1577711551/devotional-image-of-baphomet-samhain

Rattlesnake Vertebrae Earrings

Rattlesnake vertebrae earrings cast in silver or bronze with silver earrwires. The third design from my inaugural Samhain Line, perfect for goths, witches, and other lovers of dark vibes. Molds were taken from genuine rattlesnake vertebrae.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1569028490/rattlesnake-vertebra-earrings-in-silver

Tourmaline and Sterling Silver Rattlesnake Vertebrae Bracelet

The fourth new design in my inaugural 2023 Samhain Line, this bracelet is made of rough tourmaline beads and cast sterling silver rattlesnake vertebrae strung on silver wire with a hook clasp. These materials and design are ideal for grounding and protection magic, and as a stylish witchy statement piece.

The bracelet is available at lengths from approximately six inches to nine inches. The pictured exemplar with eight tourmaline beads and four pairs of vertebrae is nine inches long; shorter bracelets will consist of fewer beads.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1584459135/tourmaline-and-sterling-silver

Seal of Astaroth

A 1 inch coin depicting the seal of Astaroth as described in the Lesser Key of Solomon, better known as the Goetia. In the words of the anonymous author: “The 29th spirit in order is Named Astaroth, he is a Mighty & strong duke and appeareth in [the] forme of an unbeautifull angel, ridding on an Infernall like dragon, and carring in his right hand a viper (you must not lett him come to neare yu least he doe yu damage by his stinking Breath. Therefore ye Exorcist must hold ye Magicall Ring nere to his face and yt will defend him he giveth true answares of things present past & to come & can discover all secreets; he will declare willingly how ye spirits fell, if desired, & ye reason of his own fall. He can make men wounderfull knowing in all Liberall siences; he rules 40 Legions of spirits, his seal is this, wch weare as a Lamen before yu, or else he will not obey you.”

The front of the coin bears the image of the seal. The reverse may be polished or textured.

Use this talisman seal in your conjurations — traditional or modern — or as the core materia in a prosperity bag.

Work with demons at your own risk.

Each piece is hand-made to order and will include unique variations and blemishes.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1571906436/astaroth-seal-goetic-coin-talisman

Seal of Asmoday

A 1 inch coin depicting the seal of Asmoday as described in the Lesser Key of Solomon, better known as the Goetia. In the words of the anonymous author: “The 32d spirit in order is called Asmoday. he is a great king, strong & powerfull; he appeareth wth 3 heads, whereof ye first is like a Bull The second like a Man, The Third like a Ram, [he appeareth also] with a serpents Taile, Belching or vomitting up flames of fire out of his mouth his feet are webed like a Goose, he sitteth on an Infernall dragon carring a Launce and a flagg in his hands, he is ye first & chifiest under ye power of Amaymon, & goeth before all others: when the Exorcist hath a mind to call him, lett it be abroad, and lett him stand on his feet all ye Time of action, wth his cap of [off], for if it be on, Amaymon will deceive him, and cause all his doeing to be bewrayed, But as soone as ye Exorist [Exorcist] seeth Asmoday in ye shape aforesaid, he shall call him by his Name, saying, thou art Asmoday, & he will not deny it; and by & by he will bow down to ye grownd &c he giveth ye Ring of vertues he teacheth ye art of Arithmitick, geomitry, Astronomy, and all handicrafts36b absolutly; he giveth full and True answares to yr demands, he maketh a man Invisible, he showeth ye place where Treasures layeth, and guardeth it if it be among ye Legions of Amaymon, he governeth 72 Legions of Inferiour spirits, his seal is thus, to be made and worne as a Lamen before [thee] on your Breast.”

The front of the coin bears the image of the seal. The reverse may be polished or textured.

Use this talisman seal in your conjurations — traditional or modern — or as the core materia in a prosperity bag.

Work with demons at your own risk.

Each piece is hand-made to order and will include unique variations and blemishes.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1586084599/asmoday-seal-goetic-coin-talisman

Unique Devotional Image of Baphomet with Mexican Fire Opal

A one-of a kind image of Baphomet cast from a hand-carved wax, with a Mexican fire opal set over their head as the flame of gnosis. This image is, of course, a take on Eliphas Levi’s iconic drawing of Baphomet as the Goat of Mendes. It is also the product of my years of work with the god/dess, who is to me a deeply queer figure of creation – both creator and created.

To me, Baphomet is the queer and genderqueer god/dess of witchcraft and chaos magick. Their sexual and gender ambiguity is the point. Their theriomorphic imagery is the point. The fact that they are on the one hand a newly-revealed divinity and on the other hand share imagery with gods more ancient than the written word are the point. Their passage through modern Gnosticism as a vision of Sophia and/or the God Above God is the point.

The pendant is heavy, and the stone set in strong prongs.

The pendant is one inch across an eight of an inch thick.

I would be happy to add a jumpring to the arch bail at the top if you would prefer that.

It is not yet consecrated. That is your responsibility.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1577722019/unique-devotional-image-of-baphomet-with

Unique Gorgoneion Prayer Beads and Protection Talisman

Prayer beads featuring my signature Gorgoneion protection talisman cast in bronze and strung on bronze wire with jet and tiger iron beadsbeads and bronze rattlesnake vertebrae and a bronze sword. These prayer beads were made in trance according to the whims of Spirit and will never be exactly reproduced.

The image of a Gorgon’s face, as seen on the front of the talisman, was a common protection symbol throughout ancient Greece and the Hellenistic world. The back of the talisman bears the names of the three attested Gorgons – Medusa, Sthenno, and Euryale – in Greek. This particular image was done in the Attic style, based particularly the Gorgon images found painted in kylix cups from the 4th Century BCE.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1568402114/unique-gorgoneion-prayer-beads-and

Unique Hekate Prayer Beads with Bronze Talisman and Key, Genuine Rattlesnake Vertebrae, Tiger Iron, Jet, and Amber Beads

The third and final of the unique pieces in my inaugural 2023 Samhain Line of jewelry.

Prayer beads featuring my signature Eye and Six Hands devotional Hekate talisman and wardrobe key cast in bronze, strung on bronze wire, with genuine rattlesnake vertebrae and beads of tiger iron, jet, and amber. The total bead count is: six 8mm tiger iron beads, ten 10mm rattlesnake vertebrae, thirty-two 3mm jet beads, fourteen 2mm jet beads, and fifteen 2mm amber beads, for a total of seventy-seven beads.

The beads were chosen and strung as the spirit moved me: six sets of nine beads interspaced with five sets of three, with seven beads and a key hanging from the central talisman.

The central talisman is a one inch bronze circle bearing an image of Hekate on one side — “O Six Hands crowning a flaming eye,/ Extending in every direction;” and her crossroads sigil, name, and epithets in Greek — “Hekate, Atalos, Apotropaia, Soteira, Rexichthon” — on the reverse.

The key is two and a half inches long.

The beads are thirty-six inches long with a six and a half inch dongle.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1584458759/unique-hekate-prayer-beads-with-bronze

In witchcraft

Working the Hekataeon: Book Two: White Flame

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

Coming to the Book of White Flame after The Call was a bit of a shock. Every move in the first book had come with a ritual: the first nine nights were strictly prescribed, and if the second nine were a little more of a waiting game, there was a chant to go with each stage of the iynx ritual. The Book of White Flame is more of a litany culminating in a ritual. Aradia and I needed more structure than that.

Our solution was to bring the general ritual format of The Call forward. That was four years ago, now, so of course my memories of the details are a little vague. But I remember that each night when we sat down to do the work, we washed our hands with lustral waters and cinnamon, lit a candle and incense, and sang the consecration song. We then drew two versions of the sigil: one on a small slip of paper that we burned at the end of the ritual, as with the crossroads sigil in The Call; and one in a notebook which we mediated on and colored over as we tried to memorize the sigil and its uses.

Throughout the month, I gathered supplies to make our Ladders. I was broke as shit, then, and had to cheep out: using thinner wire and much thinner chain than was ideal. But I was able to cast up silver talismans for use as the central “coin”, some of the first exemplars of my Eye and Six Hands devotional talisman. In the last days of the sigil-study, I brough Aradia and Chirotus (who was working the Hekataeon at the same time) together and showed them how to string the beads on wire to form the chain.

In preparation for the rite, we made a special trip out to a sacred site where we knew that we could find a honey locust tree with exceptionally savage thorns. We took garlic from our farm share for our cloves, and raided our stash of local honey that I had originally purchased to make into mead.

When we had finished our study of the sigils, and the moon waxed to full, Aradia and I went to Alvianna’s property, where we could perform the ritual at a crossroads without fear of attracting police attentions. We had made arrangements in advance, so that we could come, and do what prep needed to be done there, without breaking the silence that preceds the ritual.

The consecration was an ordeal. Keeping silent for the hours preceding the ritual. Kneeling on the concrete. Holding the ladder in our mouths while we performed the ritual. Releasing the ladder slowly when the time came, not just vomiting it out.

There’s a lot I don’t remember about the night. Partly, that’s because it was almost four years ago, now. Partly that’s because I was so deeply entranced. What I do remember is that the Ladder felt alive and powerful almost immediately, and that the garlic cloves all sprouted while we were performing our rituals.

Then I went on an epic road trip. In the midst of searching for appropriate skulls with which to begin the Book of the Red Blade, we lost track of the work. I even forgot the names I had given to both my (original) iynx and my Ladder, and lost wherever I had written them down.

Then, one day in 2020, while I was doing my daily work with my other familiar spirits, the name – or, at least A name – of my Ladder came back to me. I began working with it more extensively. And, like all my familiars, what the spirit wanted was not just offerings but work to do. So, when something was not clearly in the purview of one of my other familiars, or when I wanted Hekate’s backing for a thing, I turned to the Ladder spirit and rite. It also offered its services in other means: speciffically, it offered to aid my work with Aidan Wachter’s Black Book, as I was struggling to resume that after having stopped and started. As such, it has become a familiar spirit somewhat greater in scope and intimacy than it was intended to be, and – as I am finally incorporating the Black Book into habitual ritual practice, I am working with my Ladder spirit almost daily.

As such, I can call my Hekate’s Ladder my greatest success with the work of the Hekataeon so far.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

To Work the Hekataeon: Book Two: White Flame

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

The second book of the Hekataeon is a month-long study of the epithets of Hekate, each with an associated sigil and ritual with the Devotee is now authorised and empowered to use. Once that month of study has been completed, the Devotee constructs and, on a night of the full mooon, ensouls a second ally: a set of prayer beads called Hekate’s Ladder. At the end of this work, the Devotee is awarded the title of Adept.

The Book of White Flame

The Book of White flame does not give any guidance for how to approach the study of the twenty-seven sigils.

When we did the work, Aradia and I pulled forward the ritual frame from The Call: each night we sat down to do the work, washed our hands with lustral waters and cinnamon, lit a candle and incense, and sang the consecration song. We then drew two versions of the sigil: one on a small slip of paper that we burned at the end of the ritual, as with the crossroads sigil in The Call; and one in a notebook which we mediated on and colored over as we tried to memorize the sigil and its uses.

Several of our compatriots who have joined us in the work combined their study of the epithets with their construction of the ladder: adding a bead each night as they mediated on the relevant sigil.

Hekate’s Ladder

Constructing your Hekate’s Ladder requires a few tools in addition to its raw materials. You will need:

  • two pairs of flat plyers – I prefer chain-nose for this task, but that’s extra finnicky of me
  • one pair of round nose or round-flat plyers
  • one pair of end-cutter plyers
  • 28-36 inches of wire (depending on how finely you work and what size of beads you choose
  • one standard strand of beads – I recommend 8mm in size
  • 6 rattlesnake vertebrae – I recommend 8mm to 12mm in size (these are increasingly difficult to come by)
  • one bell flower between 20mm and 30mm (you fill find these most easily by searching for “tassel caps”)
  • one key (antiques are stylish but not required)

The materials for the ritual are much simpler:

  • three cloves of garlic
  • three thorns large enough to pierce a clove of garlic
  • sandalwood incense (cones or powder and a charcoal briquette)
  • honey
  • spring water
  • a crossroads where you can work uninterrupted and with dirt to which you can pin the cloves of garlic
  • your assembled Hekate’s Ladder

As you chose and gather your materials, always keep in mind that they are going into your mouth. They are going to be in your mouth for longer than you think. It’s going to be weird. It may be gross. It’s going to be more of a challenge than you anticipate. Make sure they’re small enough to go into your mouth, but still big enough to work with.

The Ladder is consecrated on “a night of the full moon” (a phrase I usually take to meen “the night when the sun-moon oposition is perfected, the night before, and the night after”.), with no more speciffic timing given. It would be very easy to plan one’s progression through the Book of White Flame so that they consecrate their ladder on the twenty-ninth night, but it is also not necessary.

Even more than in constructing the iynx, you must plan ahead for this ritual: chose a time and a place where you can work without interruption and without speaking aloud. Figure out how you are going to fit the Ladder in your mouth and hold it there while you do the ritual. It is harder than it sounds like. If you have any taste/texture aversions, this will almost certainly set them off.

The consecration of your Hekate’s Ladder is an ordeal rite.

It is also, even more explicitly than the iynx, a birth. Sit with that for a while before hand and decide how much you want to lean into that metaphor. Even if the answer is “none”, the Ladder and its spirit are still a living, named entity that you and Hekate have made together.

On Acquiring the Materials

Barebones sets of jeweler’s or craft plyers can be found at almost any craft store or big box retailer. Nicer tools exist, but unless you’re going into professional jewelry there is no need to pay $25-$50 per plyer when you could pay $10-$20 for a set that contains all you need and more.

The bead sizes that I recommend are a compromise between “large enough to hold and work with easily, both during construction and use” and “small enough to fit in your mouth when you consecrate the piece”. The same logic should apply to your choice of key. Etsy is probably your best source of beads, if you know how to tell fake from real by the listing. If you can’t tell, I recommend finding a jeweler you trust, not going to a bead or craft store.

The example photo in the Hekataeon looks like unbleached rattlesnake vertebrae and bleached “generic” (read: bovine) bone. I use bleached rattlesnake vertebrae and black volanic rock beads for most of my Ladders, but have used a wide assortment of other materials to good effect. At the time of this writing, genuine rattlesnake vertebrae of a reasonable size are very difficult to find. As the text suggests that even a rope of knots would be a suitable substitute if the Devotee is unable to construct the ladder as written, any bead substitution would be acceptable.

If you would like to be able to wear your Hekate’s Ladder as a necklace, unless you have an extremely small head and neck, you will need to add at least four inches of spacer beads and probably a clasp.

I sell Hekate devotional talismans and cast replicas of rattlesnake vertebrae suitable for this work, as well as fully constructed but un-consecrated Ladders, at The Sorcerer’s Workbench.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

Working the Hekataeon: Book One: The Call

Author Satyr MagosPosted on 2 Comments

Aradia and I began our work with the Hekataeon early in 2019. My notes, unfortunately, do not say exactly when. We made quick work of The Call, but then botched the timing for making our iynxes and had to wait for the next waxing moon. I know, in retrospect, that I was already falling apart at that point, and so it is little surprise that my memory of those months is … vague.

What I remember most clearly from those first days is a sense of dis-ease at the notion of pledging myself to a single god. I rejected monotheism thirty years ago. For all that I love Dionysos above all other gods, henotheism has never been on the table. I expected to be rejected outright, and was surprised when Aradia and I were both given immediate signs to perform the devotion ritual and construct our iynxes.

I remember that I was absolutely confident in my ability to construct the strapholos with nothing more than a poorly exposed photograph and a childhood memory for guidance. I remember being extremely frustrated that the result, however pretty, neither spun nor buzzed the way I expected. I remember that the tiny jelly jar I chose to incubate my iynx in was much, much harder to break than I anticipated. I remember struggling to name the spirit, and to remember the name I had given it (I was even worse at journaling then than I am, now.) I remember feeling, from very early on, that I had failed at that portion of the work. I put the iynx in a drawer and never used it.

In the years since then, many of our friends have acquired their own copies of the Hekataeon. Some began the work and faltered. Others made it to the end of The Call and stopped there. One or two made it as far as we had, and faltered at the same place: the beginning of The Book of the Red Blade, searching for a horse skull or reasonable substitute.

At the beginning of this June, when the Moon was right and when we had managed to carve out space in our schedules, we began (re)working the book as a group – each of us alone in our own temples, but together in spirit. Aradia, Alvianna, and I put together the materials lists and links to the recommended readings that grew into my first post in the To Work the Hekataeon series.

As before, Aradia and I took turns leading the ritual: starting the fires, leading the chants, reading the guided meditations and the recommended readings aloud. Because she still works a day job, I took point on most of the logistical preparations: designing and building the altar, making changes one night to the next to accommodate what had and hadn’t worked quite right, and what needed to change to follow the evolving ritual.

This time, though, I found the work to be a struggle … but not in the ways that I might have anticipated, if I had anticipated any trouble at all.

My ritual practices have grown a lot since I first attempted this work. I have a daily devotional practice which includes Hekate, who has her own altar – the largest of any one god in our house. We didn’t need to make a pre-ritual shopping trip: our basic stores covered everything we needed and more. I am a full time artist and witch, now: setting time aside for the ritual was no challenge whatsoever. My spirit-sight, and my ability to hear spirits and gods, has improved exponentially. I could sense Hekate there every night. I could feel the spirits of my stones awaken, grow, and change as we re-consecrated them on the seventh night, and when we put them to use on the eighth (and ninth, but that’s coming in a bit).

I understand, now, as I didn’t then, how to ancient (and modern but with different trauma than me) polytheists saw no dissonance or contradiction in addressing each god as the greatest, ultimate, and supreme creator and savior. I understand now, on a level that I didn’t then, how initiation into multiple mysteries is no infidelity. The comparison is irreverent, but it works the same as “every cat is best cat”. Or, to be irreverent in a different way, the way you engage in certain activities with one lover does not preclude in engaging in other activities with another lover.

On the fourth night, though, my religious trauma kicked in hard. I don’t know what it was about that rite, in particular, that brought it on. For that matter, I don’t know why it didn’t come up sooner. Something about the text for that night took me back to the place I was in my early teens: angry that powers out there existed, demanding our love and devotion, but offering so little protection in return. The conscious dissonance wasn’t there the next nights, but I also didn’t sleep right again until after the New Moon had come and the rites had been completed.

I struggled with the passages about finding yourself worthy in ways that I had not struggled before. What even is “worth” in a mortal sense, let alone a divine one? And, what do you mean “what do I want out of this work”? I want to know what comes from it!

I struggled with the way that, even as I sat down to do this certain work with this one god, it seemed that other gods who have had little to say to me, lately, seemed to show up in ways that they have not in weeks or months or years. I have no impulse toward hennotheism or monotheism or even monism, despite its popularity in circles I frequent, but it seemed strage that this was the time the gods chose to speak. (I will have more to say on this in a future post.)

On Night Eight (ARBITUM), I asked for permission to resume the work of the Hekataeon. I was told no. This both came as a complete surprise to me – Kraken and I had been discussing the possibility just that afternoon – and hurt my feelings more than I would have guessed had I been asked. I don’t remember exactly how I phrased the question, or the questions that followed, but the conclusion was that I was to do a ritual of penance and absolution, for which I turned to one of the sigils in the Book of White Flame: Thea Deinos. I considered doing further divination, but decided against until I had completed that penance.

At dusk on the ninth night, what would have been INVOCATIO, I began by performing the ritual same opening ritual I had done for the last eight nights: i washed my hands with lustral waters and scrubbed them with cinnamon. I burned myrrh and asperged the space. I drew the crossroads sigil and lit three candles. Then I drew the Thea Deinos sigil on my brow, my throat, and my heart. I took the pose of terror and spoke aloud to the goddess. I apologized for abandoning the work. I apologized for whatever I had done to offend her. I spoke of my frustration with the very notion of worth. I spoke of my desire to learn what lay down the path, to experience Mystery for its own sake.

When I was done, I washed my hands again. I scrubbed them with cinnamon. I went back to the rite of the ARBITUM. This time, when I asked permission to resume the work, I was given the black stone of yes. This time, I had follow-up questions prepared. Yes, I could remake my iynx. No I could not follow along with my companions who were proceeding for the first time. Emphatically no (two white stones) I should not hold back for any stragglers. Yes, I could wait for them before beginning the Book of the Red Blade, but also, yes, it would be better for me and the work if I were to go ahead on my own.

And so, when the time came, I held a funeral for my first iynx. I apologized for my failures in constructing the strapholos, and for failing to continue the work, or honor the spirit properly. I apologized to Hekate for the same, and released the spirit into her care. Maybe the funeral wasn’t necessary. I had doubts both before and during. But I had received permission and committed to the course, and for all my doubts, all that I felt as I watched over the funeral pyre was relief.

When the funeral was complete, I walked away to give the ashes time to cool. Then I came back and set up a workbench altar on which to construct my new iynx. Based on a … feeling that had been with me from when I first decided to hold a funeral for my first iynx, I included a pinch of its ashes in the making of the new, after the ashes of the sigils and before the snakeskin and feather.

Performing the funeral for my first iynx, I dubbed the spirit “child of Hekate”. In assembling the new one, it dawned on me – from the component spit – it could as reasonably be considered my child, as well. That is certainly not the relationship that I have felt with any of my other familiar spirits, but I am going to try to hold onto that thought and act accordingly as I continue the work of growing this new soul. No, I don’t know what this might mean or imply. Maybe someday I will. Maybe I wont. And maybe it’s just a delusion.

With so little ritual framework for the burial, exhumation, and re-burial of the iynx, I struggled a little to really invest myself in each stage. Burrying it, initially, felt significant. Drowning it did not. Nor, despite my best efforts to focus my attention, did hanging it. In fact, my first sense that I had performed the ritual correctly, was during my morning ritual on the final day, when I planned to complete the rite at midnight: sitting at my altar, I could feel the potential of the spirit hovering at the edge of my circle. Even so, I felt nothing from the bottle.

It was only during the final ritual, after I had named the spirit and assigned it a form, when I began to spin the strapholos that I finally felt the spirit manifest and ensoul itself in the tool. The Hekataeon tells you to wake yourself in the middle of the night and record your dreams of your iynx. I barely slept, and had no dreams to record. But that’s typical for me, and the lack of prophetic dreams is neither signal nor noise. I felt the iynx quicken in my hands. I know it lives and will serve me.

And now, with my new iynx born and ensouled within my new strapholos, I am ready to skip forward and resume the work that I abandoned in 2019: The Book of the Red Blade. My devotion to Hekate and the Hekataeon is renewed. My familiars – who now number 14, with the completion of the iynx – tell me that I am on the right path. I look forward to continuing to send you these notes from the spiritual wilderness.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In scholarship, witchcraft

To Work the Hekataeon: Book One: The Call

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

The first book of the Hekataeon leads the Reader through a series of rituals taking place over two sets of nine days. The first nine days culminate with the Reader’s initiation at midnight on the night of the New Moon. The second nine days culminate on some night while the moon is waxing with the creation of a magical tool and ally called an iynx. Having completed these two rituals, the Reader devotes themselves to Hekate and the work of the Hekataeon, and is awarded the apropriate title of Devotee.

What follows is an inventory of what is needed to complete each of these two nine-day rituals. I have also included notes based on my experience doing these rituals, and countless others, to help you prepare and so that the work can go as smoothly as possible.

I provide these notes, primarily, because in my experience of working the Hekataeon, I sometimes found it difficult to read ahead, as if doing so even for the sake of preparation would somehow ruin the experience. And also, the descriptions of what is needed each day become slightly less precise as one progresses through the work. So, when some of my friends took up the work of the Hekataeon, those of us who had begun the work previously compiled these lists to ease them through.

The Call

Counting backwards inclusively from the night of the new moon, set aside nine days when you can perform a ritual at a liminal hour – ideally dawn, dusk, or midnight. Depending on whether you can leave your altar in place from one day to the next, the speed at which you move and read, and if you do the recommended additional reading at the end of each ritual can take anywhere from fifteen to ninety minutes.

Each chapter presumes that you have read it at least once before sitting down to perform the ritual. You should absolutely do that. Twice would be better.

Each ritual begins with washing your hands. Bring a towel.

Each ritual involves candles, burning paper, and collecting the ashes. Some of the rituals call for pouring the wax into a bowl of salt water. Buy paper that takes ink nicely, and that burns well burns well. Choose a fireproof bowl that is easy to empty. Buy candles that drip nicely. Make certain that your ritual space is sufficiently fire safe.

You will not burn all the way through the candles. Decide in advance if you are going to use the same candles from one ritual to the next, or if you wil discard them at the end of each day, or accumulate them on the altar to illuminate later rituals.

Most of the rituals involve some sort of guided meditation or trance journey, with a heavy emphasis on visualization. If you think you’ll struggle with this, do what preparation you think you’ll need. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using your phone (or computer or old school tape deck) to record yourself reading the chapter aloud for your own benefit.

Each ritual ends with a recommended reading selection from one of four books: The Orphic Hymns, The Homeric Hymns, Proculs, and the Greek Magical Papyri. Some of these passages are available on the internet. Some are not. The Hymn to Selene is PGM IV. 2785-2890. The Hymn to the Waning Moon is PGM IV. 2241-2358.

You will need:

  • Three bowls: one for hand washing, one fireproof, one saltwater proof
  • Cinnamon in an easy to access container (I like a salt cellar)
  • A previously unused pen
  • Paper
  • Matches or a lighter (I prefer a butane torch lighter)
  • White candles (x16, if you are not reusing them one night to the next)
  • Black candles x3
  • Myrrh incense
  • Spring water
  • Salt
  • Yew sprig
  • 6 small, similarly shaped stones (3 light and 3 dark)
  • A small pouch for the stones
  • A bloodletting devise (I recommend a lancet over a knife) or pomegranate juice as a blood substitute

Night One: DE SGILI

The work begins.

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • one (1) white candle
  • matches or lighter

Reading: Hesiod’s Theogony, lines 411-452. This passage about Hekate, her lineage and her attributes, doesn’t really fit in with the narrative as it has progressed so far, leading some scholars to speculate that Hesiod was a member of a mystery cult centered on Hekate. If you don’t have your own copy (I, unsurprisingly, favor the Athanassakis), this one is available for free from Harvard.

Night Two: DE NATURA

What is the nature of Hekate?

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen
  • paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • one (1) white candle
  • matches or lighter

Reading: Proclus Hymn to Hekate and Janus. I do not own a copy of any translation to recommend. I found this copy online, which compatriots of mine have vouched for, and which has the bonus of being interlinear for your hardcore nerds like me.

Night Three: DE POTENTIA

What are the powers of Hekate?

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen
  • paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • one (1) white candle
  • myrrh incense
  • matches or lighter

Reading: Hymn to Selene, PGM IV. 2785-2890. I have found this transcription online. It may contain errors or typos that I have missed.

Night Four: DE FORMA

What is the appearance of Hekate?

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen
  • paper\fireproof bowl
  • two (2) white candles
  • myrrh incense
  • matches or lighter

Reading: Orphic Hymn to Hekate. It’s likely that a Reader of the Hekataeon already has well-established preference for a particular translation of the Orphic Hymns. Mine varies with the task, and for this I recommend in favor the Athanassakis and adamantly against the freely available Thomas Taylor. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, that seems to be the only one I can find online.

Night Five: SENSIBUS

A consecration of the self and senses to better perceive the divine.

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen
  • paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • three (3) white candles
  • myrrh incense
  • matches or lighter

Reading: Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Fair warning: it is long and depressing and any legitimate translation will 100% require a content warning for rape and abuse. I happen to own the Penguin Classics edition and would love a recommendation on a superior translation. I found this version available online courtesy, again, of Harvard.

Night Six: CANTICUM

A consecration song that you will sing as you continue the work. At last you will need the yew sprig that you might have gathered a week ago.

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • three (3) white candles
  • myrrh incense matches or lighter
  • spring water
  • salt
  • a sprig of yew

Reading: Hymn to the Waning Moon, PGM IV.2241-2358. A potent curse from the Greek Magical Papyri, actually called “Document to the…” in Betz, and “Cry to the…” in Grayle’s other works. Unfortunately, I cannot find a copy online for your convenience.

Night Seven: FATUS

The creation of a divination tool which you will use repeatedly as you continue the work of the Hekataeon. A lesson learned when my own group worked the book: at the end of the night, use some other divination tool to confirm that your stones will speak clearly and truly.

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • three (3) white candles
  • myrrh incense matches or lighter
  • spring water
  • salt
  • a sprig of yew
  • three black stones
  • three white stones
  • a bag to store them in and read them from

Reading: Orphic Hymn to Artemis. See previous notes on the Orphic Hymns. This was the best I could find online, unfortunately the Taylor translation.

Night Eight: ARBITUM

A night of relatively intense visionary work, culminating in a divination which will determine whether or not you go forward. Note places where your vision deviates from the guided meditation. If you do not get the answer you were hoping for, do further divination, both with the stones and with another tool you have mastered.

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • three (3) white candles
  • myrrh incense matches or lighter
  • spring water
  • salt
  • a sprig of yew
  • the divination stones that you consecrated last night.

There is no recommended reading for this ritual.

Night Nine: INVOCATIO

Where the previous rituals may have been done at any “liminal hour”, this one calls to be done at midnight. A fast is recommended. The phrase is “eat little, drink only water”, which I think is a good balance. The more of your day that you can set aside to mediate on and prepare for the ritual that you are about to perform, the petter.

  • bowl of water for washing hands
  • cinnamon for washing hands
  • Hekataeon pen paper
  • fireproof bowl
  • three (3) white candles
  • myrrh incense matches or lighter
  • spring water
  • salt
  • a sprig of yew
  • a bloodletting device, or a blood substitute such as pomegranate juice

There is no recommended reading for this ritual.

The Iynx

When the nine nights of The Call are completed, the Devotee – formerly the Reader – makes and ensouls a tool called the “iynx”. No timing is given for the making of the iynx except that it must be buried in one place for three days, submerged under water for a second three days, and then hung in the air for a third three days, and then must be completed on a night of the waxing moon. It is somewhat vague as to whether the completion is done on the ninth night or the tenth. If the Devotee is to make the iynx in the waxing moon immediately following The Call, they have three or four days to rest and gather supplies before beginning.

As described in the Hekataeon, the completed iynx-spirit is embodied in a strapholos: a child’s toy no longer easy to find in the United States, and the (internet) search for which may well bring up more Hekataeon results than material. The strapholos is a disk with two holes drilled near the middle, through which a string is strung, and on which the disk is suspended between two handles. When spun and pulled, the disk makes a whirring, buzzing sound. But the precise geometry is more finicky, and you will want to construct and test your strapholos before ensouling it.

You will need:

  • A glass bottle which you are willing and able to break
  • Candle
  • Saliva
  • Salt water
  • Grave dirt from one who died young
  • Myrrh
  • Charcoal
  • Ash from burnt crossroads sigils from the Call
  • Feather and/or snakeskin
  • Someplace where you can bury the bottle
  • Someplace where you can drown the bottle
  • Someplace where you can hang the bottle
  • A wooden disk which you can carve and/or paint, and which you can put two holes in the middle
  • String
  • Sticks or rods for handles.
  • A name that you will assign to the spirit
  • A form or image that you wish the spirit to appear in
  • A plan for offerings that you will give the spirit in the future, when it does your will

I think that the ideal order of operations is:

  • set out all your materials (on a single fire-safe surface, if possible)
  • light charcoal for myrrh, apply myrrh early so it’s good and smokey when you start
  • light one candle for “flame” component of ritual and a second for wax to seal your jar
  • use jar to cover, snuf, and absorb the candle flame
  • without turning the jar up, then use it to capture the myrrh smoke
  • upturn jar to spit in it and then pour in the salt water, idealy before the myrrh smoke has dispersed
  • add grave dirt
  • add ashes
  • add snake skin and/or feather
  • seal jar

My partner and I are fortunate enough to have a yard to bury the bottle in, and trees from which to hang it. Lacking a pool or local body of water, we drowned ours in a bucket. There is nothing saying that the iynx bottle cannot be buried in a plant potter, or hung from a balcony railing or lantern hook. There is also nothing saying that you have to smash the iynx bottle against the ground (as we read it originally); when we redid the rite, we used a hammer.

I recommend assembling your strapholos as close to the beginning of the rite as possible. This gives you time to test that it works, and to practice with the unconsecrated tool so that, when you are called upon to spin it during the final ritual, you can do so with confidence.

I recommend choosing a name, image, and preferred offering at some point earlier than I did (which is to say, not on the final day). Write them down in advance, somewhere you won’t loose it – in the Hekataeon, itself, if you have to. Make the offering something that you will always have on hand – in my case, frankincense and myrrh.

With these rites complete, the Reader-turned-Devotee is ready to proceed to the second phase: the Book of the White Flame.

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In witchcraft

PGM Shenanigans: Pray to the Moon

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

This past Sunday, Aradia and I took one of the rituals from the class we’re taking on the Greek Magical Papyri and adapted it into an esbat rite for our Lunar Shenanigans crew. The results were very well received, and good times were had by all, so I thought I’d share it here.

The core conceit, of course, is the prayer PGM VII 756-94, which is presented essentially without context. To this we added an anointing oil, such as seen in the Helios ritual we had also done as a part of Jack Grayle’s PGM Praxis course. To maximize the benefits of the oil, we mixed it by a consensus process: several Shenanigans members bringing oils and maeteria to contribute to my and Aradia’s collection, and deciding in the moment which to add and which to not, and then blessing the oil and the altar with the Orphic Hymn to Selene. We used the Thomas Taylor translation of the Hymn, presented below with a few alterations, because I did not have time to transcribe the Dunn or Athanassakis translations, which I would otherwise prefer, and because Taylor is in the public domain.

Looking at the PGM prayer, itself, you will see that I have broken the barbarous words / magical names / Vocces Magicae out into single-sound chunks. That’s because they’re the hardest VM I have ever tried to pronounce, and I wasn’t going to send my friends in without preparation.

Reports from within my inner circle so far, particularly those of us in the PGM class, have found that the ritual produces increased energy, sometimes insomnia, immediately, followed by a surprising amount of pep come dawn for the next several days.

Outline

  1. Preparation
    1. Erect a temple space, ideally before your group arrives, with an inner and outer portion
    2. In the outer temple space, set up options for purification. Possible options include
      1. Fumigation (sage, sulfer, storax, whatever)
      2. Wash hands and face in lustral waters (my blend is salt, Florida water, and tap water)
      3. Dust hands with cinnamon (as described in Hekataeon and elsewhere)
    3. Process into the empty temple space
  2. Consecrate Temple and Tools
    1. As a group, build or rebuild the altar for the Lunar powers you will invoke, including candles for each of your Lunar gods (in our case, Selene and Hekate
    2. Set up a scrying medium
    3. Blend your anointing oil as a group
    4. Pour wine offering to Moon
    5. Bless oil and candles with Orphic Hymn to Selene (and/or Hekate to taste)
  3. Adapted and Expanded PGM VII 756-94
    1. Pour wine offering
    2. Light candles
    3. Suffumigations of myrrh (and other lunar incense?)
    4. Anoint hands, face, head with lunar oil
    5. Chant prayer
    6. Repeat 4, 5 twice (three times total)
    7. Final anointing with lunar oil
    8. Water scrying
    9. Thank goddess(es) for their attendance
    10. Final wine offering
  4. Poscript
    1. Drink copious amounts of wine
    2. Tarot & other divination for yourself and your friends

ORPHIC HYMN TO SELENE

Hear, goddess queen, diffusing silver light,

Bull-horned and wandering through the gloom of night. 

With stars surrounded, and with circuit wide

Night’s torch extending, through the heavens you ride:

Female and male with borrowed rays you shine,

And now full-orbed, now tending to decline.

Mother of ages, fruit-producing moon,

Whose amber orb makes night’s reflected noon:

Lover of horses, splendid, queen of night,

All-seeing power bedecked with starry light.

Lover of vigilance, the foe of strife,

In peace rejoicing, and a prudent life:

Fair lamp of night, its ornament and friend,

Who gives to nature’s works their destined end.

Queen of the stars, all-wise Artemis hail!

Decked with a graceful robe and shining veil;

Come, blessed goddess, prudent, starry, bright,

Come luner lamp with chaste and splendid light,

Shine on these sacred rites with prosperous rays,

And please accept your suppliant’s mystic praise.

PGM VII 756-94

I call upon you, who have all forms and many names, double-horned goddess MENE, whose form no one knows

(except him who made the entire world, IAO The one who shaped you into the twenty-eight shapes of the world So that you might complete every figure and distribute breath to every animal and plant, That it might flourish);

you who wax from obscurity into light, and wane from light into darkness.

And the first companion of your name is silence,

The second a popping sound,

The third a groaning,

The fourth hissing,

The fifth a cry of joy,

The sixth moaning,

The seventh barking,

The eight bellowing,

The ninth neighing,

The tenth a musical sound,

The eleventh a sounding wind,

The twelfth a wind-creating sound,

The thirteenth a coercive sound,

The fourteenth a coercive emanation from perfection.

Ox! Vulture! Bull! Beetle! Falcon! Crab! Dog! Wolf! Serpent! Horse! She-Goat!

Asp! He-Goat! Baboon! Cat! Lion! Leopard! Fieldmouse! Deer!

Multiform, virgin, torch, lightning, garland, a herald’s wand, child, key:

I have said your signs and symbols of your name so that you might hear me,

Because I pray to you, Mistress of the whole world.

Hear me, you, the Stable One, the Mighty One:

APH-EI-BO-E-O MIN-TER OKHA-O PI-ZEPH-Y-DOR KHAN-THAR KHA-DER-OZO

MOKH-THI-ON E-OT-NEU PHER-ZON A-IN-DES LAKH-AB-O-O PIT-TO RIPH-THA-MER

ZMO-MOKH-OL-EI-E TI-ED-RAN-TEI-A O-I-SO-ZO-KHA-BE-DOR-PHRA

In witchcraft

Hekate: An Unexpected Devotion

Author Satyr MagosPosted on 2 Comments

This week has marked an anniversary, half-forgotten in the madness of 2018. This time last year, my working group participated in the global Rite of Her Sacred Fires. It was not the first time I had invoked Hekate, but it was the most significant up to that point.

I must emphasize “up to that point”. Hekate began to appear more frequently on our docket, culminating in a devotional Samhain ritual in which I make made myself a vessel for her so that my compatriots could approach and petition her for aid. Three months after that, Jack Grayle’s Hekataeon went live. Aradia and I dove in head first. Our copy arrived just in time for Paganicon, and we started the work as soon a we got back.

I am 38 years old. I have been practicing magic since I was 16. But I was raised with the blandest (functionally atheist) sort of Protestantism, and I did not reach out to the gods until I was 28. Excepting my easy relationship with Dionysus, I did not manage to cultivate anything resembling a devotional practice until I was 30, and that was very much rooted in the particular circumstances of the Sunrise Temple. I have had relationships with a wild variety of spirits and an eclectic assortment of gods and powers, but little of it resembled anything akin to worship. And until a year ago, Hekate was never even on my radar.

I began to work the Hekataeon at the end of March, as I was coming out of a deep depression, a descent that began early in 2017 and bottomed out last Thanksgiving. The ascent has been steep but rocky, and it is difficult to say how much of my improvement is the native cycle of my fucked up brain and how much is as a result of the work. I could not have begun the work had I not begun to feel better at the first of the year. Any daily practice would certainly have improved my life. But also, the calming and cleansing of mania is a recurring theme in the Hekataeon.

Now, a year after that first significant contact, I have participated in the Rite of Her Sacred Fires for the second time. I had just completed the twenty-seven days of devotional meditation that comprised the second section of the Hekataeon, studying the facets of Hekate, and was about to make the transition from Devotee to Adept. By the time this post goes live, I will have completed that initiation.

Jack Grayle’s vision of Hekate is Gnostic, cosmic — the beginning and end of all. As I dig in to his ancient sources, and compare them to other modern visions, I find that he is not alone in this. I wish that I were in a financial position to take Jason Miller’s Hekate Sorcery course.

I am a sorcerer. A witch. A heretic. A Gnostic. I make handshake deals and back alley bargains with spirits. I treat with gods and demons and angels as equals. I seek ecstasy. Not Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, but rather Gnosis — knowledge of the divine power from which mortal and immortal life both spring, and which I cannot believe is a person of any kind, not even a god. I reject the capital G.

Though I have courted a few, with varying degrees of success — Apollo, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Baphomet — Dionysus is the only god I have truly loved. I did not seek out Hekate, but rather met her through my friends. One thing led to another. And now … I have graduated from disinterested third party Reader to Devotee … and now to Adept. Degrees of priesthood follow, culminating in a binding contract that will last into future lives.

Devotion in this life I am prepared for. I do not know, however, that I am prepared to make any promises about the next.

For now, though, the road ahead of me is obscure. I do not know, precisely, what will be asked of me. The work may reject me before I am forced to reject it. Or the goddess and I may come to more complex and nuanced arrangements. Decision, after all, is her sacrament.

Until then, it seems, I am Devoted. Very much to my own surprise.