Crossroads

October 22nd is sacred to all deities of the Crossroads eg Hecate, Legba or Ellegua, Lady Elen, Herne and the Queen of Fairie.

Crossroads have always been seen as magical places. They are places where you have a choice, you can change your destination and take an alternative route. They are places where you might meet strangers or uncanny creatures.

At one time Witches and suicides were buried at crossroads, to confuse their spirits and prevent them haunting. And for the same reason public gallows were often put at a crossroads.

Crossroads are where we can sit and observe magical creatures, the fairies, the Wild Hunt, Witches flying to their meetings. Where spells are more potent and offerings can be left for the gods. And it is the place where we can make a commitment to the Old Path of Witchcraft ourselves.

More about crossroads and magick can be found here: Why Crossroads Are Magickal

Source: Raven Corvus

The last day of each of the lunar months is the sacred day of the triple goddess of crossroads and the patroness of Witches, Hekate.

Hekate had many names and titles: Hecate Trevia, “of the three ways”; Hecate Phosphoros, “the light bringer”; Hecate Nykterian “of the night”; and Hecate Basileia, “Hecate Queen.” On this night of the waning Moon we have a perfect opportunity to work with this goddess and ask for her blessing to illuminate our darkest times, and grant us her protection.

Hecate, goddess of the crossroads, hear my cry,
Protect and guard me under your midnight sky.
Hecate Phosphoros “she who brings the light,”
Hecate Trevia bless me with your wisdom tonight.

Hekate’s ancient devotees held dinners in her honor, known as Hekate Suppers. Once upon a time, these dinners were consumed outside under the dark moon, ideally at a crossroads. One plate was reserved for Hekate; after her devotees dined, just before they departed, Hekate’s plate was laid down at the crossroads.

Foods associated with her were prepared. The entree was usually fish, especially red mullet. Devotees feasted and celebrated. Offerings and leftovers were placed outside the door or at a crossroads for Hekate and her hounds.

Even way back when, cynics scoffed that food placed outside was actually consumed by feral dogs and homeless people without realizing that this is Hekate’s intent: this is one way she accepts offerings. (The Church was still trying to eradicate this ritual as late as the eleventh century.)

A typical Hekate Supper menu includes eggs, fish roe, goat and sheep cheese, sprats, red mullet – a scavenger fish that was the subject of many taboos – garlic, mushrooms, and honey cake surrounded by blazing torches or cakes decorated with miniature imitation torches (candles). Other ideas include garlic, salmon, honey, and edible flowers.

Traditionally whatever is given to Hekate cannot be reclaimed. Thus, do not break out your priceless set of china; lay the meal on the ground or use a serving dish that will be incorporated into the offering. Once the offering is laid down, depart without looking back. Hekate determines who picks up the offering.

Smaller, private offerings may be left at a crossroads, too:

  • Place offerings on a plate or flat stone and leave them at a crossroads after dark.
  • Make your invocation and then walk away without looking back.
  • Do not return for the plate, or any part of the offering, but consider it part of your gift.

Offerings can include the following:

  • Eggs
  • Garlic and honey (especially lavender honey)
  • Croissants and crescent shaped breads and pastries
  • Candles
  • Incense
  • Images of dogs, especially black dogs
  • Actions on behalf of dogs

Encountering or hearing a dog is an indication that your petition has been heard.

Other nights sacred to Hekate:

  • Friday the 13th – particularly if it falls in the month of August.
  • November 16th is Hekate Night
  • August 13th, in Italy, a festival is shared between Diana and Hekate

Sources:

compitaliaThe Compitalia, a festival thought to be older than Rome itself, was held in mid January (January 12th) to honor the guardian spirits of local communities or neighborhoods. Sacrifices and offerings of honey cakes were made to the Lares Compitales at any place where two roads met.

In the countryside the ritual started at nightfall. Each family placed the statue of the underworld goddess Mania at the door of their house.They also made and hung woolen dolls representing men and women, along with strands of garlic and poppies. Slaves offered balls of wool with differing colors, to distinguish gender, rather than human figures. These were accompanied with humble requests that the Lares and Mania would be contented with the figures, thus ensuring the safety of the lives of the people inside the home.

In later years, strands of garlic and poppies were added to the offerings both on the doorways and at the crossroads.

Collected from Wikipedia and various other sources

lararium

January 5 is the Festival of the Lares Compitales. Lares are the Roman guardian spirits of house and fields, ancient Roman deities protecting the house and the family — household gods. The Lares were worshiped in small sanctuaries or shrines, called Lararium, which could be found in every Roman house. They were placed in the atrium (the main room) or in the peristylium (a small open court) of the house. Here people sacrificed food to the Lares on holidays.

Presumed to be sons of Mercury and Lara, Lares are beneficent and friendly spirits, and deeply venerated by ancient Romans. In every house there was at least one little statue, and through these small statues, the Lare was presumed to take part in all that happened inside the house. Often a statue was put on the table during the meals, and other small statues were often placed in the higher places of the house, far from the floor, or even on the roof.

There were many different types of guardians. The most important are the Lares Familiares (guardians of the family), Lares Domestici (guardians of the house), Lares Patrii (guardians of the fathers) and Lares Privati (personal guardians). Other guardians were the Lares Permarini (guardians of the sea), Lares Rurales (guardians of the land), Lares Compitales (guardians of crossroads), Lares Viales (guardians of travelers) and Lares Praestitis (guardians of the state).

The Lar Familiaris protected all household members, free or slave, and was associated with a particular place, thus did not accompany a family who moved. Tradition holds that a family’s Lar would generously help those who honored him by devotionals and sacrifices. But the Lar would turn his back to those who would not offer him thanks or neglected him.

A household’s lararium, a shrine to the Lares Familiaris, usually stood near the hearth or in a corner of the atrium. A lararium often had the appearance of a cupboard or a niche containing a small statue, a niche painted on a wall, or a small freestanding shrine. Sometimes the Genius of the head of the household, pictured as a bearded or crested snake, or as a man with the fold of his toga covering his head, is depicted with the Lar.

The Lares themselves are usually depicted as dancing youths, with a horn cup in one hand and a bowl in the other. As progenitors of the family, they were accompanied by symbolic phallic serpents.

Compitalia – The Festival of the Lares celebrated the Lares Compitales, or local guardian spirits, of the crossroads. The crossroads were the traditional setting for the veneration of the Lares and shrines were set up where crossroads met. The date of this festival marked the end of the Roman agricultural year.

The worship of the Lares included setting little towers with an altar placed before them. Archaeologists Lesley and Roy Adkins note (in their book Dictionary of Roman Religion) that the Lare shrine at the crossroads was “open in all four directions to allow passage for the Lar”.

The ancient writer Ovid, in his work titled Fasti, refers to the Lares as the “night watchmen”. Here we can see the theme of four towers associated with the four directions, as well as four guardians of boundaries or demarcation. This general theme appears in modern Wicca as the Watchers and Watchtowers of the ritual circle. An older system seemingly related to the Lares appears in Italian witchcraft where we find beings known as the Grigori. In Kabbalah based systems of magic the theme of four guardians takes the form of the four archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Ariel or Uriel. They are seen as guarding the four directions.

Collected from various sources including:
Encyclopedia Mythica, World Lingo, and Ask Jeeves.

For modern Wiccans and Neo-Pagans, Nov 16 is designated as Hekate Night, or the Night of the Crossroads, the day of the festival of Hecate Trivia, which is a day that honors Hecate as a goddess of crossroads.

Her feast day begins at sunset, and most often consists of a feast referred to as Hekate Supper, A meal to which Hekate is invited, and given her own plate of food, which is then left at a crossroads.

This practice, particularly associated with the sacred three-way crossroads of Hekate, is the depina Hekates, or Hekate Supper. It may be that these offerings were made to appease ghosts and keep them at the crossroads, avoiding trouble from them whilst traveling etc. Alternatively these offerings were described as being made to placate the goddess and ensure that she would look favorably upon those who made regular offerings.

It has been suggested that the crossroads was sacred to Hekate due to her having been abandoned at a crossroads as a baby by her mother Pheraea, and then rescued and brought up by shepherds. This Thessalian tale comes from a scholiast to Lycophron’s 3rd century BCE play Alexandria, and was a late invention.

Aristophanes recorded that offerings to Hekate were made “on the eve of the new moon” which is when the first sliver of the new moon is visible, signifying a possible connection with Hekate as a lunar goddess, rising, like the moon, from the underworld on the night of the new moon.

There are also references to the offerings being made on the thirtieth day of the month, but keep in mind that this was calculated on the Greek calendars, it would vary from state to state as there was no uniformity in the calendar system being used.

It has further been suggested that the offerings made at the Hekate Suppers were a form of charity, and certainly the consumption of the food by the poor was noted by Aristophanes (5th century satirist):

“Ask Hekate whether it is better to be rich or starving; she will tell you that the rich send her a meal every month and that the poor make it disappear before it is even served.”

The 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia, the Suda, paraphrased this quote and added the following:

“From her one may learn whether it is better to be rich or to go hungry. For she says that those who have and who are wealthy should send her a dinner each month, but that the poor among mankind should snatch it before they put it down. For it was customary for the rich to offer loaves and other things to Hekate each month, and for the poor to take from them.”

Various sources mention different foods offered to Hekate at the suppers. These were:

  • Magides – A type of loaf or cake
  • Mainis – Sprat
  • Skoroda – Garlic
  • Tigle – Mullet
  • Psammeta – Sacrificial cake somewhat like the psaista
  • Oon – Eggs (raw)
  • Tyros – Cheese
  • Basunias – A type of cake

Another type of food offering which was left to Hekate on the eve of the full moon was the amphiphon, a type of cake. Amphiphon means “light-about,” an appropriate name for this flat cheesecake which was surrounded by small torches.

The supper, or leaving of offerings at the crossroads was one of the hardest practices for the Christian church to stamp out. Records indicate it was still taking place in the 11th century CE, and it may well have continued far longer.

About Hekate

She is the Triple Goddess, and most often associated with a three-way crossroad. She is Hecate the Maiden, Hecate the Mother, and Hecate the Crone. Although the dark of the moon is her traditional time, Hecate can be called upon during any moon phase, as She is the One and the Three.

She is the goddess of witchcraft, the night, the new moon, ghosts, necromancy and crossroads. Hekate had few public temples in the ancient world, however, small household shrines, which were erected to ward off evil and the malevolent powers of witchcraft, were quite common.

She is a Goddess like no other. A goddess who is not to be invoked lightly, or by those who are calling upon her frivolously. Some describe her as a Witch Goddess who rises up from the dark depths of the underworld, whilst others tell of a bright shining Goddess who holds her torches of illumination high, revealing the path through the mysteries, but only for those with the wisdom to follow her.

Some say that she is the Axis Mundi, the Chaldean World Soul and that she brings soul fire and light to humanity. Others tell of a powerful Goddess who is crowned with the coils of wild serpents and oak leaves, appearing with three heads, often with three bodies, sometimes in forms which are part-human and part-beast. We are told that she holds sway in many worlds, bearing the keys to the thresholds between, guarding and blessing those who make suitable offerings to her, but feared by those who let injustice come upon the world.

Hekate stands at the crossroads bearing the keys to the mysteries. In the ancient world she inspired poets and philosophers, witches, magicians and ordinary people, all of whom knew she could bestow blessings to improve their lot and protect them from the harsh denizens of the infernal realm. Today she continues to inspire and evoke awe in those who encounter her; for some in subtle ways, leading them in an elusive nameless manner with her symbols, for others in a more powerful and directly empowering way.

Sources:

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