-Caveat Lector-
http://www.hecate.ws/symbols.htm
-----
Did you know about Hecate and Dragon?
Information on the Dragons of Hecate is hard to come by. The only things that
have been found is related to Hecate's three-fold nature (the three
crossroads represent the gate to the realm of the Dragon) and Hecate's old
title of 'propylaia" - 'she who stands before the gate'. Hecate's Hounds, the
three-headed dog Cerberus who guards the gate to the Underworld and the
Dragon seem related to some remote mythos that may have come out of Egypt or
Asia Minor, where the dog replaced the Dragon. As one of the original
Titans, Hecate is an ancient who has undergone many transformations over the
ages, and her relationship with the Dragon was one of the oldest associations.
If you know of or discover anything else, please let me know! Hekate
Greek Cross - Before Christianity, the Greek Cross was an emblem of Hecate as
the Goddess of Crossroads. Like the infinity sign or the ankh, it also
represented union of male and female principles as vertical and horizontal
members, respectively. Then it became a plus sign: one-plus-the-other.
Crossroads - Witches were said to hold Sabbats at crossroads, for the reason
that in the ancient world crossroads were sacred to the Goddess Hecate, the
Lady of the Underworld in pagan belief, the Queen of Witches in Christian
belief. Her images and those of Hermes and Diana stood at crossroads
throughout the Roman empire, until they were replaced by crosses during the
Christian era. The Roman word for crossroads was compita, and the Lares
compitales or crossroad spirits were regularly honored at roadside shrines
during festivals called Compitalia.
Christians continued to honor the chthonian deities at crossroads until they
were persecuted for doing so, when the elder (Hecate) deities were newly
defined as devils. In the tenth century A.D. it was ordered that any woman
must be sentenced to a three-year fast if she was found guilty of dedicating
her child at a crossroads to the Earth Mother.
We know the Crossroads are Hecate's, but here is some amusing information:
The classic Greek herm was a phallic pillar dedicated to the god of magic
and of crossroads. Hermes, whose head appeared at the top. Herms were usually
plain shafts without projections except for the realistic phallus in front;
some, however, had short crossbeams, probably drawn from identification
between Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth, his counterpart in the south,
whose image was the ankh or Key of Life.
Herms guarded nearly all the important crossroads of Greece and the Roman
empire, where they were named for the Roman Hermes, Mercury. Hermes and Hecate
were worshiped together as lord and lady of crossroads, which were magical
places because they always symbolized choices. Sometimes the herms were
called Lares compitales, the crossroad spirits, to whom offerings were made
and for whom there were special festivals called Compitalia. In the Christian
era, the numerous herms at crossroads throughout Europe were replaced by
stone crosses.
A mysterious incident occurred in 415 B.C. - at the height of a very
patriarchal period in Athens, where public thoroughfares were protected by
hundreds of herms. The night before the Athenians were to launch an
expedition against Sicily was what came to be know as the night of the
Mutilation or Castration of the Herms. In the morning, almost all the city's
herms were found with their penises knocked off. The culprits were never
discovered, but it is believed they were militant Athenian women, using this
threatening magical gesture to protest against the war.
Amulet - A Greek text gives directions for preparing a phylacterion or
"amulet of undertaking". It is to be a lodestone, cut in the shape of a heart
and engraved with an image of the Goddess Hecate.
Basket - Basket-making was a female craft, so baskets were often sacred to
the Goddess as agriculturist and harvest spirit. Baskets were carried by
Moon-goddesses like Diana and Hecate, of whom Porphyry wrote: "The basket
which she bears when she has mounted high is the symbol of the cultivation of
the crops which she made to grow up according to the increase of her light"
Gate - Hecate was viewed as the guardian of both crossroads and gates -
especially the gate of birth, since the Goddess was represented as a divine
midwife and frequently invoked for assistance in childbirth and as the
Goddess of the underworld "Destroyer" who ruled the gates of death. Much
allegorizing was employed (by the Christian church) to conceal the fact that
the gate was another emblem of female genitals, the gate through which life
emerged at birth, and into which at least a part of a man might pass (to a
higher vibration into the mysteries, symbolic death of phallic spirit).
Fairy - Yes, Fairy - read on...
The fairy-tale image of the fairy as a tiny female sprite with butterfly
wings and antennae seems to have been drawn from the classic Greek Psyche,
which means "soul" and also "butterfly". Like elves, the fairies were
originally the souls of the pagan dead, in particular those matriarchal
spirits who lived in the pre-Christian realm of the Goddess. Sometimes the
fairies were called Goddesses themselves. In several folk ballads the Fairy
Queen is addressed as "Queen of Heaven." Welsh fairies were known as "the
Mothers" or "the Mothers' Blessing." Breton peasants called the fairies
God-mothers, or Good Ladies, or Fates from which comes fay (la fee), from the
Latin fata. They claimed that, like Medusa or Circe, a fairy could transform
a man into an animal or turn him to stone.
Most medieval sources reveal, however, that the fairies were perceived as
real women, of ordinary size, with supernatural knowledge and powers. Their
Queen was their Goddess, under such names as Titania (Gaea, ancient mother of
the Titans), Diana, Venus, Sybil, Abundia ("Abundance") and Hecate.
Hounds - It seems that women were the first to domesticate the dog, because
dogs were companions of the Goddess in may cultures, long before gods or men
appeared with canine companions. Dogs accompanied Hecate in Greece. Dogs were
accredited for being able to see the dead (ghosts) and other spirits. The
ancients were also very impressed with canine keenness of another sense, the
sense of smell. Pairs of dogs ere stationed at the gates of death (as on the
Tarot card of the Moon) to detect the "odor of sanctity" and decide whether
the soul could be admitted to the company of the gods. Three-headed Cerberus
guarded the door of Hecate's underworld.
Frog - Frogs were sacred to the Egyptian midwife of the gods, the
Crone-Goddess Hekit, prototype of the Greeks' Hekate (Hecate). The frog
probably represented the human fetus, which it roughly resembles. Because
little frogs, appearing with the first signs of the annual Nile Flood, were
heralds of life-giving fertility in Egypt, people placed frog amulets on
mummies to help them find rebirth. Mother Hekit's "Amulet of the Frog" bore
the words, "I Am the Resurrection."
Henna - Also known as Egyptian privet or mignonette, henna produces a red dye
that was very important to the women of antiquity. Its red color was
associated with their own life-giving "magic blood." They identified
themselves with the Goddess by staining their hands and feet with henna. This
was a custom of Greek women who worshiped Hecate.
Wolfbane, Aconite - The classic mythological origin of aconite was the saliva
of the Three-headed underworld dog Cerberus. The plant sprang up when drops
of slaver fell across the fields when Cerberus was dragged up to the earth's
surface by Hercules. Because it was originally sacred to Hecate, the queen of
the underworld, the plant used to be called hecateis
Willow - Willow wands are used for divination and casting of the circle. The
Greeks virgin form of Hecate was Helice, meaning "Willow". Helice guarded
Mount Helicon, the home of the Muses. Her willow wand was a cosmic symbol
connected with the stars. The pole-encircling constellation of Ursa Major was
sometimes known as Helice's Axle..
Excerpts from "The Woman's Dictionary, Symbols and Sacred Objects" by B.
Walker
Top of page
[ Home ] [ Contents ] [ Search ]
Website Design/Development & Maintained by aWebSpider.com - e-mail to
WebWeaver
Copyright © 2000 - 2002 Hecate Beneath the Veil
www.hecate.ws
----
Om
K
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
