woolandcoffee:

Hail Brighid,
Whose flame I tend
Hail Brighid,
Whose hearth I sit beside
Hail Brighid
Whose bread I eat
Hail Brighid,
Whose yarns I spin

Hail Brighid,
Whose mantle I don as I go out
Walking o’er hills and through wilds
Listening for the call of her creatures
Watching for the waters of her wells

Hail Brighid
Whose fires leap in my heart even now
Like a salmon through the rapids
Like a swan taking flight

Hail Brighid,
Wise mother
And thank you for your bounties
This day and every day
This night and every night

hekateanwitchcraft:

In case you don’t want to read this whole passage, I have highlighted the offerings. 

Traditional offerings to Hekate consisted of a lot of animal sacrifice, but so did most of the Ancient Greek gods. But, her offerings also had components of other kinds. One such example is found in the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes (the edition I quote from is the Penguin Classics Voyage of the Argonaut). In this quote, Medea, the witch priestess of Hekate, instructs Jason on how to make an offering to Hekate:

”Wait for the moment of midnight and after bathing in an ever running river, go out alone in sombre clothes and and dig a round pit in the earth. There, kill an ewe and after heaping up a pyre over the pit, sacrifice it whole, with a libation of honey from the hive and prayers to Hecate, Perses’ only Daughter. Then, when you have invoked the goddess duly, withdraw from the pyre. And do not be tempted to look behind you as you go, either by footfalls or the baying of hounds, or you may ruin everything and never meet your friends alive”

(Page 136, Book III, lines 1002-1044)

The methods used here to perform the offerings were very common for deities like Hekate. She is a chthonic deity which means she resides in the Underworld, or at least lives there sometimes. When performing offerings for these deities and for the dead, they would be poured/sacrificed directly onto the earth, or in most cases a pit that was dug. Also in this passage, we see two offerings: honey and an ewe. Also noticed is the suggestion not to look back. This is quite a common practice when honoring chthonic beings such as Hekate.

Another passage which describes an offerings to Hekate comes from a later Latin (which is probably considered a little less traditional) text that also discusses the workings of the witch priestess Medea:

“As she came Medea stopped before the threshold and the door; covered by the sky alone, she avoided her husband’s embrace, and built two turf altars, one on the right to Hecate and one on the left to Youth. She wreathed these with boughs from the wild wood, then hard by she dug two ditches in the earth and performed her rites; plunging her knife into the throat of a back sheep, she drenched the open ditches with his blood. Next she poured upon it bowls of liquid wine, and again bowls of milk still warm…”

(Ovid’s Metamorphoses page 128 from book VII in the Barnes & Noble Classics edition)

Again, we see the sacrifice of a sheep, but this time, there is the edition of wine and milk.

As seen, though animal sacrifice is a common motif, there are offerings which require no animal bloodshed. The philosopher Porphyry in his work On Abstinence expanded upon this by writing about other offerings given to Hekate:

“He diligently sacrificed to them at proper times in every month at the new moon, crowning and adorning the statues of Hermes and Hecate, and the other sacred images which were left to us by our ancestors, and that he also honored the gods frankincense, and sacred wafers and cakes.”

(Porphyry On Abstinence quoted in Hekate: Liminal Rites by Sorita D’Este)

Porphyry’s quote displays a few offerings: frankincense and sacred wafers and cakes. Incense was a common offering to the gods, and remains so today. However, incense was not usually given to chthonic deities. This is slightly different for Hekate most likely because she was not always in the role of a chthonic deity. She was often honored in an ouranic, or heavenly, aspect. This could account for the offering of frankincense.

Some more offerings recommended are found in Sorita D’Este’s book Hekate: Liminal Rites, which I think is a must read for any Hekate follower. In the book she includes a chart which lists offerings of garlic, mullet, eggs, and cheese. Though this book is modern, these are often commonly accepted as traditional offerings to Hekate. She also references cakes called amphiphon which is described as a “flat cheesecake which was surrounded by small torches” offered to her at the Deipnon.

I have outlined some traditional offerings to Hekate, but I have some of my own that I find she enjoys from my experience honoring her. I have found that candles, scented or unscented, sprinkled with her sacred herbs make good offerings, not only for the evaporation of substance, but for the presence of a flame. As a torch-bearing goddess, I figured she might like fires. Another offering I give to her is just a modification of a traditional one. When offering milk to her, I sprinkle cinnamon in it for extra flavoring. Another thing I have found to be an effective offering is blood. I often give her my blood on festivals and celebrations, but I also offer it to her when I am in serious need of her assistance. These offerings aren’t really traditional, but they have worked well enough for me!

metvmorqhoses:

. the dead anon poets society .