but I'm thinking I should. I thought about starting a new blog to talk about just those things, but really, I don't do well in a multi-blog environment. I've already tried the blog-as-fiction, the blog-my-way-to-wellness, and the blog-my-way-to-therapy route, and the fact is I do better if I just write here and leave it at that. So...periodically I may add notes I find useful or discuss my experiences. It's okay if you don't agree with them, but hey, they work for me.
A few years ago I legally changed my name and searched for the equivalent of a 'baptismal' name that would express my connexion to my beliefs. I chose Aranea, which is Latin for spider, or spiderweb. Spiders are important to me; they often appear when there are messages or warnings to be delivered, especially white spiders. It is a taboo in my religious practice to kill a spider for this reason. Consummate weavers, they reflect the interwoven fabric of space and time, of our connectedness within the web of life, and of fate. Predators who engender hundreds of young at a time, they represent both destruction and creation. I have been a Pagan, at least officially, for sixteen years. I came to understand Paganism as a religion at the age of 21. But years prior to that, at the age of 14, I had decided that standard organised religions did not speak to me in the same way that nature did. I experienced divinity in the movement of wind, the flight of insects and birds, the smell of the earth, the warmth of the sun. And so my journey began. Thirteen years ago, quite without meaning to be, I was chosen to serve as priestess to the Goddess Hekate. It was not so much a matter as me finding Her, as She finding me, and yet our relationship has been a rich one that has meant a great to me over time. She has so many faces, so much scope, such ancient roots, that She can be viewed many ways by different people. Some of these properties seem contradictory--the Goddess of Madness, of Witches; the Bringer of Light; Guardian of Liminal Spaces, Psychopomp, the Watcher at the Crossroads...She has embodied the wildest of nature's fury, the bounty of earth, sea, and sky, and the pinnacle of philosophical endeavour. My interpretation, based on direct experience as well as research, may be quite different than you'd expect, for the side I deal with most directly is the nurturing Teacher. Still, I have encountered Her many faces in my experience, and that should be evident from these writings.
A Hekataion is a statue or altar set up either outside a house or at the place where three roads meet; these are special provinces of Hekate. In ancient Greece, they were seen as protective for the home and for travellers. Also, food was left by the wealthy on the last night of the month as offerings to the Goddess and the spirits from which she granted protection. Some believe that there was an understanding that the poor could eat from these 'Hekate's Suppers', as a form of welfare, serving an important social function. Whenever I post related to my religious journey, I'll include the term Hekataion in the title. Please feel free to e-mail any questions you may have. I may not know the answer, but I will try to find it if at all possible.
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