Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Friday, November 13, 2009

Although it is, as far as I can see, a spurious date

whose source is the neo-Pagan The Goddess Book of Days by Diane Stein (which is flawed, since it really isn't perpetual as it doesn't take in lunar calendars at all, and doesn't list primary (read 'real' sources) for its dating), I think I will celebrate a feast for Hekate on November 16th not because Ms Stein (and a host of neo-Pagans) says it is a 'Night of Hekate', but because it is dark of the moon in November. (There are two dates better attested to Her, August 13th and November 30th, and of course the lunar last day of the month and the changing of the year, Hekate being a Goddess of liminal times and places). Among offerings I have, spring water, burgundy wine, garlic, lavender, honey, and a pomegranate (the last being more of a celebration of the coming winter, and Hekate had a role to play in reporting the rape of Persephone. I always offer up a pomegranate each year as the cold weather sets in, usually in September when the Eleusinian Mysteries would be played out, or Halloween, but this year I'm doing it mid-November instead. Halloween night just didn't 'feel' right to me, perhaps because it was almost full moon. Now the nights feel more in keeping with the sacrifice, and She is associated with the dark moon, not full.

What can I say, Paganism isn't always cut-and-dried.

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