WHEN THE EBONY MOON SHINES

At important forks in the road in ancient Greece, one would come across a statue of a woman. She had three faces: one facing the direction you had come in from, and the two others facing two paths ahead you might choose.

This was, is, Hecate, the goddess of the crossroads, the goddess of twilight, the crone; the bringer of knowing through dreams. As a ‘dark’ goddess, Hecate is always clothed in black, usually depicted in Greek vase painting as a woman holding up two flaming torches. 

In ancient times, crossroads were believed to be special ‘thin’ places, where the veil between the worlds was easily bridged; places where we could communicate with the goddess and learn from her.

I chose to write this piece on Hecate after a dream: 

Late one evening, passing by a T-junction road near my home  - which does in fact exist, and which on waking does appear like a fork in the road - a car crunches over what seems to be a small ceramic bowl. I turn around, and obey a strong impulse to pick it up, surprised it isn’t too damaged. Planning to stick back two small broken off pieces, I pick up the bowl and the fragments and I place them in my bag. When I get back home, I am stunned to see the bowl is whole again, and is actually, when I turn it over, a woman with three faces. In my dream, I place the magically repaired little statue on my ‘sacred ledge’ above my desk, among other meaningful objects.

Here, at a time of my life when many things have recently changed, and I was at a crossroads moment in my mid 50s, fumblingly learning also to accept the new responsibilities, powers, freedoms and gifts of crone-hood, Hecate appeared - to teach, support and guide.

Hecate is actually an ancient Titan goddess from an earlier, pre-Greek period of myth. It is believed she was so powerful and respected by her followers that she continued being represented as having great powers even after the Titan gods were replaced by Olympian ones. Even Zeus, as the main god of Olympus, was shown as retaining for Hecate the ancient power of giving or denying to mortals any desired gift, he alone among the other gods having this same power. She had dominion over sky, earth and the underworld, and initially at least, over all three phases of the moon.

While the other primary gods and goddesses chose to live on Mount Olympus, Hecate preferred to live in the Underworld. An older woman, accompanied by her hound, sometimes depicted as three-headed too, appearing at dark times in dark places; thought to be invisible, or appearing as just ‘luminous light’, Hecate’s aspect can be disconcerting, even scary.

But it helps to remember that in the world of myth, there is no such thing as a good goddess and a less good, or bad one. Each is an aspect of reality, and to balance out portrayals of a benevolent, maternal deities, fostering life, we have a strong, often fierce manifestations, standing for death, rupture, separation, endings.

Hecate is referred to as one of the virgin goddesses, and it is important to know that to the Ancient Greeks the word virgin did not always mean a girl uninitiated into sexual intercourse; it denoted a self-possessed woman, not beholden to any man.

I knew that one aspect of the Triple Goddess in later Greek myth was that of Persephone as maiden; Demeter, mother; and Hecate, crone. For such a powerful goddess, Hecate, unlike most female figures, even minor ones, of Greek mythology, does not seem to have any stand-alone stories of her own, her most significant appearance being as a character in the Demeter story. 

In the mother-daughter myth, Hekate, we learn, had heard though not seen Persephone being abducted, and in studying the myth, we see she did not rush to help [I will later post another piece on the Demeter/Persephone myth as I understand it], wisely knowing it was in the ‘rightness’ of things that the girl separated from the mother, however painful to them both. Later she assisted Demeter in her search for Persephone, guiding her through the night with her blazing torches. And still later, after the mother-daughter reunion, she became she Persephone's guide and support in the lower dark realms of the underworld.

Hecate is said to appear “when the ebony moon shines.” I learnt that the new moon is also called the dark moon, or ebony moon, as in this phase there is no illumination on the earth's side. For some – when two new moons occur in any single month, the second is called the ebony moon. 

The next New Moon this year: June 1, 2011, 21:03. For India: June 2, 2011, 02:33 

Familiar with the process of death and dying as well as that of new birth and new life, the goddess Hecate was wise in all of earth's mysteries. Ever present to life’s cyclic rhythms, she presides over change and death – rather, over many deaths - as life is filled with many deaths and rebirths, many endings and beginnings.  She is also believed to have a role in helping the elderly make a smooth passage into the next life and staying with them, if need be, in the otherworld to help prepare them for their eventual return to the earth in their next life. 

Her special ability to see into the Underworld, or the Otherworld of the sleeping and the dead, made her comfortable in the company of those most would shun out of fear. In her role as Queen of the Night, sometimes traveling with a following of ghosts and other social outcasts, she was both honored and feared as the protectress of the oppressed and of those who lived ‘on the edge’. This is one reason she and her followers had often been feared and reviled; they stand with at least one foot outside of the conventional world.  

Hecate was often accompanied on her travels by an owl, a symbol of wisdom, though she is not really known as a goddess of wisdom, but is recognized for a special type of knowledge and is considered to be the goddess of trivia, or small details. Yet, other writers feel this is a distortion of the idea that she was worshipped at places where three roads met and was therefore known as Hecate Trevia or  Tri-via; Hecate of the Three ways, connected with the moon's three phases and ruling over the three regions of heaven, earth and the underworld.

Associated with being 'between', with her connection with crossroads, borders, city walls, doorways and thresholds, and by extension, with realms outside or beyond the world of the living - she is characterized as a ‘liminal’ goddess.  She understands the grey areas between black and white, right and wrong, good and bad.

The Dark of the Moon, a time of endings and beginnings, when what was is no more, and what will be has yet to become, that in-between, liminal time, is understandably her time.

Hekate guards the limenoskopos, the doorstep, for she is a goddess of being on, as well as crossing over, boundaries. It means not only the boundary between life and death, but any boundaries, such as those between nature and city, waking and sleep, sanity and madness, self and other, the conscious and the subconscious minds. 

As goddess of the crossroads, Hecate appears at every major fork in the road where transition decisions are made, reminding us of the importance of change, helping us to release the past, especially those things that are hindering our growth. New beginnings, whether spiritual or mundane, aren't always easy, and she sometimes asks us to let go of what is familiar, safe and secure, and to travel to the scary places of the soul that will ultimately make us whole. 

She grants the gift of discernment and farsightedness to see what lies deeply forgotten or even hidden, often shining her torches to guide you through dreams or reverie. 

Hekate is also associated with an interesting wheel-shaped design, known as Hekate's Wheel, the Strophalos of Hekate, a circle around a serpentine maze with three main flanges, that in turn are situated around a central, fiery spiral. The three main arms of the maze correspond with her being a triple goddess, as well as goddess of the three ways. The design also refers to the serpent's power of rebirth, and to the labyrinth of knowledge through which Hekate could lead us, and to the flame of life itself. 

Hecate in this way can be understood too as the archetype for the Healer. Or Therapist. These are her teachings to those of us who claim to practice healing and therapy, as I do -- accepting all; respecting ‘what is’ even as we work with what ‘might be’; shining a light; offering the knowing that there is more than one way to see or to act; being invisible most of the time yet very, very present; encouraging people to see things in a new/different light; helping release the old, familiar ways and find one’s way through new beginnings; supporting a greater understanding of our selves, our dreams, our connections, and of relationships and others. 

Although one of her many appellations is The Distant One, Hecate can be close at hand. Whether we encounter her in waking hours - through people and events that take on her role, or through dreams gifted us while we sleep -she can lead us to see things differently, to be comfortable with dark places, dark emotions.

In this way, we can consider Hekate as the goddess of psychological transformation, her underworld the dark recesses of the human subconscious. By the light of her twin torches Hekate reveals what is already there. These are things a person needs to see in order to heal and renew. 

The crone is the third and final aspect of the three-fold Goddess. She is the dark moon, wintertime, old age and knower of mysteries. 

Being called a ‘crone’ is disturbing for many women! Looking for a defintion of the word, you’d most likely come across something like this: “The crone is a stock character in myths and fairytales, an old woman who is usually disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in manner, often with magical or supernatural associations that can make her either helpful or obstructing. She is marginalized by her exclusion from the reproductive cycle, and her proximity to death places her in contact with occult wisdom. As a character type, the crone shares characteristics with the hag.”

Oh my! Decidedly not nice!

Acceptance of our aging is tough enough without society seeming to conspire to hold up all the negatives of this stage. And we could get swept along with the incomplete meanings. It follows then, that this aspect of the Triple Goddess is the most frightening and misunderstood of the three, as she calls up ideas of our aging, change, destruction, decay and death. 

Traditional societies however, view death as part of a natural cycle, essential for change, for continuity. 

In her positive aspect the crone is seen as Grandmother, a wise woman, or a midwife, helping birth new selves; as wisdom keeper, seer and healer, whose knowledge is sought out to guide others during life's hardships and transitions. 

And our challenge is to own this side of her, this side of us.

The crone is a teacher or wise one, sometimes called the 'way-shower' as she shines the light of wisdom for all to see. She teaches that we cannot make things happen to suit our timing; things will happen when they need to - even as she teaches her followers the paths of freedom and power, she brings the gift and strength of patience.

The crone brings us an understanding also of the power of silence and of solitude. She reminds us that every spiritual journey teaches this as a necessary discipline, and includes periods of renewing silence. And she leads us to understand there is a place we reach in solitude when we no longer feel isolated or lonely, that real power can be attained in solitude because we have found our connection to all beings.

As knower of mysteries, secrets of existence, or hidden things, the crone presides in the dream worlds, guiding us through the unconscious labyrinths of our deep minds. She teaches us the symbolism of our dreams and helps us to understand and shape them to our choosing. The goddess gives us dreams and visions, which if interpreted patiently and wisely, led to greater clarity.

Hecate is particularly a force and teacher for women in their 50s and 60s. We accept and invite in fullness the crone that we have evolved into, reaping the accumulated benefits of all that we have learned so far, through experiences good and bad, happy and sad. And now - powerfully and wisely knowing when to withhold, knowing when to extend – we are encouraged to share our hard won wisdom with others.

Australian Aborigines say that the big stories - 

the stories worth telling and retelling, 

the ones in which you may find the meaning of your life - 

are forever stalking the right teller, 

sniffing and tracking like predators hunting their prey in the bush.

~ Robert Moss, Dreamgates

NEVERTHELESS, YOU MUST SING

This is the story of Caedmon, an ordinary man whom God took aside from his busy everyday activity and from his own sense of who and what he was, and spoke to him in the quiet of the night.

His story is recounted in Bede the Venerable’s Historia Ecclesiastica
Gentis Anglorum, or Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written around 731.

Caedmon lived in the seventh century as a lay brother in the community of Abbess Hilda of Whitby.

Bede tells us, ‘He had lived in the secular habit until he was well advanced in years and had never learned any songs.’ The singing of psalms and hymns played its normal central role in a Celtic establishment, and often at a feast for the sake of providing entertainment, it was an accepted tradition that all present should all sing in turn. That he knew no songs and could not sing bothered Caedmon so much, that whenever he saw the harp approaching him, he would quietly rise up even in the middle of the feasting, slip out, and return home.

Once, during the singing, Caedmon was so frustrated by his inability to contribute to the praises of the community he left the gathering, went to the stables and fell asleep among the horses.

As he slept, he dreamt that someone addressed him by name, saying, “Caedmon, sing me something.” Caedmon answered, “I cannot sing; that is why I left the feast and came here, because I could not sing.” The voice replied, “Nevertheless, you must sing.”

Feeling strangely compelled to obey, he asked, “What shall I sing?” and heard the voice say, “Sing about the beginning of created things.”

At that, Caedmon immediately began to sing out in praise of God:

Now we ought to praise Heaven-kingdom’s guardian,
the Maker’s might and his mind’s thoughts,
the work of the glory-father, as he established
the beginning of every wonder.

He first shaped for men’s sons 
Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator;
then middle-earth mankind’s guardian,
eternal Lord, afterwards prepared,
for men the earth, the Lord almighty.


Waking from his sleep, Caedmon remembered all that he had sung in his dream; his hymn was new, pouring forth from his heart. The next morning he went to his superior and told him of the dream. His superior took him to Hilda.

The abbess, who recognized the grace of God at work, instructed Caedmon to set aside his secular habit and to take monastic vows. She and all her people received him into the community of the brothers, and ordered that he should be instructed in the whole course of sacred history. He learned all he could by listening to them, and then, Bede tells us “.. memorizing it and ruminating over it, like some clean animal chewing the cud, he turned it into the most melodious verse: and it sounded so sweet as he recited it that his teachers became in turn his audience.”

He composed more verses in the same manner, “praising God in a worthy style,” and went on to become a great creative and dynamic force in the spiritual community, a poet and a prophet.

Caedmon is the very first English poet whose name we know; and so English poetry, it is said, began with a vision of God.

Caedmon’s story tells us too of our ordinary selves, afraid to find our ‘true voice’; but by heeding the call of ‘the other’ - divine prompting, sometimes simple inner prompting - we can give voice to our previously withheld beautiful creativity – whatever shape or form this takes.

Other poets find commonality with Caedmon’s story.

Susan Mitchell's dwells on Caedmon's story, and the prompting of ‘the other one’ in her beautiful poem ‘Rapture’:

“Sing me something'' is what the other keeps saying
night after night, regular as a pulse.

And when this one is alone, there's no problem.
He sings. He takes the lute-like
into his hands and plucks. Yes, he hears it.
What sounds like a sound. But when he opens his mouth,
it's different, it's the wrong sound.

And when this one is alone, there's no problem.
He sings. He takes the lute-like
into his hands and plucks. Yes, he hears it.
What sounds like a sound. But when he opens his mouth,
it's different, it's the wrong sound.

Is it the acoustics inside
his head that make the difference? And who keeps
urging, making impossible demands
of him? ``Come on,''

the other one is saying like
a faucet dripping, like a branch beating the window.
The window in his head. He opens it.

“Come on, Caedmon, sing me hwaethwugu.'' Yes,
that's how it sounds, like another
language, like gibberish, like
talking in his sleep. Remember the eensy-weensy

spider that climbed the water spout? That's how
he tries. His hands try. His lips.
It falls down. He tries. It falls down.
It's that regular. But when he makes it that regular
it's no good. It's not the same regularity.

I can't, he says, filling his mouth
with a big hole. Refusing, it begins for him.
Protesting, it swings itself up, it gets
going. It comes to him coming.

Or, it comes to her. What she lacks.
What hasn't happened in her
entire life, now it's coming, its absence
spread everywhere like a canyon in waves
of magenta and purple and gold.

The voice spreading before her. ``Forget
outside. Forget sky outside and clouds outside.''
This is what the voice spreads
before her, so she can look at what
it is saying. …


And one of my favorite poets, Denise Levertov has these words (from her ‘Breathing the Water’) on Caedmon discovering his:

All others talked as if
talk were a dance.
Clodhopper I, with clumsy feet
would break the gliding ring.
Early I learned to
hunch myself
close by the door:
then when the talk began
I’d wipe my
mouth and wend
unnoticed back to the barn
to be with the warm beasts,
dumb among body sounds
of the simple ones.
I’d see by a twist
of lit rush the motes
of gold moving
from shadow to shadow
slow in the wake
of deep untroubled sighs.
The cows
munched or stirred or were still. I
was at home and lonely,
both in good measure. Until
the sudden angel affrighted me—light effacing
my feeble beam,
a forest of torches, feathers of flame, sparks upflying:  
but the cows as before
were calm, and nothing was burning,
             nothing but I, as that hand of fire  
touched my lips and scorched my tongue  
and pulled my voice
                            into the ring of the dance.


May each of us discover the courage to find our true voice.

Marguerite Theophil

Stories live in your blood and bones,follow the seasons 

and light candles on the darkest night

-every storyteller knows she or he is also a teacher... 

~Patti Davis

THE CYCLIC NATURE OF ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS

A gift of a bracelet from Ghana at first looks like a series of linked hearts, but on closer inspection I notice a stylized bird.

I learn that this is the Sankofa, a mythic bird from their culture that flies forward while looking backward, with an egg held in its mouth.

The word Sankofa derives from the Akan peoples, a West African ethnic group that today resides in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The Akan, over centuries, developed a highly artistic and communicative system of ideographic and pictographic symbols, each representing a specific concept, proverb or saying rooted in the Akan experience. These symbols can be found used extensively in indigenous textiles, metal and wood work, jewellery, and architecture too.

The older African religions had no sacred texts. Their beliefs were handed down mostly orally through proverbs and stories or through pictorial symbols that convey the deeper meanings of life and culture to a community or nation.

A proverb from which the concept and meaning of Sankofa is derived declares, "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten." It speaks of taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge.

The Sankofa bird is stylized in a circular fashion to represent that there is no end and no beginning. It has an egg in its mouth, which represents not only the knowledge of the past upon which wisdom is based, but also signifies the generation to come that would benefit from that wisdom.

Culturally, the Sankofa bird represents the collective wisdom of a people, and teaches that a people must know its past legacy to understand their present situation in order to protect and create a future for generations to come. It is a message to take from the past what is good and bring it into the present in order to move forward with a strong foundation. It can also remind us that we are all here because of the sacrifices of those who have gone before.

Another translation of this concept is "You can't know where you're going unless you know where you come from," and this can hold for individuals as much as it can hold for cultures.

I see this in practice when as individuals we look at the things that happened in our past, take what we have learned from those experiences, and use it to move forward, and when this helps us also to avoid creating the same unhelpful patterns again and again.

Sankofa represents the concepts of claiming identity, redefinition, revisioning and acting – which are key aspects of personal growth work. It reminds one to focus on moving forward, while gaining wisdom from the past and achieving proper balance in preparation for the future.

Many of us bury in the past not only problems, but also often the best and most valuable parts of ourselves. Sankofa is a wonderful teaching here, reminding us that in such cases, "returning and fetching that which is lost" is not at all wrong, and often necessary. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, given up or been stripped of, can be reclaimed and revived. We are encouraged to reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, reclaim the lost or marginalized aspects of our higher selves, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward.

May we, as 2011 begins, look back, look forward and wisely move on ...
Marguerite Theophil

"Any event retold from life that would appear to carry a meaning, however small, is a story" 

 ~ Ben Okri