Hecate

Hows everyone doing? As I mentioned before, the aspect of the triple goddess we focus on during this time of year is the crone. One of the more well-known crone goddesses, and one that has a particularly special link with Samhain is Hecate. She is the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night moon, ghosts, and necromancy. Her powers lie in her wisdom, her dreams , and her divining abilities. Hecate is known as the Queen of the Night and she's the only Goddess who can grant any and all wishes of mortals. One of the more famous and significant myths concerning Hecate is the story of Persephone's abduction. In this story Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was so beautiful that everyone loved and desired her, including Hades, the lord of the underworld. One day as she was picking flowers, he rose up and kidnapped her, taking her back to his kingdom. Hecate had seen everything and she rushed back to inform Demeter. Demeter was so upset by this that she withdrew into herself and the earth ceased to be fertile (winter was born). Later on Hecate became a trusted friend of Pesephone and helped the young maiden adjust to life in the underworld. In addition she helped Demeter and Hades come to an agreement; for half the year (spring and summer) Persephone would be above ground with her mother and the earth would be fertile, the other half half (winter and fall) she would return to her husband, Hades, during this time Demeter would again go into mourning and the earth would become infertile. Hades was so grateful to Hecate for aiding in these arrangements that he invited Hecate into his kingdom and allowed her the freedom to come and go as she pleased. Though in the story, Hecate, Demeter, and Persephone interact with each other as three seperate characters, they are in fact thought of as one being. On their own they form a triad, kind of like the Triple Goddess on a smaller more individual level, with Persephone being the maiden, Demeter the mother, and Hecate the crone. By being part of a triad Hecate has the ability to see past, present, and future. Indeed, Hecate is often depicted as having three heads or with the three-headed hound of the underworld.