Often hailed as the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft, Hecate was also called the goddess of the Underworld and the Guardian of the Crossroads. She was a titan of old, daughter of Perses and Asteria. The Romans called Hecate- Trivia- meaning “she of the three ways: maiden, mother, & crone.” Her medicine is called sorcery by some and herbalism by others. In art, she is often depicted holding a pair of lit torches and carrying keys which unlock mysterious doors and portals. She shows the way and can gain access to the locked places. This wise woman, who sits in the shadow of her cave, deep in the center of the earth, may, upon first appearance, seem like a villain from an old fairy tale. Yet everything is not as it seems on first inspection. Hecate is the only other person who hears and responds to Persephone’s terrified cries and screams as she is abducted and forcefully dragged and pulled into the underworld. Hecate listens with sharp ears and observes with keen green eyes. She is informed of her surroundings and what is happening around her. In current terms, she is mindful, present, and self-aware.
Hecate hears those cries of Persephone and her “tender-heart” (as it translates from the Greek) bends and breaks when she hears Persephone, whose cries are so pained and ripe with fear and agony, and Hecate’s magic is that she responds with intentional action. Filled with love and compassion, Hecate offers her medicines and her knowledge and helps Persephone on her journey.
Much later in our story, Demeter, Persephone’s mother, has gone mad from her grief and from her fruitless years of searching for her vanished and disappeared daughter. All over the world, she has traveled, looking for her daughter and asking everyone she can find if they have seen her, but she has found no clue and no help. She has only been met with avoidance and deception. One day, Demeter arrives in the Underworld- whether seeking her own death or in a final attempt to find her daughter no one ever really knew…. and out of the darkness of her cave, a woman’s voice calls out as Hecate speaks to Demeter. She sees Demeter. Unlike all the rest who were so uncomfortable with the weight of Demeter’s grief, who pretended not to see or hear Demeter because of their own fears and their discomfort with her pain and anguish. With compassion, Hecate sees her, feels that pain for her lost and disappeared child, and instead of staying silent, she tells the mourning mother what she knows. Her medicine is information and truth. That her daughter is alive and here. “You are so close to finding her, Demeter!” Once again, Hecate brings the medicine, which is so often in the form of accurate information, truth, and knowing. That which/witch heals and guides us to the answers we are seeking and even, perhaps, to the ones we don’t know we are looking for. Because of Hecate’s help, Demeter finds her daughter, and a deal is reached. Since, Persephone has eaten the fruit of the underworld (the pomegranate) and tasted its sweet but taboo flesh, she must spend a part of her time below the earth with the death and decay and living in the bones. But in the Spring, she can return to the above bringing life back to the cold, frozen, dormant earth. She reunites with her mother and friends. Mother reunited with daughter. The disappeared found with breath and life still left. As above. So below.