#keepingherkeys

[miniaturemoonheart]

The Dark Moon, occurring on the astrological new moon, is a time for honoring Hekate. Inspired by the ancient practice of leaving meals for her at the crossroads during this time, I love to express my devotion by creating components of the meal based on ancient recipes. I'm working with executive chef, Christen Bennett, who is also a Key Bearer in Covina, on a long-term project researching both the practice and the recipes that were likely part of this meal, which we often refer to as "The Deipnon," which means supper (or feast, which I personally prefer).

Use the link below to access our conversations on the project to date, both on the KHK YouTube and podcast. We're working our way through all the components of the ancient meal. So far we've done cakes, fish, and eggs.

We're currently making cheese for the next Dark Moon, based on a recipe from Columella's De Re Rustica (pictured), which we'll discuss in our live class this coming Monday (July 17; use link in bio to join Covina).

The Dark Goddess Cheesecake from Entering Hekate's Garden is inspired by the ancient ones that were probably part of the meal.

A simpler cheese offering is the Thumon Moon from EHG as well.

Learn more about Covina by following the links below, where there are many more resources in a private community.

https://linktr.ee/cyndibrannen

Entering Hekate's Garden is published by Red Wheel / Weiser Books

#hekate #keepingherkeys #Deipnon #hekatessupper #enteringhekatesgarde

[paganizmturkiye]

Ay Tanrıçası olarak Hekate'yi davet

Selam olsun sana Hekate! Ay’ın Tanrıçası!

Yerin, denizin ve gökyüzünün yenilmez hâkimi!

Ritüelime katılman için seni çağırıyorum!

Selam olsun sana Hekate! Ay’ın Tanrıçası!

Yer altının gece gezen Kraliçesi!

Ritüelime katılman için seni çağırıyorum!

Selam olsun sana Hekate! Ay’ın Tanrıçası!

Tüm eşiklerde ve zamanlarda hüküm süren!

Ritüelime katılman için seni çağırıyorum!

Selam olsun sana Hekate! Ay’ın Tanrıçası!

İlahi köprü ve aracı!

Ritüelime katılman için seni çağırıyorum!

Selam olsun sana Hekate! Ay’ın Tanrıçası!

Cadıların büyük Tanrıçası,

Ritüelime katılman için seni çağırıyorum!

Selam olsun sana Hekate! Ay’ın Tanrıçası! Üç formlu Tanrıça!

Ay’ın üç yüzünde parlarsın.

Selam olsun sana Hekate! Gizemlerin anahtar taşıyıcısı,

Karanlık Ay’ın sırları Senindir,

Doldur içimi Ay'ın enerjisiyle!

Senin muhteşem Ay'ının enerjisini çekiyorum,

Çalışmamda senin yardımını arıyorum,

Niyetim gerçek,

Ve iradem güçlü.

Kaynak: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keepingherkeys/2018/02/hekate-and-the-moon/

[theherbwitch]

My workings tonight for Hecate, on the Night of the Crossroads ~

Went out to my local crossroads™ (aka one of the 4 3 way intersections surrounding my apartment) and did a circle of black salt for protection, and set a piece of hematite and candle down. Lit that bitch quick before the wind could fuck me, and laid out some sweet cookies for the Dark Goddess. They got lil candies in em. Sprinkled some lavender too before I left, and the wind blew out my candle. I picked that and my rock up and went back home to set the candle and whatnot on my altar before I retired for the evening.

Blessed be, y'all. No matter who you pray to, or if you do at all, honestly I'm just vibing 😂

Thank you, Hecate, for inspiring me to really TRY something. 🖤💜💚🤍💙

[cat-and-cauldron]

#hekate #hecategoddess #keepingherkeys #protection I made these keys under the guidance of Hekate to aid in protection. They can be put above doorways, hidden in corners of rooms, placed in hallways etc They have been consecrated by myself a practising #witch https://www.instagram.com/p/CB7z4qTgL7O/?igshid=17jk6w9wuf2un

[theenchantedwren]

Diving into a new read, just in time for Hecate's Fire.

[cuppahekate]

Hekate's Hound. This week as I was advocating for a neighbor dog, I realized that She was asking me to put the hound back on her statue. Originally, I had removed the hound when I received the statue because I didn't resonate with dogs or hounds with Her but She knew otherwise. #hekate #hecate #hekateshounds #hekateshound #messages #witchesofinstagram #goddesswork #messagesfromhekate #messagesfromher #keepingherkeys #keeperofherkeys #dogadvocate https://www.instagram.com/p/CDr8FkYJD_k/?igshid=1jutpim3odsi7

[lusventures]

#Hecate offering #tea from @anitaapothecary Now all I need is a fancy tea cup ☕️ #brujo #keepingherkeys https://www.instagram.com/p/B6mPobfpdB3/?igshid=hx35khscx5e0

[punkylilwitch]

Poppets

What is a poppet?: A poppet is a doll used to aid a witch by representing a person to help channel spells to that person more easily. 

How are they made?: Poppets are created with carved root, grain or corn shafts, a fruit, paper, wax, a potato, clay, branches, or cloth stuffed with herbs. They are made with the intent that any actions performed on the doll will be transferred to the person attached

What makes them different from voodoo dolls?: Well, to understand this I need to talk about voodoo dolls a bit more, so let’s do that for a bit

What are voodoo dolls?: Technically, they are figures that utilize the magickal process known as gris-gris, and can be used as a religious object or a superstitious one depending on how the user treats it. 

“The voodoo doll is usually a small, soft doll representing a person, though the extent of physical detail may vary. This doll, lying alone on a table, is no different from any other type of doll. However, the sharp pins which accompany the doll make it a voodoo doll. The person handling the doll has complete control over the doll, and can push the pins into the entirety of its soft body, attaching strands of hair or the name of the subject to the doll. The concept rests on this body being the material incarnation of a person, although religious usage of the voodoo doll uses outside spirits.” - The Voodoo doll By brown.edu

What is gris-gris: A gris-gris' definition is nuanced-- it can either be the magical act or the object used for magic, or even both.

With all this in mind, poppets can represent any form of intent by its user, good or bad, whereas voodoo dolls are typically used for spiritual purposes. The main visual difference is that a voodoo doll will have pins in it, giving the user complete control over the doll and, ergo, the material person. 

What do I do with it?: Here’s some easy things to do with poppets all found from the website learnreligions.com on an article called “Using Magical Poppets and Dolls” written By Patti Wigington. **Please note that the front image shown in this website is of a voodoo doll, not a poppet, which is evident by the pins. 

1. To Get a Job You've Applied For

Material: satin, green or gold or silver

Herbs: clover, chamomile, ginger, cinnamon

Gemstones: snowflake obsidian or sodalite

Create a poppet to represent yourself. As you make it, focus on the positive attributes that you possess which will make you appealing to a potential employer. Another option is to create the poppet in the image of the employer (include business cards or letterhead inside, if you can get them) and tell the employer poppet why you're the best person for the job.

2. To Protect Your Family

Material: Modeling clay

Herbs: Basil, patchouli, coffee

Gemstones: Hematite, amethyst, black onyx.

Create poppets that represent each member of the family, blending herbs and stones into the clay. Put them in a safe place in your home, such as near your hearth, and utilize magical shielding or cast a circle of protection around them. This is actually a fun project you can get your kids involved in as well — let them each make their own poppet person!

3. To Heal a Sick Person

Material: White cotton or unbleached muslin

Herbs: Lemon balm, feverfew, ivy, and pine.

Gemstones: Bloodstone, turquoise

When you make this poppet, be sure to indicate what you are trying to heal, whether it's a case of tennis elbow, a chronic infection, or even a broken heart. Focus all of your energy on the ailment in question.

4. To Bring Love Into Your Life

Material: Red or pink silk or cotton

Herbs: Rose petals, parsley, and peppermint

Gemstones: Barite, jade, rose quartz

Make a poppet to represent the object of your affection — remember that in some magical traditions it is frowned upon to make a specific person the target of your working. If you are simply trying to attract love to yourself, but you don’t have a specific person in mind, focus on all the desirable qualities you want to see in a potential lover.

5. Silencing a Gossip

Material: Ground beef or other squishy meat

Herbs: Horseradish, pepper, rue, yarrow, valerian

Shape the meat and herbs into a person, and create a "meat puppet" in the same way you'd make a fabric one. As you make the doll, tell it that it's time to be silent, and tell no more gossipy stories. Remind it that people who can't say nice things shouldn't say anything at all. Dispose of the doll by either burning it on your grill and burying it someplace far away, feeding it to your dog, or leaving it out in the sun to rot.

6. Emergency Poppet on the Fly

Material: Aluminum foil

Perhaps something has come up in a hurry, and you feel it needs immediate magical attention. Use a piece of aluminum foil to whip together a quickie poppet — shape it into the figure of a person. Fill with any magical components that might be handy — bits of wood, dirt, grass, even a name scribbled on a piece of paper — and personalize the poppet.

Need additional poppetry ideas? Try making a magical gingerbread poppet, or put together a portable poppets kit to keep in your magical arsenal!

Image: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keepingherkeys/2019/05/delete-5/

https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/13things/7393.html

https://www.learnreligions.com/what-are-magical-poppets-4072783

https://www.sabbatbox.com/blogs/sabbat-box-blog/what-is-a-poppet-what-is-a-voodoo-doll - warning, this website gives voodoo dolls a bit of a bad rap... I recommend using the brown.edu website for a better look on voodoo because they are unbiased and purely educational (historically) in their nature. 

[hekatecovenant]

“In 2020, Hekate has burst forth because of the virus and the general social disruption. The old order is crumbling all around us. 

This is the call to go deep into ourselves while working for social change. In astrological terms, this year is the time of a rare planetary configuration of Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in the sign of Capricorn. It is no coincidence that the last time this occurred, about 1894 BCE, was around the same time that a famous plaque, known as The Queen of the Night relief, was created in ancient Mesopotamia while a new form of civilization was emerging. As I wrote earlier, there is evidence that Hekate’s roots are in this place and time.

Wherever there is witchcraft, there is Hekate. The opposite is also true. Not witchcraft that is superstitious nonsense, but witchcraft in the true sense of healing the soul. The breakdown of the separation between the medicine of the body, mind, and spirit. This is the power of Hekate. The popularity of witchcraft today is due to the fact that modern life has negated this simple truth, which necessarily accompanies avoidance of the darkness. "

written by Cyndi Brannen, exerpt from her blog Keepingherkeys .

artwork by Stuart LittleJohn

Shared by Laurie Bianciotto, Devotee CoH

[noweyesee]

Shadow Work • Exercise #1

Dualism and Animism

Disclaimer: This is not a work of personal opinion, merely a use of historical facts and concepts to build up a correlation. In no way, shape or form is this meant to be read as a favoring of one belief over the other, instead, the objective of this research is to provide an informed and contextualized application of a specific belief in Shadow Work.

Dualistic Belief in Witchcraft

In witchcraft and religion, Dualism means that there is a belief in two divine or supreme powers that oppose each other, and through a shock, mix or encounter they caused the World to come into existence. There are different types of dualistic views, but the concept of two opposing forces is maintained, with changes of how these forces work, which originated first and so on.

Through historic facts, we can see that the Dualistic belief originated in the Ancient World (3000 C.a) and slowly start to reappear with the passage of time, it can be seen in the Middle Eastern (Mesopotamia, Egypt and Iran) religions, as well as in Greece (Hellenistic), India (Hinduism), China (Yin and Yang).

With that brief historical contextualization, we can better understand and identify the origins of certain terms, concepts and beliefs commonly used in many actual witchcraft practices, through the focus of this research doesn’t lie in them, it would be a pity to not briefly mention them so that we can take a look at the historical roots and it’s ramifications and similarities in the actuality.

Light and Dark

We can point out the existence of a distinction between Light and Dark in many specific beliefs and religions, but to briefly explain this dualism, I’ll broaden these beliefs into the Witchcraft Umbrella, generally defined as the “The activity of performing magic to help or harm other people” (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus). In Witchcraft there is a recurring concept (that creates many discussions within the community) about Light Magick and Dark Magick. These are opposing forces, wherein in Light is said to be the ethical performing of protection, peaceful and healing magick, and in the Dark is where people define curses, hexes and practices that cause harm.

Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path

The beliefs of the dualism of the Left- and Right-Hand Path was originated in India, to distinguish those that followed certain ethical codes that abided to cultural norms (The Right Handed Path) from those that followed another specific spiritual path, seen as extreme to cultural beliefs (The Left Hand Path).

What this means is that the Right-Hand Path is one that is constructive and communitarian, the knowledge is achieved, exchanged and taught for the sake of the majority or group, as opposed to the Left-Hand Path, in which one seeks knowledge with their inner growth and enlightenment in mind.

Then, this term was integrated in western Witchcraft, and the Left-Hand Path became a representative of those who performed Dark Magick and The Right-Hand Path of those who performed Light/White Magick.

Good and Evil

Another dualistic concept, that too generates a great amount of discussion is Good and Evil. These are opposing powers, and this concept is one that can be described as an ideology in certain contexts, if described by Chauí (1981b: 3) “Ideology is a systematic body of representations e norms that “teach” us how to obtain knowledge and act, which objective is to unify thought, language and reality to the image of a dominating class.” With that said, an ideology can be applied to any belief or knowledge. And then enters the concept of Good and Evil in Witchcraft, its first historical appearance was in the Ancient World (ac 3000) in Iran, and so, we’ve completed the cycle and wound up in the topic of Dualism’s origins.

The Animistic Belief

Now, let’s revisit the Paleolithic period (2.5 Million years ago to 10.000 B.C), it is the oldest period of history, when humans were in the early stages of discovery of tools. In that period there are many evidences of traditions, such as burying the dead, that we still practice to this day. There are also evidences of a religious practice, or perhaps a world view, known as Animism.

Animism, in brief words, is the belief that everything in the World and the Universe has a distinct spiritual essence, all is alive, all breathes. It can be assumed that at the time, the concept of magick didn’t exist, because there was no concept for material or mundane, or whichever may be the antonym of magick/spiritual. Through this, we can see that there was no distinction between the spiritual and the material, they were one and the same. As such, when everything has essence and spirit, dualistic concepts held no ground in that. Instead, it was believed that there was one single “culture” that could have a variety of natures.

What that means is that the divine powers were encompassing, they were both Chaos and Order, Light and Dark, not as opposites, but as existences and compliments of each other. Good or evil was entirely based on morals and acts, but it was not an inherent of the Divine Powers. So it is safe to assume that animism is a non-dualistic belief.

With that said, many indigenous beliefs still have traces or follow animistic world views, such as Shamanism and Totenism (One can be seen in the other, but they are not necessarily the same). There are also some religions, philosophies or belies that believe in nondualism, such as some branches of Buddhism.

Nondualism applied in Shadow Work

With all that contextualization, we arrive at the final objective.

This concept can be seen as an exercise, one that suggests going back the roots of humanity and briefly forgetting many years of a shared Dualistic world view to practice and look at Shadow Work through a non-dualistic perspective.

If the Shadow is a part of us that we fundamentally consider evil, and Shadow Work is meant to balance our inner selves and promote self-knowledge and self-acceptance, it feels kind and dignified, perhaps even honorable to our common ancestors, to try and exercise a wholesome view over Shadow Work.

The Challenge here is to try and stop the ingrained thought of “This is my dark side, and it needs to breathe. It is bad, but I need to accept it to become enlightened and balanced.” and instead, slowly shift that thought to a more accepting and kinder view, a non-dualistic view of yourself in your wholeness.

A Suggested Exercise

When doing Shadow Work, let’s try and shift the previous thoughts, instead, let us try and think:

“This is my dark side, it is part of me, I may not like it or accept it at the moment, but that does not mean that my Shadow is the opposite of me. My Shadow is not Evil, and I don’t intend to work with it as one does a disease while trying to obtain a cure. My Shadow is dark, but my shadow is me, and I'll try to understand and accept it. There is no evil and there is no good within this Work, there is only me.”

I think this can be of course, altered to one’s taste and demand, as long as the point stands, and that’s a non-dualistic view of this process.

Introduction • Shadow Work: Origins, Meaning and Utility.

Images:

René Magritte – Decalcomania in Black and White

Pablo Amaringo - Forest

References:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/dualism-religion/Historical-varieties-of-religious-dualism

http://dianic.faithweb.com/lightvsdark.htm

http://www.themagickkitchen.com/light-magick-vs-dark/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keepingherkeys/2018/01/balance-dark-light/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-hand_path_and_right-hand_path

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_and_evil

https://study.com/academy/lesson/paleolithic-age-religion-artifacts.html

https://www.shorthistory.org/prehistory/language-and-spiritual-culture-in-old-stone-age/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/animism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism

[fantasiacrystals-blog]

Just in! Keeping Her Keys - Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft #fantasiacrystals #hekate #keepingherkeys #witchcraft #paganism (at Fantasia Crystals) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvUYWvkFeZR/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2alyanlg6yr4

[kitchenwitchupinthisbitch]

Good advice for anyone considering trying flying ointments.

[cuppahekate]

Dark Moon gifts....first drink out of my custom Hekate strophalos mug from @cactusfirepottery and love the silver charm pendant they gifted that I am wearing. I am enjoying a cool evening outside after a hot day. #darkmoon #hekate #hecate #tea #strophalos #goddesswork #spiritual #keepingherkeys #keeperofherkeys #takingcareofme #findingfiftytwo #independentwoman https://www.instagram.com/p/CC49tb4pv6M/?igshid=nl2a5hl96z3x

[theenchantedwren]

"Do the work. Go into yourself. Find the answers. Reconnect to your truth. Weave it anew...."