Glimpses of the Left..

Hecate was above all the of witches and the goddess
of dark She endowed them with power over the forces of Nature,
fl'vealed the secrets of herbs and taught how to prepare magical potions.
She was the mistress of and funereal To her followers
she appeared with torches in her hands, or in an animal - a mare, a
dog, or a wolf. She led her adepts through the of darkest and deepest
layers of the irrational. Her cult was persecuted by patriarchal
because it involved practices that seemed devious and dangerous,
those connected with the powers of female sexuality. Her
were based on the cult of in its and primal
aspect. Witches who worshipped Hecate used witchcraft to increase sexual
attractiveness and to attract the potential prey. Their attitude to sex was
predatory - they treated their partners as prey, seized them and left them
drained, exhausted, deprived of life The cult of Hecate was
therefore with the cult of female
the patriarchal structures of the community. In this sense,
Hecate was one of the "darkest" goddesses of the Western pantheon. Her
cult is the ma the of the dark side of human the
wild element, the dark instinct of the primordial left-hand-path traditions.
Hecate was also associated with the moon and considered a Q:olddess
of the moonlight. That is why, she was called Mene, the name
from the goddess of the moon and the underworld. Her mysteries
can be therefore associated with the female which had
been linked with the moon phases since earliest antiquity. Hecate,
however, was a chthonic goddess. One of her main attributes is a that
opens the of Hades. The torch up the dark corridors and tunnels
of the underworld. She is the guide who leads adepts through the kingdom
of the dead, the goddess of illumination sometimes even depicted as a
living flame, illuminating the darkness of and oblivion.
witches often summon her name in their spells and rites. In
Macbeth, Hecate is the of Witches invoked by the
"weird sisters" in their grim prophesies. often mentions this
goddess in his such as Macbeth or
Midsummer Night's Dream. In literature she is commonly linked with
witchcraft and the night. Also The Witch from the title of the play by the
... �.��� Middleton is called Hecate. This dark goclde:ss
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is rooted