Is it Hekate, or is it You? Who gets the credit?
This image of the Hekatean guardians was done by Sarah McMenomy Prints and other art available here https://sarahmcmenomy.myportfolio.com/
Note: This post has its own point meant for everyone, but also ties into my course. I hate “articles” that are really sales pitches so I wanted to alert everyone up front.
Last year, Olivia, the Witch of Wonderlust, took the Sorcery of Hekate Course and reviewed it. This summer she posted a follow up review after finishing the second level of the training. In this update she talks a lot about how what she was experiencing with Hekate seemed at odds with what many other Witches were sharing. She mad a special note about how she was being told to always “Thank Hekate” for anyting that happened. Olivia has been studying pole dancing and has advanced to teacher level, and as she said in the video “I did that, not Hekate”.
I could not agree with her more. In this case I don’t think she even invoked Hekate’s aid for her achievement, but people told her that they regularly credit Hekate with anything that happens. I wanted to make this post to say that even when a student achieves something directly as a result of using the Sorcery in the Hekate course, it’s still their efforts that are primarily responsible for their achievements.
I am constantly reminding people that the point of the course is to teach magic that places you in the divine machinery in a way that gives you access and ability to direct that influence into the world. If we are training in magic, it’s for more than “dial-a-deity and ask for stuff”. I think people forget sometimes that Witchcraft is a craft. Your agency matters, and your actions are the primary movers in your magic.
Now, can you thank spirits and deities? Yes. I do. I thank Hekate and the many spirits of her mandala all the time for their assistance. I thank my teachers for their teachings as well. This kind of thanks recognizes that nothing happens in a vacuum, and that you are always assisted and impacted in ways great and small. When an actor gets up to accept an Oscar, there is a long list of people they recognize and thank, but in the end it was them took that aid and opportunity, developed their skill, and gave the performance. This is a good type of gratitude, and is a practice in and of itself. If I am on a real gratitude bender I even thank my enemies for the lessons that I have learned, and all the people who demonstrate that things I would never do. There is no end to the things that impact our every moment for which we can be thankful
There is another type of thankfulness though. It’s one that turns all agency over to the Gods or Spirits. It’s the kind that grovels about how small we are and how large they are, and how all good things come from them, and all bad things are probably a needed initiation. It’s kind of funny how many people who turn their nose up at Christians who credit Jesus for how “blessed they are” turn around and do basically the same thing. If this is your idea of how spirituality is supposed to go, I suppose that is fine. I leave you to it. It is a seductive approach because it tells you simultaneously that you so important that the Gods themselves are planning your life, but also relieves you of any responsibility for anything that you do or don’t do.
So ask yourself, whether its Hekate or any God or Spirit, are you thanking them because you are recognizing the influence they have in your life or because you don’t want to recognize your own?
Here comes the course pitch….
If you want to learn a system that goes deeper than prayers of intercession….
If you want to train in that system to get progressively better at it precisely because it is a craft….
If you want to work with a deity that wants to help you act on your own agency…. This is a good time to join The Sorcery of Hekate Training.