Around 9:30PM (Central Time), I participated in the worldwide ceremony honoring the goddess Hekate. In keeping with Sorita d’Este’s wishes as expressed on the first page of the ritual, I adhered to the overall purpose of the ritual (because it was great); however, I did take the liberty of changing a few key pieces of the actual ritual text that do not gel with my personal perspective and/or ritual style. The most noteworthy change that I made was the omission of the entire phrase that begins with two of the six documented Ephesian Letters. For an explanation of the letters according to her research, visit her official site for this evening’s rite at http://sacredfires.co.uk/?p=213. Her explanation was interesting but nowhere in it did she give the exact meaning in ancient Greek of either each word or the entire phrase: Askei Kataskei Eron Oreon Ior Mega Samnyer Baui Phobantia Semne. Now, I don’t know about you but I do not run around saying words I do not fully understand within a ritual context no matter how ancient, magickal, or all-around cool they appear!
With that omission made, I enjoyed honoring Hekate on a day when hundreds if not thousands of others were doing the same; I could feel Her presence with me during the ritual. There is something beautiful, profound, and uplifting in that sort of collective experience. Thank you, Sorita d’Este for devising and organizing this truly great event!
Wandering Woman Wondering 
4 replies on “The Rite of Her Sacred Fires”
My introduction to Hekate! I love that this day and ritual exist, and that I was lucky enough to find Hekate right before it took place. (Actually, I’m pretty sure it was actually a big part of the reason I started noticing her, as many of the people I was reading were getting ready for it.) I think I read that a few other people left out those words as well. I left them in, because there are a lot of things about ritual I don’t understand and I figured there might be a good reason Sorita included them. She obviously knows more than me, and I decided to see if saying them had an effect on me even without knowing what I was saying. I didn’t really notice one, other than that it added a little awkwardness to the ritual since I didn’t know if I was even saying them right. Unless I do this in a group, I think I might also leave it out next year…or start preparing early enough to try to find the meaning myself. Some of the words seem familiar, it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a close estimate…and it will be a good review of my horribly neglected Koine Greek class.
Also, I don’t know why Reader decided to send me this as if you’d just posted it. I see now it is dated from awhile ago…oops!
Hehe. I was wondering about that :-).
Sorita used to have a page on the Sacred Fires website that discussed the meaning of the words (or rather their approximate meaning/significance), but what was there was not specific enough for me to feel comfortable speaking them in sacred space.