AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is my intellectual property. Do not use this to make rosaries to sell or sell the idea, even modified. Thank you.
I have spent a lot of time surfing the web looking at all things Hekate. I’ve visited uncountable Google image searches and I window shop at places like Etsy a lot. In my wanderings I’ve found that virtually all pagan prayer beads, even if they are dedicated to a god or goddess, have no prayers to make the pattern in the beads make sense. Basically, if you purchase a pagan prayer bead string you have to fit your prayers into their design because basically what they’ve created is a work of art, a piece of jewelry, but not really prayer beads. Well, that doesn’t work for me at all. So far I’ve written two prayers, one complicated one simple, to go with my Hekatean prayer bead design to make a journey into the many names of Hekate in order to experience Her nature and get to know Her better. I will use the pattern of the rosary to create new prayers in the future in order to uncover even more of her nature. So stay tuned.
I also do not use Hekate’s epithets in Greek in my prayers. I find them distracting because the words are often difficult to pronounce and because trying to remember words that I’m unfamiliar with drains any magic from the exercise. I do however, find the ideas behind the Greek words, very useful and important. These ideas, these names for Hekate help us understand who she was to the ancients and who she can be to us today. They are a large chunk of what is known about her, but by far do no express all that she is. She can be defined by her epithets, but not contained by them; this idea is even expressed in two of her eptithets: Azonos, without Borders and Azostos, Ungirt, without a belt. So, in studying them, we get to know her better than we would if we only relied on personal experience and what little has been written about her roll in ancient times. I get almost all of my information on her eptithets via Sara Nehti Croft’s blog Singing For Her. I would suggest you print the list she’s created and study it.
Hekate of the Four Ways?
If you hadn’t noticed in naming this rosary I did not stick to the traditional triple goddess imagery that one typically associates with Hekate. I have adopted the more obscure epithet that names her mistress of the four roads: Tetraoditis in order to support the design of this rosary. I spotlight the number four in the naming of this rosary to call attention to this obscure but important epithet and to explore how it relates to her three-fold aspect. I also use it to explore her more stable and solid nature, more like a rock than the flowing river implied in her Trivia epithet. This imagery brings up the idea that she is the rock in the river; she is the river. She is the mountain; she is the rain & wind. She is the shore; she is the sea. (I will write more about this later.)
The combination of the use of her epithets for the numbers three and four is significant in this rosary for several reasons which I list below.
- When you open up the rosary and lay it out, visually you can see three paths with a
doorway. Allowing the Trivia imagery to pop out in our consciousness. Yet combine with the hidden idea that Hekate is also a quadruple goddess.
- It combines the solid, un-moving stability of the number four and the more fluid, and unstable balance of the number three.
- It also hints at the fact that the moon actually has four phases, not three: Waxing, Waning, Full and Dark. (Future prayers created for this rosary may include this imagery and idea. )
Now let us explore the prayer in detail:
About the Journey of the Four Roads
Begin at the gate with the key.
(Pendant can be purchased from Maxine Miller)
Glorious Hekate, Keeper of the Keys to the Cosmos, please watch over me and guide me on my journey
Keeper of the Keys:
The Key at the beginning is very important. One of Hekate’s most important and popular rolls is as Keeper of the Keys to the Cosmos, Pantos Kosmou Kleidokhos. It is is here that you take up the key to Her mysteries and chose to walk her path and ask for her protection and guidance.
Protector:
Protection is another one of her rolls and is expressed in several eptithets, one of which we journey through in the prayer cycles: Hekate of the Harbor, Limenitikos. Other epithets that express her protective nature are Phylake, one who keeps guard; Medusa, protector; Episkopos, guardian, One who Watches Over, Overseer; and, is hinted at in Epipurgidia, on the Tower and Baridoukhos, skiff-holder, Barque-holder (both are boats that sail on the fickle sea.)
Guide:
She is popularly known as a guide of of lost souls and the one who guided Persephone from the Underworld. At the key we call upon Her in this roll as guide. There are a couple of epithets that name her as guide that express nuanced differences. The first of those epithets names her as Propolos, She Who Leads, Guide, Companion; Propolousa, Guide, companion, servant; Psychopomp, soul-guide, Rixipyle, She who throws down the gates; and one that hints at the idea, Aregos, helper.
The Path to Hekate’s Gate: Illuminating Her Virtues
- Compassion
- Courage
- Temperance
- Justice
- Wisdom
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Unknown but needed
After the Key on the rosary comes the tail of of flames that illuminates the pathway to the mysteries of Hekate via her virtues. These virtues include Hekate’s virtues according to Covenant of Hekate and a couple others I felt needed to be added. This is where you prepare yourself for the Journey ahead. These flames represent Hekatean virtues and as you go through each one meditate on the idea of it and draw those qualities into you.
I felt it was important to add a flame that would represent the “Unknown but needed” virtue to help your subconscious work on finding a virtue you need to work on. It may be revealed during your session. You can also include a virtue that you are consciously working on at this flame.
As for the meaning of each virtue it is up to you to understand what each one means to you. You are welcome to read about the five virtues from the Covenant. They go into great detail about the nature of each virtue. But I would suggest that your first journey start and end on the flame path. Meditate on each virtue, write about what you discover make each illumination, each flame mean something to you before you even pass through the Gate.
Entering the Gate
Now you stand at the cross roads. If you are lucky in your creation of your rosary you’ve been able to find a bead like those on Catholic rosaries that have three rings to attach your tail to the circle sometimes called a medal. This bead represents Hekate as Gate Keeper. She has several epithets that express her roll at the Gates.
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Visiting the Realms
Next I want to reintroduce to you the three realms that Zeus allowed Hekate to keep after the Titan war. She was given dominion over the Land, Sea and Sky. Which I personally believe was a way to allow her to keep those realms that were hers before the Greeks and the people of the lands of Thrace met and mixed religions. Of course, my take on the myths are not to be confused with the truth of the words of the myths. The myths themselves can be found at Theoi.com.
So, she rules all the realms of existence. She is all of creation just as her epithets suggest. Pammetor, Mother of All; Pandoteira, All-giver, Bestower of Everything , Bounteous; Pasikratea, Universal Queen; Pasimedousa, Ruling over All; Klothaie: Spinner of Fate; Protistos: Primordia, the Very First; and Zoogonos: Seed of Life.
Each of her realms speak of who she is. She is the sea; the oceans of the earth and the expansive sea of the universe. She is the earth, the deep nourishing loam wherein all plant life grows, and the depths of the Underworld and the Mysteries of the Universe. She is the sky, the blanketing blue of day, the comforting black of night speckled with stars and illuminated by the hanging moon; and the great florescence of being that started with the expansion of a singularity..
Walking the Paths
Once you enter the gate you begin your meditation on three distinct characteristics of Hekate: Savior, Lightbringer and Keybearer. These characteristics are based on three popular epithets Sortiera, Phaesimbrotos (Bringer of Light), & Kleidoukhos (Keeper of the Keys).
The Rosary of the Four Roads Mistress
Please note that this is an image of the early version of the rosary and does not include some newer additions.
Speak aloud the text in bold italics.
At the key say the following:
Glorious Hekate, Keeper of the Keys to the Cosmos, please watch over me and guide me on my journey
At each flame, say the following, meditating on how they connect with you, Hekate and your practice:
- Compassion
- Courage
- Temperance
- Justice
- Wisdom
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Unknown but needed / or a virtue you want to include that day.
Gate bead
Hail Hekate Gatekeeper
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.
Sea Bead
Hail Hekate Mistress of the Sea
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.
Earth Bead
Hail Hekate Mistress of the Earth
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.
Sky Bead
Hail Hekate Mistress of the Starry Sky
Hail Hekate Mistress of the Earth
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.
(Hear you can chose to leave, moving back through the Gate and down the path, or to continue on. The Prayer in parenthesis below will lead you out. To continue on the longer journey, skip this part.)
(Gate Bead
- Hail Hekate, Gatekeeper
- Unknown but needed/ Chosen Virtue
- Integrity
- Honest
- Wisdom
- Justice
- Temperance
- Courage
- Compassion
Key)
Gate bead
Hail Hekate of the Path
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.
Sea Bead
Hail Hekate of the Harbor
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.
Earth Bead
Hail Hekate Mother of All
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.
Sky Bead
Hail Hekate Light of the Night
White Bead: Hekate Savior
Red Bead: Hekate Lightbringer
Black Bead: Hekate Keybearer
Repeat two more times.