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By Thomas R. Horn
Editor@RaidersNewsUpdate.com
On 31 October, spooky beings and superheroes, cartoon characters and rubberized
celebrities will line the streets and mall hallways of America anticipating
sugary rewards. Compelled by shouts of "TRICK OR TREAT," children of all ages
will once again tote receptacles of various size and weight harboring the result
of the nights hunt. It is called Halloween. And while for most of us it is a
harmless annual activity, its roots run deep into ancient paganism.
ALL HALLOWS' EVE, or Halloween, originated in the 7th century AD. It was celebrated
on 13 May and was a night to remember deceased saints and martyrs. The date was
later changed to November 1 in order to Christianize the pagan holidays Beltane
and Samhain--festivals of summer, winter, fire, and of the powers of darkness.
James Frazer said in The Golden Bough that "throughout Europe, Hallowe'en, the
night which marks the transition from autumn to winter, seems to have been of
old the time of year when the souls of the departed were supposed to revisit
their old homes in order to warm themselves by the fire." Such ghosts walked
the countryside retrieving offerings of food and drink (the treat) supplied by
living family members. Other darker forces roamed the night as well. Demons,
hobgoblins, and witches on broomstick, haunted the night with acts of mischief
(the trick).
Real witches were also known to revel on Halloween night. According to Man, Myth
& Magic, the witches of Aberdeen danced "round an old grey stone at the foot
of the hill at Craigleuch, the Devil himself playing music before them." Modern
witches and Wiccans practice a similar skyclad (nude) Halloween tradition, calling
on earth spirits and goddesses to visit their knife drawn circles of power.
THE GODDESS HECATE
Hecate, the Titan earth mother of the wizards and witches, illustrates, perhaps
better than any other ancient goddess, the connection between Wicca, the Celtic
Halloween traditions, and the realm of evil supernaturalism.
Hecate was the mother of the wizard, Circe, and of the witch, Medea, and was
considered to be the underworld sorceress of all that is demonic. Hecate characterized
the unknown night terrors that roamed the abandoned and desolate highways. She
was often depicted as a young maiden with three faces, each pointing in a different
direction, a role in which she was the earth-spirit that haunted wherever three
paths joined together. As the "goddess of three forms" she was Luna (the moon)
in heaven, Diana (Artemis) on earth, and Hecate in the underworld. At times
of evil magic, she appeared with hideous serpents--spreading demons, encouraging
criminal activity, and revealing enigmatic secrets to the crones. At other times
she roamed the night with the souls of the dead, visible only to dogs, who howled
as she approached. When the moon was covered in darkness, and the hell-hounds
accompanied her to the path-beaten crossways, Hecate came suddenly upon the food
offerings and dead bodies of murders and suicides that had been left for her
by the fear-stricken common-folk. Her hounds bayed, the ghost-torches lit up
the night, and the river nymphs shrieked as Hecate carried away the mangled souls
of the suicides into the underworld caverns of Thanatos (Death), where the shrills
of such damned-ones were known to occupy her presence.
As the dark goddess of witchcraft, Hecate, like Isis, was worshiped with impure
rites and magical incantations. Her name was probably derived from the ancient
Egyptian word Heka ("sorcery" or "magical"), which may explain her association
with the Egyptian frog goddess of the same name. This may also explain the affiliation
of frogs with witchcraft, and the various potions of frog-wart and "hecateis"
(Hecate's hallucinogenic plant, also called Aconite), which supposedly sprouted
from the spittle of Cerberus (Hade's three-headed guard dog) which fell to the
ground when Hercules forced him up to the surface of the earth.
Because her devotees practiced such magic wherever three paths joined, Hecate
became known to the Romans as Trivia ( tri "three," and via "roads"). Later,
when the Latin church fathers compared the magic of the goddess Trivia with the
power of the Gospel, they found it to be inferior, and thus the pursuit of Hecate's
knowledge became known as Trivial Pursuit, or inconsequential. But the fact
that Hecate's followers sincerely believed in, and feared, her magic and presence,
was legendary. We find an example of such belief in the Argonautica, (Jason
and the Argonauts) by Apollonius Rhodius, when the sorceress Medea provided a
spell for Jason to use in winning Hecate's assistance:
"Take heed now, that I may devise help for thee. When at thy coming my father
has given thee the deadly teeth from the dragon's jaws for sowing, then watch
for the time when the night is parted in twain, then bathe in the stream of the
tireless river, and alone, apart from others, clad in dusky raiment, dig a rounded
pit; and therein slay a ewe, and sacrifice it whole, heaping high the pyre on
the very edge of the pit. And propitiate only-begotten Hecate, daughter of Perses,
pouring from a goblet the hive-stored labour of bees. And then, when thou hast
heedfully sought the grace of the goddess, retreat from the pyre; and let neither
the sound of feet drive thee to turn back, nor the baying of hounds, lest haply
thou shouldst maim all the rites and thyself fail to return duly to thy comrads
[and] Jason bathed his tender body reverently in the sacred river; and round
him he placed a dark robe [and] he cut the throat of the sheep, and duly placed
the carcase above; and he kindled the logs placing fire beneath, and poured over
them mingled libations, calling on Hecate Brimo [the Mighty One] to aid him in
the contests. And when he had called on her he drew back; and she heard him,
the dread goddess, from the uttermost depths and came to the sacrifice of Aeson's
son [Jason]; and round her horrible serpents twined themselves among the oak
boughs; and there was a gleam of countless torches; and sharply howled around
her the hounds of hell. All the meadows trembled at her step; and the nymphs
that haunt the marsh and the river shrieked, all who dance around that mead of
Amarantian Phasis. And fear seized Aeson's son, but not even so did he turn
round as his feet bore him forth, till he came back to his comrades."
Such magic, as illustrated in the fiction above, was employed by fearful people
to appease Hecate. The appeasement of the dark goddess in this way was primarily
because of her role as the sorceress of the afterlife, but true believers also
feared Hecate's ability to afflict the mind with madness (as in the Dionystic
curses), as well as her influence over the night creatures. That is to say,
offerings were made to Hecate because she was thought to govern haunted places
where evil or murderous activity occured. Such areas where violence or lechery
had a history were believed to be magnets of malevolent spirits, something like
"haunted houses," and if one wanted to get along with the resident apparitions
they needed to make oblations to the ruler of the darkness--Hecate. Hecate's
familiar (the night owl) announced the acceptance of the oblations, and those
who gathered on the eve of the full moon perceived the spooky sound of the creature
as a good omen. Statues of the goddess bearing the triple-face of a dog, a snake,
and a horse, overshadowed the dark rituals when they were performed at the crossing
of three roads. At midnight, Hecate's devotees left food offerings at the intersection
for the goddess ('Hecate's Supper'), and, once deposited, quickly exited without
turning around or looking back. Sometimes the offerings consisted of honey cakes
and chicken hearts, and at other time's puppies, honey, and female black lambs
were slaughtered for the goddess and her strigae.
The strigae were deformed and vicious owl-like affiliates of Hecate who flew
through the night feeding on the bodies of unattended babies. During the day
the strigae appeared as simple old women, and such folklore may account for the
history of flying witches. The same strigae hid amidst the leaves of the trees
during the annual festival of Hecate (held on August 13), when Hecate's followers
offered up the highest praise of the goddess. Hecate's devotees celebrated such
festivals near Lake Averna in Campania where the sacred willow groves of the
goddess stood, and they communed with the tree spirits (earth spirits, including
Hecate, were thought to inhabit trees) and summoned the souls of the dead from
the mouths of nearby caves. It was here that Hecate was known as Hecate-Chthonia
("Hecate of the earth"), a depiction in which she most clearly embodied the popular
earth-mother-spirit, which conversed through the cave-stones and sacred willow
trees.
Whereas Hecate was known elsewhere as Hecate-Propylaia, "the one before the gate,"
a role in which she guarded the entrances of homes and temples from nefarious
outside evils (talk about Satan casting out Satan!); and whereas she was also
known as Hecate-Propolos, "the one who leads," as in the underworld guide of
Persephone and of those who inhabit graveyards; and finally whereas she was known
as Hecate-Phosphoros, "the light bearer," her most sacred title and one which
recalls another powerful underworld spirit, Satan, whose original name was Lucifer
("the light bearer"); it was nevertheless her role as the feminist earth-goddess-spirit
Hecate-Chthonia that popularized her divinity and commanded such reverence from
among the common people.
MODERN SYMBOLISM
The connection between ancient paganism and the modern customs and costumes of
Halloween is easy to trace. The Hecatian myths adopted by Celtic occultists continue
in pop culture, in symbolism and tradition in the following ways:
* People visiting neighborhood homes on Halloween night represent the dead in
search of food (the treat).
* Masks of devils and hobgoblins represent evil spirits seeking mischief (the
trick).
* Those who pass out candy represent the homes visited by the dead, or may also
represent worried individuals seeking to appease Hecate and other nighttime terrors.
* The Jack-O-Lantern (will-o-the-wisp, fox fire, fairy fire, etc.) is, according
to some histories, a wandering soul stuck between heaven and hell. Others claim
the Druids left Jack-O-Lanterns on doorsteps to ward off evil spirits. Another
legend about a drunk named Jack who made a deal with the devil claims to be the
true origin of the Jack-O-Lantern myth.
The list goes on but I'm afraid the bottom line is this: Whatever you make of
such history, most children who wear masks and pursue sweets on Halloween night
do not understand, or care about, the symbolism. It is, for the most part, a
lonely matter of interest to history lovers and students of human behavior like
me.
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