{"id":10720,"date":"2015-02-01T01:10:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T06:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=11114"},"modified":"2015-01-31T17:42:48","modified_gmt":"2015-01-31T22:42:48","slug":"witches-paradigms-part-2-following-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2015\/02\/01\/witches-paradigms-part-2-following-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Witches\u2019 Paradigms Part 2: Following the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part Two: Following the Moon<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While reverencing the Sun and the Earth, polytheistic witches identify the Moon as the special Goddess of witchcraft, a view borne out by that classic of the modern Craft, Aradia, Gospel of the Witches<\/span>, recorded by Charles G. Leland and published in 1890.\u00a0 Additionally, the witch Goddess (called the Lady and regarded by Wiccans as the personification of all Goddesses combined) has three visible aspects, corresponding to the waxing, full and waning phases of the Moon, known also as the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone.\u00a0 She also has a hidden fourth phase, the Dark of the Moon, which corresponds to her monthly renewal from Chaos, the dark sea of awareness or spirit.\u00a0 The Moon\u2019s waning phase is often identified with Hekate, the classical witch-Goddess.\u00a0\u00a0 That the Moon herself in all her phases had witchcraft as her province can be seen in the second Idyll of Theocritos, often called \u201cThe Sorceress\u201d (this can be read in the Viking Greek Reader<\/span>).<\/p>\n

The current phase of the Moon should be noted in every entry of one\u2019s witchcraft journal, for the work one does will depend on the phase one is in.<\/p>\n

The waxing phase, associated in antiquity with the Greek Goddess Artemis, begins with the New Moon.\u00a0 When the Moon is a mere sliver in the sky, curving to the right and therefore facing left, the Maiden appears, and Her energy blesses all new enterprises. \u00a0It was traditional to kiss one\u2019s hand to the New Moon for luck, a practice condemned in the book of Job in the bible, which as we know also condemns witchcraft.\u00a0 It was also traditionally considered very unlucky to first catch sight of the New Moon through glass; in other words, witches and pagans in general went outside around the time of the New Moon to honor Her first appearance and the beginning of a new monthly cycle.<\/p>\n

The Carmina Gadelica<\/span>, a compendium of old spells and prayers, some from Druidic times, refers to the New Moon as \u201cthe Moon of guidance.\u201d\u00a0 This is the time for a witch to practice divination, in an effort to gain insight into the character of the lunar month just ahead.\u00a0 Whether you deal the Tarot or cast rune-stones or coins for the I Ching, whatever your method of divination, this is the most important time to do it, preferably right after going out in the fields to catch your first glimpse of the New Moon and kiss your hand to Her.<\/p>\n

When you have divined the shape and chances of this lunar month, it is time to plan your spellwork.\u00a0 Spells of increase are effectively cast during the waxing phase of the Moon, especially as She grows round in the sky.\u00a0 So begin any new enterprises at the New Moon, and from the 2nd quarter onward cast your spells of increase.\u00a0 As the Moon begins to grow round, it is a good time to pray to Her for the recovery of lost things.\u00a0 As Patricia Crowther writes:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pray to the Moon when She is round,<\/p>\n

Luck with you will then abound.<\/p>\n

What you seek for shall be found,<\/p>\n

In sea or sky or solid ground !<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The witch\u2019s prayer, of course, is little different from a spell.\u00a0 Unlike a christian prayer, it is not a humble supplication with \u201cthy will be done\u201d tacked onto the end of it (a sure guarantee of failure).\u00a0 The witch prays to the Gods in a friendly, cajoling way, much as a child will charm a parent into giving it a treat or present.\u00a0 When you pray to the Lady or the Lad (the Oak or Holly King) or any other God or Goddess, do so in a friendly fashion, showing both respect and self-respect.\u00a0 That is what They like.\u00a0 Remember that there is no original sin in witchcraft, and unless we have broken our oaths or offended the Gods in some other way, we can approach Them with a clean slate.<\/p>\n

In India, which follows lunar astrology, the eleventh day of every lunar cycle is traditionally a day for fasting, called \u2018Ekadashi\u2019.\u00a0 This is the entrance into the week of the Full Moon, which includes the three days before and after the day of the Full Moon, and is sacred to the Mother, called Selene in classical times.\u00a0\u00a0 Fasting is a method of purification, and witches seek to purify themselves at the start of any new cycle so as not to carry over old energies or \u2018miasma\u2019 which could block the new energies that fuel the \u2018magic of the beginning\u2019.\u00a0 In the same way, it is wise to purify oneself before a natural process reaches its height, as at the Full Moon or at Midsummer (Litha).<\/p>\n

The Full Moon itself is the time when witches gather for Esbat, a word which has been said to derive from an old French word meaning \u201cfrolic.\u201d\u00a0 The main convocations of the witches are the Esbats and the Sabbats, the latter meaning \u201crests\u201d or \u201crestful recreations.\u201d\u00a0 From this we can conclude that the purpose of witchcraft is to have fun.\u00a0 A Hindu sorceress once described life as a process of \u201cplayful growth.\u201d\u00a0 The play involved, however, is like the play of children, which is both frolicsome and serious at the same time.\u00a0 When children play, they are practicing to be grown up, and throw themselves completely into what they are doing.\u00a0 They laugh a lot but also get angry or weep at times.\u00a0 Witches regard themselves as children of the Gods, and Esbats are the times for us to come together and play as children do, practicing and honing our skills in preparation for that distant day when we become daimones (that is, demigods) and can at last really help the Gods themselves.<\/p>\n

As the Full Moon assumes Her radiant nightly reign, the psychically sensitive witch will seek to soak up Her light and subtle influences as much as possible.\u00a0 So even if you celebrate Esbat indoors, you should go outdoors at some point and walk in the moonlight for a while.\u00a0 This light has the quality of changing our consciousness from beta to alpha rhythms, and in time inducing religious ecstasy.\u00a0 Anti-pagan teachings have added the word \u201clunacy\u201d to our vocabulary, warning against the trance that moonlight can induce.\u00a0 We can learn a lot from these old churchy fables about Pagan religious practice.\u00a0 For instance, people were warned not to lie out at night under the Moon, as the crone in the Moon would rake their faces with her claws.\u00a0 From this we can infer that it was a practice to lie out under the Moon, soaking up Her light and subtle influences and perhaps having a visionary dream of flying to the true Sabbat. \u00a0So if you have a patio or fenced backyard and the full Moon is out, you might give this a try some night.<\/p>\n

Classically-minded Pagans might like to chant the Greek poetess Sappho\u2019s Paean to the Full Moon at this time:<\/p>\n

Lo, the stars around the lovely Moon<\/p>\n

Hide away their bright forms<\/p>\n

Whenever she shines most fully<\/p>\n

Over the whole Earth.<\/p>\n

On the fifteenth night, that is, the night after the Full Moon, just as the Sun is about to set, the Moon will appear in the daytime sky for a while opposite the Sun, often with Her face tilted to one side, as though reclining in bed after love-making.\u00a0 This is an excellent time for spells of balance.\u00a0 Pauline Campanelli, in Ancient Ways<\/span> (p. 6), writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a powerful time for any magick that involves balance, power, a uniting of opposites, or the charging of a charm or amulet with energies of both the Sun and the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth day after the Full Moon begins Her waning phase, associated with Hekate, the Greek Goddess most closely associated with witchcraft. The waning phase is for curses and apotropaic spells, that is, spells to fend things off or get rid of things, called in traditional witchcraft \u2018wanions\u2019.\u00a0 Following the Law of Threefold Return, which states that whatever energy we send out returns to us threefold, we modern witches do not engage in cursing people.\u00a0 But there is nothing wrong with protecting ourselves and the fruits of our spells of gain from the ill regard of others.\u00a0 That the thoughts of others can impact our minds and energy can be seen from the practices of Buddhist monks, who traditionally meditate in the early hours of the morning, when most people are asleep.\u00a0 One reason witchcraft is called \u201cthe Hidden Path\u201d is that a witch will seek to live in such a way as to be as free as possible from the restricting regard of others.\u00a0 For this reason the witch cultivates the fourth power of the magus, keeping silent.\u00a0 The less others know about the things you do, the freer you will be, psychically speaking, to do them.\u00a0 This applies even to other coven members.<\/p>\n

Hekate had power at the trivia, the places where three roads meet, in antiquity where witches gathered at midnight for their conjurations.\u00a0 As the guardian of the trivia, Hekate was represented by a stake or column in the center of the intersection, upon which three wooden masks were hung, looking out along the three roads.\u00a0 In the mid-fifth century BCE, she began to be represented by three sculpted female figures ranged around a column.\u00a0\u00a0 These figures were in Roman times identified with the three visible phases of the Moon, associated with Artemis as the Maiden, Selene as the Mother, and Persephone as the Crone, but Hekate came to be identified with all three phases, and the dark phase as well.\u00a0 Her column is the world pillar or tree which links the three worlds of heaven, middle-earth and the underworld, and through which spirits and the ancestors travel as in a great cosmic elevator.\u00a0 Hekate is the spirit of the pillar who grants Her worshippers access to the three worlds and is thus the Goddess who empowers witchcraft.<\/p>\n

Of the three figures ranged around the pillar or hekataion, the first bears a torch, standing for the torch Hekate bore when she searched for Kore or Persephone when the latter was abducted by Hades.\u00a0 As we saw above, the New Moon is a finder and a guide, which is why witches divine at the New Moon to seek Her guidance throughout the month.\u00a0\u00a0 The second figure holds a libation bowl and ewer, and stands for Selene facilitating prayer at sacrifices, which are most effective at the time of the Full Moon.\u00a0 Finally, the third figure holds fruit, standing for the fruits of the Earth enjoyed at the harvests of the waning year, the fruits of wisdom gleaned in old age, and the fruits of the spells of increase cast during the waxing Moon and enjoyed during the waning time.<\/p>\n

The waning phase, then, should be a time for enjoying the fruition of those short-range spells cast during the waxing phase, and the protective spells cast at this time serve to enhance the witch\u2019s enjoyment by securing his or her fences against ill-wishers.\u00a0 This is a time especially for cultivating inner silence, purifying the body and sweeping clean the mind from the miasma of past grievances and sorrows.\u00a0 For the time of the dark phase is coming, when the witch will descend, in deep meditation, into that sea of chaos from which the Gods have their birth and rebirth, and out of which They fashion the worlds.\u00a0 During the dark phase, the Lady Herself sinks into that dark sea of awareness and renews Her own energies.\u00a0 And just as children imitate their parents, so witches imitate Her example and descend into their own inner darkness. This is especially fortuitous to do on the day after Yule, called The Nameless Day, on which see below.<\/p>\n

The 25th day of the lunar month, three days before the dark Moon, corresponds to Ekadashi and is a good time to repeat the cleansing fast held earlier.\u00a0 From then till the first appearance in the sky of the sliver of the New Moon is a time for resting, going within and practicing meditation after one\u2019s ways.\u00a0 One way is to go backward in memory, tracing one\u2019s life back to the earliest times, and trying to recall the sense of oneself one had at different periods of one\u2019s life.\u00a0 Who were you when you were small?\u00a0 Then try to go back before that, and get a sense of yourself before you were this person.\u00a0 In Zen Buddhism this is called \u201cone\u2019s original face.\u201d\u00a0 Deep within, you are still this unknown person.\u00a0 Try to face the world as it first appeared to you, as a fresh, unknown thing.\u00a0 Then face yourself as unknown.\u00a0 This is one way to descend into the Sea of Chaos, that fruitful place from which all things are born and to which they eventually return.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additional Notes:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The inner aim of witchcraft is to enter an altered consciousness in order to be closer to the Otherworld of spirit.\u00a0 This is balanced by the outer aim of practicing the Craft in the everyday world.\u00a0 Witches must keep their outer lives in order so as to have the time and energy available for pursuing their inner aim.<\/p>\n

Witches work within the lunar cycle, and seek closeness to the Lady as the Moon.\u00a0 While this involves knowing the Lady, it is even more important to let the Lady know you.\u00a0 As with the other gods, Lady Moon must become a personality in the witch\u2019s life.\u00a0 This is done, first of all, through greeting her when she is New or Full.\u00a0 Treat her as you would any other important person in your life.\u00a0 Do not stare at her overmuch, as this is rude to do to anyone.\u00a0 When you are walking along and she is out in the sky and seen to the side, she will appear to be accompanying you in your walk.\u00a0 When I mentioned in childhood that the Moon was following us home, my cousins told me it was an illusion.\u00a0 There followed many years in which I lost my awareness of her companionship while walking.\u00a0 When I was carrying my infant son home late one afternoon, he noticed her and I regained that perception.\u00a0 I noticed that when I looked directly at the Moon, I remembered my cousins\u2019 correction and a faint echo of my boyhood embarrassment.\u00a0 But when I gazed at her to the side of my line of vision, I regained the childhood perception that she was walking alongside.<\/p>\n

When the Moon is new, witches will go outside to see her without looking through glass, traditionally regarded as unlucky.\u00a0 This means that deliberately seeking her company, and honoring her presence, when she first appears in the sky as a thin sliver is magically potent.\u00a0 Other important times for seeking her company are after the first quarter; at the full moon; the day after the full moon when she regards the Sun, and vice versa, from across the sky; and just before she disappears at the dark phase.<\/p>\n

Scientific studies of moonlight have proven that it induces alpha rhythms in the brain.\u00a0 Ordinarily we operate with beta waves, and of course these studies were conducted by people in a state of beta consciousness.\u00a0 (How reliable would a study of beta waves be if conducted within alpha rhythms?) The same thing is true of candlelight.\u00a0 The emphasis on the Moon and candles in witchcraft underlines the importance to witches of achieving an alpha state whenever this is desirable.<\/p>\n

The bible condemns witchcraft, and provides important information about it in the process.\u00a0 In Job we read a condemnation of Moon worship when he says that if he were to look on the Moon and be \u2018secretly transported\u2019 within, he would offend against \u2018the most High,\u2019 i.e., Yahweh.\u00a0 \u201cSecretly\u201d means in private experience.\u00a0 \u201cTransported\u201d means a feeling of religious ecstasy from a sense of contact with the divine person in the Moon.\u00a0 If the Lady is indeed in the Moon, she is looking back at us when we look at her.\u00a0 The face in the Moon is a reminder of this.\u00a0 If we look on the Moon as we would a human face in our presence, we may come to feel she is looking back after a while.<\/p>\n

Several other clues in folklore and language are obviously remnants of the Church\u2019s anti-pagan teaching.\u00a0 The word \u2018lunacy\u2019 is a warning that if we cultivate the presence of the Moon, we shall lose our minds.\u00a0 Accepting the pagan practice involves a willingness to explore this state of consciousness.\u00a0 Similarly, tales of the Crone in the Moon raking the faces of young people sleeping out under the Moon overnight are meant to discourage the act of falling to sleep in moonlight as a way of encouraging lucid dreaming, the prelude to a spirit journey.\u00a0 This suggests that the last stage of attending the witches\u2019 Sabbat after midnight was accomplished in altered awareness.\u00a0 It further indicates that this practice was also carried on in the waning phase, the phase ruled by the Crone.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Gods and goddesses exist on different levels, and each level is a cycle.\u00a0 This provides an easy answer to the question, how can the Lady be old or young as she wishes and yet appear as the Maiden in the spring, the Mother in the summer, and the Crone in the autumn?\u00a0 One answer lies in the lunar cycle.\u00a0 She is the Maiden in the waxing phase, even while she appears as the Crone in the autumn.\u00a0 In the cycle of the seasons she is the Earth goddess, in the lunar cycle she is the Moon goddess.<\/p>\n

We also go through shorter and longer cycles.\u00a0 In the course of a single lifetime we know we can die and be reborn, in a psychological sense, many times.<\/p>\n

Where the character of the Wheel of the Year matches that of the lunar cycle, the effect of actions taken at that time is heightened.\u00a0 Thus, the New Moon phase is most potent in the springtime, heightening the effect of divination undertaken then; the Full corresponds to summer, especially Litha; the Waning phase is most potent at Samhain; and the Dark phase, from the Moon\u2019s last appearance through her disappearance, is linked with the Nameless Day after Yule, which lies outside the lunar year altogether.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The Moon goddess is concerned with our current incarnation.\u00a0 She it is who gives birth to souls waiting to reincarnate, and she does it when she is at the full, as the Mother (Semele in Greek).\u00a0 So to be known by her is to let her look in on how we are living our current life.\u00a0 She will not pry.\u00a0 She only concerns herself with those who invite her regard.\u00a0 Following the lunar phases invites that regard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part Two: Following the Moon   While reverencing the Sun and the Earth, polytheistic witches identify the Moon as the special Goddess of witchcraft, a view borne out by that classic of the modern Craft, Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, recorded by Charles G. Leland and published in 1890.\u00a0 Additionally, the witch Goddess (called the Lady and regarded by Wiccans as the personification of all Goddesses combined) has three visible aspects, corresponding to the waxing, full and waning phases of the Moon, known also as the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone.\u00a0 She also has a hidden fourth phase, the Dark of the Moon, which corresponds to her monthly renewal from Chaos, the dark sea of awareness or spirit.\u00a0 The Moon\u2019s waning phase is often identified with Hekate, the classical witch-Goddess.\u00a0\u00a0 That the Moon herself in all her phases had witchcraft as her province can be seen in the second Idyll of Theocritos, often called \u201cThe Sorceress\u201d (this can be read in the Viking Greek Reader). The current phase of the Moon should be noted in every entry of one\u2019s witchcraft journal, for the work one does will depend on the phase one is in. The waxing phase, associated in antiquity with the Greek Goddess Artemis, begins with the New Moon.\u00a0 When the Moon is a mere sliver in the sky, curving to the right and therefore facing left, the Maiden appears, and Her energy blesses all new enterprises. \u00a0It was traditional to kiss one\u2019s hand to the New Moon for luck, a practice condemned in the book of Job in the bible, which as we know also condemns witchcraft.\u00a0 It was also traditionally considered very unlucky to first catch sight of the New Moon through glass; in other words, witches and pagans in general went outside around the time of the New Moon to honor Her first appearance and the beginning of a new monthly cycle. The Carmina Gadelica, a compendium of old spells and prayers, some from Druidic times, refers to the New Moon as \u201cthe Moon of guidance.\u201d\u00a0 This is the time for a witch to practice divination, in an effort to gain insight into the character of the lunar month just ahead.\u00a0 Whether you deal the Tarot or cast rune-stones or coins for the I Ching, whatever your method of divination, this is the most important time to do it, preferably right after going out in the fields to catch your first glimpse of the New Moon and kiss your hand to Her. When you have divined the shape and chances of this lunar month, it is time to plan your spellwork.\u00a0 Spells of increase are effectively cast during the waxing phase of the Moon, especially as She grows round in the sky.\u00a0 So begin any new enterprises at the New Moon, and from the 2nd quarter onward cast your spells of increase.\u00a0 As the Moon begins to grow round, it is a good time to pray to Her for the recovery of lost things.\u00a0 As Patricia Crowther writes:   Pray to the Moon when She is round, Luck with you will then abound. What you seek for shall be found, In sea or sky or solid ground !   The witch\u2019s prayer, of course, is little different from a spell.\u00a0 Unlike a christian prayer, it is not a humble supplication with \u201cthy will be done\u201d tacked onto the end of it (a sure guarantee of failure).\u00a0 The witch prays to the Gods in a friendly, cajoling way, much as a child will charm a parent into giving it a treat or present.\u00a0 When you pray to the Lady or the Lad (the Oak or Holly King) or any other God or Goddess, do so in a friendly fashion, showing both respect and self-respect.\u00a0 That is what They like.\u00a0 Remember that there is no original sin in witchcraft, and unless we have broken our oaths or offended the Gods in some other way, we can approach Them with a clean slate. In India, which follows lunar astrology, the eleventh day of every lunar cycle is traditionally a day for fasting, called \u2018Ekadashi\u2019.\u00a0 This is the entrance into the week of the Full Moon, which includes the three days before and after the day of the Full Moon, and is sacred to the Mother, called Selene in classical times.\u00a0\u00a0 Fasting is a method of purification, and witches seek to purify themselves at the start of any new cycle so as not to carry over old energies or \u2018miasma\u2019 which could block the new energies that fuel the \u2018magic of the beginning\u2019.\u00a0 In the same way, it is wise to purify oneself before a natural process reaches its height, as at the Full Moon or at Midsummer (Litha). The Full Moon itself is the time when witches gather for Esbat, a word which has been said to derive from an old French word meaning \u201cfrolic.\u201d\u00a0 The main convocations of the witches are the Esbats and the Sabbats, the latter meaning \u201crests\u201d or \u201crestful recreations.\u201d\u00a0 From this we can conclude that the purpose of witchcraft is to have fun.\u00a0 A Hindu sorceress once described life as a process of \u201cplayful growth.\u201d\u00a0 The play involved, however, is like the play of children, which is both frolicsome and serious at the same time.\u00a0 When children play, they are practicing to be grown up, and throw themselves completely into what they are doing.\u00a0 They laugh a lot but also get angry or weep at times.\u00a0 Witches regard themselves as children of the Gods, and Esbats are the times for us to come together and play as children do, practicing and honing our skills in preparation for that distant day when we become daimones (that is, demigods) and can at last really help the Gods themselves. As the Full Moon assumes Her radiant nightly reign, the psychically sensitive witch will seek to soak up Her light and subtle influences as much as possible.\u00a0 So even if you celebrate Esbat indoors, you should go outdoors at some point and walk in the moonlight for a while.\u00a0 This light has the quality of changing our consciousness from beta to alpha rhythms, and in time inducing religious ecstasy.\u00a0 Anti-pagan teachings have added the word \u201clunacy\u201d to our vocabulary, warning against the trance that moonlight can induce.\u00a0 We can learn a lot from these old churchy fables about Pagan religious practice.\u00a0 For instance, people were warned not to lie out at night under the Moon, as the crone in the Moon would rake their faces with her claws.\u00a0 From this we can infer that it was a practice to lie out under the Moon, soaking up Her light and subtle influences and perhaps having a visionary dream of flying to the true Sabbat. \u00a0So if you have a patio or fenced backyard and the full Moon is out, you might give this a try some night. Classically-minded Pagans might like to chant the Greek poetess Sappho\u2019s Paean to the Full Moon at this time: Lo, the stars around the lovely Moon Hide away their bright forms Whenever she shines most fully Over the whole Earth. On the fifteenth night, that is, the night after the Full Moon, just as the Sun is about to set, the Moon will appear in the daytime sky for a while opposite the Sun, often with Her face tilted to one side, as though reclining in bed after love-making.\u00a0 This is an excellent time for spells of balance.\u00a0 Pauline Campanelli, in Ancient Ways (p. 6), writes: \u201cThis is a powerful time for any magick that involves balance, power, a uniting of opposites, or the charging of a charm or amulet with energies of both the Sun and the Moon.\u201d The fourth day after the Full Moon begins Her waning phase, associated with Hekate, the Greek Goddess most closely associated with witchcraft. The waning phase is for curses and apotropaic spells, that is, spells to fend things off or get rid of things, called in traditional witchcraft \u2018wanions\u2019.\u00a0 Following the Law of Threefold Return, which states that whatever energy we send out returns to us threefold, we modern witches do not engage in cursing people.\u00a0 But there is nothing wrong with protecting ourselves and the fruits of our spells of gain from the ill regard of others.\u00a0 That the thoughts of others can impact our minds and energy can be seen from the practices of Buddhist monks, who traditionally meditate in the early hours of the morning, when most people are asleep.\u00a0 One reason witchcraft is called \u201cthe Hidden Path\u201d is that a witch will seek to live in such a way as to be as free as possible from the restricting regard of others.\u00a0 For this reason the witch cultivates the fourth power of the magus, keeping silent.\u00a0 The less others know about the things you do, the freer you will be, psychically speaking, to do them.\u00a0 This applies even to other coven members. Hekate had power at the trivia, the places where three roads meet, in antiquity where witches gathered at midnight for their conjurations.\u00a0 As the guardian of the trivia, Hekate was represented by a stake or column in the center of the intersection, upon which three wooden masks were hung, looking out along the three roads.\u00a0 In the mid-fifth century BCE, she began to be represented by three sculpted female figures ranged around a column.\u00a0\u00a0 These figures were in Roman times identified with the three visible phases of the Moon, associated with Artemis as the Maiden, Selene as the Mother, and Persephone as the Crone, but Hekate came to be identified with all three phases, and the dark phase as well.\u00a0 Her column is the world pillar or tree which links the three worlds of heaven, middle-earth and the underworld, and through which spirits and the ancestors travel as in a great cosmic elevator.\u00a0 Hekate is the spirit of the pillar who grants Her worshippers access to the three worlds and is thus the Goddess who empowers witchcraft. Of the three figures ranged around the pillar or hekataion, the first bears a torch, standing for the torch Hekate bore when she searched for Kore or Persephone when the latter was abducted by Hades.\u00a0 As we saw above, the New Moon is a finder and a guide, which is why witches divine at the New Moon to seek Her guidance throughout the month.\u00a0\u00a0 The second figure holds a libation bowl and ewer, and stands for Selene facilitating prayer at sacrifices, which are most effective at the time of the Full Moon.\u00a0 Finally, the third figure holds fruit, standing for the fruits of the Earth enjoyed at the harvests of the waning year, the fruits of wisdom gleaned in old age, and the fruits of the spells of increase cast during the waxing Moon and enjoyed during the waning time. The waning phase, then, should be a time for enjoying the fruition of those short-range spells cast during the waxing phase, and the protective spells cast at this time serve to enhance the witch\u2019s enjoyment by securing his or her fences against ill-wishers.\u00a0 This is a time especially for cultivating inner silence, purifying the body and sweeping clean the mind from the miasma of past grievances and sorrows.\u00a0 For the time of the dark phase is coming, when the witch will descend, in deep meditation, into that sea of chaos from which the Gods have their birth and rebirth, and out of which They fashion the worlds.\u00a0 During the dark phase, the Lady Herself sinks into that dark sea of awareness and renews Her own energies.\u00a0 And just as children imitate their parents, so witches imitate Her example and descend into their own inner darkness. This is especially fortuitous to do on the day after Yule, called The Nameless Day, on which see below. The 25th day of the lunar month, three days before the dark Moon, corresponds to Ekadashi and is a good time to repeat the cleansing fast held…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}