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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.
by Thomas R. Horn
Researcher for RAIDERS NEWS UPDATE
tomhorn@pacifier.com
raidersnewsupdate@yahoo.com |