Hecate

Goddess of crossroads, thresholds and the night, often accompanied by dogs.

Hecate is a goddess of Greek antiquity who is widely honoured again in modern wicca and other pagan traditions. She is the goddess of crossroads, thresholds, the night, the moon, magic, herbs and the spirits of the dead. In antiquity she was often depicted with three faces or three bodies, looking in three directions, for she watches over where roads meet.

In the Greek myths Hecate carries torches. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter she helps Demeter with her torch to search for her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades to the underworld. Afterwards she becomes Persephone's companion, and so connected with the way between the world of the living and that of the dead. In antiquity people left meals for her at crossroads at the new moon, the suppers of Hecate.

In modern wicca Hecate is often seen as one of the forms of the goddess, and then above all as the wise old woman, the crone, who belongs to the waning and dark moon. She stands for wisdom, choices, boundaries, shadow work and letting go of what is complete. Around Samhain and in the dark half of the year she receives extra attention.

For dreams Hecate is an image of choice and passage. A dream about a crossroads in the dark, a woman with a torch, a dog in the night, for dogs belong to her, or a threshold between two worlds can be connected with Hecate in wicca readings. Such a dream is often read as a choice before you, or as guidance in a dark period.

Wicca has no central doctrine; how someone works with Hecate differs per tradition and person.