gh0stprince | Reading

On The Nature of Loss

I lost a lot this year, and it's been weighing on me heavily so I thought I would talk about it here. My Nanny died this past July, and soon after, my Dad's father passed as well - leaving me with no more living Grandparents. I feel this loss deep in my soul, and through working with my Nanny's spirit I've been able to venerate her in a way that honours her in death as she was in life - A big spiritual guidepost for me, we didn't always see eye to eye but she was the one who encouraged my magic and for me to pursue my dreams in life.

I also lost my two cats, Helios, and Luna, one due to illness, the other due to behavioral issues. It's heartbreaking losing pets, and I miss them very much. Having Jasper around has been really healing - it's nice to have a kitten around the house especially with everything that's been going on. It's been really hard coping lately and going through a traumatic incident can leave you feeling pretty rough around the edges and that's honestly how I'm feeling at the moment.

I've been really pulling myself into my work to try and distract myself from everything but it's so goddamn difficult to get a grasp of things, and try as I might I still have a long way to go. We went out again today, second time this week - both times were for doctor's appointments and that was good. I have an x-ray booked and counseling set up, I'm just waiting for victim services to get back to me.

My life is kind of a mess right now and I'm giving myself time to really feel my emotions and work through stuff, it's definitely needed especially after everything that happened. I'm gonna be printing out my Hekate grimoire and putting it in this cute A5 binder that Mel got me.

Current Mood: exhausted

wastelandimperiatrix

"A Journey to the Grove"

The Horned Axe

"One god-who-was-stone remains, and she watches all thresholds"

I’ve already talked about how the Applebright is an aspect of Hekate, but there is another – The Hour known as The Horned Axe. Whom stands at the Threshold, who guards the gates.

The Sisterhood of the Knot whom worships Her, The Ring Yew, The Red Grail, and the Thunderskin. The Applebright could easily be added into this cycle of Hour worship and the Sisterhood of the Knot would function the same.

If we view these Hours as manifestations of the same Deity, then we can assume that is Hekate. Based on her scope, her epithets, and her cult, than we can see some similar threads to the tapestry of Hekate herself.

Another syncretized Goddess I associate with Hekate is The Morrigan, who presides over Prophecy, Battle, Magic, and Fate.

Primarily, we can see this through their shared roles as a sort of sovereignty goddess/goddess with associations of necromancy.

A lot of this is UPG, but both are considered very similar in terms of epithets and areas of practice: The Morrigan is associated with Wolves the same way that Hekate is associated with Black Dogs, both are so called "leaders of the pack", huntresses, and have snakes/eels associated with their water forms.

While Hekate's scope of the liminal crossroads, and the Morrigan's scope is death, and battle they are very similar enough that I feel like those differences are surface level

They are also both considered three-formed, with the Morrigu having 3 named faces: Badb, Macha, Nemain - you can see with Hekate having three faces too, would they have names? As for this question, I pose this answer: Enodia, Brimo, Kleidouchos.

We can also include the Slavic Goddess Morana in our syncretization and aspects of Hekate. Morana is the Goddess of the Seasons, and particularly the Life-Death-Rebirth cycle. She is known for the Spring ritual of drowning her Effigy, which is kept during winter to bring prosperity and abundance, and keep back the restless dead.

Numa

My whole practice is based around the seasons – what times are best for harvesting when. I tend to the seasons as if they were gods themselves and heralding them is very important in my practice. We are coming up on winter so it’ll be a great time for rowan berries and telling ghost stories.

The Winter is deeply chthonic to me, and honouring Hekate during this time can be deeply soothing, especially if you suffer from the lack of sunlight, having something to anchor you is good.

The Spring and the Fall are similar to each other, even though they are diametric opposites. They are transitional seasons, and therefore function as a liminal space within itself, which Hekate has domain over.

The Summer is the grand energy of Hekate, she is flourishing and doing magic deep in the summer heat, it is around this time that a focus on plant based magic is ideal, for everything is verdant and the bounties of the harvest are upon your doorstep.

August 13-15 is also when the Hekatean Ides take place, and it is a great time to honour her, and the harvest’s bounty.

April 30th, as well as October 31st, are celebrated among witches as grand holy days - Walpurgisnacht, and Halloween respectively, so it is appropriate to honour Hekate during these times as well.

The Night of Hekate is celebrated on November 16th, where it is said that Hekate roams the earth collecting the leftover souls remaining from Halloween.

Current Mood: sleepy

wastelandimperiatrix

"A Journey to the Grove"

This is going to be the first part of a series of posts on working with Hekate, based on the Grimoire "A Journey to the Grove" from the game Book of Hours - a 10th Level Grail Codex that can be read in game. This ties into my real world witchcraft practice with the Titan Hekate. My UPG is that, Three Faced, The Applebright is an analog to Hekate, my gnosis regarding this is the fact that The Applebright's aspects are Grail, Heart, and Moth. This relates to how Hekate is the Titan-Goddess of the Crossroads, Key, and Torch Bearer (Moth), Grail (The Red Meal, the Deipnon), and Heart (Leader of Hounds, Saviour, Healer + Poisoner).

The Ladder Prayer

Created with The Hekataeon's Ladder in mind, this prayer is meant to mimic the rosary prayers of the Conquer God's Faith and was written as a meditation on The Applebright, also known as Hekate.

Hekate's Ladder created as per the Hekataeon

repeat on every vertebrae:

The Grace of the Applebright

"Hail, Applebright, thrice great,
the witch-flame is within thee
Blessed art thou amongst hounds,
and blessed is the herbs of your garden, Rosemary
Hail Applebright, Mother of All,
blessed are the witches under your call,
now and at the hour of our crossroad, Hail Applebright."

On the Blossom:

Prayer to Applebright of the Way
"I call upon the Great Hour of Nowhere – Applebright!
Who holds the keys to the gates,
and the crossroads
Who shapes the fates of her faithful hounds,
may three deaths be taken from me,
three lives given to me,
A cup of ambrosia poured for me.
May the dead not harm me in my journey,
May my name not be pledged without truth,
May death not come before my time,
I call upon the Queen of Torches
to light my way,
to whom eats the restless dead,
may your cloak envelop me
in your saffron spirit,
May I be exalted in your name,
May I complete the journey you have
laid out for me,
May my will be strengthened,
May my grave not be disturbed,
Your blessings, Applebright, upon your hounds."

On the Key:

Prayer to The Applebright, Soteria
“Hail Applebright, I am your faithful hound
Soteria, Apotropaia, protect me from harm may it be by intent or by igorance in the face of life’s trials and joys
May I be ever steady, threefold in nature as your blessing, summoning in Earth, Sea, and Sky as Queen Enodia,
May I be ever present and embodied, my mind clinging to nothing, untroubled.
May I act decisively with your truth and wisdom guiding my thoughts, may my actions and words come from a place of compassion, honour, wisdom, and love
That I know when to cut and be cut.
Envelop me in guile and cunning,
so I can move with resiliency through the crossroads of life,
now in this life and next, Hail Applebright.”

On the Beads:

Psalm to the Applebright
"Praise the Applebright, O my soul.
O Astrodia, thou are very great;
thou art cloaked in night and glory,
who cloaks thyself in saffron:
Erigenia, who layeth her chambers
in Zerynthos, who striketh with light.
Who travels without borders.
Who guides us through the gates.
With her companions the dogs,
she who useth the fruit of the earth
in her cunning,
whose life giving well gushes
forth with the stream of the soul.
Ensouling light, fire, aether, and worlds,
in three exists the source of liminal.
We follow in thine footsteps,
that we be sovereign in ourselves.
That we may cross the threshold safely.
Praise the Applebright, O my soul"
- @ Mel Mothtonoth

Birdsong

It is winter now, the cold air brings a chill to my extremities, my fingers seeking the warmth of home. I call into this weird and strange place between the worlds, where the birds sing undisturbed and full of life and lull to the half formed song.

And in my dreams that song is sung until the morning breaks, and through that foggy morning I wake and find the birds still singing, despite the short days.

The birdsong follows me wherever I go, and it is through that do I learn the secrets of how they communicate with each other. The crows! They are my best allies in this world, and I know I can rely on the Beach Comber to guide me where I need to be.

The Roost is very active this time of year, the birds having nothing to do but sing the days away. The ones who haven’t migrated south that is.

The chickadee sings it’s merry wee-woo and that brings me comfort knowing something always are.

The Twins look towards me with a chill in their eyes, their being fire and ice and all manners of contradiction. The contradiction is where the mysteries are, and in that do I find the knowledge of omens, augury, and divination.

My trials were heavy, and involved a lot of darkness I had to confront — the weight of the world on my soul from a young age I found solace in my magical roots. I dig those roots deeper each year, and my writing is an element of the practice. I keep myself steady in all things, and focus on what lay ahead of me.

The first challenge was leaving behind my hometown for somewhere new, and then moving away even further. Being away from my family effected me deeply, and it was traumatic being alone in an unfamiliar place. I learned quickly though, and ended up surfacing into my own very easily.

The second challenge was almost dying twice, that was something else but allowed me the connection that I have to the Underworld. It is through this connection to the Underworld that I am able to guide spirits to the beyond. I am a Psycho-pomp in training.

The third challenge was reshaping myself into something that could be worthy of Her.
The growth and pain and agony of change is still happening, and it is something I am still contending with.

The mysteries are vast and mostly unknowable, deep and resounding they echo through the universe waiting for the right moment to bring clarity. I embrace the mysteries for what they are, and learn to hold the unknowable in my heart.

Weaving & Knotworking

The winter was harsh this year, and the dead were especially restless, haunting my dreams at night and wailing for release. There’s been so much death these past few years that dealing with it has been insurmountable. The dead yearn to be released into a kinder world where they were not abandoned by their own.

I sew the fabric in my hands, the frog taking shape underneath. It will be a helper spirit, dedicated to providing me relief from the night terrors, to bring comfort during the cold months. I stuff it full of lavender and other herbs and sew it shut. It is born.

I have many frogs in my collection, they are my little helper spirits and they are very easy to work with while having a good energy for a variety of things.

I love them all, and they all help me in various ways.

It is through this magic that I am able to weave together the strands of life into something new. I do this by first deciding on a project to bring to life, and then I give it my full attention and that beaming spark of life that ignites it into something new.

If I do not create, whether that be art, writing, poetry, or the myriad of physical handicrafts I have been entertained for, I will go insane. It is a survival tactic I picked up when I was a suicidal teenager — To create is to be created in turn, and by doing this ritual often, I sustain myself in ways that enrich my life and well-being.

Creation is blood and hunger, and through that do I feed on the majesty of life. The magic flows through me and I am better able to direct it to where it needs to go. There are many ways that magic can help improve your circumstances.

The frog knows that it is a frog, and that it was created by me to do a task, and in return I love and feed it and give it a home. This is how it is with all my familiar spirits. Frog eggs are known to multiply at an alarming rate, and so I have many that have been propagated.

Having a different familiar spirit for different types of workings can be helpful, and I mean this in the sense that it’s good to learn from many as apposed to the few.
I have a variety under my retinue — plants, animals, and others. Do not raise more devils than you can handle.

To ensoul and be ensouled is to work the magic of the spirits, and the world around you. It is through this magic that we are able to expand our vision and the scope of what we are able to learn. I learn the lessons my spirits give me wholeheartedly.

I've been reading....

Ensouling the Effigy by Matthew Venus

“Through the witch’s relationships with our spirits, we gain wisdom and insight into our magical practices. Being unbound by a material form, spirits easily travel throughout the Otherworld, and many spirits will have access to realms we may not.”

To be Continued

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "Think About It" - Stevie Nicks

THE PARADOX NOTES

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Log Date: 2025-12-19

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