Khaire Hekate Pantrophos!

Khaire Hekate Pantrophos, Mother who feeds and nourishes all!

I'm still wandering my way through thinking about Your relationships with Persephone and Demeter. Maybe it will always be that way. Maybe that isn't a journey to make so much as a garden to wander through across many seasons. Some of Your epithets, such as Pantrophos, get a reaction from me of, "But wouldn't that make more sense for Demeter?!" And, of course, I know many of the epithets are shared by multiple Beings. 

I have thoughts about Your relationships with Persephone and Demeter, the common perception of You as a triple goddess, and the flawed "Maiden-Mother-Crone" thing... Oh, but all of that should be for another time when I can focus only on those ideas.

One of the things I remind myself is that You were not originally part of the ancient Hellenic pantheon. They knew the Olympians before they knew You, and understood You as a Titaness who already existed before the Olympians. I do not believe mythology is to be understood literally, but that these stories give a structure that mortals can process to things that would otherwise be too far outside of how we experience anything. I don't know if You are one of the Titans. I'm not sure it matters enough to be worth changing the story. Maybe You are, and maybe the idea is accurate enough for what we need to understand about You.

That would mean You, Hekate Pantrophos, have nourished even the Olympians and Their children. And, of course, we see that in the stories of Your relationships with Persephone and Demeter. And I see some of Your epithets weaving together. As the Soul of the World, of course You would nourish all. Not just "all who devote themselves to You", or even "all who honor and worship You". Not "all humans". ALL. All that exists. All that is. All that was. All that will be. And in Your sacred liminal space, all that was and all that will be are part of all that is.

This is a lot to process. Even the wisest humans still have an extremely limited understanding of things on that cosmic, eternal scale. (It is often said that what makes the wisest humans so wise is an awareness of the limitations.) Add to that the fact that some religions teach that their deity or deities abandon, or at least do not actively bless, those who do not devote themselves to them. And it is understood that many deities do not necessarily choose to bless even those who do honor, worship, and devote themselves. Shining Immortal Ones - as a whole, across pantheons - are very mysterious to humans. To even approach processing the full meaning of Hekate Pantrophos...that also is a garden to wander through, rather than a single journey.

Khaire Hekate Pantrophos!

Khaire Hekate Pantrophos!

Khaire Hekate Pantrophos!