Hecate
Hecate rules liminal spaces—crossroads, doorways, moonlit boundaries—and guides souls between worlds. Torches in hand, often triple-formed, she aids witches and travelers who honor her with offerings left at night.
Story beats
- 1) Zeus grants Hecate dominion over sky, earth, and sea; she favors those who honor thresholds.
- 2) She accompanies Demeter searching for Persephone, lighting the underworld path with twin torches.
- 3) Witches and travelers leave food offerings (Hecate’s supper) at three-way crossroads to gain protection or omens.
- 4) Her triple form watches past, present, future; dogs bay at her approach as spirits cross.
Context & symbolism
Hecate embodies choice and transition—moments where paths diverge. As patron of magic and ghosts, she links domestic thresholds to cosmic ones. Her torches grant sight in darkness, aligning her with guidance rather than malice.
She also guards households and city walls, balancing fearsome chthonic roots with protective roles in daily life.
Motifs
- Triple-bodied goddess at crossroads
- Torches and hounds as attendants
- Nighttime offerings left and not looked back upon
- Guiding lost souls and travelers
Use it in play
- Crossroad ritual: leave an offering and choose a path Hecate opens—or closes.
- Escort souls through a liminal border while hounds bay and torches flicker.
- Seek Hecate’s omen to resolve a moral dilemma; ignore it at peril.
- Retrieve stolen offerings angering the goddess, or appease her to lift a curse on a town gate.