Category Archives: Hekate

Isis & Hekate Part 2

Last time, we wondered how it was that the ancient Egyptians and Greeks could see a harmony, or even an equivalence, between Isis and Hekate. So, as promised, let’s look at some of the correspondences between these two Goddesses so we can understand a bit better what they were thinking.

A Roman image of Isis from Hadrian’s villa

Goddesses of Magic

Let’s start with the most obvious one: magic. Isis is arguably the most powerful Egyptian Goddess of Magic, or heka in Egyptian (later, hik in Coptic). In Egypt, heka is the power that underlies and empowers all of Creation. So naturally, all the Egyptian Deities have the power of heka. Yet, as time went on, it was Isis and Thoth Who stood out as Goddess and God of Magic, both for the strength of Their magical powers and the depth of Their magical knowledge.

Hekate is the Hellenic Goddess of magic and witchcraft. Sometimes, Hekate’s magic has a bit of a darker flavor than that of Isis for She is often associated with pharmaka, magical arts and spells, but which can also be drugs, both beneficial and poisonous.

Both Goddesses are also known to teach the magical arts to Their devotees.

While traveling the wilds of the internet, you may have seen some people saying that Hekate’s name may be derived from a.) the Egyptian Frog Goddess of Fertility Heqet or Heket, or b.) from the Egyptian word for magic, heka. For the connection with Heqet, we have this speculation from Martin Bernal (author of the Black Athena series):

“The crone goddess Hekate [note: Hekate was never a crone] was central to the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose name, like that of nearly all Greek divinities, has no Indo-European etymology. Her name almost certainly derives from the Egyptian frog goddess Hkt or Hqt. Both were versed in magic—ḥk3 in Egyptian—and fertility. There is, to my knowledge, only one connection drawn between Hekate and frogs. This comes in Aristophanes’ parody of the Eleusinian initiation, “The Frogs,” where the chorus condemns those who defile Hekate’s shrine. The chorus of frogs appears while the travellers are crossing to Hades on Kharon’s ferry. In the Egyptian Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom, Sokar’s ferry to the Underworld is reported to have “her bailers . . . [as] the frog goddess Hqt at the mouth of her lake.” (Martin Bernal, “Egyptians in the Hellenistic Woodpile” in Ptolemy Philadelphus II and His World)

While Bernal has been heavily criticized for making these kinds of leaps (e.g. “almost certainly”), I do find his work very valuable in helping trace connections between the you-simply-couldn’t-ignore-it ancient Egyptian civilization and that of the ancient Greeks. Nevertheless, this one looks like quite the stretch to me. The frog connection is pretty tenuous and Heqet was never well known enough outside of Egypt to be that influential. A better correspondence might be between Isis’ title of Hekaiet, “Magician,” and Hekate, but I can’t offer further speculation on that as I’m no linguist.

Universal Goddesses

Both Goddesses are powerful in every sphere of life, on every level of reality. Isis is said to be queen of earth, heaven, and underworld. Hesiod, in the Theogony tells us that Hekate has power in earth, sea, and sky. And while Hesiod doesn’t specifically list the underworld as one of Hekate’s realms, it is clear that Her connections with the dead make Her an underworld Goddess, too. Both Isis and Hekate serve as psychopomps. Hekate guides Persephone back to the land of the living and Isis initiates the newly dead into their new lives.

Green Isis spreads Her wings over the deceased

Protective Goddesses

With Her widespread wings, Isis is the protective Goddess par excellence. She not only protects Her child Horus, Her husband Osiris, and the land of Egypt, but each of Her devotees as well. With Her magical power, Hekate is also a protective Goddess, Her image placed before each household to keep its inhabitants safe.

Child Nurturing Goddesses

Both Isis and Hekate bear the Greek epithet Kourotrophos, “Child Nurturing.” Of course we see Isis nurturing Her own child, Horus, but human children were often placed under Her protection as were young people in general. People often made offering to Hekate asking Her to protect their young as well.

Goddesses of Many Names

With Isis’ astonishing number of syncretizations with Goddesses (and some Gods) both inside and outside of Egypt, as well as Her power in every area of life, She truly earned the title of Myriad-Named. Yet Hekate is also many named and connected with many other Goddesses. I’m going to give Isis the edge in this category, however, because the extent to which this happened with Her was and is simply unprecedented.

Fiery Goddesses

Hekate is strongly associated with burning torches while Isis is a fire-spitting Uraeus Goddess and burning Eye of the Sun.

Goddesses of the Moon

In this category, I’ll give Hekate the edge. With Her prominent triplicity, Hekate has an easy connection with the triple visible phases of the moon, as well as Her association with the mysteries of the dark moon and the offerings of Hekate’s suppers. But Isis is not without Her lunar connections. In fact, many modern people first think of Isis as a Moon Goddess. In later periods of Her worship, She was indeed associated with the moon, particularly when Egypt came under Greek rule. For the whole story on Isis as a Moon Goddess, go here.

Savior Goddesses

Both Isis and Hekate are specifically called Savior (Soteira in Greek). Isis was called Soteira as She became universalized in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Hekate became Soteira through Her role in the Chaldean Oracles as the World Soul. Many of us are used to thinking of “salvation” in Christian terms—believe, and the Deity will forgive your sins, saving your soul for eternal life. But the ancients had a broader definition. Savior Deities could save you from earthly troubles as well as caring for your soul in the afterlife. The Savior Deities also saved people from their fear of death. By being initiated into knowledge of the afterlife and being assured of the favor of their Goddess, people could face their end of life in peace.

Scary Goddesses

A very scary, demon-like Hecate from the TV show “Charmed”

With Her connection to the dead, especially the restless and unhappy dead who can accompany Her, Hekate can be a frightening Goddess. She might be called upon in necromantic rites—raising the dead for information—which is naturally unsettling. Frightening aspects of the Goddess are called upon in some of the magical spells we have left to us. The Goddess Herself might appear in a frightening form with rattling chains and animalistic moans and roars. But Isis is never scary, is She? Welp. Yes, She can be. Isis’ own connections with Mysteries, death, and the underworld could make Her a Dread Goddess, too. After all, if She can create, She can destroy. The Pyramid Texts include a passage that says, “If Isis comes to you in Her evil coming, do not open your arms to Her.” Other tales tell of Isis killing a prince with an angry glance and that a rash man who tried to sneak into Her sanctuary without an invitation expired on the spot.

Animals of the Goddesses

The Goddesses also share some connections though the animals that are sacred to both. For instance, both are associated with dogs. Hekate has Her accompanying hounds, whose howls proceed Her arrival. Isis is closely connected with canine Anubis, sometimes even as His foster mother. She is also associated with “the dog star,” Sirius. In one of Her aretalogies, Isis says of Herself, “I am She who rises in the Dog Star.” Both Goddesses are connected with snakes. Hekatean imagery often includes serpents, while Isis Herself is a Cobra Goddess.

Hekate is connected with bulls and cows, which were/are considered lunar animals due to the crescent-like horns they bear. Hekate Herself sometimes has the head of a bull as one of Her three animal-form heads. In later periods, Isis shares the crescent-horns-moon association, but She is also a Cow Goddess in Her own right, from very early on. She also is assimilated with Hathor, the most prominent Egyptian Cow Goddess. Like many Asia Minor Goddesses, Hekate is often associated with lions. Sometimes, one of Her animal-form heads is that of a lioness. Isis IS a Lioness Goddess. As the Eye of the Sun, She also takes the form of a fierce lioness and we have a number of portrayals of Isis with the head of a lion, looking quite a bit like Sakhmet. And yes, you guessed it, She is often syncretized with Lioness Sakhmet.

Temple Footprints for the Goddesses

There is one last correspondence I want to mention, but not dwell on. That’s because it’s interesting enough to deserve it’s own blog post. One of the things pilgrims traveling to temples might do is leave a certain type of graffito scratched into the stones of the temple. The graffito was a foot or pair of feet, often along with a written dedication. They were meant to symbolize the person permanently standing at the temple. We find these pilgrim feet at a number of Isis temples and shrines as well as at Hekate’s temple at Lagina in modern Turkey. Click for info on the sacred graffiti at Isis’ temple at Philae.

Pilgrim feet from Hekate’s Lagina temple

No doubt there are other connections that can be made between these two Great Goddesses. But I think this is sufficient for us to understand why the ancient Egyptians and Greeks might have been inclined to associate Them.

So, are Isis and Hekate “the same?” No, not exactly. But are They connected? Yes, They are indeed.

Isis & Hekate

I love this Hekate by Talia Took. Buy her artwork here. She is an amazing artist. I am the delighted owner of several pieces by her.

Enough people have asked me about the connection between Isis and Hekate that I guess it’s time to do some pondering about that. So let’s.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting both these Goddesses in ritual over the years. As you know, I have been a devotee of Isis for, well by now I can round up to “forever.” Hekate has always been in my Dark Goddess mix, but I had an opportunity to serve as Hekate’s oracle at our last community fall equinox celebration—which meant that I spent a lot of time invoking and experiencing Her over an extended period of time in preparation for the rite.

The question before us is often asked as to whether Isis “is the same as” Hekate—as She is so decidedly said to be in several ancient texts that we have left to us. (Specifically, Apuleius’ Golden Ass and the aretalogy of Isis in Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1380, to name two.)

I have this beautiful Isis from Thalia. I also have a Hekate, interestingly enough.

As is so often the case, for me, the answer is both yes and no.

Let’s look at the “no” side of the answer first.

From my personal experience, I can say that the two Goddesses feel quite different. That said, for the festival rite above, I was working very hard to psychically tune into Hekate specifically. I needed to separate myself from my easy connection with Isis and come to a place where I could “hear,” then speak aloud, the words of Hekate. For our ritual, we were invoking both the “witchy” Hekate that so many people are familiar with today, as well as the Theurgic Hekate of the Chaldean Oracles and from Whom at least some of the Oracles were channeled.

How you might answer this question for yourself depends in part on your own experiences and what variety of Pagan (I am using “Pagan” in its broadest, modern sense) you consider yourself to be. If you’re a ‘hard’ polytheist, then your answer is likely to be that They are two quite separate Goddesses and never the twain shall meet. They come from different lands, are part of different pantheons, and are separate personalities with Their own individual needs, wants, and agendas. (All of this is true, of course.)

In this case, the answer to our question is a simple no; Hekate is not the same as Isis nor vice versa. The two Goddesses are quite distinct.

The “yes” side of the answer is, well, a bit more complicated.

And it again depends on what you think about the structure of the Divine Reality and how it works. Here are two posts on some of the various ways we could think about that Divine Reality and how Isis might look through those various lenses: Isis, the One & the Many; and Isis, the One & the Many More.

Isis the Magician, with 3 faces. Photo by Merja Attia; see her Flickr here.

Your answer might also depend on what you think about syncretism or theocrasia, the mixing of Deities, in this case, Isis-Hekate. This is not a modern invention; the ancients did it all the time. It was common throughout the Hellenic and Roman worlds. But it was especially true in Egypt. Egyptian Deities can become one another, take up each other’s traits, or be the ba, or manifestation, of each other. Isis-Hathor is a very Egyptian example.

Isis and Hathor also feel different to me on Their own, and yet They are intimately connected, each residing in the other’s temples and having harmonious attributes and powers. When syncretism was done cross-culturally, I’ve always believed it was a way for people to understand each other’s Deities. “Oh, you’ll like Isis, She’s sorta like Demeter, but different and Egyptian.”

The image you see to the right is identified by the National Archeological Museum of Athens as “Isis the Magician.” She is portrayed like most Hellenistic Isis images: Isis knot between the breasts, Egyptian wig, uraeus crown-base on Her head (the rest of the headdress may be missing). The missing arm probably held a sistrum or a serpent. But She has three faces. This is a very unusual portrayal of Isis. Some Egyptian Deities are shown with multiple heads, but it is usually two or four (the Two Lands frequently prefer even numbers), though triplicities were important in Egyptian symbolism, too.

Hekate plaque, now in Prague’s Kinsky Palace museum

However, triple faces/heads/bodies are not at all unusual for Hekate. So, are we looking at a syncretic Isis-Hekate in the statuette now in Athens? Is that why the museum has identified the image as “Isis the Magician”? I think so. In Sorita d’Este’s book, Circle for Hekate, she notes another Isis-Hekate on Roman-period coins from Memphis, Egypt. It shows a triple-faced Goddess standing next to the Apis bull, which was considered the ba of Osiris in Memphis. The Apis’ connection with Osiris would argue for the triple-faced Goddess’ identity as Isis, Isis the Magician, or even Isis-Hekate.

Now, I’d like to return to the texts mentioned above, the ones that equate Isis and Hekate—just so you know what they say. The first one is from Apuleius’ ostensibly fictional tale of initiation into the Mysteries of Isis. It is from the speech that the Goddess Herself makes when She comes to rescue the protagonist, Lucius, from having been magically turned into an ass. She lists all the many different names that She is called by people throughout the Mediterranean. She says that She is called Venus and Diana and Ceres and Proserpine (Apuleius is writing in Latin, so the Goddesses are the Roman ones) and Juno and Bellona and Hekate and Rhamnusia (aka Nemesis), but that Her true name is Queen Isis.

An interesting AI Isis, though the algoes never get the jewelry or crowns right; Her headdress reminds me of my beloved Egyptian Rocket Goddess by Audrey Flack.

The second one is found in one of the papyri from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. The text gives the names by which Isis is known in cities throughout Egypt and the Mediterranean. It tells us that in Caria (in Asia Minor), Isis is called Hekate. Some of you may know of Hekate’s great temple at Lagina, Caria. Surely, the author is thinking of this Hekate and naming Her as Isis. Hekate also had a shrine at the temple of Artemis of Ephesus, also in Caria. Who else did? Yep, it was Isis. You can read the whole Oxyrhynchus aretalogy of Isis here.

Why was it so easy for these authors, writing in about the second century CE, to identify Isis with Hekate? Well, once you start looking into it, turns out that there are quite a few rather solid connections between the two Goddesses. But since this post has already gotten fairly long already, we’ll detail those next time in Part 2.

More Occult History of the Mensa Isiaca

Part 3

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been looking into the history—occult and otherwise—of the unique artifact known as the Mensa Isiaca or Table/t of Isis. And it is, literally, unique. We have no other ancient artifact like it. It is a large bronze tabletop, or perhaps altar top, with Egyptianizing figures and pseudo-hieroglyphs, all expertly crafted in polychrome metals.

Lets dive back in and see what some other writers, thinkers, and magicians had to say about it.

Other Ideas

Following Kircher’s intensive explication of the meaning of the Mensa, it became a subject of much scholarly discussion. For centuries.

In 1719, a monk named Bernard de Montfaucon addressed the Mensa. Montfaucon was a scholar and is credited with helping to develop early archeology. He thought the Mensa described Egyptian religion in some way and found it very symbolical and enigmatic. He went on to describe the Mensa in some detail, seeing almost every figure in it as either Isis or Osiris. Of Kircher’s interpretation, he commented, somewhat snarkily, that he doubted whether any Egyptian had ever thought as he did.

In his Sacred and Profane History of the World Connected, Samuel Shuckford considered the Mensa to have been made before the Egyptians came to worship their Deities in anthropomorphic form because the priests shown kneeling in the border all kneel before animal forms.

William Warburton, a Christian Bishop and writer, came pretty close to modern thinking about the Mensa. He thought it was made in Rome by an Isis devotee due to the odd mixture of hieroglyphs and the fact the Isis is clearly the most important figure. Yet another writer, Paul Ernest Jablonski, thought the central figure was Neith. He saw Isis in a number of the other female figures and thought that the Mensa was a calendar of Egyptian festivals, adjusted to Rome.

Levi’s attribution of the sections of the Mensa Isiaca to Qabalistic and astrological symbolism—and thus to the tarot

The English masonic authority, Kenneth Mackenzie took note of the Mensa because of its three-part division and thus its possible correspondence with three-part craft masonry.

Eliphas Levi & the Mensa Isiaca

Eliphas Levi, a French writer, esotericist, and magician, also had an interest in the Mensa Isiaca. Writing in his History of Magic (1860), Levi said,

The most curious, and at the same time the most complete key to the Tarot, or modern version of the famous Book of Thoth, is found in the Isiac Tablet of Cardinal Bembo, which has been represented by Kircher in his work on Egypt: this learned Jesuit has divined, without being able to establish complete proof, that this Tablet contained a key in hieroglyphics to the sacred alphabet.
History of Magic, Eliphas Levi

(You see, it was the secrets of the Alphabet of Thoth that the Hebrews took with them when they left Egypt…and thus developed Qabalah…which, in Hermetic Qabalah, has correspondences to the tarot.)

Looking at his chart (above) and his description in his book, I am baffled as to how he reached some of his conclusions. For instance, he says there are 21 images in the middle register that correspond to the letters of the alphabet. Surely he must mean the Hebrew alphabet, but neither the French, Hebrew, nor Egyptian alphabets have 21 letters. Second, there’s no way I can count the figures in the middle register that adds up to 21. You?

An easier-to-see illustration of the Mensa Isiaca; click to enlarge

But perhaps it’s all just too recondite and admirable for me. Or perhaps Levi cheated a bit. Westcott (remember him from last week?) was a big fan of Levi and in his own book on the Mensa, he expanded on Levi’s comments, connecting the images and divisions of the Mensa to various Qabalistic and astrological symbols.

The Secret Teachings of All Ages & the Mensa Isiaca

Manly P. Hall in his Secret Teachings of All Ages introduces the section on the Mensa Isiaca by quoting “a manuscript by Thomas Taylor” that said,

Plato was initiated into the ‘Greater Mysteries’ at the age of 49. The initiation took place in one of the subterranean halls of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The Isiac Table formed the altar, before which the Divine Plato stood and received what was always his, but which the ceremony of the Mysteries enkindled and brought from its dormant state. With this ascent, after three days in the Great Hall, he was received by the Hierophant of the Pyramid (the Hierophant was seen only by those who had passed the three days, the three degrees, the three dimensions) and given verbally the Highest Esoteric Teachings. After a further three months’ sojourn in the halls of the Pyramid, the Initiate Plato was sent out into the world to do the work of the Great Order, as Pythagoras and Orpheus had been before him.
Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Due to the popularity of Secret Teachings, this statement has been often repeated in various esoteric publications, both print and digital. For the record, there is nothing like this in any of Thomas Taylor’s* published works, nor are there any known records of such details of Plato’s purported initiation. According to the Greek historian and geographer Strabo, Plato studied in Egypt for 13 years, learning geometry and theology. But the description above sounds perhaps a bit too masonic with its three degrees. For the rest of his section on the Mensa, Hall relies mainly on Westcott’s book.

IYNX! A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to this Blog Post

Strangely, this part of the Mensa is what Kircher labels the Azonian Hecatine Triad

Perhaps it was a subconscious prompting. Or perhaps it really was a meaningful synchronicity. But here’s what’s going on. I keep a folder with blog post ideas. And since the Getty Museum semi-recently put out a paper on their study of the Mensa, I thought, “why not?” What I intended to be one post turned into three. And then I came across a somewhat surprising name in Kircher’s discussion of the Mensa. The name is Hekate.

Where does She come into it? Remember that Westcott remarked that the Mensa’s cosmic scheme is almost identical to that of the Chaldean Oracles? Well, if you’ve got Chaldean Oracles, you’ve got Hekate. She is the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World, and the connector between the Empyrean (heavenly) and Hylic (earthly) Worlds.

And that funny word, Iynx, with which the Mensa’s Isis is labeled? It can be a magical tool—the so-called strophalos, or wheel, of Hekate—a bird used in erotic magic, or a type of Being in the Chaldean system. As a Being, Iynges (plural) are “transmitters” of higher-level energies to the lower worlds. The Hathor-headed pillar in the center of the image (above) is what Kircher says is “Isis under the form of Hekate.”

Isis—as the “Supreme Mind, or Pantomorphous Iynx”—sits in the center of the Mensa, connecting everything and transmitting the Divine energies throughout the Universe.

Don’t know if these are actually supposed to be Chaldean Iynges, but it will do

Why does this matter to me right now? Because I’m preparing to take part in a Fall Equinox festival dedicated to Hekate. I’ve been working with Her for many months now in preparation. And so, with this series of posts, my two Goddesses have come together for me, for now.

A Meditation

As you can see, the Mensa Isiaca, the Table of Isis, has been a screen upon which many have projected their thoughts for hundreds of years. Even as a Roman work of art with incomprehensible hieroglyphs, it has served as an Egyptological and esoteric inspiration. And, I think, it has also shown how things can be symbolically connected, even if that was not the original intent of the work. And though we may not be quite as invested in all ancient religions being the same as Kircher was—still—there is something beautiful and magical in the weaving of those connections.

Honestly, a meditation like Kircher’s could be very worth doing for Isis devotees. For instance, we might pick out an ancient Egyptian image of Isis (like the one at the top of this post) and, in gentle meditation, give a meaning to each and every detail, each and every color the artist used. When we do, we’ll see what connections arise for us and in us. No doubt, it won’t be exactly what the ancient Egyptians intended. But it will be a meditation of deepening and it might help us identify some of our own inner symbolism and how, for us, it connects with Isis.

*Thomas Taylor was an 18th-19th-century English translator and neoplatonist. He was the first to translate into English the complete works of Aristotle and Plato.

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Category Archives: Hekate

Isis & Hekate Part 2

Isis & Hekate

More Occult History of the Mensa Isiaca

Simon Magus is coming to