The Chaldean Oracles are a group of fragmented texts from the 2nd Century AD and are attributed to Babylonia (Chaldea). The text refers to Hecate as the female power or Mother of all with two Fathers. Setting Hecate as the Cosmic World Soul.
I thought it might be a great project to look at the translated snippets of the references to Hecate in the Oracles to see how they relate to one another, to Hecate in general, and our thoughts on Hecate today. For this, I decided to use the translation by Charles Stein. Mr. Stein is an author and poet and has completed several translations as well as studies on Eleusinian subjects. His original translation of the Chaldean Oracles can be found at the link below.
Understand that not everyone follows this particular belief in Hecate’s origins. Some follow the more modern view of Hecate as the Crone aspect of the triple goddess construct. I invite those with that perspective to follow this line of thought for a moment just to see where it leads.
Translated by Charles Stein
Implacable thunderbolts leap out of him
and the lightning-bolt-receiving
womb of shining rays
of Hekate sired by the Father
and the under-girdling fire-flower
and the strong spirit beyond the fiery poles… [35]
To me, this points to Hecate as the "Mother" here. The Father is referred to as the Father of all things, making Hecate the Mother of all souls.
If this is a metaphor, what could it be representing without our beginning, what could it mean?
Originally published on Blogger - 12/9/14 9:00 AM