Hekate (also spelled Hecate; Latinate form: /ˈhɛkəti/ HEK-ə-tee; Ancient Greek: Ἑκάτη; in Greek meaning "Far Away"; classical pronunciation: )Ronan, p. 8, n. 1. Ronan adds, “The spelling Hekate or Hecate depends on whether we follow the original Greek (with the former), or stay with the conventional Latinism.”, as presented in the corpus of ancient sacred texts and text fragments together collected under the English title of The Chaldean Oracles or The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster, is a goddess worshipped in a theurgicalTheurgy has been a notoriously difficult tradition to define. In practice, it incorporates magical aspects similar to those in the Greek Magical Papyri's so-called "Mithras Liturgy", while also incorporating mythological and philosophical elements from Plato. The perceptive words of Christian Bull should be borne in mind: "Theurgy I see no great use for as an analytical concept, and I see it used in a much more bewildering way than the term magic. To me it seems that the term is an apologetic one, serving to protect certain Neoplatonist philosophers from the damaging charge of magic." (Bull, p. 400) However, in dealing with the Chaldean Oracles and Hekate's role in them, theurgy is the right term, as it refers to a magical praxis whose goal is to purify the pracititoner so they can attain union with the One. mystico-magical tradition based in the Chaldean Oracles, which flourished from approximately 150 to 500 CE. In this theurgical tradition, she plays a major cosmological, cosmogonic, salvific, ritual, and devotional role.
For many current scholars, the goddess exhibits a distinctly different divine status and mode of activity from the indigenous Greek goddess of the same name, who was associated with the underworld, magicians, and ghosts.See Betz, PGM IV 2441-2621, IV. 2708-84, IV. 1390-1495, IV. 2785-2890, LXX. 4-25. In his seminal work on Chaldean theurgy, Hans Lewy distinguishes the Chaldean Hekate from the indigenous Greek goddess, Hecate, the latter whom he describes as being “of the magicians”:
[T]he Chaldaean Hecate is not, like that of the magicians, a 'chthonic divinity', but a supercelestial goddess and is for this reason said to "descend" at her epiphany...Lewy, Hans. p. 243, n. 57
The Chaldean Hekate is instrumental in the theurgical and philosophical praxis of material and spiritual purification rituals that the Chaldean and, later, Neoplatonic theurgists performed to prepare for union with the Transcendent One. She is a soteriological goddess, aiding adherents to rescue their souls from imprisonment in materiality and to protect their souls from demonic states or possession during and after life.Johnston, pp. 134-142; van den Berg, p. 194-195, 201.
Until the late 20th century, scholars identified Chaldean Hekate with the World Soul (also known as the Cosmic Soul) from Plato’s cosmogonic dialog, TimaeusLewy, p. 353. Johnston, pp. 49-71. Plato, Timaeus, 35a1–b4 and Nature.Ronan, p. 99; Lewy, pp. 90-97; 357b ff.; Johnston, pp. 138-142 This apparent consensus was challenged by Dillon in 1990 and Ronan in 1992, and later by Brisson and van den Berg. Based on this further research, Hekate’s ontological status was updated to be a primary entity within the Chaldean Trinity, equal in status to the creative First Intellect and the Second Intellect, the Demiurge of Chaldean cosmology.Dillon, p. 120; Ronan, p.; Brisson, pp. 118-120; Turner pp. 218-221; van den Berg 2001, pp. 255-256; 2003, pp. 193-196); Finamore and Johnston, n. 15, p. 165
Overview
Chaldean Hekate as a divine being appears prominently in the Chaldean Oracles.Majercik, 1989, passim. These oracles have come down to us from antiquity as a collection of fragments. Originating in the mid 2nd c. CE, they are believed to have been communicated by the gods to and compiled by Julian the TheurgistLewy, p. 3-6; Majercik, 1989; Athanassiadi, p. 152.
The current collection of oracle fragments are culled from the writings of various Neoplatonic theurgists, including Proclus, Damascius, and Synesius.Athanassiadi, p. 150; Lewy, pp. 473-477; Majercik, p. 2. Why full manuscripts of the texts no longer exist remains a matter of speculation, perhaps lost through neglect or possibly as part of the Christian ban on pagan writings.
The fragments that we possess provide a partial picture of what must have been a formidable cosmogony and cosmology. Even in their fragmented state, the oracles present philosophical ideas in mythic form, ostensibly based on Plato's philosophy, specifically his Timaeus, Republic, Phaedrus, Symposium, and Parmenides dialogs.Brisson, p. 114. Brisson and others also note the presence of other philosophical elements in the work, including Numenius of Apamea's Middle Platonism.Brisson, p. 114; Athanassiadi, pp. 153-155; Dillon, p. 122; Edmonds, p. 318. There may be aspects of proto-gnosticism, as well, and the Chaldean cosmology may have influenced later Gnostic writings.Turner, p. 223, 225-229; Majercik, pp. 4-8.
The Oracles were significant enough for the Neoplatonic Theurgists that the main proponents of the school — Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, and Damascius — wrote large commentaries on them. All of these commentaries are lost - either through the vagaries of history or, again, purges of pagan culture carried out by Christians. To give an idea of how large the Oracles could have been, one need only think of the reputed two hefty volumes of commentary Iamblichus is said to have produced.
Hekate in the Chaldean Oracles
Based on her presence in the Chaldean Oracles, numerous scholars use the term, Chaldean Hekate, to identify her prominence in the work and to distinguish her from the classical goddess of Greek myth.Lewy p, 95, n. 119; p. 243, n.57; Majercik 1989, p. 4; 2001, p. 294; Turner p. 9; Ronan, 1992, pp. 79-149 Quantitatively, Chaldean Oracle fragments that mention Chaldean Hekate either directly or indirectly number about 33, around 15 percent of the total fragments.Brisson, pp. 118-119 [fragments: 3, 4, 5, 6, 16, 28, 30, 32, 34, 35, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 65, 72, 06, 111, 146, 147, 148, 167, 174, 175, 206, 219, 221, 222, 223, 224]; Majercik, following des Places. 226 total fragments / 33 = ~15% Lewy mentions several others that are not accepted by other scholars.Lewy, pp. 47-48 Ronan also mentions and quotes others, which are not contained in the standard Majercik/Des Places text.Ronan, pp. 93-102; Marjercik, 1989.
Until the 1990s, the scholarly consensus was that Chaldean Hekate is the same as - but elaborated in more philosophical terms - the traditional Greek chthonic goddess. This consensus argued that Hekate in the Chaldean Oracles exhibits the features of Plato’s World Soul, as known from his cosmogonic dialog, Timaeus.Lewy, p. 353-356; Johnston, pp. 13-75; pp. 153-163; Majercik, 4, 7, 19, 143-144, 152, 153, 154, etc. For Plato, see Timaeus, 434b-c; 35a1–b
However, DillonDillon, 1990, p. 122. and RonanRonan, 1992, pp. 92-96 and later BrissonBrisson, pp. 118-119. questioned this conception of the goddess. A new consensus formed which views the Chaldean Hekate as a member of the super-celestial trinity emanating from the divine Good, which transcends all thought and Being.
The next section describes this evolution of the Chaldean Hekate.
Evolution of a Goddess?
Arguing for Chaldean Hekate’s syncretistic identification with the traditional Greek goddess, Lewy and Johnston equate her with the Platonic World Soul.Lewy, p. 90, 91-92. Chapter 2, passim; Johnston p. 40, 153-163. Lewy arrives at the conclusion based on his reading of Proclus and Psellos.Significantly, it is Proclus whom van den Berg, 2003, cites in his refutation of this thesis. In this analysis, Chaldean Hekate is the “membrane” that separates the material world from the spiritual world.Lewy, p. 92. See Majercik, frg. 6. “For as a girdling, intellectual membrane, [she] separates, according to the oracle, the first fire and the other fire which are eager to mingle.” Johnston follows Lewy in this analysis.Johnston, pp. 57-58.
However, scholars continued to note how Chaldean Hekate exhibits significant differences from the traditional Greek goddess. The indigenous goddess, Hekate, was a chthonic entity closely associated with the underworld, ghosts, and she escorted souls to Tartarus. In this role she was aligned with Demeter and Persephone.
Among many epithets, she was known as goddess of the threshold [Gk: enodia], which recognizes her control of the liminal space between the earthly world and the transitional state after death. However, in the Oracles, Chaldean Hekate doesn’t associate with the underworld, but instead the world above the earthly.
Why did the Chaldean theurgists decide to worship an already existing goddess from Greek mythology and transfer to her a unique, different role in terms of spiritual, philosophical, and ritual meaning? Or did they?
Goddess of the Theurgists
In her earlier work, Johnston saw Hekate as an evolution of the indigenous understanding of the chthonic goddess. In this evolved form, the Chaldean theurgists found a goddess who met their need for a divine entity who could support their theurgic-philosophical praxis and provide passage to the world above the terrestrial and lunar realms. Johnston writes:
If Hecate was to aid the theurgist, she must control these celestial mediators rather than the chthonic ones, opening not the gate to Hades but the gate to the divine realm. … [I]n popular thought and literature, she became ever more horrific; this was in part due to the increasingly horrific and threatening character of the daimones she led. In theory and philosophy, however, as celestial mediators and mediation became ever more important to man’s spiritual self-improvement and salvation, Hecate became increasingly beneficent, ever more the savior. By the time of Proclus, it was possible to portray her as the goddess who protected men from sickness, who led the human soul upwards after cleansing it in mysteries and showing it the "divine path," and who brought the worshiper to "safe anchorage in the harbor of devotion."Johnston, p. 147.
In Johnston’s analysis, Chaldean Hekate is a savior figure, capable of leading the soul from the material world to oneness with the highest realm of reality, the Primordial Fire. As World Soul she stands at the interface of the material and spiritual worlds and can therefore meet the soul after death or during mystical ecstasy and guide it from the material world to the world above.See van den Berg’s characterization and Proclus’ position, pp. 194-195. For the philosophical theurgists she represented transition, transformation, and the commerce with lunar and sublunar worlds.
Beginning in 1990, studies by Dillon, Ronan and, later, Brisson, undercut the Chaldean Hekate’s identification with the World Soul. In their various studies, the goddess acquires a more celestial, superlunary, role in cosmology, cosmogony, and metaphysics.Dillon, p. 122; Ronan, pp. 87-88; 92-96; Brisson, pp. 118-119 In answer to why the Chaldean therapists chose Hekate for their theurgic praxis, Dillon (somewhat wryly) concludes:
[H]er role in magical ritual was significant in this connexion, since the Oracles are, after all, a handbook of theurgy, and Hecate, as a chthonic deity, is easier to summon up than Athene might be.Dillon, p. 122.
Mother Goddess?
Another way of looking at why the theurgists chose Hekate was voiced by GRS Meade at the start of the 20th c.:
Hecat‘ seems to have been the best equivalent our Greek mystics [the Chaldeans] could find in the Hellenic pantheon for the mysterious and awe-inspiring Primal Mother or Great Mother of Oriental mystagogy.Mead, p. 23.