How to Celebrate Deipnon and Connect with the Goddess Hekate
Ever since I read Nikita Gill’s Hekate, I’ve been kind of obsessed with Greek mythology and specifically the book’s namesake goddess of witchcraft! But Hekate is more than just the goddess of witchcraft – she is also the goddess of crossroads! So at the crossroads of the month, on the darkest night of the month, you can connect with Hekate and help prepare your home for the transition into the new month! There are many ways you can celebrate, so here I’ve listed ways big and small you can help yourself connect to Hekate. And the best news of all? Deipnon falls on the last night of the lunar month every month, so you’ve got plenty of chances to celebrate!
Purify and Purge Your Space
Use Deipnon as a time for thorough cleaning, whether that’s physical cleaning or decluttering your home, or symbolically cleaning sacred spaces. You can also use this time to complete any neglected tasks or finished any unfinished projects to close out this month’s energy. You can also do an emotional purge by journaling meditation, or using whatever form of emotional release you like best.
Make an Offering
You can make an offering to Hekate in the form of food. Traditional foods include garlic, eggs, fish, leeks, onions, honey, and crescent-shaped bread, but people also leave fruit, chocolates, pumpkin seeds – there’s all kinds of food you can use. You can also include drinks!
Your offerings don’t have to be food. You can also offer sweepings from your home or anything you don’t want to take into the next month.
Just make sure to leave your offerings in a sacred space. In this case, this can mean an altar in your home or a crossroads, or even by your front door. (You can dispose of your offering the next day – it doesn’t have to sit in your sacred space all month!)
Invoke Hekate
Begin by lighting a candle and a reciting a hymn to Hestia to honor the hearth. Then you can begin invoking Hekate by addressing her directly by saying a prayer or hymn. Don’t worry, you don’t have to know Ancient Greek! There are plenty of Greek hymns to Hekate translated into English online. But if you’re really determined, there are also transliterations (English-character translations on how to pronounce) the Ancient Greek.
You can use your time with the goddess to petition her for help with releasing something from your life, helping you let go of baggage you don’t want to carry forward. After you’ve made your offering and your petition, turn and walk away without looking back. This symbolizes the release of the old and the transition into a new cycle.
Give Back
Finally, Deipnon is an excellent time for giving! You can donate money or food to a local food bank, homeless shelter, or animal shelter. Even just helping someone in need. Giving your time or resources to help your community on Deipnon is an excellent way to honor Hekate!
This #1 New York Times bestselling novel-in-verse from world-renowned poet Nikita Gill is a richly imagined retelling of the Greek myth of Hekate, a goddess of the underworld. Perfect for fans of Madeline Miller and Alexandra Bracken.
Born into a world on fire, Godling Hekate has never known safety. After her parents are on the losing side of the war between the Titans and Olympian Gods, Hekate is taken to the Underworld, where Styx and Hades agree to raise her. Orphaned and alone, Hekate grows up, desperate to uncover her divine purpose and sense of belonging amongst the horrors and beauties that make the land of the dead.
When Hekate finally uncovers her powers and ascends as the Goddess of witchcraft and necromancy, she realizes that even the most powerful Olympians fear her. But when immortal war breaks out again, threatening to destroy all everyone has ever known, Hekate finds that she’s the only one who can bring the deadly conflict to an end.
In this stunningly intimate reimagining of a Greek myth, internationally renowned poet Nikita Gill showcases the underworld and its chthonic deities in all their glory, and weaves a gripping story about the young Goddess Hekate coming of age within their midst.