Temple of Hecate

Journey with Me Blog Series

Location: Lagina, Mugla, Turkey

My experience there

Visiting the temple of Hecate —peaceful, solitary, immersed in nature—is feeling the potency of one of the faces of the Dark Feminine. The deep, total Dark Feminine that has her roots in the times before human consciousness split into Dark and Light. Walking through the temple ruins, I felt a thick, deep, and grounded sense of tranquility. There was only one other human being: a young Turkish archeologist who didn’t speak any English. Nevertheless, we managed to share a walk where he instructed me about the position of the altar, the ritual use of pomegranate, and other aspects of the rituals of Hecate.

As I contemplated the central altar, I had a vision of pomegranate juice flowing down into a ritual pit at the center of the temple. Pomegranate juice looks remarkably like blood. I leave it to you to feel into the possible associations.

Many of us have little familiarity with the Dark Feminine, and this specific archetypal energy is the one that us men often fear the most. We may be able to accept that there is a “healthy” version of the Dark Feminine, yet we usually visualize it as Kali, the Indian deity that chops heads as a metaphor or cutting through illusions. That’s one powerful face of the Dark Feminine in her active, dynamic aspect. But there’s also a magnetic, deeply peaceful, yet dense aspect of the Dark Feminine. She doesn’t have to move or act. She is like a deep hole in the ground. Thoughts, emotions, and maybe even bodily fluids rush toward her. Whatever comes out of her is fresh like a new sprout. Because of that, she has incredible healing power. 

When this aspect of the Dark Feminine shows up in our psyche, it can often be labeled as “depression.” But if it is so, then this is a nourishing and healing form of depression. We access it when we give up, surrender, fall to the ground, letting our tears flow as if into a deep hole that is ready to suck them in. We then enter into a deep rest from where we emerge refreshed, cleansed, renewed. Like Persephone, we spend part of our lives in the underworld, and another part above, honouring our cyclical nature. When we don’t resist the descent into a form of momentary, healthy depression, then Hecate becomes our guide.

A little bit of history

This temple is one of the most impressive remaining temples of the goddess Hecate. Hekate is a very ancient goddess who represents the previous generation of Feminine deities, one in which the Light and the Dark aspects were not yet separated. Hecate was the queen of the underworld; amongst her symbols were the pomegranate, the moon, and the dog. 

While her origins are shrouded in mystery, she is connected to deities from both the Egyptian (Heqet) and Anatolian pantheons. Her presence in the Greek pantheon always feels somehow foreign, as if she is coming from somewhere else, a ragged but fearsome stranger invited to the family table of the Olympian gods.

Hekate is often depicted as the Queen of the underworld, and in this role, she is a prominent figure in the journey of Persephone, one of the archetypal descent journeys. In some cases, Hekate and Persephone are indistinguishable from each other, while in other cases, Persephone is represented as the daughter of Hekate. 

This complex relationship may point to some of the intricacies in the mother/daughter relationship, where the threat of identification and merging is sometimes more scary and realistic than the threat of physical violence.

When you are there

If you visit the temple of Hecate, sit quietly under one of the olive trees, and allow Her to speak to you. Depending on your relationship with the Dark Feminine, this could feel like a very familiar or a completely new experience. Let her guide you into the experience of not doing anything. Let yourself fall into her deep embrace, to be consumed and rejuvenated. Like Persephone, go down, down, down—until the re-emerging happens.