#hermekate

Spell to Create a Cat Spirit Assistant/Familiar using an Effigy

*[Take a] cat effigy, and [make] it into an Esies [by submerging] its body in water. While you are drowning it, speak [the formula] to [its] back. The formula during the drowning [is as tollows:

"Come hither to me, you who are in control of the form of Helios, you the cat- / faced god,' and behold your form, and empower this effigy with the spirit of NN (add relation to recently deceased cat, if not creating a new cat spirit entirely), because I am calling upon you, O sacred spirit. Take on / strength and vigor, NN, because I am conjuring you by your names,

BARBATHIAÕ BAINCHOÖOCH NIABÖAITHABRAB* SESENGENBARPHARARGÉS . ..PHREIMI;

raise yourself up for me, O cat-faced god, and ensoul the body of NN" (add the usual).

Tlake the cat, and place Light seven lamps around its body, and make an offering, fumigating storax gum to it, and be of good cheer.? / Take its body [and preserve] it by immuring it either in a tomb or in a dark place... with colors,..... until the sunrise then take out and light another 7 lamps around its body.

Then take up the water in which the drowning took place, and sprinkle it [on] the effigy. The formula to be spoken, while you are sprinkling the drowning water, is as fol-lows:

"I call upon you, Mother of all men, / you who have brought together the limbs of Meliouchos, even Meliouchos himself, OROBASTRIA NEBOUTOSOUALETH, Entrapper," Mistress of corpses,' Hermes, Hekate, Hermekate,

LETH

AMOUMAMOUTERMYOR;

I conjure you, the daimon that has been aroused in this place, / and you, the daimon of the cat that has been endowed with spirit;' come to me on this very day and from this very moment NN, and become my assistant, my protector, my familiar." (add the usual, whatever you wish), "CHYCHBACHYCH BACHACHYCH BACH-AXICHYCH BAZABACHYCH BAIACHACHYCH BAZETOPHOTH / BAINCHOOOCH ANI-

BÔ00 CHOCHE ... PHIÔCHEN GÉBROCHTHO MYSAGAÕTH CHEÕO ... Ol° SA-

BAỐTH EULAMOSI EELAXIMA... [... THACHOCH]AXIN CHOUCHEÖCH."

Finish with Helios Consecration (Consecration Rite for All Purposes: PGM IV.1596-1715)

I have my opinions on some of the books shown, not every single one is perfect.

This list features worshipers, followers, and devotees of Hermekate. If you would like to be added to the list please feel free to comment on this post or send me an ask. If you don’t see one of your Hellenic deities featured on the masterpost send me an ask and I’ll be sure to make one for them!

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-A how to

“Hail, many-named Mother of the Gods,

whose children are fair,

Hail, mighty Hekate of the threshold.”

I call upon you, Mother of all men, You who have brought together the limbs of Meliouchos, even Meliouchos himself, OROBASTRIA NEBOUTOSOUALETH Entrapper, Mistress of Corpses Hermes, Hekate, [Hermes?], Hermekate, LETH AMOUMAMOUTERMYOR I conjure you, the daimon that has been aroused in this place, and you, the daimon of the cat that has been endowed with spirit; Come to me this very day and from this very moment, and perform for me the NN deed… PGM III 45-52 (of the spell III 1-164), trans. Betz.

The combination of Hermes and Hekate as Hermekate, or elsewise Hermekateleth, according to the footnotes in Betz.

This is the only occurrence of this name of which I am aware.

We don’t know if this is a combination of Hermes with Hekate, somehow become one. Or is this the name for a child-god born of the two? Or perhaps, as my friend over at A Witch Alone at the Crossroads suggests, this is a Herm associated with Hekate?

The spell in the PGM that invokes the name also invokes Helios multiple times, and seems to also reference Sekhmet-Bastet (according to Betz). It is a complicated process, beginning with drowning a cat while speaking the first formula (not something I could ever do.) Overall the spell is a perfect example of the merging of many different cultures that occurred in late antiquity. After all, here we see scraps of Coptic, Greek, Kemetic alongside many voces magicae. Seth-Typhon is invoked to his responsibility as the guard of Re’s bark. Satis too is mentioned. The spell’s ultimate goal is to make a chariot race go in the favor of the magus.

None of which enlightens us as to the nature or meaning of Hermekate. Some practitioners have built on it nonetheless to envision (encounter?) a god that bears traits of both masculinity and femininity. This would be far from the only such being. The epithets near the name suggest elements of both Hermes and Hekate.

I have not worked with this being, and don’t really feel called to do so, but others are obviously drawn that way for whatever purpose. We each walk individual paths, even when they briefly seem to be going along the same way.

Sources:

Hekate Ourania, “Hermekate,” in A Witch Alone at the Crossroads: http://awitchalone.com/crossroads/index.php?post/2015/12/05/Hermekate P. Sufenas Virius Lupus. “Gender and Syncretism: Rarely the Twain Doth Meet?!?” in Speaking of Syncretism on polytheist.com: http://polytheist.com/speaking-of-syncretism/2015/06/30/gender-and-syncretism-rarely-the-twain-doth-meet/

Betz, Hans Dieter. The Greek Magical Papyri in Transalation: including the Demotic Spells, 2nd  ed. Chicago, 1992.

Images:

Lysippos. “Young Seated Hermes,” bronze, photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011), from the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Found in the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. Via Wikicommons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Resting_Hermes_MAN_Napoli_Inv5625_n02.jpg