Artemis is a Greek maiden goddess of nature and the moon. A fairly solitary goddess, she is sometimes seen in the company of her twin brother Apollo or her collection of maiden huntresses. She is also sometimes known as the leader of the Wild Hunt, a Celtic legend.
…witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate’s offerings…
Hecate is probably the goddess most associates with witches in the popular imagination; even Shakespeare mentions her in the three witches scene in Macbeth.
Hecate originated in Thrace, as the daughter of the titans Perses and Asterea. She was part of the battle of the titans against the Olympians, and sometimes resided in the Underworld along with Hades and Persephone. Eventually, she was absorbed into the Roman goddess Diana Triformis. Hecate has a son, named Museos, which translates to “muse man”. She was a witness to Kore’s initial descent into the Underworld, and is therefore associated with the Eleusian mysteries.
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Kore is Demeter’s daughter by her brother Zeus, and I promise not to make any more Star Wars jokes. He transformed himself into a bull, after that worked so well for Poseidon and tricked her the same way. “Kore” translates to “the maiden” and she was Demeter’s favorite child.
The story behind the Eleusian mysteries begins when Kore catches the notice of the Olympian underworld god Hades, another brother of Demeter. Here is a bunch of people that need family counseling! There are two versions of what happens next: one in which Kore falls in love with him and follows him willingly to the Underworld, and another in which Kore is kidnapped by Hades and brought to the Underworld by force. The second version is probably more familiar to most people and it is the version most obviously informed by the Judeo-Christian patriarchal attitudes of western civilization. Either way, Kore disappears.
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When I began practicing witchcraft 25 years ago (ooft!) the first pantheon I worked with was the Greeks. I had been reading Edith Hamilton and Robert Graves pretty much from the moment I could understand them, and those myths were my favorite fairy tales. Many of my beginning rituals revolved around the trinity of Kore/Persephone as Maiden, Demeter as Mother and Hecate as Crone. Therefore I thought it would be fitting that my first few posts be about these Ladies. Today I’m writing about Demeter, up to the Eleusian Mysteries, which I think deserves a post of its own.
Demeter is the Greek earth goddess, representing fertility and grain of all types, especially barley. She’s one of the Olympians as a daughter of Cronos and Rhea. Her siblings include Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia and Hera.
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Lucina's Cauldron 