How old are you and at what age did you take an interest in politics?

[Hekate]

121. You got the pronunciation right, but it's not Japanese, it's Greek

Back when I joined DU in 2002 I had just finished grad school in Mythological Studies, where a lot of my research was into the relationship between the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. There's a rich trove there, and my daughter had been giving me hell (if you know the myth even a little, you'll get the joke). But by then she was out of the house and I was ready to move on from being a mother, and in that myth there is a third goddess, one of the oldest, Hekate. In mythology there are many Triple Goddesses, and they almost invariably are the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone (i.e. Old Wise Woman). In the Mysteries they shift places; they are not static, any more than the Moon is.

Hekate is interesting in her own right. She is Eldest, one of the Titans, i.e. one of the original Greek gods. She stands at the triple crossroads of the Underworld, which is the largest of the three realms ruled by the brother-gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Eventually we all go there -- it is very capacious. There is wisdom, and there are riches (think of mining). But Hekate does not rule there -- Persephone, being the bride by capture of Hades with her father's consent, becomes queen of that realm. Hekate, a Titan, travels where she will among the three realms: Olympus, Earth, and Hades. When Demeter searched and lamented for her lost daughter, Hekate was the only one who could or would tell her where she'd gone.

As Christianity spread through Europe, some old gods and goddesses were absorbed into the new religion by being called saints. That happened with St. Brigid, originally a Celtic triple goddess. Some were cast out as demonic. That happened to Hekate, who the Christians called Queen of the Witches, a very bad thing indeed in an era when "witches" were tortured and burned at the stake.

But that was then and this is now. Those of us who study archetypal psychology, mythology, and feminist spirituality, look more deeply into origins and meanings. She is a goddess of decisions (the path where three ways meet), and of the wisdom of age, and is ageless. This only scratches the surface -- suffice it to say, when I chose my name here I was ready to move on from Demeter's anguish and so chose this name, related but so different.