This recipe discovered in a text from Late Antiquity (300-700 AD). It is burned to invoke the great goddess Hecate and also used during her rites and festivals. An underworld goddess, Hecate is also ruler of earth, sea, and sky and was respected and feared even by the Titans. Burn this incense in your rituals for the tripleheaded goddess of the underworld, the torch-bearer with serpents and deadly hounds at her feet. However, beware burning it for kicks or simply to find out how it smells as Hecate does not suffer fools gladly and this is a serious incense with effects beyond scent. Ingredients: Crafted during the Dark Moon Frankincense and Myrrh resins, rare sweetly scented Black Storax, Bay Laurel, Rue leaf & seed, Belladonna, and a secret ingredient - all sacred to Hecate. “O night, faithful friend of mysteries; and you, golden stars and moon, who follow the fiery star of day; and you, Hecate, goddess with threefold head, you know my designs and come to strengthen my spells and magic arts; and you, earth, who offer your potent herbs to magi; and airs, winds, mountains, streams, and lakes, and all you woodland gods, and all you gods of the night: Be present now.”
in an Orphic hymn to Hecate is Krokopeplos / "Saffron-Robed") scent this oil and are typically associated with this goddess, but I wanted to focus on her necromantic aspects. To sweeten the myrrh a little and to help in terms of raising spirits, I chose opoponax, with its associations with Pluto and Scorpio, the sign of secrets. As a signifier of the baneful plants connected with Hekate, I chose (nicotine-free) tobacco absolute. I mellowed it and gave it some musky depth with other botanicals. There's a lot of cypress, Hecate's sacred tree, in this oil, but I also wanted to gesture towards the fruitfulness of Hekate--the outcome of magical work done in her name. I don't see this fruit as plump and sweet--not the kind of thing that will have juice running down your chin--but instead somewhat dry and tart with a slight wine flavor, like an oldfashioned winter storage apple. I craft that scent from earthy galbanum (which is strongest when the oil is first applied) and other essential oils with either earthy or winey, apple-like smells. The saffron's warmth and color remind me of the torches that Hecate uses to guide us to and from the Underworld. Saffron has a fiery aspect, but it is a strange fire, which I think suits Hekate just fine. I designed the oil over two New Moons and feel that I managed to incorporate some of that energy without duplicating my Dark of the Moon oil. I hope that this oil will aid you in your work with this very old and powerful goddess.
*add wine*
“So shine me fair, sweet Moon; for to thee, still Goddess, is my song, to thee and that Hecat infernal who makes e’en the whelps to shiver on her goings to and fro where these tombs be and the red blood lies. All hail to thee, dread and awful Hecat! I prithee so bear me company that this medicine of my making prove potent as any of Circe’s or Medea’s or Perimed’s of the golden hair.“ - Theocritus, 3rd BCE
