Headless Rite: an Invitation to the Members of Studio Arcanis

[monsnoleedra]

Hm, since that mention's Neptune (Poseidon) I wonder if that ties into her Horse face name or her Horse Headed imagery as part of her Chaldean persona? In that capacity there is a loose connection between them both being connected to horses and earth shaker.

[Frater137]

“Surgat is attributed to the 25th mansion, from 9 to 20 degrees of Aquarius. Incidentally, in the better known attribution given by Agrippa &c, Aziel is the ‘angel’ of this mansion. Within this mansion is Neptune’s Exaltation and Pluto’s Fall degree, 19 degrees Aquarius. In solar terms, the Critical Degrees marking the mansion’s limits correspond to January 29th until February 10th. The particular mansion symbol from the Greco-Egyptian papyri is the garland of Hecate.”

Surgat is used to open any door. Hekate has the keys to the world. I think that is where their connection starts and possibly ends. I don't think the connection lies in a shared identity but rather a shared function. But I could be way wrong. Hekate newbie here lol

[Bumper]

“Surgat is attributed to the 25th mansion, from 9 to 20 degrees of Aquarius. Incidentally, in the better known attribution given by Agrippa &c, Aziel is the ‘angel’ of this mansion. Within this mansion is Neptune’s Exaltation and Pluto’s Fall degree, 19 degrees Aquarius. In solar terms, the Critical Degrees marking the mansion’s limits correspond to January 29th until February 10th. The particular mansion symbol from the Greco-Egyptian papyri is the garland of Hecate.”

Surgat is used to open any door. Hekate has the keys to the world. I think that is where their connection starts and possibly ends. I don't think the connection lies in a shared identity but rather a shared function. But I could be way wrong. Hekate newbie here lol

I agree that these particular functions are similar, but the astrological attribution is interesting and takes it beyond a common functionality association. I was in no way suggesting they are the same, nor is JSK! I found it more interesting as it was the first time I have seen someone identify a tangible link between the two beyond the 'lock and key' analogy. Being linked to the same lunar mansion does offer a potential magical application, and gives some credence to at least this aspect of Mark Alan Smith's 'Queen of Hell'. Which in and of itself is surprising.

[Bumper]

deleted for repeat post.

[monsnoleedra]

“Surgat is attributed to the 25th mansion, from 9 to 20 degrees of Aquarius. Incidentally, in the better known attribution given by Agrippa &c, Aziel is the ‘angel’ of this mansion. Within this mansion is Neptune’s Exaltation and Pluto’s Fall degree, 19 degrees Aquarius. In solar terms, the Critical Degrees marking the mansion’s limits correspond to January 29th until February 10th. The particular mansion symbol from the Greco-Egyptian papyri is the garland of Hecate.”

Surgat is used to open any door. Hekate has the keys to the world. I think that is where their connection starts and possibly ends. I don't think the connection lies in a shared identity but rather a shared function. But I could be way wrong. Hekate newbie here lol

All that follows is my own opinion so take it for what that implies.

Hekate and keys I think gets very personal in how each of us take that concept. About the only rite we have in historical context comes from Lagina and that is the Procession of the Keys. About all we know of that is the High Priestess removed Sacred Key(s) from the temple and through a procession marched with them to the city of Stratoneceia. As to what the actual event as for we really do not know.

Now I speculate that the ritual would suggest that the key would suggest access to both wealth (based at the temple treasury and the wealth of the city) but also access to the mysteries of the temple. Taking the Key (access) to the city would also show access between the residents of the Polis and the temple complex that Hekate watched over them all and granted both wealth and spiritual access to all. Sort of by default the idea of the Key and Dice also became part of the home altar and similar but smaller processions would take place within the home. The "Key & Dice" being used to bring both wealth & Success as we well as spirituality into the home. Then the key & Dice and other items returned to the home altar's.

I think the "Keys" also later come to represent the Chaldean idea of the Cosmic Soul. That would touch upon the idea where in the Orphic Hymm to Hekate she is called the "Holder of the Keys to the Cosmos". Which in my opinion would tie into her role as the one who gives out souls (birth) or claims them from the dead.

There is an idea of her holding keys to the Underworld but in truth to me that doesn't make much sense. Yes, she has free passage to come and go from the underworld and to some extent release some dead. Yet, she does not have the ability to pardon or release the dead or pass the dead over the rivers. She is a companion to Persephone, allowed to come and go at will. But even Hermes who also carries the dead to the underworld does not have that power. Her association with the dead lies mostly outside of the underworld and is with the restless dead, not those who've already passed into the underworld. So if she does hold a key to the underworld it makes more sense for it to be for her alone to exit and enter than to bring others in or out.

Personally I see her as holding keys to the hidden secrets. In that light I see three keys in that it manifests as the physical world, spiritual world and what might be called the inbetween world or daimon world. Physical world is easy, that is the material, Spiritual is fairly easy as that is the world of the Gods & goddesses, yet the daimon world was harder as that was the world of the demi beings and mental places outside the body.

[Wanderer]

Fascinating discussion guys, and I've very much enjoyed what I've read thus far. I'd like to contribute as well, given my awareness of the topic. I imagine you're correct, FR137, about the shared role of keybearer. It, to me, is not dissimilar to the role of Cailleach or Gatekeeper, in that there is much in the way of overlap between those who perform this role, even if they aren't the same being or otherwise related in any other way. We can view Doctors in the same light, as they share a discipline while not necessarily having the same skillset or tendencies. Thank you, monsnoleedra, for sharing the historical link to the Procession of the Keys, too..I clearly need to do some research on this to have a deeper opinion of the matter aside from what my own UPG (and related synchronicities) has shown me.

Like you, I see the Keyholder role as being an indication of having both possession of secrets and the ability to access them. Its a bit like being a Librarian, as who else has better access to the secrets within? I've noticed that Hekate doesn't always outright explain or show me the things I ask about when I approach her in her Keybearer role, but she seems to unlock the door to its understanding within me. Its a slight difference, but a pertinent one.

With respect to Hekate as an aquatic being or having some other connection to the sea, I know nothing about it other than that its fascinating. Its new to me, but it'd make a good deal of sense, given her ability to act as a Torchbearer (as who but seafaring beings require a Lighthouse to guide their way). If you're to work as a psychopomp, then the rivers and other bodies of water in the underworld would require at least some understanding of how to voyage across them, too, so its a logical affiliation.

Speaking of Hekate in her other roles, I had a vision of Hekate that was directly related to a sigil I created for her. She showed me that the sigil itself would need to change in order to access different "versions" or "aspects" of her being, and I then had a related vision of the moon and its light circling about her. As it did so, her disposition shown in her face changed, as did each and every tool in her hands. It was as though both the nature of the call to her and her position relative to the moon was pertinent, as each described some different aspect of her being. She'd then instructed me to place a candle in a different position about an image of her such that it could be illuminated correctly to call that particular aspect.

This was many years ago, but it still stands out in my mind. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

[Moonlit Hermit]

As far as I am aware the only place I’ve seen Surgat attributed to the 25th Mansion is in JSK’s Geosophia. If anyone knows a another reference to this I’d love to see it. I take it that the association is his own invention and he goes into pages and pages of logic about it. My own UPG suggests something else.

[Bumper]

all.

@Monsnoleedra - I remember you mentioned the procession of the keys before in a thread last year, thanks for elaborating on this. I got an energy rush on reading the Keys being associated with the cosmic soul. I have no basis to expand on it, but intuitively it feels very right.

@Wanderer - This makes a lot of sense to me, and I have had other spirits provide alternative sigils to engage with different aspects of them. Further, my UPG at least indicates that the spirits arrive in certain forms depending on the ritual process too, so using one system they will appear in a different form to another approach.

@ Moonlit Hermit, I agree, other than JSK I haven't come across another author other than Mark Alan Smith making the link, and Mark just brings them together. And thanks, I'll have to go back and have a look at Geosophia, I didn't pick up the extended analysis on the first read through. But it was some time ago and I probably didn't resonate at the time.

I have to say I would have paid double for a footnoted and fully referenced Geosophia.

At the end of the day I am not sure that it makes a tangible difference, I have no need to work with them both at the same time. But it is an interesting link nonetheless.

[monsnoleedra]

Side note here but almost wish we could cut out the Hekate discussion from this thread and create a new thread. Would that be possible?

@ Wander - I to find that many times Hekate acts both as a keyholder in the role of one who holds the key to a doorway I need access to or as one who inspires me to seek new information. On the surface those two might seem to be the same thing, yet I often find they are not. As keyholder to a door or gateway it could be a life change of major or minor importance. Yet as an inspiration of new information it might simply be due to a curiosity. Equally, one she might answer and explain directly, the other leave me to explore and struggle on my own to understand.

It's like one of her keyholder roles I think is the psychopomp. For certain she deals with the restless dead and gathers them or drives them. Via the curse tablets she is called on to send or command the dead to perform things through the dead against the living. IN her Cosmic Soul role she takes the souls of the dead, which would also imply she can speak to the dead. My own opinion is on some level she can bestow upon her priest / priestess or practitioners some level of psychopomp / necromancy abilities. I know from my shamanic practices I've been a spirit keeper which is a psychopomp function and have acted as a guide. Definitely ties into her Chthonic aspects. Does make me wonder at times if there is a death of her priest / priestess / practitioners component as there is to many shamanic practitioners? I died in my youth.

She's shown me things but its been more relative to time, place and history than relative to position of the moon or its cycles. Its like some stories she's gone to great extent to ensure I understand the time periods they were written to understand the content of the story. But also show how the names were changed through time.

I don't know about sigils or such for her to be honest. I once though about getting the so called Hecate's Wheel and she out and out told me if I got that thing she'd punish me. Said it wasn't her's and you'd never find it at any of her ancient temples, sanctuaries, or sites. To be honest never have seen anything like it at any of them. Needless to say I don't have one of those. It also does not match the so called line from the Chaldean Oracles that so many site as it's source. Instead I basically got the idea for an image and drew out a rough draft for it.

Not that great of a drawing to be honest but it works for me. Has all the elements of her presence. The "Y" crossroads, The serpent, the Dice, The Keys, the twin torches (long torches), 2 daggers, the spheres of Earth, Ocean, Heavens (Birds). The serpent also represents (life & Death) plus her chthonic influence advancing up the road with its head approaching the three keys, of influence of the 3 realms of physical / spiritual / damonic and the influence of fortune / luck behind your pathway. Of course at the end the dagger will cut your life regardless of which pathway you take at the end of your time.

Edited to add: There was supposed to be one other thing on the image that I never got around to putting in. That was a series of dog paw prints that would be on either side of the serpent and along the base of the "Y". It would represent the present of the "Dog" symbolgy associated with Hekate. Yet I didn't want it to dominate the image but be suggestive of both the spiritual presence of the dog but also the idea of the sacrifice and hounds that run with her in the night / echowing howls in the darkness. Yet I was never able to get the dimensions correct though I am still working on that aspect

[Wanderer]

I'm right there with you, @Moonlit Hermit. I'd very much like to get a better understanding of where that's from, as I haven't really done a whole lot with Surgat in recent years. It may be, however, that cultivating a connection with him could be useful, assuming he plays nice with what else I'm working with at the moment.

With respect to @Bumper's post, I had a very similar feeling of a "whoosh" of energy when contemplating the keys, and it is directly associated with my own planetary work and the Keys I was given to each of those "Kingdoms". That Work was very much an instance of extreme UPG leading to some valuable tools, though I was a bit foolish and didn't fully consider how else to apply this to other avenues.

Something to rectify, I suppose. Experiences like these give me a greater understanding of what it is to be an author, especially on occult topics, as even with references to prior systems and views, this is all an eternally evolving process.

This topic, too, has gotten me interested in rereading Geosophia. Its been a while, though I too would have vastly preferred a fully footnoted/referenced version thereof.

To return our attention to Hekate and the concept of a new thread, however, that is indeed possible @monsnoleedra. I'll be doing so shortly & will update this response with a link.

EDIT: Here's the thread about Hekate: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=17429&p=200791#p200791

Now, this thread can go back to its regularly scheduled discussion of the Headless Rite. Has anyone else been practicing this in an ongoing way?