Song of Hermekate
Okay, we've been dancing all night, and talk is cheap; now, let's sing.
Hermekate began to manifest for me in the wake of self-initiatory magic(k)al work that I did in 2012 in Mo i Rana, Nordland, Norway, culminating in a ceremony in Leirfjorden that I wrote about at that link I just popped up there. At the time, the work centered on an appeal to my Higher Self and to the Universe to call into activity a deeply-felt impulse that has resonated within me since I was very young; I have felt aware for at least 20 years that I came into this world with specific work to do, and all of my spiritual and esoteric interests have in some way expressed or furthered this aim.
Sometime in 2016, after returning to the United States, a word intuitively echoed in my mind: "Hermekate." For quite a while, I interpreted this word as a mere creative leap on my part, and conceived of it in the most concrete way possible: As the idea of a compound deity combining Hermes and Hekate.
Not long after that, I read Mysteries of the Temple of Set by Don Webb and was made aware of the concept of a "Word," a deep and (if you'll forgive the expression) nearly ineffable concept that serves as something like a core spiritual principle embodying an entire magic(k)al philosophy; examples often referred to are Aleister Crowley's Word of "Thelema," Anton Szandor LaVey's Word of "Indulgence," or the Word of "Xeper" uttered by Michael Aquino and Don Webb.
As soon as I digested and understood this concept, I began to suspect that "Hermekate" may be my own "Word;" it was the only concept yet that could adequately express and explain just what "Hermekate" felt like to me and how it had manifested over the course of so many years. The concept tied my entire spiritual path together; it was the only way any of it made sense—and yet, in the intervening years, the more I have tried to make progress by treating Hermekate as a Word, the more I have felt mired by obstacles, roadblocks, and even personal pitfalls.
A Word typically initiates some new magic(k)al paradigm, and it took me a number of years to begin understanding what Hermekate might express in the way of such paradigms. As Webb also wrote in Overthrowing the Old Gods: Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law, a Word also ends paradigms, and it was even harder for me to see what paradigm, if any, Hermekate might end. Finally, one thing that all widely-recognized Words have tended to have in common is that they revolve tightly around specific Initiatory structures, especially the Grade of Magus, which has undergone various expressions from one magic(k)al order to another, but has more or less symbolized the same basic level of Initiatory development; those who Utter Words may tend to start magic(k)al orders of their own (Crowley formed the A.'.A.'., LaVey formed Church of Satan, and Aquino formed Temple of Set), but their "prophets" also got their start within previously-existing orders that equipped them to understand these Initiatory structures (Crowley formed A.'.A.'. from the basic "material" of Ordo Templi Orientis, LaVey based the Church of Satan's degree system in turn on the same principles, and Temple of Set likewise came into being as an offshoot of Church of Satan).
I cannot say the same; I have not been a part of any of those groups, save the Minerval initiation I once undertook at the local O.T.O. Oasis, which really isn't saying much other than that I paid a nominal fee and promised not to spill the beans on certain low-level secrets that are nonetheless easy to track down on the internet. And this has been the chief source of exasperation for me for the last several years: I have tried and tried to forget my "Word," to write it off as mere folly, but I find that circumstance and synchronicity have forcefully kept its flame alive within me to a degree that has been nearly maddening at times. Paranormal occurrences have surrounded it, as if to deny me the peace and respite of blotting it from memory and going about anything like a "normal," routine life. It was still a burning, fiery feeling in my heart, but it was no longer merely that; just as all the occult literature says of such things, it was as if the universe itself were conspiring to make sure that I would Do My Will—and yet I have had a devil of a time seeing or discerning just how that looks.
I have come to realize that this is because my Will works a bit differently from how these things have proceeded in the past.
My Word is a Profane (from the Latin "profanus," or "outside the temple") and Vulgar (from the Latin "vulgaris" for "common" or "from the common people") Word that could not be Uttered by the duly Initiated, and this, I have come to accept, is why so many doors have appeared blocked to me on my long and torturous path.
And all of this can be explained by something that began to dawn on me a year or so ago: While it has certain things in common with Words, this is because Hermekate is not strictly a Word; if it is a Word at all, it is a Word to end Words.
Hermekate is a Song (or, as the Word that liminally introduces the paradigm of the Song, a "Word-Song") , and this is hinted at in its very structure; a Word stands as a singular concept, but a Song requires many Words or notes and partakes of a grand multiplicity. Hermekate, named for a compound deity, inherently implies a multitude or more than one—it needs the "two-ness" of Hermes and Hekate as one, in order to be what it is.
As if to affirm this essential aspect of "profanity," Hermekate is not a deity you will find codified in the myths; Hermekate had no known temples, either, and thus comes from outside of them. Hermekate exists historically in one place, a single instance in the Greek Magical Papyri, in a spell to win a chariot race. Hermekate is not part of any known Initiatory school—thus, neither is my Word/Song.
What occult paradigm does Hermekate end?
Since it is not a Word, it ends the "Logoic" paradigm. Words partake of Logos; they are rational, analytical, and they stand on founded "ground" (another meaning for the word "logos"). Those who have historically uttered Words were so "grounded" within the rational structures of Initiatory schools. "Logos" also means "plea," "discourse," "reason," "argument;" in the Logoic paradigm, one establishes one's Word by working their way through to the proper degree, formalizing its concepts through reasoned discourse before being accepted and duly "certified" by the relevant body.
However, we have reached an age wherein information technology has afforded us opportunities for decentralization beyond anything that had solidified while any of the relevant Initiatory schools were founded. As information, ideas, and teachings surrounding the occult have become more widely available, the need for formal schools to serve as grounds for Initiation has increasingly subsided (which is not to say that they hold no value whatsoever). In like manner, the understanding and nature of Initiatory degrees has altered in step with this evolution to be less and less linear as time goes on; it is recognized now more than ever before that no Initiatory experience is the sole province of any particular named degree, that each person experiences Initiatory events in their own unique way, in their own order; I have often felt as though I have glimpsed certain aspects of traditionally "higher" degrees at a young age even as I have acknowledged that I would in no way claim to have passed all requirements for said degrees--and I know more and more Initiates in this day and age can say the same. It is safe to say that no one truly "needs" the label of any degree to validate their Initiatory experiences. It's helpful—but not necessary.
Just as the paradigms ended by previous Words did not simply fade away overnight once the Word that "ended" them was Uttered, I will not engage in the hubris of claiming that my Word will cause Logoic schools to disappear any time soon; they will continue. One era blends always with the next. But I will declare with my Word and Song that they are no longer central to Initiation, they are no longer necessary as they once were (and, in the deepest sense of the truth, they never really were—but most of those who would call themselves "Initiate" behaved and continue to behave as if they are, and that will soon change).
The Word/Song "Hermekate" replaces the Logoic paradigm with the "Sonic" paradigm. The essence of Sonic Initiation is that of "sound" or "noise." It partakes of resonance, and in contrast with a Word, may arise through more than one individual at a time. Networking and information technology, in bringing disparate and far-flung individuals together, allows for Songs to be global in nature and for individuals to recognize one another as constituents of a given Song. Thus, a Song belongs to no person in whole. Even Hermekate has arisen through the agency of more than one person even though I am the one making this statement. Where a Word is the decree of a sovereign Magus, a Song is an emergent and harmonic principle that recognizes a collective sovereignty equally dignifying of all through whom it comes into being.
A Word must be understood by the discursive mind; it must be studied, chewed on, parsed, and pondered in order for a full flowering of its understanding in our minds. It must be related to other Words, held in context with them.
A Song is understood immediately by the heart. The understanding of a Song is not rational, is not so linear, but is no less true for its mode of semantic transmission.
Sonic Initiation, in like manner, does not depend on linear structures, for it is not built on the "ground." It arises in ways that defy Logos, with an immediacy that the Word cannot touch...and that, I have come to understand, is why I had so much trouble understanding Hermekate: Because I was trying to force it into the rational mold of the Word, to "ground" it in discourse. But it needs not these things.
Like a melody, a Song either moves you or it doesn't.
And what was it that brought down the walls of Jericho?
A sound.