Hecate's House

I was writing my morning pages today and heard inside my head the words “Hecate’s house.”  No idea why, or where I might go with it.  So, plunge in.

When Hades grabbed Persephone,

            her cries echoed off the mountainsides,

But only Hecate heard them.

The story says she was

            resting in her cave nearby.

I have always wondered:

            Why would a goddess live in a cave?

Maybe it isn’t a rugged bear’s den sort of cave,

            (which is my first image).

It could be a cave like those in the rock walls of Cappadocia.

Or an elegant white-washed cave house perched on a cliff’s edge.

We stayed in a place like that once -

Hotel Galini, it was called –

In Firostefani on the island of Santorini.

I do believe it was the most beautiful place

            I have ever been.

Hecate would require such beauty.

Hecate’s house would provide respite from

            reigning at the crossroads.

Here she is neither pursued nor feared.

Here she need receive no desperate offerings,

            nor witness any agonizing decisions.

Here her meditations might drop her into the wisdom pool.

Here she can choose what to do with her time.

I guess what's bubbling up are thoughts about what home means to me - as I may be leaving mine in the (hopefully) near future.  And then will have to find a new one.

It was lovely pulling up memories of the cave house at Hotel Galini.  I loved the place, but the view!  Alex and Emily stayed there on our recommendation on their honeymoon.  I remember him describing it like being smacked in the face with beauty every time you left your room.