Our Vision - About The Deck
A Message from Tinnekke
My fascination with Hekate started before I knew I was Pagan. It started before I had a word for what I was. I have loved the Greek tales ever since I was a young child. The lore of the Gods and Goddesses just spoke to me. Then came 4th-5th grade and I discovered this new game called Dungeons and Dragons. For those who grew up in the United States around the same time I did, it may seem a bit cliché to say that D&D got me started on my Path, but in a way, it did exactly that. In early 1980, I had already been playing for a few years when a cool new book called Deities and Demigods came out for D&D. In it were gods from various pantheons both historical and fictional explained in terms to make them part of D&D. In the Greek section was a picture that just stopped me in my tracks. It was of a woman standing in front of the full moon, with hounds at her side. Her whole carriage was just powerful. Her stance said, “Take me on – if you dare.” It was Hekate. The explanation of her for D&D didn’t matter, those eyes, that stance just spoke to me – loudly. It started my fascination with Hekate. I would talk about her to my friends. I wanted to BE her. A month or so later I found the first book I ever read that discussed being Pagan as a modern person, and between my fascination for this Greek goddess and my new found understanding of why all this called to me, I was off and running.
As I got older, Hekate and I parted ways for a while. There were boyfriends and girlfriends and soon college and I had other worries. My Pagan studies went by the wayside as I got busy living. Then She came to me again, in a way I couldn’t ignore. For a time when I was in college I became an unwitting oracle. I had gotten back into living my Path in a household where everyone was living their own versions of the same thing, and there was no need for closeting or hiding anything. Our shared home had a temple room in it and we did public rituals every six weeks on the Sabbats as well as full moons together as a coven. I was alive to the world around me and living every day as a witch and high priestess of a small nest coven. One night after a particularly powerful ritual, I heard a voice in my head say quite distinctly, “Sit down, I need to talk.” I curled up on the sofa and relaxed, wondering what was going to happen next. What happened was that I got pushed aside in my own body. I could still see, but it was this weird veiled vision. My limbs were not my own to use, and this other voice came out of my mouth and started speaking. I can’t even describe the voice, but it got my roommates’ attention very quickly. I remember that. I don’t have any idea how long I was used that night or what was said, but it had an impact on them. For several months afterwards, these visitations were a regular occurrence. My nest wife and dear friend let me know that Hekate was speaking through me during these times. Soon word got out that this was happening and we had friends and extended community acquaintances showing up to participate in this. I got a bit of notoriety I did not seek and did not want. I even had an acquaintance who was a powerful priest in his own right challenge the goddess to speak to him about something to see if this was real or just me being weird (or attention-seeking). I don’t know what he said to Her or what they discussed, but he was shaken to his core when he left and he never challenged me again that way. This went on for months, but it got out of hand. It got to the point where I was so much in the divine that I nearly could not function. I could do small daily things, but it was hard to stay focused at work or at school. I had to be in a sacred space as much as possible. My diet changed to a vegan one because I couldn’t tolerate animal products at all. Eventually I ran from the situation and from Hekate.
Fast forward to 2008; I was involved deeply with the Dianic Pagan Path that I had been on for many years. I was teaching workshops in-person and online as well as planning a goddess-centered festival. I started an online coven of eight women that were all dear friends to me. We met online due to the fact that we were spread all over the Western Hemisphere from Canada to Brazil. For full moons this spread wasn’t an issue, but the first time we met for a Sabbat, it became a BIG issue. We tried to do a ritual for Beltane/Samhain, combining both energies. Needless to say we all decided quickly that this did not work. It was awkward at best and hard to stay in the moment. We had a meeting shortly thereafter and resolved never to do that again. We chose to focus solely on the Lunar Mysteries and celebrate the full moons and meditate together on the new moons in common harmony using a mantra or other verbal focus for our meditations. This worked beautifully. We were in harmony and growing together in our focus on the Lunar Rites and on Lunar wisdom. Each full moon we tried new things and added and subtracted and created until we found something unique and wonderful that suited us all. It was during this process that Hekate found us. We did a Rite focusing on Her and invoking Her into our circle, and She decided She liked it so much that She wanted to stay. Soon we were planning our first get-together as a group to celebrate the Mysteries in person. The name “Hekate Rising” came to me for this meeting, and it stuck. We still worked from time-to-time with other goddesses, most notably Inanna, but Hekate became our spiritual Mother. Our group began attracting women with a connection to Hekate and losing some of its original Dianic flavor.
During 2009, the planning of Hekate Rising was in full swing, and I was studying more and more about Hekate and Her historical context. As I did so, I felt even more personally called by Her. Eventually I realized that She wanted me as Her Priestess. I answered the call joyfully, and in that process found groups outside my own that were also devoted to Hekate. I’ve been learning and growing on this Path ever since. Finding kindred spirits on the six inhabited continents and embracing Hekate’s ways ever more deeply.
In 2011, I began to feel a need to do a project as a devotional labor to Hekate. What kind I knew instinctively, a tarot deck. One where Her symbology and Her imagery were the focal point and where the beauty of Her Path could be expressed artistically and mystically both for those who embrace Her ways and for those who were curious and wanted to see if they were ready for more. I am an artist myself, but my own efforts at creating art for this tarot always fell short of my vision. Fortunately the goddess brought me an answer in the form of a drawing done by one of the Sisters in our group. A captivating image that she called “Transformation” and which is part of this deck for you to enjoy; I bless the day that drawing arrived in my mailbox. I thank Hekate profusely that she brought Hope Ezerins, the talented and magickal artist behind the imagery presented here, into my life as a spiritual Sister. I hope that in reading the work I present to go with the deck, and in using and seeing the art of the cards themselves, that the beauty which is Hekate and Her Path may be appreciated by you as well and that the question, “Why Hekate?” may be answered.
In Her Light,
Tinnekke