Hekate - Cosmic World Soul
"...after the Thoughts of the Father I, the Soul, dwell animating the All with My heat." - says Hekate in the Chaldean Oracles. Her role as the Cosmic World Soul is perhaps the most known of her Chaldean functions. But what does it mean, actually?
The World Soul - known also as Anima Mundi, from Latin - is an old philosophical concept. It was an important idea in Neoplatonic philosophy. The Neoplatonists valued the Chaldean Oracles very highly - and identified the Chaldean Hekate with Anima Mundi.
As the World Soul, Hekate animates all, she is the life itself. She is also the source of all the individual human souls and non-human spirits. We are not only born from her, but we remain forever connected to her, and through her, with eachother. The World is a living being ensouled by Hekate.
Her role as Anima Mundi doesn't end on that. In the Chaldean Oracles, there are many worlds. As the Soul, Hekate builds and rules the Aetherial Worlds. The Aetherial Realm is a concept quite similar to the idea of astral world in modern occultism. As the Soul-Goddess, Hekate connects the Empyrean Realm - the highest, Divine Realm of the highest, transcendent God - with the Material Realm. She is the one in the middle, the one who connects - which reflects her liminal role in earlier Ancient Greek religion.
Hekate as the World's Soul is connected to the Moon, which also holds liminal place in ancient philosophy.
Written by Teo Braun, Devotee of the CoH
Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash
