‘Hekate Ochetos’ by Harper Feist
Harper Feist, Hekate Ochetos: The Passage, Munich: Theion Publishing, 2024
Review by Peter Mark Adams
The gods are fugitive guests of literature. They cross it with the trail of their names and are soon gone. […] It wasn’t always thus. At least not so long as we had a liturgy. That weave of word and gesture, that aura of controlled destruction, that use of certain materials rather than others: this gratified the gods, so long as men chose to turn to them. (Roberto Calasso, Literature and the Gods, New York: Random House, 2002, p. 3)
Harper Feist’s Hekate Ochetos is an exceptional and exemplary text. It’s a rare privilege to be invited inside a practitioner’s most private moments; those that are encountered during the conduct of a theurgical retreat involving consecutive rites of invocation to, in this case, the goddess Hekate.
I can, perhaps, better express my pleasure upon encountering this work in the following way: if I were asked which of Crowley’s works was my favourite – which work I have drawn the most inspiration from as well as enjoyed reading – I would, of course, be spoiled for choice. But amongst the top half dozen one work in particular would undoubtedly feature: John St. John: The Record of the Magical Retirement of G. H. Frater, O∴ M∴ (Morton Press, s.d.). Why, you might ask, of all Crowley’s works, should I have chosen that one?
The answer is simple. John St. John depicts Crowley with his shirt sleeves rolled up; that’s to say, ready to undertake some serious work and then getting down to it, documenting it and more importantly, inviting us to witness – albeit virtually – what he was doing minute by minute. It’s as though we were in the room with him as he wrestles with interruptions, physical and mental discomfort and the incessant demands of incarnate existence. It is a further source of inspiration and encouragement that Crowley’s retreat ends in triumph and demonstrates just how much can be achieved with persistence, intelligent planning and meticulous execution even in circumstances – a small apartment in central Paris – otherwise entirely unconducive to such work.
It was precisely these qualities that attracted me to Harper Feist’s Hekate Ochetos. Feist’s short essay describes a contemporary theurgic retreat. Even though it sought a different end, was nevertheless conducted very much in the same spirit and with a similar techné to that used by Crowley – that of demonstrating just how much can be achieved with few material resources, sound planning and the will to carry it through. Feist describes her project in the following terms,
This brief essay chronicles one practitioner’s journey to receiving a personal and unique epithet from her benefactor goddess. The article outlines the structure of this ritual series, not to suggest that such complexity is essential, but to inspire individual devotees to create their own methods of seeking signs of attention and personal epiphanies from their most inspirational and present deities. (Epilogue)
Like John St. John, Feist has meticulously documented her organisational and administrative preparations including: the use of an Airbnb to ensure seclusion, her rationale for making fundamental changes to both diet and sleep pattern, as well as – importantly – the effects of her approach on the efficacy of the ritual process,
To set the stage for an uncanny experience, I set up conditions of sleep deprivation and inverted my diet (from my typical low-carb thing to grain- and fruit-based eating). (p.12)
She has also summarised the essence of her approach, her modus operandi:
I undertook a meditative working every lunar, planetary hour for four and a half days […] At the end of the series, I was sleep-deprived, which contributed to making the culminating ritual very intense. I am not advocating sleep deprivation as a pathway to spiritual understanding, but I recommend that this entire process be extraordinary and uncanny. Lack of sleep makes me very vulnerable and psychically open, so it is ideal for me, as this essay will demonstrate. (p. 11)
In addition, she describes how she designed a ritual process specifically tailored to accomplish her goal viz. to obtain a specific epithet connoting a new depth of intimacy with her benefactor deity. Feist describes the primary source of inspiration that she used for the design of her ritual process,
To develop the periodic lunar workings as well as the final ritual, I used a format developed in Aleister Crowley’s Liber Astarte vel Liber Berylli sub figura CLXXV. This is Crowley’s principal text about devotional worship, or as he would call it, “bhakti yoga,” and is exquisitely beautiful and incredibly useful. (p.11)
The preparation of her immediate working environment was direct and uncluttered,
Before I began the periodic rites, I made a simple shrine to Hekate. It first involved an antique key and a piece of snakeskin laid out on red velvet, powdered cinnamon for purification, and a bottle of Myrrh oil for consecration. I also had a small box of lancets on hand for drawing blood from my fingertips. As I settled in, I picked some sprigs of St. John’s Wort that I found in the front yard of my Airbnb and put them into a goblet of water at the edge of the velvet altar cloth. (p.13)
The text helpfully includes a photograph of the altar and which also serves to ground her account in practicality. The work itself was spread over the course of some four and a half days. It is only because of her exemplary employment of a magical diary that we are, today, privileged with detailed access to the intensive, ritually-imbued compression of time and space that is the hallmark of true ritual practice.
I undertook a meditative working every lunar, planetary hour for four and a half days, adding a new epithet to a growing list present in every rite. When the apex ritual to request my personal epithet arrived, I was working with the full panoply of 29 existing epithets. At the end of the series, I was sleep-deprived, which contributed to making the culminating ritual very intense. (p.11)
Following these preparatory descriptions and observations, pages 13-25 provide a clear sense of how the ritual process unfolded, weaving together ritual activity (the systematic employment of pranayama, meditation and recitation); the use of materia (found items such as bones and teeth as well as bodily fluids); confronting external disturbances as well as reporting on the phenomenology of ritual immersion. The intensity of the ritual process can be gauged from her reports of the surfacing of deep-seated and overwhelming realisations of personal failure and inadequacy – all of which are associated with the temporary eclipse of the persona also known as the nigredo, the most painful of phases, but also heralding an approaching dawn. During this difficult process distinct signs of a higher-order endorsement were encountered. Finally, these states gave way to an epiphany of the god and the receipt of a unique totem, an epithet that expresses her state of residing in union with the goddess – ochetos, meaning the passage or conduit.
I earlier described Hekate Ochetos as a rare and exemplary text; one that any serious aspirant to theurgical and magical work needs to digest. It is a pleasure to read. It is well structured with a clear narrative, and it includes relevant hymns and prayers and helpful photographs, including, as I mentioned, one of the altar. In particular, I experienced a sense of exhilaration as the ritual process moved towards its dénouement – the desired and deserved epiphany of the goddess.
I must especially pay tribute to Feist’s generosity of spirit in making this short text the best that it can possibly be: firstly, by not shying away from including intimate personal details that bring the process to life for the reader. Secondly, for demonstrating the exemplary use and importance of the magical diary. And finally for sharing her profound magical knowledge and know-how with us and thereby providing an instructional text that, in her own words,
I hope this essay will inspire others to do similar works to establish, nourish, and stabilize their relationships with deity. I only reluctantly write this description, as she has since told me to serve her “without a name,” but in my elaboration, I hope I am serving her in a useful way. (p.24)
