#hecate goddess

“In midwinter, the traditional season of the dead, the feast of crossroads (compitalia) was celebrated in honor of Hecate or the genies of these locations (lares compitales), which gave the ceremony the name of Laralia. At these crossroads, the pater familias hung from the trees woolen dolls (maniae) or bark masks (oscilla) representing family members, and he asked the spirits of darkness to accept these substitutes for the people they represented. This ritual did not vanish with the fall of ancient Rome, and there is strong evidence of its continued existence during the Middle Ages because humans have always lent a supernatural character to crossroads (bivium, trivium, compitalis). They belong to the dead first, then to witches.”

- Claude Lecouteux, The Return of the Dead: Ghosts, Ancestors, and the Transparent Veil of the Pagan Mind (2009)

Image Credit: Trenten Kelley, “Santa Doll in Woods”