Obsession & Hecate
I've had a number of dreams where I was rejected by a woman I was at least lightly obsessed with. All those dreams were a bit disturbing, but none with the intensity of this one. In a couple of those dreams the rejecting person, while not looking at all like her, had the feeling of being a woman named Laurel. She had worked for me as an assistant in waking life, and we got along very well for the first few years, but this started to degrade, until she apparently almost despised me.
This dream involved a tangled relationship between myself and a woman who was not Laurel. Clearly, we had been involved in some sort endeavor together. I was quite obsessed with her, but she totally rejected me.
There was also some suggestion of a possible (but unlikely) relationship with another woman.
While this dream was short and not remembered in great detail, it was extremely intense, and had a strong and immediate impact on me.
It forced me to recognize that I did have a long term obsession over Laurel that should have been long ago abandoned. The effect was so strong, that I got up in the night and without turning on any lights, I dismantled a focal point of that obsession (see below), converting it to an altar to the Goddess Hecate.
Conveniently, I had a statuette of Hecate to bring as the focal point. I placed the statuette, placed a black bowl of cleansing salt before the Goddess. I placed a candle to either side of Her and lit them, as well as a stick of incense. I gave Her a greeting of thanks, and returned to bed.
On awakening, I gave thought about how I should greet the Goddess in the morning.
The statuette was a little small for the position it was in, so I immediately ordered a larger one from Sacred Source.
Notes:
The Altar of Hecate, as it stands today (with the larger Hecate
statuette).
Hecate (pronounced Hecatee) is one of the two most active Goddesses in the revival of Paganism in North America (the other is The Morrigan). She has, since ancient times, been an extremely diverse Goddess, but working mainly on the periphery. She has many properties, and as a liminal Goddess, is holder of the keys to the underworld, equally at home amongst the living and the dead.
She is most often figured holding two torches with which to light the way through darkness. She is also, except in the very earliest times, shown as a triple Goddess with independent bodies facing three directions. Wiccans are hung up on a triple Goddess concept of "Maiden, Mother, and Crone" and try to apply that image to Hecate, but all through history She has been imaged as a young woman, or three young women.
To modern Witches who have embraced Paganism, She is "Queen of Witches", but nothing whatever like Shakespeare's image of an old, ugly, dangerous Queen. She is young, as in ancient times. With Her torches, She is called upon to show the way through darkness, particularly in sessions of "Shadow Work", delving into the negative aspects of ones being, with intent to work them out to the better.
Also important to this dream event, She is the Goddess of crossroads, borders, and limits.
This is the Shrine of Sophia, set up by me when I learned Laurel had
been appointed as a priestess (or priestex if you prefer) of a Gnostic
Christian Church. I found out, not from her, but from a Wikipedia
article. The shrine was dedicated to LT and her protection and well
being. Sophia is very important in Gnostic Churches, considered the
feminine aspect of Jesus. Sophia is from the Greek, and in Pagan times
she was a personification of wisdom, but was not a Goddess.