Working with deities on your food journey
Over the course of my spiritual journey, deities Hecate, Lilith and Persephone have shown up to lend their own wisdom and help as I encountered things I did not know how to overcome when it came to how I took care of my body. I recently thought about how each can contribute as you make your own way through the world of food, emotions tied to eating, and body issues. Wherever you find yourself on the path, one of them can assist if you need it, and guide you to the next level.
Heal
Hecate is a healer. Her symbol of the torch is meant to lead you through the unknown which is like the dark because you can’t see the way forward. You may find yourself here if you’re at your lowest point health-wise. Her ability to traverse the three realms (upper world, middle world here where we are, and underworld) allows her to exist with you and still help you heal. Some things you may be facing that have left you in the dark could be feeling you are underweight, overweight, having body aches and pains that are genetic or came out of nowhere, or you may be a long time substance user wanting to quit. All around you there may be toxic relationships, attached to you and you may be unsure how to cut the cords. You may be giving your power away to addictions and people and have no idea how to stop because it feels compulsive. Hecate really specializes in protecting the marginalized and vulnerable, those who have it the hardest in this life. She knows why you turned to drugs, or feel disgust when looking at your body in the mirror, she is like a mother with deep compassion and bestows it so she can surely assist. This is the beginning of the journey, unknown and unclear but she can shed light on: how present energies are affecting you and help you gain a better understanding of how to approach nourishing your body, recognize healthful choices (she can even raise your consciousness so that you start to reject things that are not healthful) and how to form new habits.
Connecting with Hecate
To start working with Hecate you can buy a notebook with her art on it. You can use this notebook to write her letters about your experiences as you begin your journey. You can also buy a black bath bomb because physically sitting in a bath surround by this color is like showing with intention and acknowledgement that you’re ready to face this part of yourself, the part that has been hidden (black represents hidden) and unknown to you of how to address it, but you want to face your problems now. If you want to invest a bit you can buy a statue to welcome her into your environment with a tangible object. Owning a statue of anything signifies reverence for it, even the trophies we collect when we win something signifies reverence for the talent or sport we’re good at. It is the same thing with deities, they take note of how you are acknowledging them and they will start to intervene on your behalf. You can also buy a pendant to wear or a ring, or you can bake cookies and write her name on them as an offering, and you can eat them too. There are endless ways to do this and however you are comfortable, is how you can do it.
When you start to discover the gifts she opens you up to in all of this, you will see that healing is only the first step. What comes next is the emergence of emotions underneath that begin to surface. The unseen parts of you become more visible because that’s what happens when your awareness is illuminated. Things that were hiding before start to appear as you navigate, such as how your emotions are tied to the way you have been taking care of your body and this is where Lilith joins your path.
Master
Lilith is the primal self and represents rebellion, liberation and the shadow. She was the wild one who acted on every urge and did exactly what she wanted and had to find her way back to who she really was - so she knows your path well. Her specialization is suffering because there is no pain she has not endured, no emotion she has not felt and no role she has not embodied. You may find yourself here if surface feelings are rising up at this time such as loneliness, hurt or separation and nonbelonging. You may be struggling with immeasurable pain, felt through self-control or restriction around food. There may be a part of you that wants to rebel against yourself or everyone around you for fear of not being able to handle what you’re going through to get to the other side of it. You may buy food then throw it in the garbage. You may go through the drive thru not even hungry but you think eating will make you feel better. You may eat and then try to get rid of what you just ate in the bathroom so you can look the way your family or spouse always wanted you to look. You may starve yourself for days at a time. Lilith can help you with what lies beneath all of this - whether it’s rage, a deep longing to be loved, repressed sexual desires or something else. She will hold you while you master your emotions through facing reality, through facing the parts of you that you think are too fucked up to deserve anything good in this life.
Connecting with Lilith
To begin working with Lilith you can buy a candle and draw her sigil on it, light it when you’re ready to talk to her about what you’re going through and petition her to help you change. You can buy poppy flowers or lilies and take them to a Jewish cemetery as an offering, since her history includes a deep presence within the Jewish community. You can create a clay figurine of what you think she looks like and when it dries paint it, and use it as a talisman. You can write what you are feeling on your body to begin the process of embracing difficult emotions more freely. You can read her story in Mark H. Williams incredibly detailed book, Embracing Lilith and find comfort in knowing you are not alone. If you want to go deeper you can read about my personal experiences with Lilith here.
This is only the second layer, but she will help you: channel all of this energy and purify it so that you no longer want to keep harming your body, repair your relationship with food so that you no longer see it as a coping mechanism, and liberate you from the cage of discipline through acceptance, forgiveness and mourning of who you once believed you were. Only then can Persephone come in as a guide.
Preserve
Persephone will teach you how to be in two places at once. This is her life story. She can show you how to live in the light and the shadow at the same time, so you can find the balance you need to give yourself permission to be the whole being you are and live your life accordingly. She reveals how to walk the middle path, and this is the ultimate destination so to speak when it comes to living healthily. You don’t want to smoke a pack a day of cigarettes, but once a year when you’re on vacation you buy a pack of cigarettes to last you the entire time you’re there. You don’t want to drink a Venti black iced coffee from Starbucks every single day, but you drink chicory root (a well known substitute for coffee), every other day and buy a Starbucks once in a while. You don’t want to eat red meat anymore so you don’t, but every year on your birthday you go to Ruth Chris Steakhouse for a 40 oz filet mignon or once every three months or so you have a rib dinner at your favorite restaurant. You want to commit to eating well every day of the week so you do, but every Friday for dinner you order whatever you want from wherever you want, and on Saturdays and Sundays you buy yourself lunch at a cute cafe. The equilibrium of opposing forces, this is the most realistic way to happiness. Persephone will show you it is not found living with your mother forever on the physical plane (overrestriction/extreme light), nor is it found eating with Hades all year around in the underworld (overindulgence/extreme shadow). Through alchemy she helps you find the true self, opening the door to true consciousness of health. No more extremes, that’s Persephone’s specialty.
Connecting with Persephone
To reach out to Persephone, it is best to consume any and all things pomegranate since this is her symbolizer, and allows you to connect directly to her both in consciousness insights and dreams. Besides what is pictured, such as the pop tarts-esque snack, twinings tea, and physically soaking arils in hot water and drinking it, you can also buy 100% Pom juice which is available everywhere. There are also frozen arils which exist. Using pomegranate soap every time you wash your hands also signals to her that you are looking for guidance. You can also buy this incredibly special, holy in my opinion, “lay it to rest” ritual candle that is reusable from Doctor Witch, which includes instructions on how to connect with a specific aspect of Persephone that can help you release extremes over and over, until you achieve your alchemy.
This is when you reach a full on transformation, because you’ve done the hardest part - you’ve entered the unknown with Hecate increasing your awareness, you’ve worked through your fears, anxieties and fury with Lilith (notice I do not say erased or gotten rid of, there is no such thing - we are human beings), and now Persephone holds your hand while you benefit from learning to live in the beauty of duality, all parts of who you are intact through balance. Where food, your kitchen or body was once a source of stress, sickness or self-sabotage, now becomes power, healing and stability.
Jennifer Diane is a writer, artist and intuitive based out of New Jersey. Healing with the Occult is a publication that shares hidden, transformative knowledge.