I’d seen it coming but it came too fast
I had to make a decision at last.
At the crossroads, Hekate asked:
Would the left or the right be my path?
I couldn’t see where either path led,
having to choose filled me with dread.
My arms felt like anchors, my legs full of lead,
I couldn’t get my thoughts straight in my head.
There was no way I could possibly choose—
if right or left would be win or lose,
I could choose neither and simply refuse.
What then? What would Hekate do?
Seeing my panic, fear and hesitation,
the old crone brought me sudden elation
and shook me out of my state of stagnation,
revealing two more paths for my consideration.
If the left path and right path looked the same,
she said, I could return from whence I came.
I could turn back and leave wild for tame
and resign myself to old ways and known pain.
What about the fourth way, I asked her then,
what if I don’t go left or right or home again?
She smiled and told me, 10 out of 10,
the best way is to stand where I am.
It didn’t make sense, I had to keep going.
She looked at me with a deep sense of knowing;
as clouds rolled in and the wind started blowing,
she asked, where is it I think I’m going?
I paused and realized I didn’t know,
my only impulse was to go and go and go.
She explained that if I stopped and stood still
and calmed myself down through an act of will,
I could close my eyes, breathe and ascend,
and from a bird’s height, find my way again.
This was the fourth way: not left, right or back,
simply rising above self-doubt and self-attack.
At the crossroads of the Earth and the sky,
I meet her in meditation every night.
She helps me see no direction is wrong
as long as I’m true to myself all along.
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image The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy (formerly called ‘The Triple Hecate’) Blake 1795, via National Galleries Scotland Creative Commons CC by NC
