The first time I heard about Modern Witchcraft With The Greek Gods was way before its December release. It all started around 2021 when we hosted Astrea Taylor to come to talk about her new book at the time Air Magic. At this point in my life, it was exactly a year since I had started my journey with Hades. It was during this event that Astrea and I started to have a conversation about the greek gods. As we both shared stories with one another, one of them I had mentioned was about Hades. It was at that point I was asked if I was interested in sharing my story in this new book that she and Jason Mankey were writing.
Which as you all know I jumped on it quicker than I think I realized the commitment that I had signed on for or how it could impact my life. Once I got home that evening from our event and started to absorb the day. It was at that moment that the nervousness started to hit me more than I anticipated it to. Here I was someone who isn't new to spiritual work and working with the gods. Yet the god I had just gone a full year cycle with is the one I'm being asked to share my experiences with. What I would later find out is that the experience was as shocking for Astrea as well. When she shared her story of when she was driving to our event thinking about the book and how she wanted someone who worked with Hades for the book. All along she had no clue I had been working with him for a year at that point. Once the initial shock began to waver slowly away, I really set down and asked myself what do I want to share. Because if you know anything about Hades in a greek context a lot of the worship was lost except for a few key points. A few different mythos that was written years down the road with opposing views on who Hades was.
When you know you are about to write something that is going to be forever presented inside a book. You really take time on the things you want to convey and explain because personal journeys are not always easy to describe. My personal journey on how I got started with Hades is no different. The one thing that I didn't mention at the time I submitted my passage for the book and part of it was because I was not ready to share that. But I feel since the book is now released and I know some will come searching for me and my perspective. Is what it was that brought Hades to me and made him so prominent in my spiritual journey. The story you find in the book with my introduction to Hades is not the first encounter I had with him. Around the time Hades came into my life, It was a dark period where I craved to escape. I was extremely overwhelmed with my life both spiritually and non-spiritually. After a period of battling to be able to sleep, I finally got my first night of rest.
But still had that nagging feeling of just wanting to go somewhere and forget the troubles of this world. When I entered a stage of relaxation and started to drift it felt like mere seconds I was standing in front of a mountain. The spot I found myself on was this gigantic flat rock that was wet from the river before me. But something kept pulling me to look into the water and yet all I saw was my own reflection. It felt as if I just wanted to be closer to it and really submerged myself in the image in the reflection. Before I knew it I had slipt off the rock and into the water and that's when the panic struck me. For the first few minutes, I was fighting and trying to get back to the top of the water. When all of a sudden this wave of calmness washed upon me and before I knew it I was just sinking. I wasn't trying to stop it nor did I feel the panic that I had when I first dropped into the water. For the first time in a long time, I felt at peace in my mind and in my soul and I could never fully describe it to anyone even to this day. That's when a hand emerged and pulled me from those waters. At that moment all the sorrow, pain, and just feeling I was trying to escape came hitting me like a constant shock. When I woke up I was in my bed, still trying to figure out what had just happened.
For a week that experience plagued my mind and it just wouldn't leave me no matter how hard I tried to focus on other things. That's when we get to the part of the story that you all have read from the book. Where slowly all the pieces were starting to fall in line and make sense as to what was happening. All this for me is the journey that leads me to hades and is so personal to my experience. As I look back for me and now a year later since first writing my words down to be used. I feel it's something my god wanted me to do and share a perspective on his ever-growing mythos. The face we get when we think of Hades is very one of dread and one to not invoke unless to help someone pass. But he is also a god to help with self-rebirth and growth, to take the things we don't understand and make them understandable. I am currently working in my third year with working with Hades. Which has expanded my knowledge into the unknown not only within myself but the world around us.
As I continue this journey with Hades, I feel more understanding of myself and others than I did when I first started working with him. Hades represents a lot of things when his name is spoken into existence. Sometimes it's associated with dread or even assault when we get to the mythos with Persephone. But my own personal experience with him, it's allowed me to truly understand more than what is shown. How the deepest parts of ones self can be so clearly hidden in plain sight that it goes unnoticed. It has helped me understand more of the symbolic representations that fuel this path. I've gained more knowledge on who he is and how one can work with him and his energy. When it comes to my perspective on Hades and how to work with him it's based not only on the past but on the personal experiences he's allowed me to have. One of the examples of this was when I got the physical copy of the book. Which lead me to a piece of information I had found years ago. But never really dived into the practices of it and the information I found was just based on me asking Hades to guide my finger to a random page. To learn about what I have been calling the descent of Hecate for the last few years. To actually being decent of Hades from the time when people like me and you wanted guidance from the dead. Taking a spiritual descent into a cave to find the answers we seek. These are the things that I always say knowledge can change and evolve how we think. The practice of today may not be your practice for the following year, the things you think can be altered. Which is exactly how mine has been since the day I devoted to him.
The small piece I was able to bring to life in his name brings me joy that I could do that for him. Maybe one day I will be able to share more of my journey with him than just in a mere blog on this site. Until then I will use the breath in my lungs to keep his name alive and share my journey with those willing to listen. Until the day I make my final descent and rest among the souls in the underworld. For anyone interested in the book Modern Witchcraft With The Greek Gods, you can find it anywhere books are sold.
The Devine Witch
Debbie Lewis
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