Memento Mori Jewellery by Lucretia Borgia

Mori: Timeless Treasures

for loved ones, remembering our mortality & those dying

By: Lucretia Borgia

With the rapturous gifts from the realms of Death & Spirit, inspired by the Memento Mori Tradition written and included on this blog to read at your leisure and for your pleasure; a Tradition which breeches beyond the bereavement of Death and brings to you, a beautiful acceptance of crossing the boundaries of flesh and bone into one of Spirit. Death does wait for no one, but it does not have to be a journey of fear, dread or nightmarish visions of what may or may not lie beyond. In actual fact and philosophy if one wishes to truly break down the phobia of death, the fear of the unknown has formed our own demons which lurk in our minds, hearts and souls. As a memory, a thought-form, our spirits never die and the energies can relatively be easy to access- via the ‘Akashic’ or ‘collective’ unconscious (if you like).

Perhaps you do not believe in life after death, and instead look upon it merely as a belief that through our own ‘magickal’ energies we create a thought-form from the memory of our loved ones, or those who have passed- a type of imprint or a figment of the imagination because the mind is a powerful tool and the way it functions through fear, desire, hatred, or love can leave residues in the atmosphere around them, therefore creating ‘a manifested energy’ or ‘spirit’. Your belief may be that what continues is not the person’s soul, but their memory, their energies or the energies of their emotions- residual energy. This beliefs reach out further with the idealism that through the fear of death, and that our hearts cannot handle the loss of a loved one past or fear of Death itself that we, in our minds and through the force of pure will power create these apparitions not only out of fear of loss or what lies beyond but also through desire or will by Occultic or Esoteric natures? Food for thought is it not?

Ancient Hekate Incense

The Scent of Worship

altar/dedicational/ritual incense of hekate

You will require:  ¼ cup of each of the following ingredients and approximately half a cup of the wood (should there be any mentioned) We must remember that wood is actually sacred to Hekate and that during certain festivals held in her honour it is actually regarded as disrespectful to Hekate. The following is based from an old recipe passed down through my family and I share it with you only to enhance and bless your own rites as they have served in the past, in honour of Hekate. Please use them with revere and only in veneration only to our Dark Mother, Hekate- Queen of the 'Y' Crossroads.

Made: On the night of the Dark Moon.

To make the paste for these incenses: Gum mastic is used because it is sacred to Hekate, which stems back to Ancient Greece, Hekate’s though place of origin. Worship, thanks and blessings.

You will need a tablespoon or two of the powdered gum. Use a sterilized clean glass or crystal bowl (never metal) with 1 cup of warm water (not hot). Sprinkle the powder over the top of the water and whisk until the gum is totally dissolved, skimming off any foam that develops. It should only take a few minutes. Leave, and allow the gum to absorb the water until it forms into a gelatinous paste. Cover the bowl with a damp cheesecloth covering and allow the thickening process to complete, a couple of hours. You may mix in more gum or water to adjust the consistency to your preference.

Hekate: Prayer & Invocation

Prayer/ Invocation/ Dedication

to the goddess of the crossroads: hekate (e-Kah-te!)

Silver-footed Queen of the midnight crossroads,
three-faced Goddess of the torches,

Listen to my summoning from across the veils,
 through time itself and beyond the gates of Death.

Guardian of the Great Deep, Ancient Mother of Earth and Sea
 attend now to this sacred rite.

By veneration of your mighty and dreaded names-
Nocticula, Trinsofia, Klêidouchos, Trikephalus.

I burn for you these arcane spices,
cinnamon, saffron and myrrh with revered dedication.

O Mistress of the starry heavens, Titan-born,
Ophidian Lady of the Hounds, Spectral and Nocturnal One-

Who sings to the plethoric darkness ,
weaving the tenebrous Shadows;
Universal Creatrix, Bearer of Light.