Preparing for Hel’s Hall

This October, we are diving in and preparing for an experience in connecting with the Goddess Hel. We start by understanding her story, her correspondences, and the deeper language of symbols through research. While we have read many books and researched articles on Hel (including scholarly articles), we encourage every witch to take a personal interest in doing their own research before journeying to Hel’s Hall.

The Black Sacred Candle

Before continuing, make you sure you have gotten to review the free 3-part series on the Black Sacred candle starting here.

I find Hel to be dichotomous in many ways, like the dark moon: the time between the end of the last lunar month and the beginning of a new one. As such, I find that the dark moon is the perfect time to create the Black Sacred Candle (BSC) for this Lunar month. To begin creating your BSC, make sure to create the Hel’s Hall Incense in the infographic below.

Side note: Dried Juniper Berries and Star Anise can be a little difficult to grind, so I personally put some in a bag and use a hammer to smash them. I also used Cedar essential oil.

I encourage you to play around with the ingredients as this is a powerful blend. It does not take much to create your BSC, but I have enjoyed having the extra to use as incense on my journey to her Great Hall.

Additional Items for creating your BSC:

Oil of choice
Obsidian chips
A few additional Juniper berries
Aluminum foil (we will be using the oven to get the candle warm so items will stick)
Non-stick parchment paper

Directions:

Take a piece of aluminum foil (large enough to wrap your candle in) and place it on your workspace.
Take a piece of non-stick parchment paper (about the same size as your aluminum foil) and place it on top of the aluminum foil. Trick: Fold the edges of the aluminum foil over the top of the edges of the parchment paper to keep it from rolling!
Place a few obsidian chips on the parchment paper and sprinkle a few Juniper Berries there too.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Anoint your candle with your chosen oil.
Lightly coat your candle with the Hel’s Hall Incense you created. Caution: Please make sure there are no large chunks of plant material as these can be dangerous or ‘pop’ during candle burning. As always, please abide by all fire safety rules.
Place your candle onto the parchment/aluminum foil on top of the obsidian chips and Juniper Berries, wrap your candle, twisting the ends, and place in the oven.
DO NOT LEAVE THE KITCHEN (lesson learned the hard way), turn your candle every 2 minutes (this took me about 12 minutes total).

An Altar Space for Hel

Hel is both a Goddess and a place (like I said, very dichotomous) for those who have died from sickness or from old age. This underworld association is also transformative for the living. This leads me feel that she is a chthonic Goddess, so I created an altar that can be near the ground and moved easily by using a picture frame.

The great thing about picture frames is they allow you to create a background and I chose to create a very special sigil.

I placed my BSC on the altar, some Juniper Berries, Obsidian chips, and a couple of cards that came up for me this week.