Haven't You People Ever Heard of Closing the Goddamn Door?
Hey bestie,
We talk a lot about opening doors. Doors of opportunity, doors to abundance, doors to love. One door closes, another one opens, blahblahblah the universe is an extremely busy hallway like that one scene in Monsters Inc. or something? I don't know.
We talk considerably less about the spiritual usefulness of a locked door.
Some doors should be closed. Some things should no longer have unrestricted access to us. Some thresholds exist not because we are meant to cross them, but because we are allowed to decide what crosses toward us.
Hekate is a goddess of many names, one of which is the Keeper of Keys. As Hekate Kleidoukhos, she holds the key, and as Hekate Propylaia, she is the Gate-keeper. You can see how these things fit seamlessly, like a key and the door it opens. When you need doors opened, or closed, protected, or cleared, you can call on Her. For some folks, this means literally invoking a deity, for others this means invoking the archetype and symbol of what She represents, because as Carl Jung teaches, the subconscious speaks in a visual language. I prefer to suspend disbelief and believe in magic, but whatever resonates with you works.
Many of Her devotees secretly identify each other in the wild by wearing a key necklace. Shhh! Now that you're in on the secret, you gotta keep it.
Now, I love the key as a symbol partly because a key can open and lock. We don't really talk about that second part much. Power is not just having access and throwing your weight around. Power is having discretion.
There are endings we keep reopening because closure feels cruel, boundaries we keep renegotiating because somebody dislikes them, and doors we stand beside wondering if maybe this time the thing on the other side will behave differently.
Sometimes it will. Sometimes, beloved, we have enough data.
A Key Spell for the Door That Needs to Stay Closed
You will need a key that does not currently open anything important, some thread/string and a black candle. If you'd like, cleanse yourself and the key first using smoke, water, khernips or another cleansing practice that belongs to you.
Hold the key and name the door you are choosing to keep closed.
It does not have to be a person. It might be a behaviour, a pattern, an obligation, a role, old ghosts and monsters from your past, a way of speaking to yourself, or an old version of your life that keeps asking for access to the new one.
Wrap the thread around the key several times, then tie a knot.
Temple Soundtrack: Listen to the Temple Soundtrack on Spotify
For this ritual, go to the Temple Soundtrack and play Hekate by An Danzza.
Hold the key and say:
I bless the door that closes.
I bless the boundary that holds.
I bless the part of me that no longer requires another trial to believe what I already know.
What belongs outside may remain outside.
What belongs within me is protected.
Access to me is not automatic.
I hold the key.
Keep the key somewhere private, you do not need to throw it away. We're not here to destroy your ability to open doors.The point is to remember who decides.
The spell is what you do. The blessing is what you receive. Read this aloud to close the ritual. Return to it whenever guilt begins rattling the doorknob.
A Blessing for the Door That Needs to Stay Closed
Beloved,
May you stop knocking on doors that have already answered you. May you stop reopening wounds simply to check whether they still hurt.
May your boundaries require less argument. May you remember that forgiveness does not automatically confer access. May you know when another chance is generosity and when it is self-betrayal wearing nicer clothes.
May you know that a closed door can be an act of love toward the life on this side of it. May the lock hold. May your hand remember that it holds the key.
And may whatever waits beyond the closed door become less interesting with every step you take away from it.
With love,
Sierra
From The Book of Blessings by Sierra Jamerson · Temple of Sound
Free spells, blessings, rituals and letters: templeofsound.co/the-temple-letters
Private Priestessing
Most of my work happens in circles, but I also work privately with people crossing thresholds that deserve ritual support. That might mean a house blessing or cleansing, grief or heartbreak ritual, ancestor work, divination and spellwork, Hekatean devotional work, voice and drumming, pregnancy or new-parenthood blessings, or creating a ceremony for something in your life nobody remembered to give you a ceremony for.
Some work can happen over video. For the right circumstances, I also make house calls in the Edmonton area. If you're wondering whether I might be the right priestess for something you're moving through, reply and tell me what's happening. We'll start there.
Or, if you want to know a little more about how I work first: