Centering all women, all marginalized voices, is important to me. When I discovered the Herais spell in The Greek Magical Papyri - it’s an erotic binding (questionable, I know, but so fascinating) - from one woman to another. It takes Sappho’s poems and blows them open. When I was studying ancient Neoplatonism and in walked Sosipatra, I was amazed. The ancient Pythia, and all of the Sibyls, were powerful women caught up in a maze of patriarchy. How could these fascinating women go largely unnoticed?

I’ve written so much about the mythic women, re-imagining their stories told from their perspective, such as Medea’s prelude in Entering Hekate’s Garden. You can find episodes on Medea, Circe, Medusa and The Sybils on the Keeping Her Keys Podcast.

These notes explore the crossroads of my identity and my approach to scholarship.

Me, atop High Head, being my intersectional self at the juncture of land, sea and sky. I didn’t get into being differently abled in these notes, but I will in the future. There are many other crossroads in which I dwell. In these notes I discuss the intersection of my identities with my work as a scholar, teacher and writer, who spends a great deal of time immersed in ancient texts related to Hekate and witchcraft.

My Perspective

I come to this work as a feminist lesbian scholar and a modern witch, and I want to be transparent about how this shapes my teaching. For a long time, I wondered if my identity and perspective might somehow compromise my academic credibility or make my interpretations less valid. And, honestly, it did. I sometimes think it still impacts how certain people view my work, even though Modern Hekatean Witchcraft itself is now a subject of scholarly analysis. What I’ve come to understand through decades of study, practice, and engagement with feminist scholarship is that my positionality isn’t a limitation. It’s a strength that allows me to see what others have missed or deliberately obscured.

I’m inviting you to understand the scholarly foundation for my approach and to develop your own critical lens for reading ancient sources and modern interpretations alike.

Important: I am a white woman with a PhD. Obviously, I have immense privilege because of these factors. I was the first person in my family to go to university. My family heritage are economically disadvantaged fishers in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. I fought my way into the middle class with student loans, single motherhood, and chronic illness. I’m writing from my intersections, which should never be interpreted as anything else, nor as a judgment of anyone else. I don’t pretend to speak for groups of which I am not part. I live in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, a place where being a lesbian isn’t an issue. Nobody raises an eyebrow, let alone mistreats us, when we’re out about about. Lesbian. Witch. Fat. Not something that people around here openly criticize.

At times, I’ve felt like I didn’t belong in the world of scholarly inquiry. When I was in the mainstream world of academia, I definitely didn’t fit it. Since I started the Keeping Her Keys block in 2018, there’s been moments when the criticism of my approach got to me. Yet, like Hekate, I abide at my own unique intersection.

The Witch’s Lens: Why Identifying as a Witch Matters

Before we dive into Victorian translation bias and feminist scholarship, I want to address what it means to identify as a witch in the context of this work, and why this identity itself is an act of reclamation and resistance.

The Historical Weight of the Word “Witch”

When we claim the title “witch,” we’re not just choosing a spiritual identity - we’re reclaiming a word that was weaponized against women, healers, midwives, herbalists, and anyone who existed outside patriarchal control. The witch hunts of the early modern period (roughly 1450-1750) weren’t about actual witchcraft. It didn’t start there, the Romans and Greeks were fond of persecuting women whose “magick,” didn’t conform to societal norms. For the most part, they were about controlling women’s bodies, women’s knowledge, women’s power, and women’s sexuality. Men were part of this, but to a much lesser extent. The reasons for men’s inclusion in the witch hunts is beyond these notes, but they were similar to those for women.

• The witch was the woman who knew too much: She understood herbs and healing, birth and death, the cycles of nature and the body. This knowledge threatened patriarchal medical and religious authority.

• The witch was the woman who refused domestication: She lived alone, or with other women, or outside marriage. She was economically independent, sexually autonomous, or simply too old to be useful to patriarchy.

• The witch was the woman who spoke truth to power: She questioned authority, challenged injustice, or simply existed in ways that made those in power uncomfortable.

• The witch was often queer: Historical records show that accusations of witchcraft frequently targeted women who lived together, who rejected marriage, or who expressed same-sex desire, though this aspect has been largely erased from mainstream historical narratives.

The estimated death toll from the witch hunts ranges from 40,000 to 100,000 people, with women comprising 75-80% of those executed. But the true impact was far greater: the terror created by the witch hunts effectively silenced women’s spiritual authority, destroyed women’s healing traditions, and severed our connection to pre-Christian goddess worship for centuries.

Podcast episode: Being The Witch in the Room

Reclaiming “Witch” as Sacred Identity

When we identify as witches today, we’re doing several things simultaneously:

• We’re honoring those who were murdered: We remember the healers, the herbalists, the midwives, the wise women, the queer folk, the ones who refused to submit. We say their persecution will not be forgotten, and their knowledge will not be lost.

• We’re reclaiming women’s spiritual authority: For centuries, patriarchal religions told women they needed male intermediaries to access the divine. Witchcraft says: you are the priestess, you are the ritual leader, you have direct access to sacred power.

• We’re reconnecting with pre-Christian goddess traditions: The witch hunts were partly about eradicating the last remnants of goddess worship and women’s mystery traditions. When we work with Hekate, Artemis, Persephone, and other goddesses, we’re rebuilding what was deliberately destroyed.

• We’re claiming power outside patriarchal structures: Just as the historical “witch” threatened patriarchal control, the modern witch refuses to seek permission or validation from dominant religious, academic, or social institutions.

Witch, to me, is a treasure, like the ocean. Like my adoration of sparkly witch hats.

The Rise of Modern Goddess Witchcraft

The modern witchcraft revival didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It grew from several interconnected movements:

• The feminist spirituality movement (1970s-1980s): Feminist scholars and practitioners began reclaiming goddess traditions, challenging patriarchal religion, and creating women-centered spiritual practices. Figures like Starhawk pioneered traditions that centered women’s power and experience.

• The reclamation of “witch” as feminist identity: The acronym W.I.T.C.H. (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) was used by feminist activists in the late 1960s. They understood that claiming “witch” was a political act - a refusal to be shamed, silenced, or controlled.

• The recovery of ancient goddess traditions: Scholars like Marija Gimbutas, Merlin Stone, and others began documenting pre-patriarchal goddess worship, revealing how these traditions had been suppressed and distorted.

• The integration of queer identity and witchcraft: Queer practitioners recognized that witchcraft’s emphasis on personal power, rejection of normative structures, and celebration of the liminal made it a natural spiritual home for LGBTQ+ folk.

This movement wasn’t just about reviving old practices, it was about creating new traditions that honored ancient wisdom while addressing contemporary needs and identities.

My wife, Christen, and I did a podcast episode on Modern Goddess Witchcraft.

We wrote our own vows, centered in our devotion to Hekate and the divine feminine. After one of the priestesses who married us tried her best to provide us with pagan ceremonies, which felt all too heteronormative to us.

Modern Hekatean Witchcraft: A Living Tradition

The tradition I’m embedded into, Modern Hekatean Witchcraft, stands within this lineage of reclamation and innovation. It’s not an attempt to recreate ancient practices exactly as they were (which is impossible; we don’t have complete records, and we live in a radically different world). Instead, it’s a living tradition that:

• Honors historical sources while acknowledging gaps and biases: We study ancient texts, archaeological evidence, and scholarly research, but we also recognize that much was lost, distorted, or deliberately suppressed - especially regarding women’s practices and queer identities.

• Centers Hekate as sovereign goddess: We work with Hekate not as a subordinate deity or a “dark goddess” to be feared, but as the powerful, multifaceted, gender-transcendent force she was in ancient sources before Victorian translators diminished her.

• Embraces personal gnosis alongside scholarship: We value direct experience and revelation while grounding ourselves in rigorous research. This mirrors the ancient mystery traditions, which always balanced transmitted knowledge with personal initiation.

• Welcomes all genders and orientations: Modern Hekatean Witchcraft explicitly affirms queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming practitioners. Hekate herself transcends gender binaries, making this tradition a natural home for those who exist outside normative structures.

• Practices ethical cultural engagement: We distinguish between open and closed traditions, respect cultural boundaries, and avoid appropriation while still honoring the interconnected nature of ancient Mediterranean spirituality.

• Emphasizes sovereignty and reciprocity: We approach the divine as partners, not supplicants. We claim our power while honoring the power of the gods. We give as well as receive.

This tradition is the result of decades of practice, study, community building, and listening to what Hekate herself reveals through direct experience. It’s also deeply informed by feminist scholarship, queer theory, and the lived experiences of practitioners who have been marginalized by mainstream religions and academic institutions.

Podcast Episode: Abiding at The Crossroads of Gender and Queerness

Why “Witch” Intersects with Feminist Scholarship

Here’s where it all comes together: identifying as a witch and engaging in feminist scholarship are not separate activities. They’re deeply interconnected acts of reclamation.

• Both challenge patriarchal authority: Feminist scholarship questions whose voices have been centered in academic traditions. Witchcraft questions whose voices have been centered in spiritual traditions. Both say: the dominant narrative is incomplete and biased.

• Both value embodied knowing: Feminist epistemology recognizes that lived experience is a valid form of knowledge. Witchcraft has always valued direct experience, intuition, and gnosis alongside transmitted teaching.

• Both reclaim what was suppressed: Feminist scholars recover women’s voices that were erased from history. Witches recover goddess traditions and women’s spiritual practices that were destroyed by patriarchal religions.

• Both honor marginalized perspectives: Feminist scholarship centers women’s experiences and increasingly includes queer, trans, and BIPOC voices. Modern witchcraft explicitly welcomes those who have been excluded from mainstream spiritual communities.

• Both are acts of resistance: Claiming “witch” is a refusal to be shamed. Practicing feminist scholarship is a refusal to accept biased narratives as objective truth. Both say: we will not be silenced, erased, or controlled.

When I speak as a feminist lesbian scholar who is also a witch, I’m bringing all of these perspectives to bear. My identity as a witch informs how I read ancient sources: I’m looking for the practitioners, the women who worked magick, the ones who were erased or vilified. My identity as a lesbian helps me recognize when queer identities and gender fluidity have been obscured. My identity as a feminist scholar gives me the tools to analyze bias and reclaim suppressed knowledge.

My identity as a witch means I’m living them, practicing them, and allowing them to transform me. This is embodied scholarship. This is what the ancient mystery traditions always required: not just intellectual understanding, but direct experience and personal transformation.

Why This Matters: The Victorian Problem

Now that I’ve examined the weight and significance of claiming “witch” as identity, let’s explore why the Victorian translation bias is so problematic, and why our perspective as modern witches is essential for correcting it.

Most of the translations and interpretations of ancient Greek and Roman texts that we rely on were created during the Victorian era by scholars working within extremely rigid frameworks of gender, sexuality, and morality. These translators were almost exclusively male, Christian, and operating within strict Victorian social codes which inevitably brought their cultural biases to their work. While the Greeks and Romans certainly had their patriarchal structure, these only were amplified by the Victorians. The witch hunts moved from outright persecution to the page.

This lives on our fridge, which may sound contradictory given what I’m writing about. To be clear: I’m not anti-male. I adore Proclus. I have two sons. Back to the hymn - the translated use of the word “fair,” has stirred up some controversy when I’ve shared it before, so I looked into the ancient Greek word. It has nothing to do with beauty, skin tone, or even being equitable. A more appropriate modern translation might be “honorable” or “chosen.”

But here’s what makes this particularly insidious for us as witches: the Victorian era was also the height of the “witch as evil hag” stereotype. Victorian scholars weren’t just translating ancient texts - they were actively constructing narratives about ancient “witches” and goddess worship that justified their own cultural prejudices and fears about women’s power.

Scholars like Mary Beard, Sarah Pomeroy, and Emily Kearns have written extensively about how Victorian translators imposed their cultural values onto ancient texts, particularly regarding gender, sexuality, and female power. They sanitized, moralized, and sometimes outright mistranslated passages that didn’t fit their worldview.

What This Means for Our Study of Hekate

• Gender fluidity was erased: Ancient Mediterranean cultures had far more fluid concepts of gender and sexuality than Victorian England did. When we encounter deities like Hekate who possess both masculine and feminine epithets, refuse domestication and marriage, exist outside normative structures, the Victorians literally couldn’t see or wouldn’t acknowledge these aspects.

• Female power was diminished: Powerful goddesses were often reframed as subordinate, dangerous, or morally questionable. Hekate’s sovereignty and her refusal to submit to Zeus’s authority were downplayed or reinterpreted through patriarchal frameworks.

• Mystery traditions were sensationalized: Women’s religious roles and mystery traditions were either dismissed as superstition or portrayed as dark and threatening, rather than as legitimate spiritual practices and sources of power. The Victorian obsession with “evil witches” colored how they translated references to pharmakeia and magical practices.

• Queer identities were invisible: Any hint of same-sex relationships, gender variance, or non-heteronormative expressions in ancient texts were either ignored, explained away, or translated into heteronormative frameworks.

• “Witch” became a slur: Victorian translators used words like “witch,” “sorceress,” and “enchantress” as pejorative terms, imposing their cultural fear of women’s power onto ancient practitioners who would have understood their work very differently.

Feminist Classical Scholarship: Reclaiming What Was Lost

Since the 1970s, feminist classicists have been systematically re-examining ancient sources and revealing how patriarchal bias (both ancient and modern) has shaped our understanding of goddesses, women’s religious roles, and mystery traditions. Modern translation studies recognize that translation is an act of interpretation shaped by the translator’s cultural context, gender, class, religion, and personal biases. The question isn’t whether we bring our perspective to the work, but whether we’re honest about it and rigorous in our methodology.

Addressing the “Modern Concerns” Criticism

Some might argue that this approach reads “modern concerns into ancient texts.” But this criticism itself reveals bias. Here’s why:

• Victorian translators also read their concerns into ancient texts: they just had the privilege of having their interpretations accepted as “objective” or “neutral.” There is no neutral interpretation. There is only interpretation that acknowledges its perspective and interpretation that pretends to be objective while hiding its biases.

• All interpretation is situated: the question isn’t whether we bring our perspective, but whether we’re honest about it and rigorous in our methodology. I’m being transparent with you about my lens so you can evaluate my interpretations critically.

• Ancient sources themselves support gender fluidity: Hekate’s masculine epithets (Hieros Pyr, Kydimos), her association with gender-bending deities like Hermes, her refusal to marry or be domesticated aren’t modern inventions. They’re in the texts. The Victorians chose to ignore or minimize them.

• We have access to better scholarship now: we can read multiple translations, consult contemporary scholars who aren’t bound by Victorian morality, and examine archaeological evidence that wasn’t available to earlier translators.

• Modern witches have direct experience: we’re not just studying these traditions academically. We’re practicing them, living them, and receiving direct gnosis from the deities themselves. This embodied knowledge helps us recognize when translations or interpretations don’t ring true to the actual experience of working with these forces.

Why My Perspective - and Yours - Matters

As a lesbian, I’m intimately familiar with how dominant cultures erase, sanitize, or pathologize what doesn’t fit their norms. To be honest, I see this in neopaganism and the “witch world,” from strict gender heteronormative binaries in some traditions to the way that books about queer witchcraft sometimes feel written for anyone but me. Christen and I went on a quest to find lesbians (WLW, sapphics are other contemporary terms) in tarot and oracle decks. We didn’t find many. I have a keen eye for spotting erasure in historical texts and translations as well as modern discourse.

As a witch, I understand what it means to claim power that patriarchal structures want to deny. I know what it’s like to practice spirituality that mainstream religions dismiss or demonize. I recognize the difference between how practitioners understand their own work and how outsiders (especially hostile outsiders) describe it. This helps me read ancient sources with awareness of how women’s spiritual practices might have been distorted by those who feared or opposed them. I not only know that it exists in history, it still thrives today. I have lived it.When I believe that Hekate embodies both masculine and feminine principles, that she refuses domestication, that she exists in liminal spaces outside normative structures, I’m bringing her into my crossroads.

I invite you to bring your whole self to this work. Bring your questions, your skepticism, your lived experience, your embodied knowing. Bring your critical thinking skills and your willingness to challenge assumptions - including mine.

This is sacred work. Not just the work of connecting with Hekate and her companions, but the work of reclaiming what has been lost, revealing what has been hidden, and honoring what has been erased.

Trust your scholarship. Trust your lived experience. Trust your witchcraft. Trust that you have something unique and valuable to bring to this ancient tradition. And know that I’m honored to walk this path with you.

For Further Study

If you want to explore these themes more deeply, I recommend the following resources:

On Victorian Translation Bias

• Mary Beard, Women & Power: A Manifesto

• Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity

• Emily Kearns, Ancient Greek Religion: A Sourcebook

On Feminist Classical Scholarship

• Amy Richlin, Arguments with Silence: Writing the History of Roman Women

• Marilyn B. Skinner, Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture

• Marguerite Johnson, Sexuality in Greek and Roman Literature and Society

• Kimberly B. Stratton and Dayna S. Kalleres (Eds.), Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the Ancient World

On Queer Spirituality and Ancient Traditions

• Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (especially “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”)

• Judy Grahn, Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World

• Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”

On Embodied Knowing and Positionality

• Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective”

• Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought

• Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

On Witchcraft, Feminism, and Goddess Traditions

• Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess

• Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America

Greetings of Devotion,

It’s autumn, the season of descent into shadows, spirits, and Hekate’s sacred darkness. This time of year holds such mystery to me, for it was about twenty years ago that Hekate called to me. There was no grand ceremony, no thunderclap. Instead, she crept in like the dawn. I simply started going out onto my deck before the dawn, lighting a single candle, and sitting there in the quiet space, opening myself to Hekate. I had no plan. I was simply an empty vessel, and She was the flame.

Over the years, as I transitioned from a solitary seeker into an author and a teacher who’s been fortunate to guide many students through the mysteries, that daily practice remains my unshakeable anchor. I dwell at her crossroads, whether in my private practice or as a High Priestess. I didn’t set out for any of this. I simply wanted to connect with Hekate, and walk an authentic path following her torches wherever they led me. Hekate offered a key, and I claimed it. I continue to keep that key. My personal devotional practice is so important to me that I choose to focus on it and my teaching and writing. I’m not one to post much on the socials, flooding inboxes, and the like. Devotion matters to me. Part of that is the three tenets I wrote about in the KHK book: passion, kindness and integrity.

Today, the digital world is flooded with superficial distraction. We are constantly pressured to perform our spiritual lives for an audience instead of living them authentically. But true devotion is the exact opposite of performance. It is passion, kindness and integrity. Devotion isn’t an escape from the realities of life, it’s an anchor. It’s the passion to follow her torches. The kindness to center ourselves in our practice. The integrity to step out of the mundane matrix and prioritize what is sacred. This matters now more than ever.

Join me for the free live class on Saturday, October 3, 2026 at 11:00 AM ET for ritual, meditation, talk and practice, plus a preview of The Via Hekate course.

Whether your daily practice is currently thriving, or you are standing at a crossroads feeling completely overwhelmed by the demands of the mundane matrix yet called by Hekate to her magnetic threshold, I am inviting you to step into the quiet sanctuary with me.

I’ll look directly at the ancient historical roots, the academic context, and the practice of modern devotion. We’ll align our collective current as a living coven with a short ritual, The Triformis of Devotion, then experience a guided meditation to Hekate’s Crossroads, followed by a group oracle reading. Then I’ll talk about the meaning of devotion. After this class, you’re welcome to stay to learn more about the Via Hekate program that starts Oct. 10. Or not. The class is completely free with no obligation to stay for the final segment when I discuss the course.

If you can’t attend live, I’ll send out the recording to everyone registered afterwards.

REGISTER FOR THE FREE CLASS

The classroom-temple is nearly fully formed. Our core group of 70+ dedicated, advancing practitioners is already gathered at the threshold, and the gates are preparing to close for the season. This means that there’s about 10 seats left in the course because I cap it around 80, to ensure that everyone (including me) has a deep experience, not only with the curriculum but in the community.

Ready to cross the threshold now? You don’t have to wait until Saturday to claim your space at the altar. You can join The Via Hekate immediately with a free three-day preview. This private entry pass grants you instant access to read the detailed 33-page course syllabus, download my complete guidebook on Devotion to Hekate, and begin studying our primary course text, Spiritual Evolution in Modern Hekatean Witchcraft.

LEARN MORE

I’ll see you at the threshold of The Via Hekate,
Cyndi

As I’m focused on teaching courses and working on my next book, I’m not actively posting paid subscriber exclusive content directly in Substack. Instead, I’ve put together a great foundational course in Modern Hekatean Witchcraft. You can skip paying the tuition entirely and directly access the course for free with the link button below.

PAID SUBSCRIBER LINK

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Learn more about my books and courses at keepingherkeys.com

Light the candle.

I’ve told the story of when Hekate first spoke to me while I was folding laundry late at night many times, including in the Keeping Her Keys book. It was an ordinary moment that cracked open a deeper world, a true moonlit summons. But if you were to ask me exactly how or when my devotional path truly began, I confess that I don’t know. I recall the moment it began, which was during a conversation with a friend who was a true soul mentor shortly after my moonlit summons. We were texting and I wrote that I wanted to show up in my own life. I recall that around that time, I started going out onto the deck before dawn, lighting a candle and simply sitting there. No performance, no script, no guidelines. She was the flame, and I was the empty vessel.

I didn’t have a plan. As I shared in the introduction to my book, Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft, my personal life at the time was a hot mess of divorce, financial ruin, and illness. There was no grand ceremony marking the transition from that initial laundry room summons to a dedicated devotee. The practice didn’t arrive with a thunderclap; it crept into my life like the dawn.

That phrase—like dawn—is deliberate. Dawn is the time of day I am naturally drawn to for my personal devotional practice. But more than that, it honors one of my primary epithets for Her: Hekate Erigeneia, the Early-Born, the Daughter of the Morning. In the ancient Greek Magical Papyri, She is invoked as the glory of the night who brings the light of morning to mortals:

“Three-faced Selene, come to me, beloved mistress
Graciously hear my sacred spells:
Image of Night, Watchful One,
Dawn-born light bringer to mortals
Who rides upon fierce-eyed bulls.
Queen, you who drive your chariot
On equal course with Helios,
We dance with the triple forms of the triple
Graces As we revel with the stars.” – Greek Magical Papyri, IV, 2785-2870

NOTE: Selene in the Greek Magical Papyri is often blended with Hekate, Artemis, Persephone, and other goddesses. This collection of fragments (often called the PGM) is a sort of ancient grimoire of spells, rituals, and esoteric knowledge.

Imagine my delight when I discovered this reference in the PGM many moons after my personal dawn practice had begun. Without realizing it, my practice began by mimicking that exact cosmic transition. One day I was just lighting a candle in the pre-dawn time, and some months later, I realized that flame had become my anchor. My life was no longer spiraling out of control. She was holding me in place, while the transformation rooted. By stepping into the quiet space of Erigeneia, I had accidentally stumbled onto a path that would rewrite my entire existence.

And that is perhaps the most accessible definition of devotion I can offer you:

Devotion to Hekate is the intentional practice of turning towards her every day, allowing ourselves to become open to her presence.

I became both sponge and mirror, vessel and transformer. I had been into goddesses, beginning with Artemis when I was a teenager, adding Persephone, Isis and others along the way, yet this was different. I felt like I had finally found my place in the world. I was a sponge, absorbing her personal messages and signs, and also a devourer of any information I could find about her. This was the early 2000s, and there wasn’t much online, but what there was led me to ancient texts like the PGM. I became a mirror, reflecting her presence outwards into all areas of my life. Not with bold proclamations, but quietly as my orientation to how I lived shifted. I saw that I was simply a vessel, and it was clogged with so much debris. The mirror was the cleansing – it was like a pure beam of light symbolized by her torches – that pierced through all my trauma, my performance, and my doubts. That was the transformation. I did show up in my own life. That, for me, is the essence of devotion.

“I whirl the wheel for you; Gaze at me as you gaze at yourself: For I am your mirror…,” PGM IV. 2241-2358

There was a time that I bristled at the word “devotion,” and I certainly didn’t want to be forced into a dogmatic approach. I’d already tried many paths of modern spirituality, and none fit right. Becoming her mirror clicked for me. It was a key. I wasn’t yielding my personal agency, I was actually claiming it. Centering myself in my own life for this first time.

Devotion to Hekate is dedication to following her light-beam along the crooked path of our own authenticity.

Devotion is Commitment

Devotion is the steady, organic commitment to pull back our scattered energy from the noise of the mundane world, light a single spark at the threshold of the day, and look directly into the torchlight of the Goddess to remember who we are beneath our armor. It is a relationship of sovereign reciprocity. We do not bow down to Hekate; we stand upright, communicate with Her honestly from the messiness of our contemporary life, and allow Her sacred fire to hollow us out into a clear, unyielding channel to receive her transmission and live exactly as we are meant to. Looking at times in my life when my daily practice wanes, it has typically been because I was overwhelmed with mundane realities. However, I’ve learned those times are exactly when I need the practice the most.

Hekate is a living force that is both creation and destruction, life and death. As in the excerpt from that ancient PGM spell, she is night and she brings the dawn. Part of the inspiration for my personal devotional journey is that it is a mutually beneficial relationship. A central tenet of my practice is that Hekate is a living Goddess who is completed through our devotion to Her; it is our commitment that renders Her into a form we can truly understand. We filter Her presentation through the lens of our own unique experiences, personality traits, and personal circumstances. As a system of modern witchery, this path is always focused on ‘better living through witchcraft’— the devotional path has been that for me.

“Even now, when an earthly man sacrificing fine offerings makes ritual propitiation, he invokes Hecate, and great favour readily attends him, if the goddess is well disposed to his prayers, and she grants him prosperity, for she has the power to do so.” From Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, translated by M.L. West

While not as juicy as the PGM, I adore Hesiod’s description of Hekate, undoubtedly inspired by his ancestral roots in her worship found in ancient Caria. His words describe Hekate as a Great Mother goddess, who is present in all of the everyday world.

Devotion is a living journey that puts us at the crossroads, where Hekate not only meets us, but we are both transformed.

Devotion is Personal

It may seem radical to believe that my devotion has an impact on Hekate. After all, she is the World Soul, Keeper of Keys and Crossroads Queen. Something I’ve observed in all my years of seeking Hekate is that she is all those things. Those are immutable, yet how one practitioner perceives and interprets these varies greatly. I call this her “fixed fluidity,” and this accurately describes my personal devotional journey. As a scholar of her history, I am witness to how she has been transformed in religious practice, literature and art. How I understand her may vary from someone else’s experience. Devotion has freed me from dogma, opening up to how she is to me, rather than being rigidly confined to what anyone else thinks. I say this as an author and teacher. The system of Modern Hekatean Witchcraft I share is meant to be supportive scaffolding that inspires personal interpretation.

Make the course of my life radiant, weighed down with good things, but drive the evil diseases from my limbs; attract my soul, now madly raging around the earth, once it has been purified through the intellect-awaking rites. - Van den Berg, Robert M. Proclus’ Hymns: Essays, Translations, Commentary

No other ancient text has so influenced my personal devotion more than Proclus’ Hymn to Hekate and Janus. It bears pride of place on the fridge door, so that every time I am in the kitchen, it is with me. Because if your high theurgy cannot survive the heat of the kitchen, it cannot transform your life. Proclus is perhaps a surprising ally of mine, a personal spirit mentor who Hekate brought to me. This is how personal the relationship is. I’ve also found that Hekate does this for others, too. Far from being a goddess that demands a singular focus, she is typically a divine matchmaker, bringing us together with deities and allies that are meant to help our evolution.

Devotion is between you and Hekate, a personal relationship that inspires understanding, not rigid adherence. It is fundamentally dwelling in Hekate’s fixed fluidity.

Devotion is Spiritual Evolution

Devotion is a journey of spiritual evolution, with curves and many bumps along the road. We are shaped by her fire as it merges with that of our own soul. Not only does our mundane life change, but our practice does, too. We gain confidence. We learn to trust our intuition. As magickal practitioners, our workings take on new life, becoming extensions of us. We get centered within ourselves, no longer living through someone else’s eyes.

The strophalos, sometimes called Hekate’s Wheel, is a modern symbol with ancient roots. Inspired by artifacts and relics, but more importantly by ancient practices involving a spinning wheel, known as an iynx. It’s mentioned in one of the PGM quotes I shared earlier. I’ve got my own that I made, merging contemporary symbol with the ancient ‘whirly gig’ structure. I’m bringing this up now because I’ve done devotional cycles focused on whirring this wheel, and also that this is how I personally know her. She is the spinning wheel, emanating from the star-flower at its center.

I see that everyone of us has our own strophalos, too. Each one a small part of the interconnected matrix of the cosmic one that is Hekate’s divine flow. This is our permanent, unborn soul-essence—the fundamental hollowness that represents our eternal core. Devotion is the steady maintenance of this inner star-flower, which leads to spiritual evolution. By this I mean that we expand into Hekate’s field, whether through rituals, meditations, mediumship, healing others, and so on, we dial into her essence and are transformed beyond the physical plane. True spiritual evolution is not about abandoning the mundane to escape to the etheric realm; it is dwelling at the crossroads of both. Like the ancient Pythia, we remain firmly grounded in the dense, shaking realness of the Cave, while our heart center channels the Garden’s alchemical heat, and our crown reaches into the radiant emptiness of the Temple.

The Orphic Hymn to Hekate is evolutionary, taking us on a journey through her powers and paradoxes. Reciting this as part of a devotional practice takes us beyond the confines of the mundane world. If you are feeling drawn to a devotional practice, a moon cycle of reciting this daily is ideal.

Lovely Hekate of the roads and of the crossroads I invoke. In heaven, on earth, then in the sea, saffron-cloaked, tomb spirit reveling in the souls of the dead, daughter of Perses, haunting deserted places, delighting in deer, nocturnal, dog-loving, monstrous queen, devouring wild beasts, ungirt and repulsive. Herder of bulls, queen and mistress of the whole world, leader, nymph, mountain-roaming nurturer of youths, maiden, I beseech you to come to these holy rites, ever with joyous heart, ever favoring the oxherd.
— Orphic Hymn to Hekate; Athanassakis translation

This hymn, for me, is a “soul-stirring ritual,” (thanks, Proclus for that amazing line) that draws me from the horizontal plane of the mundane into the vertical column of transcendence. It pulls me down into the shadows, it lifts me up to the heights.

Devotion is a progressive evolution that merges an aligned everyday life with spiritual expansion into the mysteries.

Devotion is Sacred Ground

In addition to Erigeneia, one of my other primary epithets that are part of my sacred name is Phoinikopeza, which translates as “of ruddy feet.” There are so many layers to what this means in the ancient context. It is related to the adorning of feet with henna and other dyes before rituals, especially by priestesses. Yet also to Hekate being Enodia (of the road), hinting at her feet bearing the evidence of watching over journeys and thresholds. In the Orphic Hymn to Hekate, it is Enodia that is first honored. To follow her road is to walk on sacred ground. Our feet become the embodied testimony to the path. We center ourselves at her crossroads – where the practical magick and human life intersect with the dimension of the deeper world. That is our sacred ground. Our feet are sacred because we walk it. We are not separate, we are marked by her and our devotion. Each time we ground ourselves, standing before a candle or simply pausing in the moment to root into her road, that is devotion. That is sacred ground.

Should you be wondering when to commit to the devotional road, multiple sources from ancient history speak to the first of the month, which, for them, meant the new moon, as being sacred to Hekate. Here’s an example that mentions her as Phoinikopeza:

It was the first of the month when this befell, and the gracious Hekate, the maid of the ruddy feet, was thereby sending us a message that was longing for fulfilment. - Pindar, Paean 2 (trans. Sandys)

When I become the empty vessel, clearing away all the miasma of life, she communicates with me, giving guidance and support. Sometimes, with a tender nudge (Atala is the epithet), while at other times she commandeers my mindscape with roaring proclamations (Therobromon is the epithet).

Devotion is to walk the path that Hekate reveals, intersecting with our own unique experiences, rooted into our own sacredness.

If you are called to devotion, join me for this free class on October 3, 2026 at 11 AM ET. Click the button below to register.

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Navigating the Devotional Road

I call this devotional road, “The Via Hekate.” While “via,” can be simply translated as “the way” or “the road,” its most ancient Proto-Indo-European root means “to go, to move, or to transport in a vehicle.”

The word “Via” is a declaration of movement, a linguistic crossroads that bridges vertical theurgical ascension with horizontal, practical everyday magick. Looking at it’s origins, the transition from ancient root to contemporary usage provides the perfect conceptual framework for a modern Hekatean devotee. From its very inception, the word implies active kinetic movement, momentum, and the physical act of carrying a load across a distance. It is the root that also gave birth to words like wagon, weight, and vehement—signifying that the road is a space of weight, friction, and fierce momentum. In ancient Rome, via explicitly denoted a built, prepared highway or road. Unlike a simple track (ita) or foot-path (semita), a via was a structured path engineered to connect major hubs, cross borders, and endure heavy traffic over generations. It was a public domain of exchange, encounter, and literal crossroads. Hekate’s triple nature is linked to such intersections, which the three-way versions were known as trivia to the Romans, which is also how they called upon her.

In late-antique mystery traditions and Neoplatonism, the word was elevated to spiritual geometry. It became the path of the soul’s ascent (Anagoge). The Latin Via became the translation vector for the Greek Hodos (as in Enodia—”She Who Stands on the Road”). It transitioned from a road you merely walk on to a disciplined, sovereign methodology for navigating the architecture of the cosmos. In contemporary language, the word operates simultaneously across physical, prepositional, and metaphorical frameworks. We use via to indicate a conduit or agency (e.g., “communicating via text” or “traveling via London”).

Hekate is the via of our spiritual evolution, she is the conduit that inspires our own agency. As we go deeper into devotion, we expand beyond absorbing the Hekatean current for personal development; we become rooted in Enodia, even being called to serve as a torch-light for others. In modern parlance, “via” is used to describe a chosen method, a practice, or a life-path (e.g., the Via Media or the Middle Path). It stands for a blueprint of living. It is “better living through witchcraft”—turning chronos time into kairos flow, and transforming empty chores into the active physical territory where our soul’s evolution is lived out. A final modern application of “via,” comes from engineering where it is used to describe paths of physical transport, including “vias” on electronic circuit boards—the microscopic vertical holes that allow electrical signals to pass cleanly between different layers of a circuit. This is the exact somatic mechanism of spiritual evolution. We become a conductive wire, utilizing internal “vias” to transcend the ordinary while having our “phoini” feet (“peza”) rooted in the everyday.

The “Via Hekate,” is much more than magick and rituals, it is to attune to her foundational nature as Anima Mundi, the Cosmic World Soul. When the ancient Orphic scribe recorded the hymn, they were dwelling in her thresholds of multiplicities – as a goddess among the everyday, like Hesiod’s depiction, and as the crossroads of the mysteries, found in neoplatonic texts and the divinely transmitted Chaldean Oracles. I wouldn’t recommend these oracles for a beginner, but they are undeniably source code for the transcendent devotion. We can’t achieve true anagoge ascension when we are bypassing human reality; our feet must be firmly planted at the geologic fault lines of contemporary life while our crown reaches into the starry road. Nor can we transcend by chaotic, sporadic, and nondirectional practice. Spiritual bypassing, the rushing for the divine union without steady practice won’t get us far, either.

When we track this axis to Her supreme cosmic origin, the ancient lines crackle with this raw force:

“For Implacable Thunders leap from him and the lightning-receiving womb of the shining ray of Hecate, who is generated from the Father. From him leap the girdling flower of fire and the powerful breath (situated) beyond the fiery poles.”— The Chaldean Oracles, Fragment 53

Rather than this understanding of Hekate being disparate from her Greco-Roman governance of magick, I see it as the explanation. My devotional practice is both mystical and practical magick. There is no separation. Whether I’m crafting pages for my Book of Shadows from scraps of paper to leading ceremonial rituals, it is all in her service. But none of this would happen if I hadn’t answered that moonlit summons.

Devotion is the Via Hekate, but first we must step onto the path, in ways small and large, from a moment of connection to conscious shifting transcendence.

Steps on The Road

I’m sure you’ve heard of the maxim “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,” but what about all the steps that come after? That is devotion – showing up every day, not just for occasional rituals or making hasty new moon offerings. Yet not all steps are equal. There are the times when we feel in lockstep with our spiritual journey and Hekate. There are others when we don’t. Then there are the times when our feet – and our entire beings – feel the heat of her fire. When our ochēma becomes filled with this intense flame, we undergo what I call “spiritual upgrades.” It’s like a leveling up into a new part of the journey. I wrote about these episodes in Entering Hekate’s Cauldron. Here are some of the characteristics:

Somatic & Physical Symptoms

Intense crown or third-eye headaches; a radiating heat that makes our heart center feel literally “on fire”; sleep disturbances and vivid, cinematic dream oracles; fluctuating energy levels and extreme hypersensitivity to lights, smells, colors, and temperatures.

Psychic & Emotional Intensity

Rapidly alternating emotional landscapes; sudden purges of old grief or ancestral burdens; mood swings and a powerful, visceral questioning of our core beliefs.

Relationship Changes

Natural, sometimes painful restructuring of our social environment where we outgrow old attachments and experience a strong urge to detach from relationships that no longer match our frequency.

Look to the Pythia when the heat of this crucible feels overwhelming. The ancient vapors beneath her tripod triggered these exact same physiological reactions. The friction is not a sign of failure or a spiritual attack; it is the natural recalibration of our soul’s luminous vehicle (Ochēma) adapting to hold massive current without shattering.

To survive the heat of the upgrade and step into our authentic power, aligning ourselves through daily practice mitigates these impacts. Hekate often awakens a fierce urgency within those who bear the code of the wild goddesses. She calls us to break away from the false, dead-end roads of a civilized matrix that demands our performative compliance, masks our power, and slanders our names when we refuse to submit.

Two simple, but powerful, practices for transitioning to a new section of her rooted road are favorites of mine, and I’ve witnessed many students successfully evolve with this as part of their devotional practice. Work with them daily, to see how much they can help you shift. These are sort of our own voces magicae—into Her very name:

Enough

Enodia is the sudden, somatic cry of enough. Enough of feeling deeply misaligned. Enough of performing our lives for an audience instead of living them authentically.

E-“NO”-dia

It is the roaring, protective boundary of our Middle Self saying NO to what drains our medicine, NO to the expectations of the mundane matrix, and NO to what no longer serves our expansion. Make a list of all that you are saying NO to as part of your devotional practice.

Hekate is not just waiting for us at the destination; She is the road itself, and She is our directional beam. The Mother Road loops through the Strophalos, taking us into the deep shadow of the Cave to compost our limitations, before slinging us straight up to the Starry Road of the Temple.

She is the darkness, and she is the fire.
She is the cry of “enough.”
She is the sigil written in stone.
She is the silent walking away of the betrayed.
She is the lonely raising arms to the moon.
She is the lie told to live the truth.
She is the secret circle drawing down her moon.
She is the poison that heals.
She is the bold stare into the mirror.
She is the blood shed to bring rebirth.
She is all those who dare to become.
She is the power that is our right. - Entering Hekate’s Cave

To walk the devotional path is to navigate the intense heat, and the quietness of fallow times. For me, it is the key for a life that abides at the crossroads, of the horizontal and vertical. Bringing into attunement my own path with the mysteries. This requires firm scaffolding around how I spend my energy, while being available for what is right for me. I get up before the dawn, I limit my exposure to things that fill me up with useless distractions, and I draw to me that which enriches.

Devotion is boundaries and openness. It is prioritizing our practice in the midst of life’s demands.

The Lineage of the Key Bearers

When we step onto this path, we are participating in a timeless lineage. In the ancient Greek world, a priestess was a Kleidoukhos (Key holder) and a Kleidophoros (Key-bearer). Inscriptions from ancient sanctuaries prove that the temple key was far more than a practical tool; it was a massive, physical insignia of sacred power carried upon the shoulder. To hold the key meant they were the guardian of the threshold, entrusted with the solemn duty of passing from mundane space into the presence of the Divine.

At the great annual festival of the Kleidagogia, the key-bearer would escort a massive, symbolic key in a grand processional march across the landscape, marking the boundary line where the ordinary world met the unvarnished mysteries. Through daily devotion, we enact our own modern Kleidagogia. We don’t need a massive, year-long plan or perfect circumstances to begin.

Hekate will never do for us what we are unwilling to do for ourselves. Light a single candle, step into the quiet of the early morning of Erigeneia, raise our arms to the moon, cry out our sovereign E-“NO”-dia, and step onto the spinning Strophalos of the Mother Road. As you set out on the Via Hekate, she will offer you keys. The Witches Prayer to Hekate, itself a channeled transmission from Her, has found a place in the devotional practice of many. Work with it in its entirety, or break it down into sections:

Mighty Hekate, Queen of the Witches,
My journey is a blessed one,
Each key you give me unlocks great power,
Grateful I am for all your keys
The key of acceptance for that which I cannot change,
The key of courage to overcome adversity,
The key of compassion for myself and others,
The key of pain through which I discovered my own strength,
The key of suffering in which I found healing,
The key of peace that brings me contentment,
The key of wisdom so that I may live a life of truth.
— From Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft

When I channeled that prayer all those years ago, it was (unsurprisingly) during the pre-dawn hours. I was in direct communion with Hekate, and this verse came both from within me and something far greater. I was anxious about sharing it, thinking how some people get reactionary about the use of the word “prayer,” especially in connection with modern witchcraft. To me, prayer is vital. I did share it. That took trust.

Devotion is trust in the process, the vision to center ourselves at Hekate’s Crossroads.

That is all.
Light the candle.

I am the empty vessel, and she is the flame.

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I find Hekate in every day, each moment. She is simply present. Yet, this time of the year, when The Wheel spins towards darkness, she shifts forms, calling me into the mysteries. The Gate of Autumn is a homecoming for me. Back to my own “dark origins,” as the great Proclus wrote almost 2,000 years ago.

This is the season of release, of the descent into what I termed “the holy darkness,” many years ago. This is the sacred, velvet embrace of Hekate, calling us into her shadows for personal healing, connecting with spirits, and walking into the mysteries known only in her darkness. I feel more serious about my path this time of the year. Personally, I do an intense moon month long devotional cycle of extensive practice, while balancing teaching a deeply devotional course, known as The Via Hekate.

This article has links to content I’ve created about Hekate and autumn, a meditation with Persephone and Hekate, plus a hidden bonus.

The Hekate of Autumn

I wrote about Hekate as Guardian, evoking her underworld aspects, in the Keeping Her Keys book:

“The season of Hekate as Guardian becomes fully realized in September when the daylight starts to noticeably wane. The fall is a time of decay and decline when Her keys of growth are removed from the earth. As the daylight hours wane and the veil between worlds thins, She beckons us into the darker mysteries of ourselves and the universe. Black is the color of the fall. As the nights get longer, Hekate’s eternal torches burn brighter.

September is the month of Hekate as Guardian, Lampadios, and is the time of harvest. The dominant energy of October begins as decay and moves towards death as the veil thins into November. October is the month when the veil between worlds thins and our descent into darkness deepens, reflected in the role of Hekate as Nykhia, the Night Wandering Goddess who protects us from evil. For many of us, this month has multiple meanings that culminate in the celebration of Halloween or Samhain on October 31. It is on this day that we can celebrate our witchiness and honor Hekate as our Queen. The next day, November 1, is reserved as a day to pay tribute to our ancestors, whether our actual departed loved ones or others.

November is the month most sacred to Hekate as there are two sabbats in this month. The epithet for November is Chthonia, reflecting Hekate as the Goddess of the Underworld, the day for honoring Hekate as Guardian. Winter is celebrated as the time when the light begins to return. In this manner, Hekate as the Savior from darkness, Soteira, is the dominant energy of the month of December. The return of the sun is the dominant theme for December. In our personal development work and spell craft, we can harness the idea of “returning” to create fantastic energy. This is the last epithet associated with Hekate as Guardian for She truly reaches the apex of this aspect on the Winter Solstice.” - from Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft

In Covina, my online coven, we are having a special collective version of The Evocation of Hekate that you can find in the Keeping Her Keys book. This ritual has a deep history with autumn, dating back about twenty years. You can join Covina with this link.

The Via Hekate free preview class, with a ritual and meditation, plus more on the meaning of devotion is October 3, 2026 at 11:00 AM ET.

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Articles about Hekate and Autumn

“Our culture avoids the darkness, running from its shadows, while I find my absolute truth directly within them. Perhaps, like her ancient sorceresses, I am simply not their kind. Like Circe and Medea, I am whole yet always divided between the spirit world and the corporeal plane. Different. A wild witch dancing with bones and spirits. To me, those who aren’t similar feel like the “other,” living in a completely different reality. However, they are the ones who provide the exact adversarial challenges I must conquer in order to claim another of my Mother’s Keys. Wisdom comes with a price. Witchcraft exacts a toll. I would never have it any other way.”

I’ve written about Hekate and this time of the year in several articles:

The Witch Is Reborn In Autumn

The Birth of Holy Darkness: “Autumn is where it lives. In September’s rain. In October’s wind... This is the Holy Darkness of Hekate.” Discussion on the call back to the soul’s home in Hekate’s Cave.

The Descent Begins: Hekate and The Spirit of October

The Unveiling of the Horde: “She comes in riddles and whispers... Spiritual death is a necessity of Hekatean practice.” Breaks down working with shades, poisons, and Persephone’s descent.

Welcoming Autumn: Hekate And The Harvest Moon

The Apotropaic Crossroads Supper: Focuses heavily on the historical crossover between modern Samhain intentions and the ancient Deipnon. Frames Hekate as both the midnight summons and our ultimate protection from the terrors of the dark.

Entering The Gate of Autumn: Meditation and Recorded Class

The Balance Axis: An experiential equinox/Mabon meditations. Explores the spatial transition between the external light of the summer solstice and the introspective, structural darkness of the waning year.

Hekate: December, The Winter Solstice, And The Promise of Rebirth

The Apex of the Guardian: Explores the final phase of the autumn descent, entering the Season of the Crone. Tracks the evolution of the dark vessel into the illumination of Hekate Soteira at the Winter Solstice.

Podcast Playlist: Hekate and Autumn

You’ll find a read through of The Evocation of Hekate from the Keeping Her Keys book, plus more on Hekate’s Torches, meditations for the season, and my musings in this Spotify playlist of episodes that are connected to Hekate in autumn:

LISTEN TO THE PLAYLIST

Discover more on Hekate on YouTube, including a brand new class on Hekate and Animals.

Keeping Her Keys YouTube

Meditation: Entering The Gate of Autumn with Persephone and Hekate

Emphasizing self-connection and presence, this meditation celebrates the autumn equinox and the transformative power of seasonal changes. It invokes Hekate for guidance in self-discovery and healing, while highlighting the catharsis and empowerment found through the descent into her sacred cave. Persephone is introduced as a symbol of rebirth, and the cave is viewed as a primordial womb for healing. By grounding ourselves in nature’s rhythms, releasing burdens, and reflecting on the journey that led us here, we attune to season of release and darkness, awakening healing and empowerment.

Blessings of the Hekate of Autumn,

Cyndi

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Hekate Physis: Nature Herself

Before we can understand Hekate’s relationship with individual animals, we first grasp her identity as Physis—Nature herself. This is not Hekate as ruler over nature, but Hekate as nature, the living web of interconnection that encompasses all beings, the intelligence inherent in ecosystems, the collaborative power of symbiosis and mutual aid.

Physis in Ancient Sources

The epithet Physis (Φύσις) appears in ancient sources as a title that positions Hekate as the fundamental principle of nature itself. In Greek philosophy, physis referred to the essential nature of things, the inherent order and growth principle within all living beings, the force that causes seeds to sprout and animals to follow their instincts. When applied to Hekate, this epithet elevates her from a goddess associated with nature to a goddess who is nature—the animating principle within all natural processes.

In the Greek Magickal Papyri, Hekate is invoked as the force that governs natural cycles, the power that moves through all living things, the consciousness that connects predator and prey, plant and animal, earth and sky. The practitioners who wrote these spells understood that to call upon Hekate Physis was to invoke the entire natural world as a unified, conscious entity.

The Chaldean Oracles present Hekate as the World Soul (Anima Mundi), the cosmic principle that animates all creation. In this theological framework, Hekate is not separate from nature but is the very consciousness that flows through it—the intelligence that guides the migration of birds, the instinct that teaches predators to hunt, the wisdom that causes plants to turn toward the sun. She is immanent divinity—present within creation rather than transcendent above it.

Physis and the Interconnected Web

To understand Hekate as Physis is to recognize that she embodies the fundamental truth of ecology: all beings are interconnected, all life forms participate in a vast web of relationship, and the health of the whole depends on the flourishing of each part. Nature doesn’t operate through domination hierarchies but through symbiosis, mutual aid, and ecological balance. The predator needs the prey, the prey needs the plant, the plant needs the soil, the soil needs the decomposers—each being plays its role in the great cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

Hekate Physis teaches us that there is no “great chain of being” with humans at the top and other creatures ranked below. Instead, there is only the interconnected web, where the worm is as sacred as the eagle, the beetle as divine as the lion, the serpent as wise as the human. All beings participate equally in the mystery of Physis—all are expressions of the same divine consciousness, all possess their own form of gnosis, all contribute to the sacred whole.

Immanent Divinity: The Divine Within Creation

The concept of Hekate as Physis challenges the patriarchal theological model that positions divinity as transcendent—separate from and above creation, ruling over nature from a distant throne. Instead, Hekate Physis represents immanent divinity—the sacred that dwells within all things, the divine consciousness that breathes in every leaf, hunts in every predator, dies in every prey, and is reborn in every seed.

This understanding has profound implications for how we relate to the natural world. If Hekate is nature, then to harm nature is to harm the Goddess herself. If animals are expressions of Hekate’s consciousness, then to exploit or dominate them is to reject the sacred. If the divine is immanent in all creation, then every encounter with the natural world is a potential encounter with the Goddess.

Working with Hekate Physis

· Spend Time in Nature: The most direct way to connect with Hekate Physis is to immerse yourself in wild places. Walk in forests, sit by rivers, observe animals in their natural habitats. Recognize that you are not visiting nature—you are participating in it, as one expression of Physis among many.

· Practice Ecological Awareness: Study the ecosystems in your local area. Learn which animals live there, what they eat, how they interact with each other and their environment. Understanding these relationships deepens your connection to Hekate as the intelligence that governs natural systems.

· Honor All Beings: Extend your reverence beyond charismatic megafauna (wolves, lions, eagles) to include the small, the overlooked, the “unlovely.” The spider, the worm, the beetle—all are sacred expressions of Physis. Practice seeing the divine in all embodied forms.

· Reject Extraction: Examine your relationship with nature. Are you taking from it, or participating with it? The “power with” model of Hekate Physis stands against extractive, exploitative relationships. You don’t take from Physis—you participate with Her.

· Invoke Physis for Healing: When ecosystems are damaged, when animals are threatened, when the natural world suffers, call upon Hekate Physis. Ask her to guide efforts toward restoration, to inspire humans to remember their place within the web, to heal the wounds inflicted by domination consciousness.

Signs of Hekate Physis’s Presence

· A sudden, profound sense of connection to all living things—feeling yourself as part of the web rather than separate from it

· Encounters with animals that feel significant, as if the animal is a messenger or teacher

· Dreams of being part of an ecosystem, of understanding the language of plants and animals, of seeing the world through non-human eyes

· Synchronicities involving natural cycles—noticing patterns in animal behavior, plant growth, or seasonal changes that speak to your current situation

· A growing awareness of ecological issues and a desire to participate in healing and restoration work

· Feeling the intelligence of nature—recognizing that the natural world is not unconscious matter but conscious, aware, and responsive

Potnia Theron: Lady Among the Beasts

From the vast consciousness of Physis—nature as living whole—we now turn to Hekate’s relationship with the individual beings who populate that web: the animals themselves. The ancient title Potnia Theron (Πότνια Θηρῶν) is often translated as “Mistress of Animals,” but this translation carries dangerous connotations of domination that fundamentally misrepresent the nature of this epithet. A more accurate understanding would be “Lady Among the Beasts” or “Sovereign of the Wild Community”—titles that emphasize participation rather than control, alliance rather than ownership.

Potnia Theron in Ancient Sources

The title Potnia Theron appears in ancient Mediterranean cultures long before it was applied to Hekate. In Minoan art, we see the goddess flanked by lions, standing between them in a pose that suggests neither domination nor submission but rather recognition—she is acknowledged by the beasts as one who belongs among them. In Mycenaean culture, the Potnia appears with various animals, always in relationship rather than in command.

By the classical Greek period, Potnia Theron was most commonly associated with Artemis, the huntress goddess who roamed wild places accompanied by her sacred deer and hounds. But the title also appears in connection with other goddesses including Kybele and eventually Hekate, particularly in her chthonic and liminal aspects. What all these goddesses share is not power over animals but power with them—they are recognized by the animal kingdom as kin, as allies, as ones who understand and honor the sovereignty of non-human consciousness.

In the Greek Magickal Papyri, Hekate is invoked as one who commands the spirits of animals, but this “command” can be reframed for a contemporary context. The ancient practitioners were not calling upon a goddess who enslaved animal spirits but rather one who could coordinate their collective power, who could speak the language of beasts, who could facilitate communication between human and animal consciousness. She was the mediator, the translator, the one who stood at the crossroads where human and animal worlds met.

The Matrix of Mutual Sovereignty

To understand Hekate as Potnia Theron is to recognize her as the archetype of the cosmic coordinator—the one who sits at the center of the web, not as spider controlling trapped prey, but as the point of connection where all threads meet. She runs with the pack, understanding pack dynamics from within. She flies with the swarm, moving as part of the collective intelligence. She holds the structural tension between hunter and hunted, recognizing that both are necessary, both are sacred, both are expressions of the same divine consciousness.

This is not the hierarchy of domination but the web of relationship. In nature, there is no “ruler” of the animals—there are only ecosystems where each being plays its role, where predator and prey exist in dynamic balance, where the death of one feeds the life of another in an endless cycle of transformation. Hekate as Potnia Theron embodies this ecological consciousness. She doesn’t impose order from outside the system—she is the intelligence within the system, the awareness that flows through all participants, the recognition that each being’s sovereignty contributes to the health of the whole.

When we invoke Hekate as Potnia Theron, we’re not asking her to control animals for our benefit. We’re asking her to help us understand our place within the wild community, to teach us how to walk as sovereign beings alongside other sovereign beings, to show us how to honor the unique gifts, boundaries, and magick of every non-human species. We’re asking to be initiated into the mystery of mutual recognition—where the human sees the divine in the animal, and the animal recognizes the human as kin rather than threat.

The Antidote to Exploitation

In Modern Hekatean Witchcraft, invoking Hekate as Potnia Theron establishes our ethical framework for working with animal spirits and the natural world. This epithet stands as a direct challenge to the exploitative, extractive relationship with nature that has characterized much of human civilization, particularly in the post-industrial West. We do not “command” animal spirits as if they were servants. We do not appropriate their power to serve our human egos. We do not treat them as resources to be used and discarded.

Instead, we enter into alliance based on mutual recognition. We acknowledge that animals possess their own forms of consciousness, their own ways of knowing, their own spiritual authority. We recognize that they have gifts to offer—not because we can take those gifts by force, but because they may choose to share them with those who approach with respect. We understand that working with animal allies is not about bending them to our will but about learning to align our will with the greater patterns of nature that they embody.

Hekate as Potnia Theron teaches us how to walk as sovereign beings alongside other sovereign beings. She shows us that true power comes not from domination but from relationship, not from control but from coordination, not from exploitation but from reciprocity. She models a way of being in the world that honors the autonomy of all creatures while recognizing our fundamental interconnection.

From the Whole to the Individual

Where Hekate Physis represents nature as unified whole—the living web of interconnection, the intelligence inherent in ecosystems—Hekate Potnia Theron represents her relationship with the individual beings who comprise that whole. Both aspects are necessary for complete understanding. We need to grasp the big picture of ecological interconnection (Physis), and we need to honor the particular consciousness of each species and individual creature (Potnia Theron).

This movement from whole to particular mirrors the structure of creation itself. The divine consciousness (Physis) manifests in infinite particular forms (the animals themselves), and the goddess who is nature (Physis) is also the goddess who walks among the beasts (Potnia Theron), recognizing each one as a unique expression of the sacred. She is both the forest and the individual trees, both the ocean and the individual fish, both the sky and the individual birds.

When we work with Hekate’s animal aspects, we’re learning to hold this same dual awareness—to see each animal as part of the greater whole while also honoring its individual sovereignty, to understand ecosystems while also respecting the particular consciousness of each creature we encounter. This is the wisdom of Potnia Theron: the ability to coordinate collective power while respecting individual autonomy, to facilitate communication across species boundaries while honoring the unique language of each being.

Working With Hekate Potnia Theron

· Develop Relationships With Individual Animals: While Physis work involves connecting with nature as a whole, Potnia Theron work involves developing relationships with specific animal species and individual creatures. Choose an animal ally and learn everything you can about them—not just symbolic meanings but actual behaviors, ecology, and role in their ecosystem.

· Practice Interspecies Communication: Hekate as Potnia Theron is the mediator between human and animal consciousness. Ask her to help you understand the language of animals—not through anthropomorphizing them but through learning to perceive the world as they do, to understand their ways of knowing.

· Honor Animal Sovereignty: In all your work with animal spirits, remember that they are sovereign beings with their own agency. You cannot command them, only invite them. You cannot take their power, only receive what they choose to share. Approach with respect, make offerings, ask permission.

· Recognize Your Place in the Web: Humans are part of the animal kingdom, not separate from or above it. Hekate Potnia Theron teaches us to remember our place as one species among many, to honor our animal nature while also recognizing our particular gifts and responsibilities.

· Advocate for Animal Welfare: If Hekate is Lady Among the Beasts, then those who honor her must also honor the beasts themselves. This means working against exploitation, supporting conservation efforts, making ethical choices about how we interact with animals in our daily lives.

Signs of Hekate Potnia Theron’s Presence

· Encounters with animals that feel significant, as if the animal is a messenger or teacher

· Dreams where you communicate with animals or see through their eyes

· A growing ability to understand animal behavior and body language

· Synchronicities involving your animal allies appearing in unexpected places

· A deepening sense of kinship with the animal kingdom and grief over their suffering

· Experiences of shapeshifting consciousness—temporarily perceiving the world as an animal would

· Recognition from animals in the wild—they approach you, they’re unafraid, they seem to acknowledge your presence as kin

Pyripnoa: The Fiery Breath of Animal Consciousness

Literally translated as “fiery breath” or “fiery voice,” Pyripnoa (Πυρίπνοα) represents one of Hekate’s most visceral and transformative aspects—the cosmic, animating breath that flows through all living beings, the divine spark that turns raw matter into conscious, breathing, instinctual life. Where Physis represents nature as unified whole and Potnia Theron represents Hekate’s relationship with individual creatures, Pyripnoa represents the animating principle itself—the breath, the voice, the vital force that makes life alive.

Pyripnoa in Ancient Sources

The epithet Pyripnoa appears in the Greek Magickal Papyri and related magickal texts as a title that captures Hekate’s role as the one who breathes life into form, who speaks creation into being through fiery utterance. In ancient Greek cosmology, breath (pneuma) was understood as the carrier of soul, the vehicle through which divine consciousness entered and animated the body. When combined with fire (pyr), this breath becomes Pyripnoa—the fiery exhalation that is simultaneously creative force and destructive power, the breath that gives life and the breath that consumes.

Ancient practitioners understood that breath was not merely a biological function but a sacred exchange between the individual and the cosmos. Every inhalation drew in pneuma—the world-soul, the divine breath that permeated all existence. Every exhalation released personal consciousness back into the collective field. When this breath carried fire—whether literal heat or metaphorical passion—it became a vehicle for transformation, a way of speaking truth that bypassed rational thought and emerged directly from the body’s knowing.

In the context of Hekate’s animal aspects, Pyripnoa takes on particular significance. Animals breathe differently than humans—their breath is unmediated by language, unfiltered by self-consciousness, directly connected to instinct and survival. The predator’s controlled breath as it stalks prey, the prey animal’s rapid panting as it flees, the serpent’s hiss, the wolf’s howl, the lion’s roar—all of these are expressions of Pyripnoa, the fiery breath that communicates without words, that expresses truth without translation.

The Breath That Animates: From Physis to Consciousness

If Physis is the substance of nature and Potnia Theron is the caretaker of animals, then Pyripnoa is what animates. In ancient philosophy, particularly in Stoic and Neoplatonic thought, pneuma was understood as the organizing principle that gave form and consciousness to matter. The Anima Mundi (World Soul) was conceived as a cosmic breath that flowed through all things, connecting individual consciousness to universal consciousness. Hekate as Pyripnoa embodies this principle in its most primal, instinctual form—not the refined breath of philosophical contemplation but the raw, animal breath of survival, desire, fear, and ecstasy.

This is the breath that rises from the belly, not the chest—the breath that bypasses the thinking mind and emerges from the body’s deep knowing. It is the breath that changes when we encounter danger, when we experience arousal, when we prepare to fight or flee. It is the breath that animals live by constantly, the breath that humans have learned to control and suppress but that remains the foundation of our embodied existence.

The Voice That Transforms: Speaking as Animal

Where breath is the internal movement of Pyripnoa, voice is its external expression. When we invoke Hekate as Pyripnoa, we are calling upon the power of utterance that transforms—not through the meaning of words but through the vibrational quality of sound itself. This is the voice that precedes language, the voice that animals use to communicate territory, desire, warning, and recognition.

The hiss of the serpent (Drakaina) is Pyripnoa—a sound that requires no translation, that communicates danger directly to the nervous system of anyone who hears it. The growl of the wolf (Lyko) is Pyripnoa—a vibration that establishes dominance, warns intruders, coordinates pack behavior without a single word. The roar of the lioness (Leaina) is Pyripnoa—a proclamation of sovereignty that can be heard for miles, that announces presence and power through pure sound.

When we work with Hekate’s animal aspects through shapeshifting practice, we learn to access this pre-linguistic voice. We allow sounds to emerge from our bodies that we would normally suppress—growls, hisses, howls, cries. These are not performances or imitations; they are the activation of Pyripnoa within our own bodies, the permission we give ourselves to speak as animals speak, to communicate through vibration and breath rather than through the constructed meanings of human language.

This practice is profoundly liberating because it bypasses the parts of consciousness that censor, edit, and control. The rational mind cannot interfere with a growl the way it interferes with speech. The social conditioning that teaches us to be polite, quiet, and controlled cannot suppress the body’s need to hiss when threatened or howl when in pain. Pyripnoa is the voice of unmediated truth, the sound of the body speaking its reality without permission from the mind.

The Vehicle of Shapeshifting: Breath as Transformation

In theurgic shapeshifting practice—the temporary inhabiting of animal consciousness—Pyripnoa is the primary vehicle of transformation. Before we can think like an animal, before we can move like an animal, we must breathe like an animal. The breath pattern is the key that unlocks the door to animal consciousness.

Consider the difference between human breathing and animal breathing. Humans, particularly in modern Western culture, tend to breathe shallowly from the chest, holding tension in the diaphragm, controlling the breath to manage emotion and maintain composure. This controlled breathing keeps us in our heads, maintains the dominance of rational thought, and separates us from the body’s instinctual knowing.

Animals breathe from the belly, deeply and without self-consciousness. A dog’s entire body moves with each breath. A cat’s purr is a continuous vibration of breath and sound. A horse’s nostrils flare with each inhalation, drawing in information about the environment through scent. Predators control their breath to remain silent while stalking; prey animals breathe rapidly to oxygenate muscles for flight. Every species has its own breath pattern, its own relationship with Pyripnoa.

When we practice shapeshifting, we begin by adopting the breath pattern of our chosen animal. If we’re embodying serpent consciousness (Drakaina), we slow the breath dramatically, allowing long pauses between inhalation and exhalation, feeling the body become still and patient. If we’re embodying wolf consciousness (Lyko), we breathe more rapidly, feeling the readiness in the muscles, the alertness in the senses. The breath pattern literally changes our nervous system state, shifting us out of human consciousness and into something more primal.

This is a somatic practice that produces measurable physiological changes. When we change our breath pattern, we change our heart rate, our hormone levels, our brain wave patterns. We activate different parts of the nervous system. We access different states of consciousness. Pyripnoa is the mechanism through which this transformation occurs—the fiery breath that burns away human self-consciousness and reveals the animal consciousness that has always existed within us.

The Heat That Rises: Pyripnoa as Kundalini

In many spiritual traditions, the awakening of consciousness is described as a rising heat, a fire that moves up the spine and transforms everything it touches. In yogic traditions, this is kundalini—the serpent fire that lies coiled at the base of the spine, waiting to be awakened. In alchemical traditions, this is the ignis noster—”our fire,” the internal heat that transmutes base matter into gold. In Hekatean practice, this is Pyripnoa—the fiery breath that rises from the belly, moves through the heart, and emerges as voice.

When we work with animal consciousness, we often experience this rising heat. The shapeshifting practice generates warmth in the body—sometimes subtle, sometimes intense. This is Pyripnoa activating, the divine breath moving through us, the fire of transformation beginning its work. We may feel tingling in the spine, heat in the belly, a sudden shift in body temperature. These are not side effects of the practice; they are the practice itself, the physical manifestation of consciousness shifting from one state to another.

The serpent is the perfect symbol for this process because serpents are cold-blooded creatures that must seek external heat to warm their bodies, yet they are also symbols of the internal fire of transformation. Hekate as Drakaina (Dragon-Serpent) embodies this paradox—she is both the cold-blooded patience of the serpent and the fire-breathing power of the dragon. When we invoke her as Pyripnoa, we are calling upon both aspects: the stillness that precedes transformation and the explosive heat of transformation itself.

The Non-Rational Voice: Bypassing Human Language

Pyripnoa is fundamentally non-rational—it operates below and beyond the level of human language and logical thought. This is why it is so powerful as a tool for accessing animal consciousness and for breaking through the barriers that human socialization erects between us and our instinctual nature.

Human language is a remarkable tool, but it is also a filter that separates us from direct experience. We think about things rather than experiencing them directly. We narrate our lives rather than living them. We explain our emotions rather than feeling them. Language gives us the ability to reflect, to analyze, to communicate complex ideas—but it also creates distance between consciousness and experience.

Animals do not have this problem. They experience life directly, without the mediating layer of language. When a wolf is hungry, it does not think “I am experiencing the sensation of hunger and should seek food.” It simply is hungry and acts accordingly. When a serpent senses danger, it does not analyze the threat—it responds instantly, instinctually. This is the consciousness that Pyripnoa gives us access to: unmediated, direct, embodied knowing.

When we allow ourselves to make animal sounds—to hiss, growl, howl, roar—we are bypassing the language centers of the brain and accessing more primal forms of communication. These sounds emerge from the body, not from thought. They express states of being that have no words: the readiness of the predator, the fear of the prey, the sovereignty of the alpha, the submission of the subordinate. They are Pyripnoa made audible, the fiery breath given voice.

This practice can feel uncomfortable at first because we are so conditioned to control our voices, to speak only in socially acceptable ways, to suppress sounds that might be considered “uncivilized.” But this discomfort is precisely what we need to work through. The ability to make animal sounds without self-consciousness is a marker of successful shapeshifting practice—it means we have temporarily released the human need for control and allowed animal consciousness to move through us.

Pyripnoa and the Three Selves

In Modern Hekatean Witchcraft, we work with the concept of the Three Selves: the Lower Self (instinctual, embodied, connected to survival and sensation), the Middle Self (rational, social, connected to identity and ego), and the Higher Self (transcendent, connected to divine consciousness and universal wisdom). Pyripnoa is the bridge between these selves, the breath that connects them and allows communication between levels of consciousness.

The Lower Self speaks the language of Pyripnoa—it communicates through sensation, through breath, through the body’s immediate responses to the environment. When we practice shapeshifting into animal consciousness, we are strengthening our connection to the Lower Self, learning to trust its wisdom, honoring its ways of knowing. The animal sounds we make, the breath patterns we adopt, the physical sensations we experience—all of these are the Lower Self speaking, and Pyripnoa is its voice.

The Middle Self often tries to control or suppress Pyripnoa because it operates according to social rules and rational thought. It wants to maintain composure, to be appropriate, to make sense. But when we invoke Hekate as Pyripnoa, we are asking for permission to temporarily set aside the Middle Self’s control, to allow the Lower Self to speak without censorship, to trust that animal consciousness has wisdom that rational thought cannot access.

The Higher Self recognizes Pyripnoa as sacred—as the divine breath that flows through all beings, connecting individual consciousness to universal consciousness. When we work with Pyripnoa, we are not descending into something “lower” or “primitive”—we are accessing a different form of divine consciousness, one that is embodied rather than transcendent, instinctual rather than intellectual, immediate rather than reflective.

Working With Hekate Pyripnoa

· Breath Work Practice: Begin by simply observing your natural breath without trying to change it. Notice where you breathe from (chest or belly), how deep or shallow your breath is, whether you hold tension anywhere. Then consciously shift to belly breathing—deep, slow breaths that move your entire torso. This is the foundation of Pyripnoa work.

· Animal Breath Patterns: Research the breathing patterns of your primary animal ally. How does this creature breathe when resting? When alert? When hunting or fleeing? Practice adopting these breath patterns, noticing how they change your state of consciousness and your relationship with your body.

· Vocal Exploration: In private space where you won’t be self-conscious, experiment with making animal sounds. Start with simple sounds like hissing or growling, then explore more complex vocalizations. Don’t perform or imitate—allow sounds to emerge from your body organically. Notice what it feels like to bypass language and communicate through pure sound.

· Shapeshifting Through Breath: Use breath as the primary vehicle for shapeshifting practice. Begin with your natural human breath, then gradually shift to your animal ally’s breath pattern. Allow the breath to change your posture, your movement, your consciousness. Stay with the breath pattern for at least 10-15 minutes, noticing what arises.

· Invoke Pyripnoa for Truth-Speaking: When you need to speak a difficult truth, when you need to express something that has no adequate words, call upon Hekate Pyripnoa. Ask her to help you bypass the filters of politeness and social conditioning, to speak from the body’s knowing rather than from the mind’s constructions.

· Fire Breath Meditation: Visualize each inhalation drawing in fire—not destructive flame but the sacred fire of Pyripnoa, the animating breath of the World Soul. Feel this fire moving through your body, awakening consciousness in every cell. With each exhalation, release what no longer serves, allowing the fire to burn away obstacles to embodied knowing.

Signs of Hekate Pyripnoa’s Presence

· Spontaneous changes in breath pattern—suddenly breathing more deeply, more rapidly, or with unusual rhythm

· Heat rising in the body, particularly along the spine or in the belly

· The urge to make sounds that aren’t words—growls, hisses, sighs, or other vocalizations

· A sense of your voice changing quality—becoming deeper, more resonant, or more primal

· Feeling suddenly more embodied, more present in your physical form

· The experience of speaking truth that bypasses your usual filters—words emerging that surprise you with their directness or power

· Dreams of breathing fire, of speaking in animal voices, or of your breath having visible power

· Synchronicities involving breath—noticing your breathing in moments of significance, encountering teachings about breath work, or experiencing breathwork as particularly powerful

Pyripnoa as Gateway to Gnosis

Ultimately, Pyripnoa is a gateway to gnosis—direct, unmediated knowing that bypasses rational thought and emerges from the body’s wisdom. When we breathe as animals breathe, when we speak as animals speak, when we allow the fiery breath of divine consciousness to move through us without the filter of human language and social conditioning, we access a form of knowing that is older, deeper, and in many ways more reliable than intellectual understanding.

This is the knowing that tells the deer to freeze when danger approaches, that guides the wolf pack in coordinated hunting, that allows the serpent to strike with perfect timing. It is knowing that lives in the body, that operates through instinct, that requires no explanation or justification. It simply is—and when we access it through Pyripnoa, we remember that we too are animals, that we too possess this unmediated knowing, that we too can trust the body’s wisdom.

Hekate as Pyripnoa teaches us that the breath is sacred, that the voice is power, that the body’s knowing is a form of divine consciousness. She shows us that we do not need to transcend our animal nature to access the divine—our animal nature is divine, our instincts are sacred, our bodies are temples where the World Soul breathes through us with every inhalation and exhalation.

When we invoke Pyripnoa, we are not calling upon something external to enter us—we are awakening what has always been present, the fiery breath that has animated us since our first gasp of life, the divine spark that makes us living, breathing, conscious beings. We are remembering that we are not separate from nature, not separate from the animals, not separate from the cosmic breath that flows through all creation. We are Pyripnoa embodied—the fiery breath made flesh, the divine voice given form, the sacred spark burning in animal consciousness.

Hekate Physis, Nature herself,

Potnia Theron, Lady among the Beasts,

Pyripnoa, Fiery Breath of Life.

I call upon you in the wild places,

In fur and fang, in claw and wing,

In the howl of the wolf and the serpent’s hiss.

You who run with the horde,

You who embody the untamed,

You who honor animal consciousness as sacred gnosis,

Teach me to see the divine in all embodied forms.

Find more on Hekate’s animals in Entering Hekate’s Cauldron.

Resources

The following resources informed the development of this guidebook and provide additional context for understanding the historical, archaeological, and anthropological foundations of human-animal relationships in spiritual practice.

Academic Sources

Schmölcke U, Grimm O. “A Special Relationship-Aspects of Human-Animal Interaction in Birds of Prey, Brown Bears, Beavers, and Elk in Prehistoric Europe.” Animals (Basel). 2024 Jan 27;14(3):417. doi: 10.3390/ani14030417. PMID: 38338060; PMCID: PMC10854542.

This archaeological study examines evidence of sacred human-animal relationships in prehistoric Europe, documenting how birds of prey, bears, beavers, and elk were honored as spiritual beings rather than merely exploited as resources. The research supports the understanding that reverence for animal consciousness is one of humanity’s oldest spiritual practices.

Ancient Sources

Hesiod. Theogony and Works and Days. Translated by M. L. West, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Betz, Hans Dieter, editor. The Greek Magickal Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells. 2nd ed., University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Animal Allies

Andrews, Ted. Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magickal Powers of Creatures Great & Small. Llewellyn Publications, 1993.

Caligan, Nicole. The Witch’s Familiar and Spirit Allies: Connecting with Guides, Guardians, and the Spirit Council. Crooked Path Publishing, 2026.

Ecofeminism

Ourkiya, Asmae. “Queering Ecofeminism: Towards an Anti-Far-Right Environmentalism.” NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment, 23 June 2020, niche-canada.org/2020/06/23/queering-ecofeminism-towards-an-anti-far-right-environmentalism/.

Wrenn, Corey Lee. “Multispecies Life, Death, and Reincarnation in Ecofeminist and Pagan Spirituality.” Vegan Feminist Network, 23 June 2025, veganfeministnetwork.com/multispecies-life-death-and-reincarnation-in-ecofeminist-and-pagan-spirituality/.

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The current six month cycle is rooted in my book Entering Hekate's Cauldron. Weekly live seminars, moon salons, sabbat rituals. Resource guidebooks, sharing circles and a vibrant community of Hekate's Witches. If you join before July 18, you'll immediately have access to all eight lessons of Part 1. Use code "OURANIA" at checkout. LEARN MORE.I wrote a lengthy essay about Hekate Kleidoukhos, which you can read on my Substack.

Hekate’s role as Kleidoukhos—Keeper of Keys—is so central to my personal devotion that I named first my blog, then website, and a book after this epithet. I remain, after all these years on her path, keeping her keys. In this article and accompanying video, I take you on a journey from ancient Laconian keys to cosmic mysteries, exploring how keys in the ancient world represented far more than physical access - they were symbols of authority, sovereignty, and sacred trust. I end with my own gnosis about “Keeping Her Keys,” and offer some tips for modern practitioners.

Watch The Talk: Hekate Kleidoukhos

In this talk, I contextualize the rich history of Hekate Kleidoukhos, ranging from ancient sources such as The Orphic Hymns to her role governing thresholds. Note that this talk was recorded as part of a live class on Hekate as Key Bearer, which was the central seminar for a weekend devoted to this aspect, including the second segment on the thirteen modern Keys of Hekate, a guided meditation to receive a key, a collective tarot reading, and a ceremonial ritual. You can become a student in Hekate’s Keys to view those recordings.

The current six month cycle is rooted in my book Entering Hekate’s Cauldron. Weekly live seminars, moon salons, sabbat rituals. Resource guidebooks, sharing circles and a vibrant community of Hekate’s Witches. If you join before July 18, you’ll immediately have access to all eight lessons of Part 1. Use code “OURANIA” at checkout. ⁠LEARN MORE.

The Ancient Keys: Material and Metaphor

I’m a visual person, so when I discovered what ancient keys looked like, it helped me understand Hekate as Kleidoukhos—Keeper of Keys in a new way. They were nothing like the skeleton keys we associate today, like the crossed ones in the Keeping Her Keys logo. I could write a lot about why that is the name for my work dedicated to Hekate, but I’ll let you ponder the reasons as you work through this summary about the ancient origins of my personal favorite epithet. Keys in the ancient Mediterranean world, unlike our modern metal keys with their intricate teeth and grooves, were substantial objects, often made of iron, bronze, or wood. Greek and Roman keys ranged from small finger-length implements to massive ceremonial keys that required two hands to carry. The most common type was the “Laconian key”—a long shaft with teeth at one end that lifted pins inside a lock, and a curved handle at the other end that could be worn on the arm like a bracelet or hung from a belt.

From “Key-bearers of Greek Temples: The Temple Key as a Symbol of Priestly Authority.” Reference at the end of article.

These keys were much more than functional objects; they were symbols of authority, responsibility, and access to power. In a world where most people owned very little, the person who held the keys controlled resources, protected treasures, and determined who could enter sacred or private spaces. Keys represented the power to grant or deny access—to open or keep closed—making them potent symbols of sovereignty and guardianship.

When we encounter Hekate as Kleidoukhos in ancient sources, it’s important to understand that her keys carried all these layers of meaning: practical authority, symbolic power, and mystical access to realms beyond the physical.

Women and Keys in the Ancient Mediterranean

“As mistresses of the household, women held the keys of their houses. According to Hesychius, women are kleidouchoi, as they get the keys of the house (s.v. κλῃδοῦχος). This means that the bride received the key from her future husband after the wedding when she entered the house of her groom. In the event of a divorce, the woman had to give back the keys. Festus mentions that it was a custom to give women a key as a symbol for an easy delivery. Women were not only key-holders of their households, but also as priestesses of temples.”

The epithet Kleidoukhos takes on profound significance when understood within the context of ancient Mediterranean gender dynamics and household authority. While women in ancient Greece and Rome were largely excluded from property ownership and faced significant restrictions on their movement in public spaces, they wielded considerable power within the domestic sphere as key bearers of the household. When a bride crossed the threshold into her husband’s home, she received the household keys—not as owner, but as guardian and administrator of the home’s daily operations, resources, and access points. This made her kleidoukhos of the domestic realm, controlling who entered, what was opened, and what remained secured.

Hekate’s role as Kleidoukhos mirrors this feminine authority over thresholds and boundaries, positioning her as the cosmic guardian of liminal spaces just as mortal women guarded the threshold of the home. The ancient custom of giving women keys as symbols for easy childbirth further connects Hekate’s key-bearing nature to her role as Eileithyia, the Divine Midwife who unlocks the gateway between worlds as new life crosses from the unseen realm into embodied existence. This association between keys, thresholds, women’s authority, and birth finds powerful archaeological evidence at Hekate’s temple at Lagina in ancient Caria, where inscriptions describe the kleidophoria—a ritual procession in which young girls on the cusp of womanhood carried ceremonial keys through the city to the temple, marking their transition from childhood to their future roles as household key bearers and linking Hekate’s cosmic guardianship of thresholds with the very real authority women held as keepers of domestic boundaries.

The Sacred Power of Kleidoukhos

The term κλειδοῦχος denotes somebody who has or keeps the key. Kleidoukhos is the English transliteration of the Greek term κλειδοῦχος. The Greek letters are rendered into the Latin alphabet as “Kleidoukhos” (or sometimes “Kleidouchos” - both spellings are used in English scholarly works). Outside of the home, both women and mean served as key bearers of temples, including the important archeological excavation of Hekate’s temple at Lagina:

“The term κλειδοφορός can be translated as ‘key-bearer’…The cultic officials of Hecate at Lagina called kleidophoroi carried a key at the festivals of Hecate…The kleidophoros had presumably the same task as the kleidouchos: locking and unlocking the temple door, the performance of rituals, and escorting the temple key in processions…”

Hekate’s role as temple gatekeeper is evidenced by archaeological remains throughout the ancient Greek world, most notably at the Acropolis in Athens where a statue of Hekate Epipyrgidia (Upon the Tower) stood before the entrance to the Parthenon, positioned to guard the threshold of Athena’s sacred precinct. This placement exemplifies the widespread practice of installing Hekataia—three-formed statues or herms of the goddess—at temple entrances, city gates, and household doorways throughout Greece and Asia Minor.

At the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron, Hekate’s image guarded the entrance, reinforcing her connection to Artemis while establishing her authority over the threshold between profane and sacred space. The temple at Lagina in Caria, dedicated solely to Hekate, featured elaborate entrance architecture where her role as Propylaia (Before-the-Gate) was central to the sanctuary’s design, with inscriptions documenting rituals performed at these thresholds during her festivals. These physical placements weren’t merely decorative—they represented Hekate’s active function as cosmic gatekeeper who determined who could enter sacred space, who protected temples from malevolent forces, and who mediated between the human realm outside and the divine realm within. The archaeological evidence demonstrates that Hekate’s epithet Propylaia wasn’t metaphorical but reflected her literal positioning at entrances where she exercised her authority as Kleidoukhos, the one who held the keys to unlock—or keep locked—access to the sacred.

Hekate Kleidoukhos in Ancient Texts

The epithet Kleidoukhos appears in several crucial ancient sources, each revealing different facets of Hekate’s role as key-bearer. The Orphic Hymns (2nd-3rd century CE) position her as first among the gods, as the divine keyholder to the mysticism they practiced, while The Greek Magical Papyri (2nd century BCE - 5th century CE) is a collection of spells - a sort of Book of Shadows - that reference her connection to keys. The cosmology of The Chaldean Oracles (2nd century CE) both reinforce her role as a mystical key bearer and involvement in ritual (theurgy), while going far beyond that to Hekate being divine consciousness.

The Orphic Hymn to Hekate: Gateway to the Mysteries

The Orphic Hymn to Hekate establishes her as the primary gateway through which all other divine powers must be accessed. Hekate is Kleidoukhos, the Key-Holder who unlocks access to the entire pantheon and all mysteries beyond. This positioning reflects the ancient understanding that Hekate operates at the liminal boundary between human and divine realms. To bypass her would be to attempt entering a locked temple—the door remains closed without the key bearer’s consent.

The hymn explicitly addresses Hekate as both Kleidoukhos (Key-Holder) and Propylaia (Before-the-Gate), epithets that work in concert to describe her function. Propylaia positions her spatially—she stands before the entrance, guarding the threshold. Kleidoukhos describes her authority—she holds the keys that unlock passage through that threshold. The term propylaia itself carries architectural significance. In ancient Greek, a propylaeum was a monumental gateway or entrance structure leading to a sacred precinct—most famously, the Propylaea at the Acropolis in Athens. By calling Hekate Propylaia, the hymn positions her as the grand entrance to the sacred, the architectural threshold through which one must pass to reach the divine.

“…Keyholding Mistress of the universe

Ruler, Nymph, Mountain-wandering Nurturer of the young

Maiden, I beg you to be present at these sacred rites…” (Thomas Taylor Translation)

The hymn describes her as having “keys to the whole world”—going far beyond her association with physical thresholds and boundaries, but expanding to the cosmic keys that unlocking the structure of reality itself. This is Hekate as universal gatekeeper, the one who controls access to all realms: earth, sea, sky, and the spaces between them. Additionally, given the nature of The Orphic Hymns, it solidifies her as the key bearer to the mysteries.

Hekate in the Greek Magical Papyri

The Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) is a collection of magical texts written primarily in Greek (with some Demotic Egyptian and Coptic) dating from the 2nd century BCE through the 5th century CE. These papyri were discovered in Egypt and represent a remarkable syncretism of Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, and Christian magical traditions. The texts contain spells, rituals, hymns, and invocations for a wide range of purposes—from love magic and healing to protection and divination. They offer an invaluable window into the practical magic of the ancient Mediterranean world, revealing how everyday practitioners (rather than elite philosophers or priests) actually worked with deities and supernatural forces. The PGM demonstrates that magic was not a marginal practice but a vibrant, widespread tradition that drew on multiple cultural sources and adapted freely across religious boundaries.

Example of an excerpt from the PGM invoking Hekate as “first among gods,” providing a link with her position in The Orphic Hymns.

Within the Greek Magical Papyri, Hekate appears frequently and prominently as a powerful goddess invoked for protection, revelation, and magical workings of all kinds. She is called upon by numerous epithets and identified with other goddesses (particularly Selene and Artemis) in the syncretic style characteristic of these texts. The PGM portrays Hekate as a goddess who responds to practitioners’ calls, grants visions, protects against harmful magic, and empowers spellwork. Her keys appear as sacred symbols in invocations, representing her authority to open pathways, unlock mysteries, and grant access to hidden knowledge. The papyri reveal Hekate as a goddess actively engaged with human practitioners—not distant or abstract, but present, responsive, and willing to work with those who approach her with proper offerings and invocations.

The Greek Magical Papyri invoke her association with keys, gates and thresholds in multiple incantations. This collection of fragments reflects the syncretization that was common in Egypt during this time.

…Watch and are watched. I look at you, you look

At me. Then, too, I’ll speak the sign to you:

Bronze sandal of her I who rules Tartarus,

Her fillet, Key, wand, iron wheel, black dog,

Her thrice-locked door, her burning hearth, her shadow… - from The Greek Magical Papyri (PGM; IV. 2241-2358)

And this example, from a spell in the PGM invoking Hekate-Ereskigal: Hekate is referenced in many places, including these three short spells. By this time, Ereskigal had become subsumed by Hekate as the Greek influence over Egypt had grown:

“…Ereskigal, virgin, bitch, serpent, wreath, key, herald’s wand, golden sandal of the Lady of Tartaros.”

Hekate in the Chaldean Oracles

The Chaldean Oracles represent one of the most profound and philosophically sophisticated portrayals of Hekate in ancient literature. Composed in the 2nd century CE, these enigmatic verses were attributed to Julian the Chaldean and his son Julian the Theurgist, though they survive only in fragments preserved by later Neoplatonist philosophers like Proclus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus. Unlike the practical magic of the PGM or the devotional hymns of the Orphic tradition, the Chaldean Oracles present a complex cosmological system in which Hekate occupies the highest metaphysical position—not merely as a goddess to be invoked, but as the very structure of reality itself.

In the Chaldean system, Hekate is Anima Mundi—the World Soul—the cosmic principle that mediates between the transcendent divine realm (the Father/First Principle) and material creation. She is described as the “womb-encircling membrane” that both separates and unites these realms, making her the essential bridge through which divine power flows into manifestation. The Oracles call her the “fiery flower” and position her as the cosmic key bearer who unlocks the pathway of ascension for human souls seeking to return to their divine source. This is Hekate operating at the highest level of mystical experience—not as a deity among others, but as the fundamental organizing principle of the cosmos.

The Chaldean Oracles introduced the concept of theurgy—divine work or god-making—as the primary means of spiritual ascension. Unlike thaumaturgy (wonder-working or practical magic like in the PGM), theurgy aimed at uniting the practitioner’s soul with the divine through ritual acts that aligned human consciousness with cosmic principles. Hekate, as World Soul, was the key to this theurgic practice. By working with her, practitioners could unlock their own divine nature and ascend through the cosmic levels back to the Source. The Oracles describe her as having “keys to the whole world,” emphasizing that she controls access not just to physical or spiritual realms, but to the very structure of existence itself.

Several fragments specifically reference Hekate’s role as cosmic mediator and key bearer:

“There is a certain Intelligible which you must perceive by the flower of the mind... For the Paternal Mind has sown symbols throughout the world, He who is the first to leap forth, and the channel of the Life-giving Fire, the constructor of the fiery worlds, is the Demiurge of the universe... But the Womb of Hekate, which contains all things, is the Separator.”

The Key Bearing Ceremony at Lagina

The most compelling archeological evidence of Hekate’s role as Kleidoukhos comes from the archaeological remains of her temple at Lagina in ancient Caria (modern-day Türkiye). This is the only surviving ancient temple dedicated solely to Hekate, and excavations there have revealed extensive written records describing her worship. One particularly beautiful inscription describes a ceremony in which a young girl on the cusp of adolescence—the threshold between childhood and womanhood—carries a great key and leads a procession through the city. This kleidophoria (key-bearing) ritual was central to Hekate’s worship at Lagina and reveals multiple layers of meaning. The archeological evidence indicates that Lagina was a major center of Hekatean worship dating back to the 4th century BCE, but probably much older.

Image from Williamson, Christina G. “Festival Networks: Stratonikeia and the Sanctuary of Hekate at Lagina.” In Urban Rituals in Sacred Landscapes in Hellenistic Asia Minor. Brill, 2021. Chapter 5, pages 241–330.

The documentation (dating to 81 BCE) about a specific festival, known as the Hekatesia-Romaia festival, with a key procession the central ritual act:

On these occasions, people would have been expected to move through the sacred space in patterns prescribed by ritual. During the kleidos agoge, which lasted several days, games were played, music was performed, hymns to the goddess were sung, and sacrifices were made. The highlight of the rites was the Procession of the Key, in which the kleidophoros, or key bearer—a young daughter of the priest of Hekate—carried the key in a procession from its normal resting place at Lagina along the road to Stratonikeia. While in Stratonikeia, visitors made sacrifices to the goddess at an altar to Hekate, probably located inside the bouleuterion, before the key was returned to the goddess’s main temple and further celebrations were enacted.

The road from Stratonikeia to Lagina ended at the sanctuary’s monumental propylon. This consisted of three separate doors—a large one at center and two narrower ones on either side. The jambs of the middle door were highly decorated with floral and linear designs, and an inscription was carved across the lintel above. Written in Greek and still visible, it reads:

The Emperor Caesar, son of a god, the godly Sebastos, father of the nation, whose piety excels everywhere, after the profanity against the goddess Hekate, provided from himself for her, foreseeing the truthful idea that from the beginning gods have lived among men.

The above excerpt demonstrates the multilayered meaning of Hekate Kleidoukhos:

1. Hekate’s role as a civic goddess, much like a great mother, is demonstrated through the embedded nature of the ritual, linking the temple to the town of Stratonikeia. The festival, and it’s key procession, served to honor Hekate while strengthening the power of the region. This links the earliest known written description of Hekate (Hesiod’s Theogony, 8th century BCE), where she is depicted very much as a civic goddess, attending sporting events, legal affairs, and so on. The festival lasting “several days” with games, music, hymns, and sacrifices mirrors the structure of other major Greek religious festivals (like the Eleusinian Mysteries or Panathenaia), positioning Hekate’s worship within the mainstream civic-religious framework. Placing Hekate’s altar inside the council chamber (bouleuterion) explicitly connects her worship to civic governance and political authority, reinforcing her role as protector of the polis and advisor to leaders - echoing Hesiod’s description of her attending assemblies and law courts. The inscription at the end of the quote above indicates that the temple had needed to be restored, indicating that it was important enough to warrant this costly project.

2. It connects Hekate with the transition of girls into womanhood, establishing her as Kourotrophos—nurse of the young—who presides over this crucial threshold. The girl carrying the key is herself a liminal figure, standing between two states of being, just as Hekate stands between worlds. The choice of the priest’s young daughter as key bearer creates a powerful embodiment of liminality—she represents both hereditary religious authority (priest’s daughter) and transitional status (youth approaching womanhood), making her the perfect vessel for carrying Hekate’s key between worlds

3. Hekate’s interconnected role as Propylaia and a nod to her threefold nature (although at Lagina, she was solely portrayed in singular form) is shown in the temple entrance. The three-door propylon (large center door flanked by two smaller ones) physically manifests Hekate’s triple nature in the temple architecture itself, even though her cult statue at Lagina was singular. The architecture creates a triformis experience for worshippers entering the sacred space

4. The walk itself can be connected to her role as Enodia, adapted by the Greeks as they syncretized Hekate with a Thessalian goddess, as a guiding spirit during the transition from one place to another, leading to Propylaia, and having the key to enter the temple. The mention of “visitors” making sacrifices suggests this wasn’t just a local festival but drew pilgrims from surrounding areas, who travelled to get to the festival and then do the ritual walk. Thus indicating Lagina functioned as a regional cult center and Hekate’s worship had broader geographic significance.

5. The physical journey from Lagina to Stratonikeia and back creates a ritual narrative arc—the key leaves the goddess’s temple (departure from divine realm), enters the civic space where mortals make offerings (intersection of divine and human), then returns to the temple (completion of the sacred circuit). This movement itself enacts Hekate’s mediating function, which is found in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, when Hekate guides Persephone and facilitates her alliance with Hades.

The propylaeum at the Temple of Hekate in Lagina. A new article with an update on the excavation HERE.

The Keys of Hekate Soteira

The archaeological evidence from Lagina demonstrates Hekate’s role as civic protector and key-bearer in ritual practice, a function that scholars have connected to her broader salvific powers across the ancient Mediterranean world. Modern scholarship has deepened our understanding of Hekate as key-bearer, particularly through the groundbreaking work of Sarah Iles Johnston. Johnston argued that Hekate’s keys represented her power to save (Soteira – The Savior) from not only worldly entrapments, but also the soul.

Johnston also explored how Hekate’s keys connected to her role as mediator between realms. In ancient cosmology, the universe was understood as having multiple levels—from the highest divine realms to the material world to the underworld. Hekate, as world soul and cosmic mediator, held the keys that allowed movement between these levels. She could unlock the gates of the underworld to guide souls, unlock the gates of heaven to bring divine wisdom to earth, and unlock the gates of human consciousness to grant mystical vision.

This scholarly work restored complexity to our understanding of Hekate’s keys. They weren’t just spooky symbols of a “dark goddess” who haunted graveyards—they were symbols of cosmic authority, protective power, and the ability to grant access to transformation.

There are also grave stele’s (tombstones) that call upon Hekate Soteira, reinforcing her role as Psychopomp – Guide of Souls. Johnston wrote more about this aspect of Hekate in her book, “The Restless Dead.”

In Persephone’s tale, told in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hekate is divine meditator, threshold keeper, and psychopomp, aligning to Johnston’s work.

Proclus and the Cosmic Keys

Johnston’s scholarship on Hekate Soteira provides essential context for understanding how ancient philosophers like Proclus interpreted the goddess’s role as key-bearer. Her analysis reveals that Hekate’s keys represented not just physical access or even spiritual protection, but cosmic authority—the power to save by unlocking pathways, binding disparate elements into harmony, and granting souls access to their ultimate fulfillment. This salvific function of the key-bearer finds its most sophisticated philosophical expression in the writings of Proclus, who experienced Hekate not as distant mythology but as living divine presence.

The Neoplatonist philosopher Proclus (412-485 CE) experienced direct visions of Hekate and wrote extensively about her role in the structure of reality. For Proclus, Hekate’s keys were not merely symbolic—they were the actual mechanism by which the cosmos functioned. In Hekate Soteira, Johnston wrote:

“Key-holder described aspects of Hekate that agreed with his (Proclus) portrayal of her as having the ability to bind together and harmonize diverse elements, to close the boundaries of things within the Cosmos, to bring individual souls to fulfillment - in short, as an entity much like The Cosmic Soul.”

— Sarah Iles Johnston, Hekate Soteira

In Proclus’s cosmology, derived partly from the Chaldean Oracles, Hekate is the world soul—the animating principle that connects all levels of existence. She is the “womb-encircling membrane” that both separates and unites the transcendent divine realm with material creation. Her keys unlock the flow of divine power into the physical world and unlock the human soul’s capacity to ascend toward the divine.

Proclus’ Hymn to Hekate and Janus reinforces his views.

Proclus understood that Hekate’s keys operated on multiple levels simultaneously. On the cosmic level, they controlled the structure of reality itself. On the spiritual level, they granted access to mysteries and gnosis. On the practical level, they protected against harm and opened pathways to blessing. This multilayered understanding of her keys as Kleidoukhos reveals why she was invoked first in the Orphic Hymns—without her keys, nothing else could be unlocked.

Keys, Thresholds, and Boundaries

Hekate’s role as Kleidoukhos is inseparable from her role as Propylaia—Before-the-Gate (referencing the Orphic Hymns placement of the two hymns to her being first and second – I didn’t discuss the second hymn to Prothyraea in this article) —and her association with thresholds and boundaries. Keys exist because boundaries exist. Hekate presides over all such boundaries: the threshold of the home, the crossroads where three paths meet, the gates of cities, the entrance to temples, and most significantly, the threshold between life and death, between the visible world and the deeper realms.

This intriguing statue is one of the oldest relics depicting Hekate, perhaps it served as a threshold protector. SOURCE.

In ancient Greece and Rome, Hekataia—three-formed statues of the goddess—were placed at these liminal spaces. She watched over them with her three faces, able to see in all directions, able to identify threats and opportunities. But she didn’t just watch—she controlled access. With her keys, she could lock out malevolent forces and unlock blessings. She could seal boundaries against intrusion and open pathways for those she favored.

This is why offerings were left for her at crossroads during the Deipnon, her sacred supper on the Dark Moon. The food wasn’t just for Hekate—it was for the restless dead and wandering spirits who gathered at these threshold spaces. By feeding them, by honoring Hekate as the one who controlled these liminal zones, ancient practitioners ensured that boundaries remained secure and that passage through dangerous transitions would be safe.

From Ancient Keys to Modern Practice

I was so enchanted by Hekate Kleidoukhos that I named first my blog, then the website, and the following book, “Keeping Her Keys.” To me, this was a radical act of identifying as one of Hekate’s modern witches. While the ancient history is compelling, I abide at the contemporary crossroads. To claim the keys she offered meant to fully embrace my own complex, multiple identities as keys to knowing myself. In a mystical sense, Hekate had given me the keys to follow the path she set out for me - very much inspired by the ancient tale of Persephone - while keeping them as a devotional service to her. We inherit the rich history, while honoring them as tools of transformation, symbols of authority, and mechanisms of access to mysteries both ancient and personal. Perhaps my introduction to other’s reflections on Hekate as Kleidoukhos first occurred in the 2009 Bearing Torches: A Devotional Anthology for Hekate:

“They call you Kleidouchos who bears the three worlds’ keys and you do reign in heaven, earth and sea. Yet most important: you’re the one who sees into all hidden secrets, dark and light. I call you, Hecate, from soul and heart, Trioditis, key-bearer, daughter of the night, that your dark wisdom onto me impart and with your torch illuminate my path.”

In modern Hekatean practice, we can work with her keys in multiple ways. We can invoke her as Kleidoukhos when we need to unlock stuck situations, open new pathways, or gain access to hidden knowledge. We can create key talismans—either using actual antique keys or crafting symbolic ones—and consecrate them to Hekate as tools for our magical work. We can place keys on our altars as offerings and reminders of her power to open what is closed and close what must be protected.

A sample of the PDF of the slides from the talk at the beginning of this article. I wanted to include the modern Sigil of Hekate, as it contains one central key “head” and three extending keys, along with the crossroads. Design by me and my lovely wife, Christen Bennett.

We can also understand our own lives through the metaphor of keys and thresholds. What doors have we unlocked? What keys have we been given—or claimed for ourselves? What thresholds have we crossed, and what boundaries do we now guard? When we map our personal journey to Hekate’s crossroads, we can identify the keys that have unlocked crucial transitions: the key of education that opened intellectual doors, the key of therapy that unlocked psychological healing, the key of initiation that granted access to mysteries, the key of claiming our identity as witches that opened the door to our true power.

In Entering Hekate’s Cauldron, I discussed how I associated Kleidoukhos with the upper world, as the cosmic key bearer of the mystical: “The mystical typically is the domain of the higher self and the upper world, reflected in Hekate Kleidoukhos (Keeper of Keys), Ourania (Celestial), and Astrodia (Star Walker). “ This episode is part of a series that includes an earlier one on Ourania. Look for forthcoming articles and episodes on Phosphoros (Light itself, different closely named epithets share the same meaning) and Noeros (The Intellective/Divine Mind). Next month’s episode will explore the major historical documents as source knowledge, and Phosphoros will be released the following month.

I hope this lengthy discussion of the historical origins and modern meaning of Hekate Kleidoukhos has led to her offering you the keys - of her choice - that you claim and keep. I’m concluding with a section from The Witches Prayer to Hekate, located at the beginning of the Keeping Her Keys book, as a demonstration of the contemporary crossroads of personal gnosis and the rich history.

Mighty Hekate, Queen of the Witches,

My journey is a blessed one,

Each key you give me unlocks great power,

Grateful I am for all your keys

The key of acceptance for that which I cannot change,

The key of courage to overcome adversity,

The key of compassion for myself and others,

The key of pain through which I discovered my own strength,

The key of suffering in which I found healing,

The key of peace that brings me contentment,

The key of wisdom so that I may live a life of truth.

Hail Hekate Kleidoukhos, Keeper of Keys.

Learn more about Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft.

References

Primary Ancient Sources

Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, translators. The Orphic Hymns. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

Betz, Hans Dieter, editor. Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Majercik, Ruth, translator. The Chaldean Oracles. Brill, 1989.

Pausanias. Description of Greece, 2.30.2.

Proclus. Commentary on the Timaeus of Plato.

Scholarly Works

Büyüközer, A. “The Sanctuary of Hekate at Lagina in the 4th Century BC.” Arkhaia Anatolika, vol. 1, 2018, pp. 15-30, doi:10.32949/Arkhaia.2018.1.

Butler, Edward P. “Flower of Fire: Hekate in the Chaldean Oracles.” Bearing Torches: A Devotional Anthology for Hekate, edited by Sannion et al., Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2009, pp. 140-157.

Herring, Amanda. “Hekate of Lagina: A Goddess Performing Her Civic Duty.” Anatolian Studies, vol. 72, 2022, pp. 141-165, doi:10.1017/S0066154622000072.

---. “Reconstructing the Sacred Experience at the Sanctuary of Hekate at Lagina.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 79, no. 3, Sept. 2020, pp. 247-263, www.jstor.org/stable/e48514132.

Johnston, Sarah Iles. Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature. American Classical Studies 21, Scholars Press, 1990.

---. Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. University of California Press, 1999.

Karatas, Aynur-Michèle-Sara. “Key-bearers of Greek Temples: The Temple Key as a Symbol of Priestly Authority.” Mythos, 2019, doi:10.4000/mythos.1219.

Kraus, Theodor. Hekate: Studien zu Wesen und Bild der Göttin in Kleinasien und Griechenland. Heidelberg, 1960.

Williamson, Christina G. “Festival Networks: Stratonikeia and the Sanctuary of Hekate at Lagina.” Urban Rituals in Sacred Landscapes in Hellenistic Asia Minor, Brill, 2021, pp. 241-330, doi:10.1163/9789004461277_006.

Archeological Sources

Austrian Archaeological Institute. Excavations at Lagina, modern Türkiye. Temple architecture, inscriptions, and ritual descriptions.

Excavations at Brauron sanctuary. Votive reliefs and architectural remains showing Hekate at temple entrance.

Statue base and inscriptions from the Acropolis, Athens, documenting Hekate’s placement before the Parthenon.

Modern Hekatean Practice

Brannen, Cyndi. Entering Hekate’s Cauldron: The Path of Transformation and Healing. Moon Books, 2024.

---. Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft. Moon Books, 2019.

d’Este, Sorita, and David Rankine. Hekate Liminal Rites. Avalonia, 2009.

Sannion, et al., editors. Bearing Torches: A Devotional Anthology for Hekate. Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2009.

With Connection, I cast the circle and call your name.
With Meditation, I journey to meet you at the crossroads.
With Divination, I receive your guidance and truth.
Threefold Goddess, I honor your threefold gifts:
The Key that unlocks my power,
The Torch that lights my way,
The Wisdom that transforms my soul.
Hekate, be with me in this daily practice.
May I walk worthy of your mysteries.
So it is, and so shall it be.
Hail Hekate.

This invocation creates the container for a powerful daily practice, and is central to my teaching and writing about Modern Hekatean Witchcraft.

BONUS DOWNLOAD: Quotidia Guidebook at the end of this article.

Quotidia comes from the Latin for “daily,” and it is through a regular sacred practice that we can develop a meaningful attunement with Hekate and her deeper world. Setting intentions and dialoguing with Her helps to align ourselves with the outcomes we will manifest. There are many other strategies built into this course that will help you do the same. These strategies will enhance your personal development, help you lead a magical life and become much more effective with your witchcraft. You’ll also develop a deeper understanding of Hekate and Her energy currents.

Because Hekate is both an external force and the divine within each of us, all devotional work also is personal development. Through meditation, intention setting, self-checks, devotional work, journaling, and other aspects of magical living you’ll change throughout the course. The goal is to make you more you, not change who you are. The activities are designed to take about an hour a day. However, we all live busy lives, so the strategies are designed to take about one hour per day. How you craft your personal daily practice is up to you, here’s some of the activities that can be included:

• Dialoguing with Hekate and other guides

• Affirmations

• Gratitude

• Journaling

• Intention Setting

• Meditation

• Divination

• Simple rituals

• Acts of devotion and service

This excerpt from the second edition of Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft summarizes the key components of daily practice. This doesn’t need to be elaborate or time consuming, but it is necessary if our objective is to develop our practice. I’ve written about daily practice in all of my books on Modern Hekatean Witchcraft, albeit in slightly different versions to correspond with the themes:

• Entering Hekate’s Cauldron: since this book is written as a Book of Shadows, the emphasis is on daily practice as a foundation for all witchery.

• Entering Hekate’s Cave: daily practice centered on shadow work, as the reader goes through the process of healing in the depths of Hekate, with chapters dedicated to many of her primary epithets, such as Chthonia, Psychopomp, and Enodia.

• Entering Hekate’s Garden: the focus is on connecting daily practice with pharmakeia, the practice of botanical witchcraft rooted in Hekate’s magick, medicine and mystery.

In Covina, the online coven I’ve led for nine years, each season we begin with a live class where I teach a version of Quotidia based on the themes of the coming moon cycles. I say this to emphasize that daily practice is meant to evolve, adapt, and shift according to rhythms - the lunar phases, the aspects of Hekate that unlock for us, the Wheel of the Year, and our personal journey.

There is no one right way to do a daily practice, but there are three core components that I know work based on the thousands of coven members who have shared their experiences in the Quotidia Sharing Circles over the years.

Why Practice Quotidia?

A daily practice is about cultivating a genuine, living relationship with Hekate and developing the intuitive and magical skills that have real-world applications. Quotidia helps you:

• Establish and maintain a consistent connection with Hekate

• Develop and trust your intuition

• Create sacred time for yourself in a busy world

• Build the foundation for more complex magical work

• Integrate spiritual practice into everyday life

• Recognize your own power and sovereignty

Think of Quotidia as your personal period of empowerment—the Witches Hour of Power. This is time you set aside just for yourself, acknowledging that your spiritual life is sacred and worthy of attention.

Connection and Attunement

The Connection phase establishes your sacred space and creates a threshold between the mundane and the mystical. This can take many forms, from speaking to Hekate and other allied spirits, reciting an ancient hymn, or even working with the invocation I began this article with. In my own daily life, and at the beginning of every live event, I start with a one-candle ritual based on the convergence of the three selves with Hekate’s triple nature. Here’s the core structure. Watch just about any recorded class in Covina, and you’ll discover the myriad of forms this ritual evolves into. It’s included in Entering Hekate’s Cauldron, too.

The Daily Ritual: Triformis

This simple ritual serves as your entry point into deeper work with Hekate.

The Practice:

• Light a candle (traditional, battery-operated, or work with your hands alone)

• Cast a counterclockwise circle with your left hand to release what no longer serves you

• Take a moment to set intentions and notice what needs to be cleansed or banished

• Dwell in the present moment and honor yourself exactly as you are

• Welcome Hekate and any other spirits or deities you work with into your space

• Cast a clockwise circle with your right hand to protect and connect

This opening creates a sacred container for your practice and helps you transition from everyday consciousness into a state of receptivity and power. You may also choose to recite a prayer, speak Hekate’s epithets, or simply sit in silence with her presence.

Simply spending time with my altar is a powerful way of connecting to Hekate, the plants, symbols and allies that I’m focusing on. Pictured spell jars: Zero f*cks jar, coven’s spell of the year, personal spell of the year, and a vat of brewing Oleum Spirita. Cauldron is full of soil and moss, rooting me in the depths.

Part 2: Meditation

Watch or listen to The Unifying Three Selves Cauldron of Foundations Meditation or read through the version at the end of this guidebook.

The Meditation phase deepens your initial connection and takes you inward. This is where you truly attune to Hekate’s energy and work with the specific themes or aspects relevant to your current practice. Meditation bridges the outer work of ritual with the inner work of transformation.

Your meditation might focus on connecting with Hekate at the crossroads, journeying to her sacred places, working with her symbols and correspondences, or simply resting in her presence. The key is consistency and genuine engagement rather than perfection.

I have probably guided witches through at least a thousand different evocative meditations at this point. I’ve added the fundamental Quotidia version of Unifying The Three Selves below. However, a meditation can be centered in an image, opening up to the imaginal journey to discover what the image holds. This also works well with a passage or quote that speaks to us, such as this one:

Part 3: Divination

The reading phase provides guidance from Spirit and Hekate through divination. This practice helps you develop and trust your intuition while receiving practical wisdom for your path forward.

You can use tarot cards, oracle cards, runes, bay leaves, bibliomancy, or any divination method that resonates with you. The reading helps consolidate your practice and offers insight for the day, week, or month ahead. Over time, you’ll notice patterns and deepen your understanding of how Hekate communicates with you personally.

Left to right: lower self/root/underworld (Hekate Chthonia) - 10 of Wands - risk of burnout from excessive emotional labor; middle self/heart/middle world (Hekate Enodia)- The Magician - bring the magickal into the mundane; higher self/crown/upper world (Hekate Ourania) - 2 of Wands - contemplation of tension between my thoughts - how to avoid emotional burnout while bringing magick to the mundane.

There’s no one way to work with divination as the concluding phase of the daily practice. This component serves to consolidate connection and meditation, while providing guidance for the day. In all of my books, I share different reading methods, including:

• The Enodia Oracle: found in the Keeping Her Keys second edition, known as Approach/Avoid in the first edition - this is a two card pull, one for what to approach (move towards, manifest, illuminate) and one for what to avoid (release, ignore, diminish).

• The Three Selves/Realms Reading: rooted in the core teaching that merges our three selves (root, heart, crown) with Hekate’s triform nature, this reading can be adapted to focus on specific queries or themes, and also for general guidance.

• In Entering Hekate’s Cauldron, and in the monthly live group readings in Covina, this three card spread is expanded to include a fourth “keycard,” that reflects who the querant is currently or becoming.

Building Your Practice

Remember that Quotidia is meant to support you, not burden you. Some days your practice might be five minutes; other days it might be an hour. What matters is consistency and genuine engagement, not perfection or elaborate ritual.

As you develop your practice, you’ll find your own rhythm and style. You might discover that you prefer morning meditation and evening readings, or that you like to break the three parts throughout your day. You might develop your own prayers, create personal correspondences, or find new ways to connect with Hekate.

This is your practice, centered in your relationship with Hekate. Trust yourself, trust the process, and trust that Hekate walks with you at every crossroads.

Unifying The Three Selves With Hekate Meditation

Begin this meditation after completing your Connection ritual. Find a comfortable position where you can remain alert yet relaxed. You may sit, stand, or lie down—whatever allows you to be present without falling asleep. Watch this video to guide you through, and work with my tips below to inspire your practice.

Body Scan and Grounding

• Take a moment to scan your body from head to toe

• Notice any sensations, pains, or areas of comfort without judgment

• Check in with your physical state—are you hungry, tired, energized?

• Take a deep breath and release it fully

• Feel the tension in your muscles begin to dissipate

• Allow a softening throughout your entire body

• Affirm to yourself: “All is well. I am in safe space. Nothing will interfere with my experience of this meditation.”

• Continue taking deep, intentional breaths

Calling Upon Hekate

Reinforce the connection you made with Hekate by welcoming her into your meditation space. You might visualize her at the crossroads, holding her torches, accompanied by her hounds. You might sense her as a presence, a feeling, or simply know that she is there. There is no single correct way to experience Hekate—trust what comes to you.

Activating the Three Selves

Work with the three centers of your being, aligning them with Hekate’s guidance:

Root (Lower Self):

• Breathe deeply into your sitting bones, down to your energetic root

• Activate your connection to the earth and the underworld

• Exhale fully and feel the root awakening

• Sense it naturally stretching down, grounding you

• Connect to the richness of intuition, emotions, and instinct

Heart (Middle Self):

• Turn your breath and attention to your heart center

• Take a deep breath into the heart

• As you exhale, open to Hekate’s presence in your life

• Feel your capacity for action, courage, and authentic expression

• Recognize your power to move through the world with intention

Crown (Higher Self):

• Take a breath that rises to your throat and crown

• Activate your connection to wisdom, knowledge, and the mysteries

• Feel your consciousness stretching upward and outward

• Connect to the celestial realms, the moon, and the vast unknown

• Open to divine guidance and higher understanding

Unifying The Three Selves: Integration and Harmony

• Feel the harmony between root (intuition, grounding), heart (action, strength), and crown (wisdom, mystery)

• Sense the state of flow between all three centers

• Feel Hekate’s energy flowing through you, connecting all aspects of your being

• Allow any excess energy to be released

• Notice yourself feeling energized, connected, yet free

Standing at the Crossroads

• Align within yourself, with the spirits, and with Hekate

• Remain practical and functional in the everyday world

• Recognize that as witches who walk with Hekate, we abide at the crossroads of the tangible and the etheric, the mystical and the pragmatic, the magical and the rational

• Stand at this crossroads with confidence and clarity

• Know that you carry Hekate’s torch forward into your daily life

Returning to Physical Awareness

• Take a deep breath and bring yourself back into your physical self

• Pay attention to different parts of your body that became activated during meditation

• Notice any tingling, warmth, coolness, or other sensations

• Recognize that energy works on you spiritually, energetically, and physically

• Take notes about your experience if desired

• Thank Hekate for her presence and guidance

However you choose to engage in daily Hekatean practice, may she always meet you at the crossroads, arm extending keys, encircling you in her protective torches.

Find the PDF guidebook for Quotidia:

DOWNLOAD THE FREE QUOTIDIA GUIDE

Become a student in the Hekate’s Keys program to access more Quotidia resources, plus a rich curriculum exploring the crossroads of Hekate’s deeper world and modern witchcraft:

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Join us as we reclaim the heavens from patriarchal programming, explore the scientific truth that we are literally made of stardust, and learn practical techniques for working with Hekate's Upper World nature. This is the first episode in our Upper World series, perfectly timed with Gemini season's focus on divine mind and celestial consciousness.

Historical Deep Dive (5:00)

Discover how ancient sources consistently portrayed Hekate as a goddess of three realms—land, sea, and sky. Learn why her celestial nature has been obscured in modern practice and how we can reclaim this essential aspect of her identity.

Reclaiming the Heavens (13:00)

Explore the difference between patriarchal religious concepts of "heaven" and the ancient understanding of celestial wisdom. Learn how to release conditioning that keeps you from accessing your cosmic birthright.

Science Meets Spirituality (23:00)

Dive into the fascinating science behind our cosmic origins. Discover how the carbon in your body came from stellar dust, why Earth is literally made from star factories (nebulae), and what Carl Sagan meant when he said "we are a way for the cosmos to know itself."

The Witness Consciousness (30:00)

Explore the part of you that observes your own thoughts—the metacognitive awareness that connects you to divine mind (Noeros) and proves your participation in cosmic intelligence.

Practical Upper World Work (35:00)

Learn about the four celestial epithets, discover your botanical ally (frankincense) and crystal ally (fluorite), and understand the Sigil of Ourania—a septagram representing the Sacred Seven celestial bodies.

Unlock The Mysteries: Go Deeper

Hekate Ourania Guidebook - Get your complete guide to working with the Celestial Queen HERE.

Enlightening the Three Selves Meditation - A 20-minute guided meditation working from crown to root, bringing celestial consciousness into embodied awareness.

KEEPING HER KEYS SUBSTACK.
Hekate's Keys of The Cauldron - The most comprehensive training on working with Hekate's complete cosmic nature across all three realms. LEARN MORE.

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Historical Sources Referenced

• Hesiod's Theogony (~700 BCE)

• Orphic Hymn to Hekate (beginning of Common Era)

• Chaldean Oracles (2nd century CE)

Remember: You are made of stardust, you are cosmic consciousness embodied, and Hekate Ourania is waiting to illuminate your path.

You who dwell among the stars and hold dominion over the cosmic realms,

Descend upon me now with your radiant crystalline light.

From crown to root, enlighten my three selves with your heavenly fire.

Illuminate my divine mind with cosmic wisdom and expanded consciousness,

Awaken my sacred heart with celestial love and soul connection,

Ground your starlight in my root, anchoring heaven within earth.

Let me remember I am made of stardust, born of your infinite cosmos,

A living bridge between the transcendent and the material,

The universe becoming conscious of itself through mortal form.

Hail Hekate Ourania, World Soul, Light-Bringer, Keeper of Cosmic Keys.

This meditation marks a profound shift in the way I usually teach the foundational Three Selves Meditation —a reversal of our typical energetic practices that invites celestial consciousness to flow downward through your entire being, enlightening each aspect of self from the divine mind to the physical body. You can find versions of the fundamental meditation in all my books.

What Makes This Meditation Unique

Unlike traditional root-to-crown meditations that build energy upward, Enlightening the Three Selves works from crown to root. This top-down approach reflects the Neoplatonic understanding of Hekate as the World Soul who mediates between the transcendent divine realm and material existence.

You’ll begin standing on a mountaintop under a starlit sky, inviting pure crystalline light to descend through your crown, mind, heart, root, and feet. This isn’t about escaping the body for spiritual realms—it’s about integration, bringing cosmic consciousness into embodied awareness.

The Journey

As you engage with this 20-minute guided meditation, you will:

• Stand at the threshold between earth and sky, surrounded by infinite cosmic vastness

• Receive pure crystalline light descending from the heavens through your crown chakra

• Feel celestial wisdom enlighten your divine mind, expanding consciousness and awakening intellect

• Allow the light to cascade into your heart center, illuminating emotions and soul connections

• Ground cosmic consciousness in your root and physical body

• Complete the circuit as light flows through your feet into the earth

• Rest in the awareness that you are a conduit for cosmic consciousness—simultaneously earthly and celestial

Why This Practice Matters

This meditation embodies a core truth we explored in the Hekate Ourania episode: we are literally made of stardust. The carbon in your body came from stellar dust. You are not separate from the heavens—you ARE the heavens becoming conscious of itself.

By working from crown to root, you experience the descent of divine consciousness into matter. You become the living bridge between cosmic wisdom and earthly existence—exactly as Hekate Ourania herself functions as the World Soul.

How to Work With This Meditation

• Find a quiet space where you can stand comfortably (or sit if needed)

• Have your Sigil of Ourania nearby if you’ve printed it from the free guidebook

• Consider burning frankincense or holding fluorite to enhance your Upper World connection

• Allow yourself to receive rather than strive—this is about opening to what descends, not reaching for what’s above

• Return to this practice regularly throughout Gemini season to maintain your connection with Hekate Ourania’s enlightening presence

Remember: This reverse flow represents the gift of cosmic consciousness choosing to inhabit your mortal form. You don’t have to earn enlightenment—you simply have to remember that you are already made of stars.

Hail Hekate Ourania, Celestial Queen of the Heavens.

Access Your Meditation Below

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I stand at the threshold where three worlds converge,

Bearing offerings made with devotion and love.

Hekate Chthonia, transform what I release into power,

Hekate Enodia, illuminate my path with your twin torches,

Hekate Noeros, awaken divine wisdom within my soul.

I am renewed, I am refocused, I am radiant.

Accept these gifts as tokens of my sincere devotion,

Guide me through the shadows and into the light.

Hail Hekate Triformis, Goddess of All Realms.

Hail the Sacred Deipnon and the mysteries you reveal.

Link below to join the class at 11 AM ET on June 13, 2026.

Hekate is an ancient goddess whose worship dates back over 2,000 years to the Mediterranean world. She is a liminal deity—a goddess of thresholds, crossroads, and the spaces between worlds. Known by many names and epithets, Hekate has been honored as torchbearer, key-keeper, guide of souls, protector of the vulnerable, and queen of witches. Her domain encompasses the Upper World of divine consciousness, the Middle World of earthly existence, and the Lower World of the ancestors and mysteries.

Unlike many deities who were honored in grand temples, Hekate was uniquely propitiated at crossroads—those liminal spaces where paths converge and choices must be made. This reflects her essential nature as one who dwells in the in-between, who guides us through transitions, and who illuminates the darkness with her twin torches.

To the ancient Greeks and Romans, Hekate was a powerful force—both protective and potentially dangerous if not properly honored. She was associated with magic, herbalism, necromancy, and the mysteries of life, death, and rebirth. Her sacred animals include dogs, serpents, and horses. Her sacred plants include garlic, yew, cypress, and many others. She is often depicted as a triple-formed goddess, though this is just one of her many aspects.

Today, modern practitioners honor Hekate as a goddess of personal sovereignty, transformation, and witchcraft. She calls to those who walk the crooked path—those who embrace shadow work, seek hidden wisdom, and are willing to face their fears in pursuit of truth and power. She is a fierce protector of the marginalized and vulnerable, and she demands authenticity and courage from her devotees.

What Does It Mean to Honor Hekate?

Honoring Hekate is a deeply personal practice that goes far beyond ritual gestures. At its core, honoring Hekate means honoring yourself—your truth, your sovereignty, your journey. The Anima Mundi (World Soul) that fuels your essence is of Hekate. When you live authentically, when you reclaim your power, when you walk your path with courage and integrity, you honor her.

Honoring Hekate can take many forms:

• Devotional Practice: Regular rituals, prayers, meditations, and offerings that express your relationship with the goddess

• Service: Supporting the vulnerable in your community—the unhoused, at-risk animals (especially dogs), children, women, and those rejected by mainstream society

• Personal Sovereignty: Doing the inner work to reclaim your power, set healthy boundaries, and live your truth

• Study and Learning: Deepening your understanding of Hekate through historical research, personal gnosis, and experiential practice

• Shadow Work: Facing your fears, healing your wounds, and integrating all aspects of yourself

• Witchcraft: Practicing magic, herbalism, divination, and other occult arts under her guidance

The practice of honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon—the astronomical new moon when the moon is not visible in the sky—is one of the most ancient and enduring traditions associated with this goddess. This monthly observance, known in ancient times as the Deipnon (meaning “supper”), provides a regular rhythm for connecting with Hekate, purifying yourself and your space, and renewing your commitment to your path.

Whether you create an elaborate feast inspired by ancient practices or simply light a candle and speak words of devotion, what matters most is the sincerity of your offering. Hekate sees into the heart of things. She values authenticity over perfection, courage over comfort, and genuine devotion over empty gestures.

Ancient Origins of Honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon

In areas of the ancient Mediterranean, food was left at crossroads for Hekate on the Dark Moon to honor her and petition her for protection and guidance. This ritual dates back over 2,000 years and was called Hekate’s Deipnon. The term Deipnon translates to “supper,” but there was much more to this ritual than just making food offerings.

The ritual began with the purification of the home and its occupants, with a sacrificial animal (usually a black puppy) playing a central role in the process. Although animal sacrifice was common in ancient times, using black puppies was unique to Hekatean rites. As upsetting as this sounds today, it was culturally normative back then. Through this “scape puppy,” the toxic energies of the home and its occupants, which they called miasma, were transferred to the dog and then released through the sacrifice. A kinder version of the sacrifice can be accomplished through cleansing with eggs. Although it is unknown whether those engaging in ancient Hekate’s suppers used this method, some scholars believe they may have.

When the purification was complete, the house was well cleaned and swept, and all residue from the sacrifice and the sweeping (known as oxuthumia) was removed and set aside for later disposal.

After the home was cleansed, an elaborate meal was prepared. It typically included eggs, fish, cheese, bread, garlic, vegetables, fruit, cakes, and probably nuts. If you are called to recreate an ancient Hekate’s supper as accurately as possible, the eggs should be raw, the fish should be mullet and sprat, the cheese should be freshly made, and the cake should be a sort of cheesecake upon which, according to some references, a candle burns. The ancient Greeks didn’t have wax candles, however, so they used pine resin. The bread component of the feast probably resembled flatbreads or a type of savory pancakes, known as tiganites, that were common in ancient Greece. Fruits that were common 2,000 years ago include grapes and dates.

The completed meal and the ritual waste would then be taken to a crossroads. The whole point of the ritual was to gain Hekate’s favor and to protect against unsavory spirits and negative energies. Given that it would have been known to those undertaking this ritual that the feast would likely be consumed by outcasts, we can be inspired to make offerings to the vulnerable in our own society through charitable acts and donations. Supporting at-risk dogs, the unhoused, children, women, and those rejected by the mainstream are all in keeping with the spirit of this ancient meal. While our cultural norms may be different, the theme of propitiating Hekate through both personal veneration and service to others is a tradition we can continue.

Preparing to Honor Hekate on the Dark Moon

Whether you are planning to create a Hekate’s supper inspired by this ancient ritual or scheduling a few moments of quiet veneration, make honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon a priority. Your veneration can be as simple as making an offering to the goddess while petitioning her for guidance and protection. Use this invocation or create one yourself:

Great Hekate. Mysterious Moon. Stars above. Earth surrounds. Water below. Guide me along my way. Protect my journey, And bless my path. These offerings are reflections of my devotion.

Many witches, including myself, have “Hekate trees,” either on their own property or nearby, where they journey each month on the Dark Moon to honor the goddess. However you choose to honor Hekate at this time, I do recommend some preparation. Begin by creating a plan to guide you throughout your rite. Here are some items to consider as you plan:

Timing: Plan your ritual for a time when you will have no distractions. The Dark Moon is the astronomical new moon—the precise moment when the moon is not visible in the sky. There is a distinction between the Dark Moon and what the ancients called Noumenia, which means “new moon.” Noumenia was the spiritual start of a new lunar month—the earliest waxing crescent phase of the moon when it first becomes visible again. To the ancients, the day began at sundown rather than sunrise, contrary to the system we’re used to. We are now able to calculate the precise timing of each astronomical new moon, even if the moon is not physically visible. If the astronomical new moon occurs after sundown, perform your rituals before the next sundown.

Location: Whether you are embarking on a pilgrimage to a real crossroads or visiting a symbolic crossroads on your own property or honoring the goddess at a crossroads altar on the floor in your room, select a location that works best for you and make sure that it is a safe space. There are bears and wildcats where I live, as well as other troublesome night creatures, like the restless dead and porcupines. I make a lot of noise when I venture out during the Dark Moon, and I erect energetic shields around my location to protect myself from unwelcome intruders. A counterclockwise circular movement with my left arm, repeated in groups of three, while reciting “I am protected from all harm, and I do no harm,” is a habitual practice for when I am out in the wild. Salt sprinkled in a counterclockwise circle on the ground is good for this kind of protection.

Moon sign: The astrological sign in which the new moon will occur can help you determine the type of energy to highlight during your ritual. Give special attention to the sign as it relates to your personal astrology. I put the qualities of each sign of the zodiac in conjunction with the new moon in Chapter 5 of Entering Hekate’s Cauldron.

Focus: Consider whether there is a particular aspect of Hekate that you want to express.

Intention: Write a short statement establishing your focus for the ritual.

Daily practice: Use your practice to enhance your plans and to attune to the focus of your ritual.

Offerings: These can be either personal or traditional, as long as they are meaningfully linked to your focus.

Altar: Create an altar connected to your focus that includes crossroads energy, using physical symbols, botanicals, soil retrieved from an actual intersection, images, and any items that evoke the energy of crossroads for you—for instance, two crossed keys.

Cauldron: Attune your cauldron to the focus of your ritual; perhaps even have a special one in which to place your offerings.

Sacred flame: Have a candle, a backyard fire, or a fire in your fireplace—anything suitable to ignite as a sacred flame at the beginning of the ritual process.

Cleansing: Perform purification rituals appropriate to your practice, and plan a good general cleaning of your home. Khernips is an excellent purification ritual, as is the lustral egg ritual I describe in Chapter 5 of Entering Hekate’s Cauldron.

Animara: This term, which derives from the word “soul,” refers to rituals, meditations, written words, and other practices that awaken us to the mysteries and take us beyond our physical selves.

Make sure to record any dreams, synchronicities, encounters, visions, and other messages you may receive while you are planning your ritual and also during and after it.

PAID SUBSCRIBERS - Live Witches Hour: Honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon (Saturday, June 13)

• Session Introduction

• Khernips Purification Ritual

• Ritual: Triformis of the Crossroads

• Invocation: Honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon

• Meditation: Honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon Journey

• Oracle Reading: Hekate’s Wisdom Dark Moon Reading

• Talk: Dark Moon Pilgrimage, Crossroads Energy, and Purification Practices

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I’ve been teaching online courses in Modern Hekatean Witchcraft for almost a decade. I challenged myself by developing a completely new program that bridges my newest book, Entering Hekate’s Cauldron, with everything I’ve always want to teach but hadn’t yet.

Join Hekate’s Keys of the Cauldron – a transformative six-month journey that begins this May and continues through October. This isn’t just another online course; it’s a complete immersion into the sacred practices, rituals, and wisdom of Hekate.

Already Available: Immediate Access

• Over 30 hours of live recordings featuring rituals, meditations, and deep teachings

• 200+ pages of downloadable guidebooks based on the acclaimed book Entering Hekate’s Cauldron

Schedule

• Weekly Monday Seminars (2 hours) with rituals, meditations, talks, witchery, and sharing circles

• Moon Salons on full and dark moons featuring collaborative witchcraft circles

• Witches Hours in Hekate’s Crossroads twice monthly on Saturdays with special topics and oracle readings

• Sabbat Celebrations in Hekate’s Crossroads including the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox rituals

Structure

Each Key includes guidebooks for each of Hekate’s major aspects, from her history to personal practice and witchery. Within each key, every lesson features live classes, written guidebooks, key questions, sharing circles and more.

Here’s a peek at what the current lesson looks like:

Lesson 5: Honoring Hekate and The Devotional Path of Gnosis

Join us for one of the most sacred and transformative lessons in our journey—honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon through the ancient tradition of Hekate’s Deipnon. Over four powerful sessions, you’ll explore the mysteries of Hekate Noeros (Divine Mind), learn purification practices, create sacred offerings, and culminate in a collective Dark Moon ritual on the Gemini New Moon.

This lesson bridges celestial wisdom with earthly devotion, combining philosophical exploration of Hekate’s Upper World mysteries with hands-on preparation of traditional offerings. You’ll work with frankincense as your sacred ally, practice lustral egg cleansing, and contribute to our collaborative Hymn to Hekate of the Upper World and collective Hekate’s Supper.

Whether you’re new to Dark Moon devotion or deepening an established practice, this lesson offers both mystical insight and practical guidance for honoring Hekate in one of the most ancient and powerful ways.

Live Events

• Tuesday, June 2, 11:00 AM – Seminar 1: Honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon

  Experience the Triformis of the Cosmic Crossroads ritual, connect with Hekate Noeros through meditation, and learn frankincense purification techniques. Begin planning your personal Dark Moon ritual and choose your contribution to our collective offerings.

• Monday, June 8, 11:00 AM – Seminar 2: The Radiant Mind and Preparing for Dark Moon

  Practice the Radiant Mind meditation, witness a lustral egg cleansing demonstration, and finalize your preparations for the Gemini New Moon ritual. Complete your Upper World offering and Hekate’s Supper contribution.

• Saturday, June 13, 11:00 AM – Witches Hour: Honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon

  Experience a complete Dark Moon observance including crossroads ritual, journey meditation, and Hekate’s Wisdom oracle reading. Receive guidance on crossroads pilgrimage, purification practices, and final preparations for Sunday’s collective ritual.

• Sunday, June 14, 7:00 PM – Gemini New Moon Salon: Collective Dark Moon Ritual

  Join our community for the culminating ritual featuring the collaborative Hymn to Hekate of the Upper World, presentation of sacred tools and offerings, and our collective Hekate’s Supper ceremony. Share your contributions in breakout groups and celebrate this sacred observance together.

Comprehensive Resources

• Frankincense: Sacred Ally for Honoring Hekate

  Complete guide to working with this Upper World botanical, including properties, correspondences, preparation methods, and ritual applications for Dark Moon devotion.

• Hekate’s Supper: A Practical Guidebook

  Everything you need to create traditional and contemporary offerings, including historical context, recipes from scratch, vegetarian/vegan adaptations, and modern ethical considerations.

• Honoring Hekate: A Guidebook for Dark Moon Devotion

  Foundational resource covering the history of Hekate’s Deipnon, ritual structure, timing considerations, crossroads pilgrimage safety, sample invocations, and planning templates for monthly observance.

• Hekate Noeros: Divine Mind and Intellective Truth

  Philosophical and mystical exploration of Hekate’s Upper World aspect, drawing from the Chaldean Oracles and Neoplatonic philosophy to understand divine consciousness and cosmic wisdom.

• Chapter 5 in Entering Hekate’s Cauldron

  Essential reading covering the complete theology and practice of honoring Hekate on the Dark Moon, including detailed instructions for lustral egg cleansing and traditional recipes.

Build Your Grimoire

All resources are yours to keep and reference as your build your own grimoire of Modern Hekatean Witchcraft. The work is challenging, transformative, and deeply rewarding.

Remember: Hekate values sincere devotion over elaborate displays. A single candle flame offered with genuine love is as powerful as an elaborate feast. Trust your capacity, honor your limits, and know that your authentic offering—whatever form it takes—is welcome and blessed.

Perfect Timing to Join Now

We’ve just begun The Key of Knowledge, focusing on Hekate’s Upper World aspects and witchery. You’ll have plenty of time to settle in before our spectacular Summer Solstice Sabbat Salon featuring The Thirteen Keys of Hekate Ritual.

The first part of the program, The Key of Foundations is already available. You’ll have immediate access to all the guidebooks and recordings.

Your Journey Through the Four Keys

Key I: The Foundation

Enter Hekate’s Cauldron and establish your sacred practice with altars, offerings, and the three realms.

Key II: The Knowledge

Explore Hekate’s crossroads, her sacred names, epithets, and divine companions.

Key III: The Craft

Master spellcrafting, correspondences, sigils, candle magic, and practical witchery.

Key IV: The Mystery

Connect with spirits, animal allies, and prepare for your personal initiation ritual.

Collaborative Magick & Community

This isn’t a solitary journey. Throughout the program, you’ll participate in:

• Collaborative offerings and rituals

• Group cauldron projects

• Shared Hekate’s Suppers

• Collective talisman crafting

• Community oracle readings and meditations

• Course and social chats

Special Bonus: Your subscription includes access to Crossroads sessions – additional rituals, meditations, and special topic explorations held throughout the program.

What Makes This Program Unique

• Comprehensive Structure: 19 lessons spanning six months, each building on the last

• Multiple Learning Formats: Live seminars, recorded sessions, downloadable guides, and hands-on practice

• Lunar Alignment: Work with both full and dark moon energies throughout your journey

• Sabbat Integration: Celebrate the turning of the wheel with powerful seasonal rituals

• Personal & Collective Work: Balance individual practice with community magic

Your Summer Schedule Highlights

May: Foundation work with cauldrons, sacred flames, and Hekate’s realms

June: Dark moon honoring, Hekate’s history, and the Summer Solstice Keeper of Keys Ritual

July: Sacred names, epithets, companions, and sovereign goddess work

August: Deep dive into spellcrafting, correspondences, and the Lammas Sabbat

Who This Course Is For

• Practitioners seeking a structured path in Modern Hekatean Witchcraft

• Those called to deepen their relationship with Hekate

• Witches ready to commit to a transformative six-month practice

• Anyone drawn to the mysteries of the cauldron and crossroads

Join Now and Receive: Immediate access to the first four lessons, over 200 pages of materials, and recordings you can revisit anytime. Plus, you’ll be ready for our upcoming Gemini New Moon collaborative offerings focused on Upper World tools and hymns.

Investment in Your Spiritual Journey

This six-month immersive program offers exceptional value with live instruction, comprehensive materials, and ongoing community support. Spaces are limited to maintain the intimate, sacred nature of our work together. Two pricing options available.

BONUS: Join now to continue after Keys of The Cauldron into the deeper mysteries in Via Hekate: The Devotional Path that begins mid October. All students currently subscribed to Hekate’s Keys of The Cauldron will be added to Via with their regular subscription, a substantial savings over the 99/month Via tuition.

Already a paid Substack subscriber to Keeping Her Keys - Use this LINK for your discounted rate for Hekate’s Keys of The Cauldron.

Ready to Answer Hekate’s Call?

The cauldron is bubbling, the keys are waiting, and Hekate stands at the crossroads ready to guide you deeper into her mysteries.

Enroll today and begin your transformation. The path of the Modern Hekatean Witch awaits.

LEARN MORE

NOTE: Paid Substack subscribers have access to the Witches Hour sessions and the Sabbat Salon Rituals, so if deep study isn’t right for you, consider becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack. I email the links to the events.

Bring a key and a candle. Dress in your summer witchery finest as our coven priestesses lead this ritual experience.

ICYMI: Witches Hour Sessions - Twice Monthly Saturdays at 11:00 AM ET

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In this comprehensive lecture, I explore Hekate Ourania as the Celestial Queen who has held dominion over the heavens for over three millennia. Far from being solely a goddess of the underworld, Hekate’s Upper World nature is equally ancient and fundamental to her complete cosmic identity. Through examination of historical sources from Hesiod’s Theogony to the Chaldean Oracles, we discover Hekate as the World Soul, the mediator between transcendent divinity and material existence, and the embodiment of cosmic consciousness itself.

The session emphasized that while Hekate’s underworld aspects are culturally emphasized, her upper world nature is equally ancient and fundamental - she has always been a goddess of three realms simultaneously, never confined to darkness alone.

This teaching reclaims the heavens from patriarchal religious programming and restores our understanding of celestial wisdom as accessible, empowering, and essential to complete spiritual practice. By working with Hekate Ourania, we remember that we are made of stardust, that synchronicity connects us to something greater, and that enlightenment is not escape from the body but integration of divine mind with embodied existence.

Historical Foundation of Hekate Ourania

Four Upper World Epithets

1. Ourania - Celestial/Heavenly Queen who dwells among the stars and cosmic realms

2. Noeros - The Divine Mind/Intellective aspect representing cosmic consciousness and enlightened thought

3. Kleidoukhos - Keeper of the Cosmic Keys who unlocks celestial mysteries and higher knowledge

4. Phosphoros - The Illumination/Light-Bringer who enlightens consciousness and reveals truth

Key Philosophical Concepts

The Radiant Darkness

Hekate embodies both darkness and light simultaneously—they are not opposites but complementary aspects of cosmic truth. To know darkness is to know lightness; they give each other meaning. This is not spiritual bypassing but true integration of the complete spectrum of existence.

The Witness Consciousness

The part of us that observes our own thoughts represents connection to divine mind (Noeros). This metacognitive awareness—the ability to watch ourselves thinking—is evidence of higher self consciousness and our participation in cosmic intelligence.

Synchronicity as Upper World Connection

Synchronicities are moments when the mystical intrudes into the physical realm, illuminating points of connection to something greater than ourselves. They are Hekate Ourania’s way of showing us that we are part of an intelligent, interconnected cosmos.

Scientific-Spiritual Integration

• We are literally made of stardust—the carbon in our bodies comes from stellar dust

• Earth formed from nebulae (star factories), making us children of the cosmos

• Hekate can be understood as intelligent design or cosmic consciousness permeating all existence

• Carl Sagan’s insight: “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself”—we are the universe becoming conscious of itself

• Ancient mystical teachings align with modern astrophysics about our cosmic origins

Inner Dialogue and Metacognition

Discussion of the “witness consciousness” - the part of us that observes our own thoughts. This connects to:

• Higher self awareness

• Divine mind/Noeros

• Cosmic consciousness

• The ability to perceive beyond ordinary awareness

Synchronicity as Upper World Connection

Synchronicities represent moments when the mystical intrudes into the physical - illuminating points of connection to something greater than ourselves.

Practical Tools for Working with Hekate Ourania

Sigil of Ourania

Reclaiming the Heavens

Important deconditioning work around the concept of “heaven”:

• Not: A place of judgment, redemption, or exclusion based on sin/worthiness

• Not: Closed to those deemed unworthy by patriarchal religious systems

• Instead: Ancient understanding of celestial wisdom, astrology, astronomy, and transcendence

• Instead: Accessible through spiritual practice, consciousness expansion, and remembering our cosmic nature

• Instead: A state of enlightened awareness available to all who seek connection with divine mind

Hekate’s Complete Cosmic Identity

Working with Upper World Hekate brings completeness to spiritual practice:

1. Lower World (Chthonia) - Shadow work, depths, underworld mysteries, death and rebirth

2. Middle World (Enodia) - Daily life, mortal journey, practical magic, crossroads decisions

3. Upper World (Ourania) - Enlightenment, divine mind, cosmic consciousness, celestial wisdom

While Hekate’s underworld aspects are culturally emphasized, her Upper World nature is equally ancient and fundamental. She has always been a goddess of three realms simultaneously, never confined to darkness alone. To know her completely, we must work with all three aspects of her cosmic sovereignty.

Looking Forward in This Series

This Upper World series continues through July, culminating in Hekate’s Keys with the Sovereign Goddesses Ritual during the Cancer New Moon. Future sessions will explore:

• Remote viewing exercises to expand consciousness beyond physical limitations

• Radiant mind meditation for activating divine intellect

• The Hekate Seven-Rayed Crown and its connection to celestial bodies

• Deeper exploration of each Upper World epithet (Noeros, Kleidoukhos, Phosphoros)

• Integration practices for bringing celestial wisdom into embodied daily life

Key Questions

1. How does understanding Hekate’s complete three-realm nature change your relationship with her and your spiritual practice?

2. What conditioning around “heaven” or celestial realms do you need to release in order to fully access Hekate Ourania’s wisdom?

3. In what ways do you already experience synchronicity or cosmic consciousness in your life, and how might you deepen that connection?

Go to the Hekate of The Upper World Guidebook.

I hold firmly that everyone is entitled to their own experience of Hekate and other goddesses—there’s no singular “correct” way to envision the divine. An essential truth about Hekate: she is the connector, the threshold keeper who unlocks access to other goddesses and spiritual figures as we explore our life’s meaning and spiritual path. Hekate doesn’t possess a limiting ego; she doesn’t seek to control or confine her devotees. Instead, she encourages us to explore the vast deeper world to which she keeps the keys.

In creating this image, I merged the crone with Hekate’s triple nature. The first time I shared it, there was some negative pushback. Although controversial to some, exploring Hekate’s connection to the crone archetype has been a very meaningful experience for me.

I understand why Hekate can be perceived as a crone. She embodies wild wisdom and inhabits the threshold—the liminal space between worlds. The crone similarly occupies liminal territory. Like Hekate, crones are associated with magic and mystery. Hekate tends to restless spirits, helps us cross into the deeper world (and back), is associated with protecting children, and has been subjected to much denigration. Like Baba Yaga’s initiation of Vasilisa into womanhood, an ancient ritual was led by a prepubescent girl carrying a key. When examining Hekate’s ancient attributes—guiding souls, serving as divine midwife, protecting children, and practicing magic—these qualities resonate strongly with what might be called “crone energy.” While a few lesser-known myths depict her mothering her own children exist, she generally appears in ancient Greek stories as a wise woman associated with the natural world and spirits, dwelling in caves or gardens rather than cities.

Watch: Exploring Hekate and The Crone

This episode of the Keeping Her Keys Podcast is available wherever you get yours.

Hekate’s Ancient Origins

In ancient Greek religion, Hekate occupied the threshold. The Greeks didn’t place her within temples but stationed her at their entrances, though other regions like ancient Caria had Hekate-centered temples where she was honored as a great mother goddess. Hesiod, in his Theogony, which dates back to before classical Greece, describes her as a benevolent goddess who abides with humans, yet has free dominion over all the realms. To the Greeks specifically, she embodied the wise woman role appearing in myths and theatrical works. The monthly offerings to Hekate were delivered to the crossroads, not placed before an elegant altar in a temple. These were apotropaic, for like the crone Hekate’s protection was important, as was avoiding her displeasure.

Crucially, the ancient Greeks didn’t perceive Hekate as an old woman. Their worldview considered it impossible for the divine to assume the appearance of age. The gods and goddesses were portrayed as adults—somewhere between their late teens and forties—but never as elderly or as children. In ancient Caria, where she was revered as a great mother goddess, she would have been depicted as a mature woman rather than elderly—more developed than a maiden figure like Kore, but still within that adult range evident in surviving iconography. The contrast between ancient vases depicting Demeter, Persephone, and Hekate together reveals this understanding of the divine. Their differentiation comes through attire, symbols, and attributes—Hekate with her torches, positioned in the middle, mediating the relationship between Demeter and Persephone.

By looking at the history and artefacts, it makes sense that Hekate later on became seen as a crone or having crone-like superpowers. She connects souls to the afterlife, connects spirits to the waking world. Never part of the classical Greek pantheon, she was also an outsider, abiding in the boundaries between places and worlds. Herein is an other similarity with many of the crones of lore and legend. The fact that she didn’t typically have a male consort in myths – apart from her frequent companion of Hermes – reinforces her crone-like nature.

Hekate and Witches

Like the crones, hags and witches with which she became associated over the centuries, Hekate was dangerous because she was solitary. Hekate was connected to the natural world, from dogs – evidenced in Hecuba’s tale – to horses, lions, and serpents. Like the hags of folklore, she was of the natural world. Her association with magic comes from multiple sources, including ancient Greek literature and archeological finds of ancient spells, including magical gemstones, curse tablets, and a sort of ancient book of shadows, commonly known as The Greek Magical Papyri. An additional similarity shared with the crone comes from one of her obscure epithets, Presbeia, which translates as “ancient,” although to the ones who referred to her as such it didn’t refer to her physical appearance but that she was older than time. As with The Cailleach, she is of the natural world, not separated from it. Magic was rooted in this, from herbs to summoning spirits. Over time, as ideas about magic shifted, this connection became viewed as sinister, when it’s origins were anything but.

Hekate shares this derogatory transformation with many goddesses, such as Welsh Cerridwen and The Morrigan from Ireland. All three are associated with magic, thresholds and shapeshifting. Hekate and Cerridwen have often been depicted as elderly women in modern paganism, while The Morrigan, who did transform into a crone in different stories, is rarely so. Our images of goddesses is largely in the eyes of the beholders, yet I ponder why this is so. Culture and personal gnosis colors how we experience the divine, and it’s important to acknowledge this. Indeed, in the ancient Mediterranean, views about goddesses changed over time. When once Hekate’s triple nature – so unique among the Greek deities – perhaps referred to her governance over the three realms, her transformative powers, and her ability to offer protection by seeing in all directions, over time became a source for maligning her. Coupled with her rootedness in the natural world, her three forms depicted with animal characteristics, became evidence of her savageness.

Hekate’s association with magic, which had been a natural connection in previous times, became seen as malevolent over the centuries. Her role in magic, in a broader lens, may have been linked to her being a foreigner adopted by the Greeks rather than a native goddess. Like Baba Yaga living in the woods, Hekate was not part of the civilized world. Greek literature features many women who were connected to Hekate, such as Hecuba. It is perhaps her mentorship of witches that is most revealing, though. In Euripides’ Medea, this sorceress calls up Hekate to help with her spells, a theme that is repeated in other stories, including Circe in The Odyssey. As the centuries past, the Romans retold these tales, with Hekate and her witches becoming more hag-like and troublesome. When Christianity was made the state religion by the Romans starting in the fourth century CE, they entered into an era of state-sanctioned vilification of all things “pagan,” including Hekate and her witches.

Women who wove magic, even the healing kind, became hideous hags. By the middle ages, Hekate, in art and literature, is far removed from her ancient origins as a Great Mother. In the 17^th century play, The Witch by Thomas Middleton, she is an old hag that lives in a cave directly, which may have been inspired by the Homeric Hymn to Demeter where she lives in a cave. In this play she is a saucy, spicy troublesome crone. With Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote this version of Hekate into his enduring play, influencing how she was seen even to this day.

Hekate endures throughout the centuries, yet her depiction changes. How do we make sense of 3,000 years of history? We’ve redefined witch and witchcraft so much in the past 50 years, plus there has been so much reclaiming of the divine feminine. I believe Hekate shows herself to us as she wills, whether it’s a hunched back hag or a giant triple goddess. There’s magic in that.

Hekate as Psychopomp: The Soul Guide

Psychopomp is certainly an aspect of like the crone that Hekate shares. The guiding of souls throughout their lives, to and from the afterlife, is a common theme in many crone stories. At times, she shows up, like in Medea, to support the hero, which can be viewed as another type of psychopompery. There’s also her very real connection with spirits. When Hekate comes to us, she offers the keys of transformation, magic, and awakening of our own mystical talents. She may scare the life into us, offering a rattling key to a new journey – here in the crone’s country – that shakes us out of our stuckness. Not to the hero’s journey of conquest and glory, but onto the crooked path of her mysteries. At times, my understanding of Hekate has drawn harsh criticism, such as connecting her to the crone. If there’s one key she’s given me that I will always cherish it is that of unlocking my own truth. There are legitimate similarities between Hekate and the archetype of the crone. These offer the possibility of centering her and ourselves within the vast landscape of the crone’s territory.

Crossroads and Choices

Hekate is always centered in the crossroads. There’s a choice to be made. As we age, we make choices that are more attuned to who we are. In examining Hekate’s established attributes, such as guiding souls and magic, we see the potential in the keys she offers. With burning torches lighting the threshold, she lights the way. Yet Hekate not only offers keys but also ignites our own torches so that our journey can highlight the value of the crooked journey for others. In my experience, Hekate, very much like how she guided Persephone to and from the underworld, companions us as we explore our own depths. Her millennia-old association with the dark moon, which was the night when suppers were left for her at the crossroads, speaks to it’s rising in the crone’s country, reflecting upon us the world beyond mortal existence. Perhaps this is the one insistence of Hekate that I’ve come to know: that we make the most of this life.

I’m taking a break from the podcast and other public-facing activities for the new few months while I work on my new book.

I’ll be teaching a six-month long course diving deeper into my book, ⁠Entering Hekate’s Cauldron,⁠ starting May 1. Go to ⁠keepingherkeys.com⁠ for more details.

If you’re interested in the crone, consider joining the Destination Crone course. ⁠LEARN MORE HERE.

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Hekate embodies wild wisdom and inhabits the threshold—the space between worlds. The crone similarly occupies liminal territory. Like Hekate, crones are associated with magic and mystery. Hekate tends to restless spirits, helps us cross into the deeper world (and back), is associated with protecting children, and has been subjected to much denigration. When examining Hekate’s ancient attributes—guiding souls, serving as divine midwife, protecting children, and practicing magic—these qualities resonate strongly with what might be called “crone energy.” While a few lesser-known myths depict her mothering her own children, she generally appears in ancient Greek stories as a wise woman associated with the natural world and spirits, dwelling in caves or gardens rather than cities.

I'm taking a break from the podcast and other public-facing activities for the new few months while I work on my new book.

I'll be teaching a six-month long course diving deeper into my book, Entering Hekate's Cauldron, starting May 1. Go to keepingherkeys.com for more details.

If you're interested in the crone, consider joining the Destination Crone course. LEARN MORE HERE.

You can read an in-depth article exploring Hekate and The Crone on my SUBSTACK.