For years I had worked with and studied under the goddess Astarte and knew her by many different names, symbols, and epithets. Studying her mysteries and teachings was my whole world, and despite encountering and studying many other divine beings along the way, she was ultimately who I answered to at the end of each day.
Every day of my life, she was on my mind. I saw her in nature, music, art, food, animals, and kind people. With her, I felt emotions so raw and intense that I became gentler and more compassionate while simultaneously becoming stronger and less compromising on who I am at my core. Her eyes allowed me to see time differently, awakened a deep love for humanity, and gave me a new outlook on my own existence.
I was devoted to her and knew her as the Lady, the Great Goddess, the Queen of the Cosmos, the Ruler of Heaven, the Canaanite Woman, Lady Wisdom, and the original Holy Spirit. Often I saw her in the astral, and she would show me things more beautiful and breathtaking than my human mind could fathom.
In the astral, she looked like the most gorgeous divine feminine goddess you could imagine, robed in the cosmos themselves, every wrinkle of fabric cloaking her appearance as though it was woven out of the galaxies themselves. Somehow she embodied the whole universe in a personified form and I’ll most likely never be able to fully wrap my mind around it.
One particular night in the astral realm, I found myself somewhere new. I didn’t recall venturing into this place before. It was darker than other realms, as though it were dusk entering into the night. Beautiful columns and pillars rose up out of the ground around me and a cobblestone path laid under my feet.
I found myself wandering through ancient ruins with greenery overtaking much of the stone remnants. Every step I took revealed more forestry surroundings until I was in the center of a large circle of pillars. Spinning to take in every detail, I caught my breath when I realized I wasn’t alone.
A towering dark goddess stood just out of my reach. Her hood was drawn obscuring most of her facial features. Confused, I uttered the name of the goddess I’d long been familiar with—only to be sharply interrupted and abrasively corrected—
“HEH-KAH-TAY,” she hissed at me. The vibration of her voice boomed but it wasn’t an audible tone to be heard through the ears but rather a deep spiritual reverberation of what I can only explain as telepathic communication. My chest heaved at the mental “sound” and my mind spiraled trying to make sense of who this was.
It wasn’t a name I’d heard of before at the time. All I knew at that moment: this wasn’t the goddess I’d been working with for so long. This was someone entirely new to me and she commanded respect.
Stepping towards me, she insisted that we had much work to do and not a lot of time. She began teaching me the art of shapes and their form. She taught me about runes and sigils, and how to combine them to create entirely new magickal configurations. I practiced drawing shape after shape after shape as she hovered behind me demanding I start over with each mistake I inevitably made.
“Again,” she would say. Again. Again. Again. And over and over, I would create. I would craft. I would practice. And over and over, she would fine-tune everything I made until it was the most powerful and accurate magickal structure it could be.
I spent what felt like months, years, and decades of “time” with this goddess learning her magickal rites in this liminal place. The relationship we developed felt like a rekindling of a connection that had already matured over lifetimes of work, but I still felt uncertain as to who she was. All I knew was that she was wonderful, I trusted her with my life, and she was teaching me things my heart had long been drawn to.
Upon waking up, I remembered every detail of the experience. I felt confused about time and realized only a few hours had passed since I’d originally fallen asleep. Wide awake, I pulled out my phone to do a Google search on this new goddess I had encountered.
I typed in: “heckatay goddess” — and my phone was flooded with results for Hecate or Hekate, the Greek Goddess of witchcraft, magic, and ghosts. Stunned that she was a real goddess and the name I had heard in the astral/dream state had proven to be legitimate, I felt a rush of emotions. I was in awe, fearful, worried, and yet my deep dive into who this goddess was began.
“When we are at a crossroads, or already in the Underworld, Hekate can rise up out of the deeper world, showing up in the cracks of our lives. She sends her emissaries—angels and hungry ghosts alike—to do her bidding. They occupy our dreams, invade our imaginations, and drop their uncanny hints until we pay them heed.”Entering Hekate’s Cave, Cyndi Brannen
And that’s exactly what she did—and I was paying attention.
My research led me to an understanding of her as a primordial being, though many venerate her as a titan goddess. I discovered her roots ran far deeper than Greece, and that she was likely originally known to the Sumerian-Babylonian and Mesopotamian people, all of whom are closely connected to the Great Goddess, Astarte/Asherah that I had been venerating for so long as an original symbol of the Holy Spirit. Many of her symbols connected to things I had long loved and identified as sacred, such as snakes and the moon. As I came across her connection to wisdom and her epithet as the cosmic world soul, I realized that she truly was very much a part of the goddess Astarte I already knew and loved, but her role amongst the realm of divine beings was over the liminal space that connected the spiritual cosmic realm of Astarte to the human realm we all abided in.
“Hekate, as Anima Mundi, the soul of all the world, is the origin of all the forces and spirits. Hekate is not viewed as an embodied favor-granting goddess, but rather as the primal source. From the Anima Mundi flow the seven sacred forces of the Three Worlds and the four elements. These forces are the master forces in which all others, including the spirit of each botanical are nested.”Entering Hekate’s Garden, Cyndi Brannen
Hekate was everything I had already been aiming to embody in my devotion to Astarte, so welcoming her insight into my studies and life came naturally. It felt right. It felt necessary. And it was a defining moment, that changed everything and transformed me into the spiritual practitioner I am today. Hekate empowered me to begin the journey of taking everything I’d been learning from Astarte and practically applying it to help both myself and others.
“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.
She has returned.
Answer her call.
The time is now.
Speak the truth. Be healed.”
—Entering Hekate’s Cave, Cyndi Brannen