Courtney Weber - Hekate: Goddess of Witches

PRAISE FOR HEKATE: GODDESS OF WITCHES

With insight growing from roots in history and tradition, and a voice unafraid to share personal experience, Courtney Weber uses these keys to open the gate to the mystery that is Hekate. She is an excellent guide to help the reader develop their own relationship to the Goddess of Witches as she shares her own beautiful journey with Hekate. Christopher Penczak, cofounder of the Temple of Witchcraft and author of The Mighty Dead and The Outer Temple of Witchcraft

Hekate is a Goddess whose interaction with humans spans many centuries, many cultures, and nations. She is both the center and the circumference, the crossroads of liminality and the soul of the world, and despite a myriad of epithets she is not contained in any name. It is a bold and risky thing to try to describe her in a book. To do so is to invite Hekate's close scrutiny. Having read Courtney Weber's Hekate: Goddess of Witches, I believe that it pleases Hekate. This book is deeply personal, scholarly, practical, entertaining, sobering, and given as a heartfelt invitation to those who seek Hekate. It is a book for witches, those who would be witches, and for those trying to find their way back to their magick. It is a book that does not tell you what to do, but, like Hekate, it lights a torch, gives you the keys, and nudges you out to find your own way. Ivo Dominguez Jr., author of The Four Elements of the Wise and Spirit Speak

Hekate is the perfect crossroads where three different roads meet: historical, mythological, and magickal. Courtney Weber preserves the rich and often confusing history of this complex multi-named, many-faced deity, while also incorporating her into a practical and modern witchcraft practice. Throughout these pages, you will learn how to connect, honor, and petition the ancient torch-bearing Titaness of witchery with beautifully crafted and soul-stirring spells and prayers. Mat Auryn, author of Psychic Witch

Courtney Weber's lovingly produced Hekate does not merely discuss the Goddess of Witches. It also speaks to what her worship entails and how rewarding that worship is. This book features the words of modern priestesses as well as those from ancient sources. Hekate is found in liminal spaces: if you hear the call of the torch, the key, the dog, or the moon, you'll learn how to answer that call within these pages. Amy Blackthorn, priestess of Hekate and author of Blackthorn's Botanical Magic

I absolutely love this book! Courtney Weber has done an exceptional job of bringing us into the world of Hekate, Key Keeper and Goddess of the Crossroads, who opens doors, guards, and protects with her black dogs. Now, if I choose to work with her, I have a solid foundation upon which to build a loving, respectful, and sincere relationship with her. A new way to enter into the Crossroads of Magick. Najah Lightfoot, author of Good Juju

From ancient temples to modern altars, Hekate is a goddess whose worship has stood the test of time. In Hekate, Courtney Weber guides us to a new crossroads where the paths of history and Courtney's own personal experience intersect with our own. You do not have to be a witch to find the truth in these pages. Courtney's deep devotion to Hekate and sacred casual writing style make this sometimes intimidating and elusive goddess accessible to us all. Melody Wingfield, creator of The WitchQueen Project podcast

Courtney Weber delivers a haunting and powerful portrayal of Hekate for readers of all experience levels that is well researched and full of personal insight. Even after twenty-plus years of working with this beloved goddess, I found new information that I was able to add immediately to my practice, and that makes this book worth its weight in gold. Devin Hunter, author of The Witch's Book of Spirits

This edition first published in 2021 by Weiser Books, an imprint of
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2021 by Courtney Weber
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-716-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover and interior design by Kathryn Sky-Peck
Cover art Wojciech Zwoliski/Cambion Art
Hekate illustration Laura Tempest Zakroff
Typeset in Arno Pro

Printed in the United States of America

IBI

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

Hekate by Laura Tempest Zakroff

For Sarah, Tamrha, and Wilson: my keys to Hekate

For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honor comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her.

HESIOD, 700 BCE

Triple Hecate, you who know all our undertakings,
and come, to aid the witches' art, and all our incantations.

OVID, METAMORPHOSES

I was deep into a hot and lonely summer when I met Hekate.

Nineteen years old and desperate to get out of town, I'd taken an unpaid apprenticeship at a theater company as far on the opposite coast as I could go. But it was my first time away from home, and I struggled with surprising homesickness. In my spare time, trying to fill hard, isolated hours, I read my first Witchcraft book. I was enthralled. For the first time, I found a label that described me: someone who spoke with spirits, had prophetic dreams, and found more of the divine at the ocean than in a church. I was a Witch. Many traditions of Witchcraft, I quickly learned, involved devotion to a goddess. But I didn't know what that meant. It scared me a little.

The meeting happened after a cast party. I wasn't feeling very socialat least not for human companionship, anyway. I walked outside with a plastic glass of wine. I don't recall if the moon was full, a quarter, or a sliver, but I remember that something on that dark, sticky night felt different. It was as though the moon looked right at me, perhaps as if it had been waiting for me.

I raised my wine to the moon and said, Okay. I'm yours.

It's the simple moments that really change us. I didn't know it then, but I was meeting Hekatethe goddess of the crossroads, of the moon, of ghosts and crops, and of Witches.

In the nearly twenty years since that unassuming but powerful night, I've honored Hekate in rituals both intimate and packed. I've sought her to bless deceased loved ones, and sung her songs when euthanizing beloved pets. I prayed to her in the thin hours of the morning when our new, frightened puppy howled. I have ordained two priestesses dedicated to this strange and wonderful goddess, and have witnessed how she has transformed their lives.