Brannen Cyndi - Entering Hekates Cave

Entering Hekate's Cave by Cyndi Brannen is the book on shadow work I wish I had years ago. Brannen seamlessly blends the craft of a witch with the therapeutic goals of cocreating healthy mental spaces. I loved seeing how she aligns the benefits of crystals with the tougher parts of that internal journey. I will be coming back to this book for years to come.

Amy Blackthorn, priestess of Hekate and author of
Blackthorn's Botanical Wellness

Cyndi Brannen's best book yet, Entering Hekate's Cave, blends the practical and psychological with the transcendent and magical to help you journey to the deepest part of the psyche and truly know thyself. With rising interest in shadow work, this is just the book we needtimely, sensitive, well-researched, and rooted in lived experience.

Nicholas Pearson, author of Crystal Basics and Stones of the Goddess

With Entering Hekate's Cave, Dr. Brannen has firmly placed herself among the great psychospiritual researchers and teachers of our timethis book can rest proudly on the shelf alongside titles by Jean Shinoda Bolen, Marion Woodman, and James Hillman. With this work, Brannen secures her placeand Hekate'samong the best resources for trauma-sensitive and spiritually oriented healing for our times.

Carmen Spagnola, RCH, somatic trauma recovery practitioner
and author of The Spirited Kitchen

Cyndi Brannen takes us on a journey of the soul in her book Entering Hekate's Cave. In this masterful tome, we follow Hekate's guidance as we look into our shadow selves so that we may transform our spirit and step into our personal power. This book gives us a world of information and practical techniques that will help the reader connect with Hekate and her various epithets, each giving us strength to fully embrace our inner light.

Chris Allaun, author of A Guide of Spirits

In Entering Hekate's Cave, Cyndi Brannen offers a unique view and approach to the necessary spiritual work of soul healing and becoming whole. She not only succeeds in providing the reader with the means to do that but also does so from a distinctly Hekatean perspective. In fact, the book's guidance harkens back to experiences and gnosis I underwent myself in the early stages of my devotional relationship with Hekate. Beyond the confines of tradition or history, Brannen manages to marry ancient wisdom and modern innovation. This book will be especially valuable to those who engage with their spirituality from a psychological aspect, though most everyone would be well served by Brannen's work.

Stefanos Chelydoreus, author and creator of
The Greek Witch and The Equine Serpent

With Entering Hekate's Cave, Cyndi Brannen has once more shown herself to be a teacher, guide, and priestess of deep unfolding. This book leads us through the most integral part of the journey that we must all explore if we seek to heal ourselves whole. Step by step, Cyndi guides us through Hekate's Cave, reclaiming the fragmented parts of souls, our integral power, and the capacity to know and understand intimately the potency of Hekate's many aspects. Through ritual and sacred practices, the reader will find deep transformation and healing on each and every page.

Elena Rego, creator and owner of The Witches Box
and The Holy Witch

With a powerful but kind voice, Cyndi Brannen has given devotees of Hekate a gorgeous tool for exploring the mysteries of the Goddess to an even greater depth. Wisdom, beauty, and strengthall are found in this excellent book.

Courtney Weber, author of Hekate: Goddess of Witches

This edition first published in 2023 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 2023 by Cyndi Brannen

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: 978-1-57863-791-1

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

Cover design by Sky Peck Design

Illustrations on courtesy of Margie Stingley

Illustrations on courtesy of Cyndi Brannen

Illustrations on courtesy of Cyndi Brannen and Margie Stingley

Interior by Debby Dutton

Typeset in Adobe Garamond and Incognito

Printed in Canada

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None of the immortal gods or mortal folk heard her cry, nor the olives shining with fruitexcept the daughter of Perses, tenderhearted Hekate, veiled in light, heard from her cave...

from The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, The Homeric
Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes by Diane J.
Rayor (Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature)

To those who have journeyed through darkness with me.

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.

There is a saying that goes: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. This phrase is often labeled as Buddhist. However, the more likely origins of the quote lie in Theosophy, a school of thought that has been greatly influential in modern spirituality. The passage can be traced back to a treatise by Mabel Collins entitled Light on the Path, first published in 1885. In it, she writes:

To hear the Voice of the Silence is to understand that from within comes the only true guidance; to go to the Hall of Learning is to enter the state in which learning becomes possible. Then will many words be written there for thee and written in fiery letters for thee easily to read. For when the disciple is ready, the Master is ready also.