{"id":40,"date":"2016-04-09T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T11:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/04\/book-review-hekate-liminal-rites.html"},"modified":"2018-01-24T13:33:30","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T03:33:30","slug":"book-review-hekate-liminal-rites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/04\/book-review-hekate-liminal-rites.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review – Hekate Liminal Rites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\"Hekate<\/a><\/div>\n

Hekate Liminal Rites: A study of the rituals, magic and symbols of the torch-bearing Triple-Goddess of the Crossroads,
\n\u2013 by Sorita d\u2019Este & David Rankine.<\/p>\n

Honoured by men, women and gods alike, traces of her ancient provenance reach back through the millennia providing clues about her nature and origins along the way. Depictions of her as three formed facing in three ways, sometimes with the heads of animals such as the horse, dog and snake hint at her liminal nature, as well as the powers she holds over the triple realms of earth, sea and sky. The sorcery of Medea and Circe, the witchcraft of the women of Thessaly, the writings of philosophers such as Hesiod and Porphyry all provide glimpses into the world of those who honoured her. Her magical powers were considered so great that even King Solomon became associated with her, she was incorporated into Jewish magic, and merged with other goddesses including Artemis, Selene, Bendis and the Egyptian Isis. Whilst for some she was the Witch Goddess, for others she was the ruler of angels and daimons, who made predictions about Jesus and Christianity. Wherever you look, be it in the texts of Ancient Greece and Rome, Byzantium or the Renaissance, the Greek Magical Papyri or the Chaldean Oracles, you will find Hekate.<\/i><\/p>\n

This book is extremely well sourced. \u00a0Sorita and David really did their research in this, reading even texts that, by their titles, don\u2019t suggest they would hold information about Hekate, and yet they do. \u00a0Personally, I wouldn\u2019t want to try reading all of those texts, trying to find snippets and vague mentions and fuzzy connections. \u00a0Kudos to them for having the patience to do so.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Liminal Rites is about what it says it\u2019s about \u2013 the history of Hekates connections with magic, her symbols and rituals. \u00a0There is a lot of information to take in \u2013 I will probably need to read it a few times to really get most of it to stick. \u00a0What made it a little difficult to keep track of all the information, for me, is that the work is about a history that spans over a thousand years \u2013 and yet it doesn\u2019t seek to be even remotely chronological.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not really set up to be chronological, it\u2019s set up to go by subject. \u00a0But within those subjects, a little bit more attention to the order of the timeline would have been a little helpful. \u00a0It would have helped with understanding how, or when, certain changes occurred in who and what Hekate is.<\/p>\n

One minute she has vegetarian devotees, next minute all the animals are sacrificed to her \u2013 even lizards are mushed up to make incense! \u00a0When did this change occur? The book does talk about the change, but it doesn\u2019t really discuss the how or when. \u00a0But then again, perhaps it can\u2019t. \u00a0Not all information is available to us now, so it might be impossible to know. \u00a0Still, a bit more chronology would have been helpful in such areas.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s really my only issue with the book. \u00a0And even in that\u2026 Lizards are crushed up to make incense! Now there is some interesting knowledge for you. \u00a0And that\u2019s not all the book contains in interesting knowledge. \u00a0Obviously a large amount of it is well known, especially to Hellenics and Hekate Devotees. \u00a0But some of that information just isn\u2019t something you find readily available.<\/p>\n

Is the information in the book really all that helpful to actually being a Devotee of Hekate though? \u00a0Yes and no. \u00a0Some of it certainly is \u2013 symbols and why those symbols matter may make you reconsider your usage or non-usage of certain things. \u00a0Information, more snippets really, of old rituals and spells and ingredients used therein are also of course helpful. \u00a0Sometimes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible though in other areas. \u00a0We don\u2019t even know what that cake\/bread like food was, so how can we use it now in our offerings? We can\u2019t. \u00a0We can know that breads and cakes may be acceptable, but we don\u2019t know exactly which ones. \u00a0Which is okay really, we can\u2019t have all the information handed to us \u2013 some things we just need to figure out ourselves.<\/p>\n

So, overall\u2026<\/p>\n

A good and useful book. \u00a0About as fun to read as any reference book is, not very, but that\u2019s expected and doesn\u2019t detract from the usefulness of the book. \u00a0It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s rare to find something that is. \u00a0Could be better in some ways, but honestly, they must have put a lot of work into this book \u2013 so I can\u2019t really fault them on not catering to my own personal desires.<\/p>\n

If you are a Devotee of Hekate, or work with Hekate at times, or just want to learn about her \u2013 then this book is a must read. \u00a0Simple as that.<\/p>\n

This book is, handily, available in ebook format for a good price.
\nAmerican Amazon Ebook<\/a>
\nAustralian Amazon Ebook<\/a>
\nBook Depository Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hekate Liminal Rites: A study of the rituals, magic and symbols of the torch-bearing Triple-Goddess of the Crossroads, \u2013 by Sorita d\u2019Este & David Rankine. Honoured by men, women and gods alike, traces of her ancient provenance reach back through the millennia providing clues about her nature and origins along the way. Depictions of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":82,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5],"tags":[7,6,8,9],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hellenism","category-multimedia","category-resources-and-material","tag-book-review","tag-books","tag-hekate","tag-hellenismos"],"yoast_head":"\nBook Review - Hekate Liminal Rites<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hekate Liminal Rites: A study of the rituals, magic and symbols of the torch-bearing Triple-Goddess of the Crossroads, - by Sorita d'Este & David\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/04\/book-review-hekate-liminal-rites.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review - 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