Entering Hekate's Cave

November 7, 2022
Hekate, the Greek “Mother Goddess,” can help readers emotionally heal, contends spiritual teacher Brannen (Keeping Her Keys) in this abstruse outing. Brannen outlines vague advice on how symbols and metaphors associated with Hekate can help readers get in touch with their intuition and emotions. Lambasting “toxic positivity” for discouraging self-reflection, she urges readers to instead “descend into our depths” to face the trauma and depression that reside there, an abstract interiority she calls “Hekate’s domain” because of the goddess’s reputation as the “soul of the world.” Brannen entreats readers to shed their burdens and “break free of what has barred us from transcending into our own sacredness,” but offers little practical advice on how to do so. The guidance she does provide is entirely in a metaphorical register, and while the author warns readers to “resist demanding literalness,” it remains frustratingly opaque how one is supposed to follow such suggestions as “enter into the mercy of Psychopomp,” let alone how doing so leads to “soul retrieval.” Additionally, her attribution of addiction, borderline personality disorder, and PTSD to “soul loss” oversimplifies. Muddled by dream logic and hazy recommendations, this leaves much to be desired.