Book Review: The Many Gods Anthologies Volume I: Hekate edited by Vikki Bramshaw

Book Review: The Many Gods Anthologies Volume I: Hekate edited by Vikki Bramshaw

By Lisa May Enodia

The Many Gods Anthologies Volume I: Hekate, edited by Vikki Bramshaw, is a rich and varied collection that brings together different approaches to Hekate through scholarship, devotion, myth, place, personal experience, and contemporary polytheist thought. It is not trying to present one fixed image of the goddess. Instead, it offers a gathered circle of perspectives, which feels entirely appropriate for Hekate.

Hekate has always stood at the meeting point of many roads. She is a goddess of thresholds, torches, keys, spirits, magic, protection, liminality and transformation. She is also a goddess whose modern revival has drawn together people from different traditions and backgrounds: witches, polytheists, scholars, devotees, ritualists, reconstructionist-minded researchers, spirit workers and those who meet her through personal experience.

This anthology reflects that diversity very well.

Edited by Vikki Bramshaw, the volume includes contributions from writers such as Sorita d’Este, Emily Carding, Ness Bosch, B. P. Shoop, Francine Derschner, Carrie Kirkpatrick, Christina Moraiti, Karin Rainbird and Larry Phillips, among others. The subjects range widely, from Hekate in Iberia and Brazil to Shakespeare, Medea, the Ephesian Letters, dream and oracle work, the Orphic Hymn, living Orphic tradition, signs, numbers and modern devotional practice.

For me, the book's great strength is that it refuses to flatten Hekate into a single modern image. In popular witchcraft, she is often reduced to the dark goddess, the crone, the witch queen, the underworld goddess, or the patroness of crossroads. Those images are not meaningless, but they are not enough. This anthology gives space to a broader Hekate - one who is encountered in household devotion, sacred geography, dream, theatre, myth, ancestry, magic, signs, scholarship and lived religious experience.

That breadth matters.

Sorita d’Este’s contribution, “Many Named and Many Faced Goddess”, is especially valuable as a broad introduction to Hekate’s complexity. It reminds the reader that Hekate is not only one thing, but a goddess of many roles: protector, guide, companion, saviour, guardian of the young, guide of the restless dead, and goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. It sets a useful tone for the anthology by opening the field rather than narrowing it.

Emily Carding’s essay, “Sacred Shakespeare: The Creation of Hekate Genesis”, brings another distinctive angle. Hekate’s presence in theatre, performance and Shakespearean imagination is not always given enough attention, but it belongs naturally in a book concerned with how the goddess moves through story, art and ritualised space. Carding’s work helps show how Hekate can be approached through dramatic creation as well as through the temple, text, or the crossroads.

Ness Bosch’s “Iberia at the Crossroads” and Francine Derschner’s “Hekate and the Brazilian Crossroads” are also important because they widen the geographical lens. Hekate’s ancient roots matter, but her modern presence is not confined to one place or one cultural setting. These essays help show how Hekate’s worship and symbolism continue to travel, adapt and take root in different landscapes.

The material connected with Medea is another highlight. B. P. Shoop’s “Entering the Temple of Medea: Hero Cult, Spiritual Ancestry and Hekatean Devotion” brings together mythic inheritance, devotional practice and spiritual ancestry in a way that feels very fitting for Hekate. Medea is one of the great magical figures associated with Hekate, and any serious conversation about Hekate’s mythic and magical reach benefits from engaging with her.

Carrie Kirkpatrick’s “Hecate Dreams and Oracles” speaks to another part of Hekatean experience that many devotees will recognise. Hekate often comes through liminal perception: dreams, signs, night images, intuitive knowing and moments when the ordinary world seems to open slightly. The inclusion of dream and oracle material gives the anthology a more living quality. It recognises that Hekate is not only studied through ancient texts, but also encountered through experience.

The essays on Orphic material are also significant. Christina Moraiti’s work on the Orphic Hymn to Hekate and Karin Rainbird’s contribution on Hekate in the living Orphic tradition both help anchor the book in older devotional and ritual language while also showing how those traditions continue to speak to modern practitioners. The Orphic Hymn remains one of the most important ancient devotional texts for Hekate, so its presence here is essential.

Sorita d’Este’s essay on the Ephesian Letters adds another strong thread, connecting Hekatean study with ancient magical language, amuletic traditions and the wider world of Mediterranean magic. This is one of the areas where the anthology becomes especially interesting for readers who want more than general devotion. It points back to the older magical currents in which Hekate appears as a goddess of power, protection and sacred utterance.

Larry Phillips’ “Signs and Numbers of Hekate” brings yet another perspective, looking at the symbolic patterns through which devotees and magical practitioners often understand her presence. Numbers, signs and correspondences are not the whole of Hekate, but they can become part of the language through which people recognise and approach her.

This variety is exactly what makes the anthology work. A single-author book can go deep along one path, but an anthology can show the crossing itself. Different writers bring different methods, experiences and areas of knowledge. Some chapters are more research-based. Others are more devotional, reflective or experiential. Some look to ancient sources, while others speak from modern encounter. Together they create a many-sided portrait.

The book also addresses an important aspect of modern Hekatean devotion: the relationship between history and personal gnosis. Contemporary Pagan and polytheist practice often lives in that space. We look back to ancient evidence - hymns, cults, inscriptions, magical texts, symbols and myths - but we also pay attention to how the goddess is encountered now. This anthology allows those two modes to sit beside each other without forcing them into conflict.

That is one of its strengths.

Hekate’s ancient evidence matters. Her names, symbols, myths and cultic traces matter. But devotion is not only an archaeological exercise. Religion is lived by people, and Hekate is clearly being encountered, honoured, questioned and interpreted by people today. The Many Gods Anthologies Volume I: Hekate gives the reader a glimpse of that living field.

As with any anthology, not every contribution will speak to every reader in the same way. That is normal. Some pieces may feel immediately useful; others may open a door to a subject the reader had not considered before. Some may be read devotionally, others as research prompts. This variation is not a weakness. For a goddess of many roads, it is fitting.

What I appreciate most is that the anthology does not treat Hekate as a trend or a flat occult image. It recognises her as ancient, complex and still very much alive in modern religious imagination. She appears here as a goddess of crossroads, yes, but also of theatre, dream, household, diaspora, magical speech, mythic ancestry, Orphic devotion and symbolic pattern.

That makes the book useful besides more source-based studies. Hekate Liminal Rites gives readers a strong historical and symbolic foundation. Circle for Hekate expands the mythological and historical field. Hekate Soteira takes the reader into Chaldean and philosophical material. The Many Gods Anthologies Volume I: Hekate offers something different: a gathered set of contemporary voices, each adding another road into the goddess’s mysteries.

In the end, this anthology is valuable because it gives readers a sense of Hekate’s reach. She is not limited to one country, one ritual style, one theology or one kind of devotee. She is approached through scholarship and devotion, myth and place, ancient sources and modern signs, art and dream, crossroads and home.

For anyone seriously interested in Hekate - whether as a devotee, witch, researcher, polytheist, occultist or student of modern Paganism - this book deserves attention. It is a many-voiced offering for a many-named goddess, and that makes it both useful and fitting.

Highly recommended for readers who want Hekate with depth, variety, devotion, research and living presence.

Available from Avalonia directly, from the usual online bookstores, your local Pagan store, and also as a Kindle eBook for convenience.