Hekate Liminal Rites: A historical study of the rituals, spells and magic of the Torch-bearing Triple Goddess of the Crossroads (Greek & Anatolian Goddesses) Kindle Edition

When people ask me what book they should read to learn more about Hekate, Sorita d’Este and David Rankine’s Hekate Liminal Rites: A Study of the Rituals, Magic and Symbols of the Torch-Bearing Triple Goddess of the Crossroads is always my first recommendation. In my opinion it is the best historical crash-course on Hekate that there is. Coming in at only 194 pages, the book is short but packed with accurate information. The authors cover Hekate throughout the ages from some of her pre-Greek origins to the Hekate of the Classical Era to Hekate Soteira of the Chaldean Oracles to Hekate of the Greek Magical Papyri. The power of this book is it’s broad scope and the authors’ ability to easily convey areas of research in an extremely understandable manner with a clear writing style.The book covers some of her main symbols and animals and their significance, historical spells and offerings as well as devotes of hers both historical and mythical. Diving into the Greek Magical Papyri or the Chaldean Oracles can be difficult for someone new to Hekate. Works that focus on Hekate in one era of history like Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature by Sarah Illes Johnston or Hekate in Ancient Greek Religion by Robert Von Rudloff, while fantastic as well, can be a bit inaccessible, complicated and confusing for someone completely new to Hekate. The authors do a great job of providing a quick, accurate and informative platform for the seeker to have enough of a crash-course in these areas to start exploring other texts that dive a bit deeper on Hekate.

Hekate is has emerged as one of the most popular Goddess figures in the New Age Revival. I was drawn to her mystery, her darkness and her wisdom, but I was lacking in actual knowledge of her background and origins. I applaud Sorita d'Este and David Rankine for their thorough research into the history of this fascinating Goddess. Quoting and drawing from The Chaldean Oracles and other ancient writings, Sorita really helps form a more complete picture of Hekate rather than just "The Dark Goddess". I personally found myself having a better understanding of Hekate's wisdom, power, and even sense of humor.A wonderful read that is well written and organized. Definitely a must read for anyone who works with The Lady of Crossroads, or even just has a historical interest in Her.

For purely information-related concerns, I can't fault Luminal Rites. I learned a wide array of fascinating facts, and I enjoyed finding out the history surrounding Hekate, her potential origins, and her worshipers. I am almost tempted to give the book five stars.However, d'Este and Rankine have a problem as writers: they need help with their grammar and occasionally their organization. As an English instructor and freelance editor, I couldn't help noticing the grammatical errors, most of which were comma errors. These ranged from the occasional fused sentence or comma splice to the often random, misplaced comma (e.g., a comma randomly thrown in before a verb, like this: I, stopped my car). There were enough such errors to distract me. Seeing as how I live in the U.S. and not the UK, I won't make any judgments on what I experienced as diction oddities. I'm well aware that American English and British English are drifting further and further apart in word choice and word use. However, I don't believe for a moment that British English puts commas between subjects and verbs, such as "I, ran."I suppose my frustration--other than the result of having to reread several sentences in order to make sense of them--is in part due to the fact that the publisher, Avalonia, should have editors on staff, and yet they clearly don't. Or, if they do, they should be fired.The other problem I experienced was misplaced information in a chapter, which resulted in confusion, and even one chapter that changed topics and never finished discussing the topic in its title. Several paragraphs contained two or more topics, which for the reader leads to confusion or to a sense that the writer is rambling. An editor could have fixed that in short order, especially in the case of the chapter that didn't cover its proposed topic.All the critiques aside, I'm not sorry I bought this book. d'Este and Rankine are clearly passionate about their work, and they provided me with a wide berth of knowledge about Hekate. For that, I'm profoundly grateful.

Great! These magicians (and modern priests of Hekate) have put together a wonderful resource for study. It's not a how-to, an 'Instagram witch' manual, fanfic, UPG, made up, horror show, or anything but good old research on this ancient multifaceted Goddess & her possible origins. However, their speculations and the connections they make are very exciting... never seen them before. They literally list their sources from 9th century BC on up. There are some epithets that you can absolutely use right now, and many more resources such as herbs and roots listed in Classical material. Because they are magicians, the authors know what threads are exciting and juicy to follow. Sorita d'Este is a long time, real deal modern practitioner whose original book is excellent, despite its spawning loads of terrible books by others later down the road... the power of Hekate's appeal. This and 'Rotting Goddess' by Jacob Rabinowitz are my go-to research books. They reveal much more of Hekate's THREE and more ways - such as the heavenly and celestial - than you may have previously known about.

I really enjoyed this book. Hekate is an extremely important and mysterious goddess, who had so much respect around the world. This book breaks down her role within the divine feminine archetype. Her influence and power is much respected.

The author primarily kept their bias on other religions out of this book, which I greatly appreciated. David had researched Our Lady Hecate very well and his resources were also very reliable.I would recommend this to any Hellenic Reconstructionist out there.

Was sent real fast which is good because I needed it for a reading group. Really informative book on Hekate.

I found this book factual but exhausting to read. although I did perserver and finished the book it was not an enjoyable read.

I loved everything about this book,great

Wish i'd saved my money and done a google search instead. Very disappointed with the book. No meat on the bones, so to speak, with regard to the various chapters.

Shipped promptly and arrived safely. Thank you!John