Book review
"Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate's Modern Witchcraft" by Cyndi Brannen
This book is meant as a course for 13 moon cycles – with 13 lessons and a self-initiatory ritual at the end. Each lesson isn‘t too complicated on its own and also easy to read, so all of them are easy to fit into one month. In every lesson, there are exercises included. The author suggests to have one daily hour devoted to one‘s practice, e.g. with meditations, rituals, prayers or other things. Depending on your personal schedule and your life circumstances, I guess this can be difficult. There is a good chapter in the end about writing your own spells, and in other chapters there are interesting information about grounding and centering, divination, Hekate‘s wheel of the year and correspondences (e.g. herbs, crystals, colours…) The chapter about self-initiation is interesting, too and there is a script for a guided meditation/journey included (which may best be used if you record it or have someone else read it too you). There is also a test for self-evaluation included, covering all 13 lessons, with open questions (no „yes“ or „no“ answers). There is an extensive list in the appendix with further reading, some of which by the author herself.
I do have some points of critisism:
If you are looking for a reconstructionist book for the worship of Hekate, this isn‘t the right choice for you. The author mixes historical resources with her own approach to witchcraft, and some of this may be part of her own unverified personal gnosis (from her experiences and relationship with Hekate), but this doesn‘t get clarified. By the way, this approach to witchcraft is also a lot about self-improvement.
Spellcraft isn‘t covered before the very last chapter. So, if you go through this course month for month, you basically would have to wait almost a year before you get to the spells and I think that‘s a bit too late. Maybe it would have been better to insert this after the first half of the book.
If Hekate is the only deity you work with (like Cyndi Brannen does), this book is a good choice.
However, if you are a polytheist and work with several deities, some parts of this book may be quite a challenge.
Some of the suggestions about rituals etc. are very specific, with little or no alternatives mentioned. For instance, „While a robe is not required for initiation, it is highly recommended that you are dressed in comfortable red clothes“ (p.291) or several specific tools and ingredients.
At one point, the author talks about working with toxic plants for banishing spells, with little warnings, then stating, „ You should dispose of the bag [with the toxic plant pieces] as far away from your property as possible.“ (p.262) I think this can be dangerous and quite impractical, because wherever those plants are put in the end, they might cause trouble. And frankly, I wouldn‘t recommend working with toxic plants to beginner witches.
Conclusion: If you are looking for a course about Hekate and Hekatean Witchcraft and are willing and able to invest an hour a day for roughly a year, „Keeping her keys“ might be the right choice for you – if you are willing to play it by the book, because as I mentioned, many of the how-to suggestions are very specific. If you are not so much interested in a course but are looking for the historical background of this ancient deity, I‘d rather suggest other books.
