6. The Oxford Classical Dictionary reports that the goddess Hecate who is referred to in the title of your book Hecate Lochia states, “Intrinsically ambivalent and polymorphous, she straddles conventional boundaries and eludes definition.” Does your book also draw from this definition of Hecate as well as the traditional one of her being the goddess of fertility?

Hecate is a mysterious and very old goddess. In Hesiod’s Theogeny, it is clear she is extremely powerful—even the Greek’s male deity Zeus could not strip her of her gifts; instead he honored her and “allowed” her to have dominion over earth, sea, sky. Later she is linked to black magic as Queen of the Witches and associated with madness and “repulsive” crones, a strategy, it seems to me, purposed to discredit her and undervalue her female-identified powers.

Hecate is the bestower of “luck,” associated with the underworld, the moon and “crossroads.” She is “She who works her Will.” I interpret her symbolism as the representation of female instinct and intuition, the guide that can help one choose the best direction (at a metaphorical crossroad) via the gifts of the unconscious. She can come as dreams that reveal what is hidden from conscious thought. Hecate is the carrier of torches in the dark and the guider of transformation.

In the book, she represents something I am trying to steal back and put into its rightful position of power.