The Hecate Wars

Who is the Goddess Hecate? This class will investigate the way she was understood in the Greek and Roman world from the Archaic to the Roman eras. During a period spanning roughly a full millennium, the nature of her identity went through several transformations and became the site of a battle between Platonic and Pre-Platonic understandings of paganism as well as a battle between paganism in general and the rising influence of Christianity in the Roman world. Drawing on archeological evidence, the work of Hesiod and the classical era Greek poets, Platonic writings including the Chaldean Oracles, and the Greek Magical Papyri – this class will ask what the different conceptions of this goddess mean. How does Archaic paganism differ from Platonic paganism? How do these changes influence the views and practice of magic, as either goetia or theurgy respectively, under the auspices of the Goddess Hecate and how do they dictate different approaches to the goddess? What can be learned from the Platonic and non-Platonic polytheistic approaches to the fight against the rising influence of monotheism?

About the Presenter:

Kadmus is a practicing ceremonial magician and pagan. He recently published the book True to the Earth: Pagan Political Theology through Gods and Radicals Press, presented his paper "True to the Earth and a Pagan Conception of the Self" at the conference Rewriting the Future: 100 Years of Esoteric Modernism and Psychoanalysis, and taught classes at the Salem Summer Symposium in 2019 and the Salem Witchcraft and Folklore Festival in 2020. Most recently Kadmus taught two classes on Teiresias and Medea for The Cauldron Black Mighty Dead series.

*This class is part of the General Admission & Saturday 8/14/21 Day Pass registrations, if you are interested in attending all of the events during this festival, or all of the events offered on Saturday 8/14/21, please select the appropriate registration type on our Events & Registration page.*

**Attendees will have access to this recording until the end of 2021 - class recording links will be emailed to attendees within 7 business days of the conclusion of the festival. To protect the IP of our presenters, class recordings will not be downloadable.**

***Your class link will be emailed to you in your confirmation email. If you have not received your registration confirmation email within 24 hours please email info@salemsummersymposium.com***

****PLEASE NOTE: We cannot guarantee that any class registration within 24 hours of the class start time will be admitted to the livestreaming of the class. You will however receive the class recording link within 7 business days of the conclusion of the festival and will have access to the recording for the remainder of 2021****