Common Mistakes About This Deity

To me, saying that one person is mistaken about a deity could be viewed as a bit arrogant.  We have very limited historical data as it relates to most deities.  For the most part, our "history" is dependent on vases, jars and myths.   When we look at Hecate, the same is true.  There is no solid scientific evidence of her existence.  Based on the information that I've seen up to this point, among followers of Hecate there are two camps.

One follows her in the sense of the Cosmic World Soul.  Meaning the vessel in which all souls were created by the father god.  The other followers are as the crone aspect of the Wiccan interpretation of the Triple Goddess.  This is by no means the only split in the community, but I've found this to be the most common.

In my reading, Aleister Crowely referred to Hecate in his book, Moonchild: 

“a thing altogether of hell, barren, hideous and malicious, the queen of death and evil witchcraft.”

This is the image that was then applied to her in the modern age, embracing the crone for the wisdom and knowledge instead of the negativity implied by Crowley.  

In the majority of the paintings from antiquity Hecate is depicted as a woman, not too old or too young.  She does not appear to be a mother and certainly not a grandmother.

 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Hecate, illustration by Stéphane Mallarmé, in les Dieux Antiques : nouvelle mythologie illustrée (Paris, 1880)

In my working with Hecate she seems to be about 45.  She has been around long enough to have some smarts about her, but not to a point that she claims the title of Crone.  That may change I as learn more but for now.  I am sticking with the Cosmic World Soul and leaning away from the common dispute that she is the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess.

I'd also like to add, if someone gives you a flower because they love your eyes does that make the gift from another because they like your lips any less?  My point is, should it really matter the differences that we have in the deity?