Hecate and Cutting Your Teeth
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When it comes to working with Hecate, one of her epithets is dogs, which is often presented as a symbol of companionship. However, I see dogs as a symbol for operating off an internal script when it comes to working with Hecate.
What is an internal script?
It's your set of things that are self-programmed into you, which is your arsenal for your day-to-day and the outside stimuli you will interact with. Do you respond to this in a reactive or productive way that's related to the bigger picture of your life?
Now back to my gnosis on Hecate lol
The term “cutting your teeth” means gaining experience or learning through practical involvement in a particular field or activity. It refers to the initial stages of someone's career where they are building their skills, knowledge, and expertise. This, I personally feel, goes hand in hand with her epithets, the torch and dogs. This initial experience is to light our path to reach our highest potential, which Hecate has expertise in, while dogs have to consistently chew and cut their teeth in a way to strengthen their jaw, all while understanding how to use their mouth at different pressures.
As I worked with Hecate, dogs became more prevalent in my life, teaching me to the point where my day job requires me to work with dogs. When this epithet of dogs shows up in the adept's life, it teaches us about being our authentic selves boldly, running off our internal script not influenced externally, and the importance of routine for our goals.
When we work with spirits, we may be confused because the different symbols they’re associated with may not show up as expected due to our previous research on the particular spirit.
These symbols are teachers to us in different phases of our life, so we can continue to build our library of correspondences (as Travis Magus says). The symbols are also in the same sphere of influence that these archetypal energies have expertise in.
So when working with Hecate, your library of correspondences may not need “keys” or “moons” right now. You may need to learn from dogs or older women who represent the “crone” archetype, etc. Don't let research taint your expectations because spiritual work, especially left hand based, is a very individual thing.