I still don't see it being as extreme as you do. Restricting a form or type of magic is several magnitudes higher than adding a status effect to magic use. Especially to the current embodiment of Hecate. One's overriding free will; the other is a side effect that does nothing to restrict free will.
Would you mind elaborating on that? How do you picture/characterize each side and the difference? Im pretty sure imagining it differently so Im struggling to shift to your POV on this.
Given, I'm one that assumes that there is a link between Hecate/Hekate and Heka. It seems like too much of a coincidence that she's linked to magic in the Greek pantheon, and shares a name root with that of Heka, the male Egyptian embodiment of magic.
On this we agree, I have no issues with Heka being in the overall mix right along side all the others. While I do agree with Zaph that Gender is important to the current Hecate mantle as a Triple Goddess, a Table and a Bodkin solve that discrepancy decisively.
Also, if Im correct in one theory, then the Mothers are also aspects of the hindu Trimurti, and that makes the Mother Winter side an extension of Shiva the Destroyer, who is a male god that was split down the middle and has a female half.
All that to say I think that for gods and Gods, Gender is Fashion; Sometimes it matters to their central identity (akin to a uniform) but mostly it's a matter of mood and preference. Like with the Naagloshii, or maybe even Bob.
*shakes head* maybe I've been mixing mythos too long. I thought Horus's mother was who blessed man with runes. Maybe I'm thinking Mesopotamia or Sumerian or something. Cause the name I'm catching in my head isn't Isis. Mythology my schoolhood love, its been too long ;(
I agree Male, female. Probably no difference.
I'm convinced Baba Yaga was probably just a female Death. Go anywhere, kill anything.
Fwiw, the egyptian mythos were waaaay more fluid than most, they changed their myths with every political upheaval. Isis was Horus' mother who tricked Magic out of Ra, so it was central to her mythos. Heka was the actual personification of Magic, though. Heka was the literal word for Magic, literally meaning Activation of Life Force (which fits flawlessly into the Chi magic framework of the DV. I think an analogy might be Hades as the
God of Death compared to Thanatos as the literal personification of it.