My writer pal Gail Wood put up a great post on her
The Rowdy Goddess Blog about the mythology and spirituality of Baba Yaga, and how she and her coven were using Baba Yaga energy to help them get through the bitter winter. (She might have mentioned my name a time or two as well...) And since we've spent some time here talking about my Baba Yaga characters in the upcoming novels, I thought you folks might like to see it. Thanks for sharing, Gail!
(And no, that's not a picture of the lovely Gail, it's a picture by amazing artist Kinuko Y. Kraft of Baba Yaga. Silly people.)
This eternal winter, dubbed the Polar Express by the press, has
turned into a polar depression for many people. The persistent cold and
sudden snow squall is peppered by blizzards, traffic accidents, and
cruel, teasing almost-thaws. It can lay siege to our hearts and our
nerves. How do we melt our frozen wills? By celebrating.
Our circle celebrates the hag. We laugh, we kvetch, we keen, and we
laugh some more. Two of our witches have decided to bypass the wisdom
of the crone and, as they say, “go straight to hag,” because the hag
doesn’t care. She wears what she likes, she says what’s on her mind,
and she does as she pleases. If children cross the street to avoid the
hag’s house? So what, the hag views that with glee! And that is what
the hag has become for us: a woman of a certain age who stands in her
power and acts as she wills.
Each quarter this year, we are identifying a Witch of legend and lore
to celebrate and explore. In the grip of a cold, harsh winter, we
celebrate the Hag, Baba Yaga.
There is no character in folk-tales or mythology who is so
irredeemable and wicked as Baba Yaga. She is a fearsome, ugly old hag
who lives on the edge of the forest. Her house is surrounded by a fence
of bones and topped with skulls whose eyes glow red in the dark. The
house itself is set on chicken legs and can move around with great noise
and frightening disruption.
The hag herself is not a pretty sight. Her nose is so large, it is
said that it touches the ceiling when she sleeps. She has iron teeth and
is frequently called, Baba Yaga Boney Legs. While she is said to have
no control over the pure in heart, she does have a reputation for baking
young children in her huge oven and crunching on their bones.
She rides around in a mortar using a pestle to propel her and when
she arrives a great winds begins and stirs up the world around her. When
she leaves, she removes all traces of herself with a broom made of
silver birch. Sometimes her conveyance is a huge kettle. Other times,
she appears as a kindly old crone, assisting people in distress.
Like so many legends and stories of the mythic creatures and the
gods, there is great power underneath. Who was she before these stories;
and who will she become as we work with her. The author Deborah Blake
describes her journey of creating a modern-day story with Baba Yaga in
it. You can read it at her
blog. I am very much looking forward to reading her first novel published by a major house–it now has a
cover.
As Blake points out, John and Caitlin Matthews in
The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures
have researched the story behind the story of Baba Yaga, pointing that
although she is portrayed as an “archetypal bogey-woman, she is actually
a primal goddess. The mortar and pestle are symbols of creation and
destruction, and her broom cleanses and cleans.
She inhabits the borderlands, those places between life and death,
the places between this world and other worlds. She gave Koshei the
Deathless, a dragon with human shape, his mortality. She also controls
another fire-breathing dragon, Chudo-Yudo who guards the Water of Life
and death. She has fierce companions and friends. She befriends the
friendless and empowers the powerless. She is one of those teachers you
strive to meet her standards, because she hold the bar high and demands
your achievement.
It’s obvious she’s a great witch of power. I met her during a
healing journey. She was fierce, strong, and in good fighting shape.
She gave me strong words of wisdom for my protection and healing. I’m
working through a lot of uncertainty and sorrow at this point in my
life, and she made it clear that she was at my back. She joked about
the chicken legged house, saying a lot of disruption and noise is not a
bad thing. She changed her visage from kindly old crone, to girl, to
hot chick and back to fearsome hag before me; and then told me people
see what they need to see where she is concerned. She gave me some
advice about some of my struggles and then said “I leave that with you
to do or not do.” Then she gave me a very fierce hug and was off again.
Baba Yaga
I am the wild, untamed nature of the world
I am the whirling music of nature
And the strange heartbeat
Of life and death.
I fly the world in my vessel of change
Propelled by creation and destruction.
I sweep from this world to the others
Clearing and cleansing the way.
I am in love with the unusual
Finding beauty and interest in the odd.
Wonder and curiosity move me
From marvel to marvel.
Shift your vision and you will see it too!
May the paralysis you feel about certain things be melted in glee, delight, and fierce determination
Posts
