Mastodawn

Spirituality & Religious Studies 22h ago

Baba Yaga

Her name is often translated as “old woman Yaga.” The word “Yaga” has several possible roots, often looking toward concepts of horror, anger, forest, or illness. She’s from Slavic folklore. She’s seen as a single figure or 1 of a trio of sisters with the same name. She’s got 2 contrasting roles.

In some stories, she’s described as a repulsive or a ferocious-looking old woman who fries & eats kids. In other tales, she’s shown as a nice old lady who helps the hero.

In the stories in which she shows up, she has unique “props”: her hut (izba) stands on 2 giant chicken legs that allow it to spin & move, guarding the entrance. The hut usually didn’t have any windows. The hut is positioned deep in a dark forest. The hut marked the border between the human world & the magical/other world. The surrounding fence is often topped with human skulls whose eyes glow in the dark.

In a famous tale, a young heroine, Vasilisa the Beautiful, is forced to perform a task for Baba Yaga using 1 of these glowing skulls. She doesn’t fly on a broomstick. But she flies in a mortar (stupa), propelling herself with a pestle (toloknya). She used a broom/whisk to sweep away any tracks behind her.

When she’s in her house, she may be found stretched out over the stove reaching from 1 corner of the hut to another. She may sense & mention the “Russkiy dukh” (Russian scent) of those who visit her. Her nose may stack into the ceiling. Some storytellers put emphasis on the repulsiveness of her nose, breasts, butt/behind, or (cough, cough) vulva.

Baba Yaga is sometimes said to live in the Faraway or Thrice-ninth Tsardom: “Beyond the thrice-nine kingdoms, in the 30th realm, beyond the fiery river, lives the Baba Yaga.”

In some tales, a trio of Baba Yaga show up as sisters. They all share the same name. In a version of “The Maiden Tsar,” a handsome merchant’s son, Ivan, made his way to the home of 1 of 3 Baba Yagas. Ivan walks for sometime before coming across a small hut identical to the 1st.

The 2nd Baba Yaga has a conversion with Ivan that was similar to the 1st. Ivan asks the same question that he asked the 1st Baba Yaga. The 2nd Baba Yaga didn’t know the answer, just like the 1st. She directs Ivan to the 3rd Baba Yaga.

The 2nd Baba Yaga gave Ivan some advice: If the 3rd Baba Yaga gets angry with him & wants to devour him, he needs to take 3 horns from her & ask her permission to blow them. Blow the 1st one softly, the 2nd one a little louder, & the 3rd one even louder still. Ivan thanks her & continues on her journey.

After walking some more time, Ivan eventually comes across the chicken-legged hut of the youngest of the 3 sisters turning into an open field. This 3rd, & youngest, of the Baba Yaga makes the comment about the “Russian smell” before running to whet her teeth & consume Ivan.

Ivan begs her to give him the 3 horns. She actually does it! The 1st he blows softly, the 2nd a little louder, & the 3rd louder yet. This causes birds of all sorts to come & swarm the hut. One of the birds is the firebird, which tells him to hop on its back or Baba Yaga would eat him. He does it & the Baba rushes Ivan She grabs the firebird by the tail. The firebird leaves with Ivan, leaving Baba Yaga behind with a fistful of firebird feathers.

She plays several crucial, but contradictory, roles. She is often pictured as a terrifying cannibal who tries to lure kids & heroes into her house & eat them. Or Baba Yaga is a frequent donor figure. After testing the hero (often through impossible tasks), she rewards them with a magical item. Like a self-laying tablecloth or a magical skull or a vital information that allows them to succeed on their quest.

Her izba stands at the entrance to the magical realm. The forest itself is symbolic of the dangerous, transformative space outside of civilized society. To pass her, the hero must prove their cleverness, purity, or worthiness, signifying a necessary set in their maturation.

Baba Yaga is seen as a faded or demonized remnant of an ancient Mother Goddess or Earth deity. This is likely associated with the goddess Mokosh, who represents destiny, weaving, & the fertility of the Earth.

Like the ancient Gree Hecate or the Indian Kali, she embodies the life-death cycle. She’s both the 1 who consumes life (the cannibal) & the 1 who controls fate & initiates new life (the donor of magical help).

She’s often shown to command elemental forces. The appearance of 3 knights – 1 white (Day), 1 red (Sun), & 1 black (Night) – who are her servants, links her directly to the passage of time & the forces of nature.

The hut (izba) on chicken legs & the act of flying in a mortar being linked to early Siberian shamanic practices. Some scholars suggest the chicken legs of the house might be a misinterpretation of the wooden scaffolding used to raise burial or sacred huts off the frozen ground in Siberian regions. Therefore, the hut could represent a portal to the world of the dead or the place where the shaman performs rites.

The hero’s encounter with Baba Yaga is often interpreted as a symbolic shamanic journey or a rite of passage, where the hero must pass away/”die” to their old self to be reborn as a stronger, successful adult.

Baba Yaga is strongly associated with the venerated dead & the underworld (Nav). Her association with skull & bones is a direct link to the realm of the dead. Her hut, surrounded by bones, acts as a dwelling place of the spirits. The hero’s entry into her domain is a symbolic descent into the underworld to obtain necessary wisdom or power.

In this light, she’s the fearsome, protective Guardian of the Dead, whose primary function is to keep the living away from the secrets of the deceased. Only letting the worthy pass.

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#babaYaga #cannibal #chickenLegs #faraway #greek #guardianOfTheDead #hecate #indian #ivan #izba #kali #knights #mokosh #nav #russianScent #russkiyDukh #slavicMythology #stupa #theMaidenTsar #thriceNineTsardom #toloknya #underworld #vasilisaTheBeautiful

Spirituality & Religious Studies 2d ago

Perun

In Slavic mythology, Perun is the highest god of the pantheon & the god of the sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility, & oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, iris (the flower), eagle, firmament, horses & carts, & weapons (hammer, axe (Axe of Perun), & arrow).

The supreme god in the Kievan Rus’ during the 9th-10th centuries, Perun was first associated with weapons made of stone & later with those of metal. The Kievan Ris’ (a.k.a. Kyivan Rus’) was the 1st East Slavic state & later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. It encompasses a variety of peoples, including East Slavic, Norse, & Finnic.

The Primary Chronicle relates that in the year 6415 (907 AD) Prince Oleg (Old Norse: Helgi) made a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire & by taking his men to the shrines & swearing by their weapons & by their God Perun, & by Volos, the God of cattle, they confirmed the treaty.

In 980, when Prince Vladimir the Great came to the throne of Kiev, he erected statues of 5 pagan gods in front of his palace which he soon thereafter discarded after his Christianization in 988.

Perun was chief among them, represented with a silver head & a gold moustache. Vladimir’s uncle, Dobrynya, also had a shrine of Perun established in his city of Novgorod. After the Christianization of Kievan Rus’ this place became a monastery, which continued to bear the name of Perun.

Perun was worshipped by the Varangian (Scandinavian) warriors hired by Oleg & Igor during the campaigns against Byzantium. In the treaty of 971, the Varangians reenforce with the Slavic deity, Veles.

When the arrival of Christianity, the old gods fared poorly amongst the Slavs. Grand prince Vladimir the Great, who had once been a very vocal & lavish patron of Perun, converted to Christianity.

In 988, the prince & his family & people of the Kievan Rus’ were collectively baptized. He ordered that the statues of Perun which he himself had erected formerly, be dethroned, torn down with great dishonor & dragged through the streets as they were beaten with sticks. The idols were then cast into rivers & not permitted to land on the shore. 3 of Vladimir’s sons are also recognized as saints.

In neopaganism interpretation, the struggle of St. George with the serpent is understood as the struggle of Perun with Veles, who stole cows from him.

According to the book Dezionization by Valery Yemelyanov, 1 of the founders of the Russian neopaganism, in the ideas of the “Veneti” (“Aryans”), there was a “trinity of three triune trinites”: Prav-Yav-Nav, Svarog-Perun-Svetovid, Soul-Flesh-Power.

In some currents, Perun may be the supreme patron god. Since 1992, the 1st neopagan Kupchinsky Temple of Perun has been in St. Petersburg.