Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga : Iron Nosed Woman; Iron Nosed Witch; Grandmother in the Forest
Baba Yaga, goddess of birth and death, devolved into the bogeywoman of Russian fairy tales, a cannibal forest-witch, her name used to threaten children into obedience: âBe good or Baba Yaga will get you.â Baba Yaga doesnât just eat children; sometimes she defends them by dispensing justice to evil step-mothers.
Baba may be petitioned for fertility by those who lack it. She allegedly knows every botanical healing secret in existence; whether or not she can be persuaded to reveal these secrets is another story. Baba Yaga is the Mistress of All Witches, Lady of the Beasts, the Primal Mother who rescues, nurtures, and destroys.
ORIGIN:
Russia (maybe originally Scythian)
FAVOURED PEOPLE:
Witches, herbalists, heroes, and hardworking advocates for wild nature, but be cautioned: Baba Yaga has no patience with slackers, whiners, and ingrates of any persuasion.
MANIFESTATIONS:
Baba Yaga flies through the air in a mortar, steers with a pestle, sweeping away her traces with a broom. She has iron teeth that protrude like boarâs tusks. Her hands are tipped with bear claws. She wears a necklace of human skulls and likes to smoke a pipe. One of her legs may be distinctive: it may be formed of clay, gold, iron, or steel. Sometimes her leg is an iron pestle. (In other versions, she is a woman from the waist up, a snake from the waist down.)
ATTRIBUTES:
Knife, oven, mortar and pestle
REALM:
Baba Yaga lives in the heart of a deep, birch forest in a little hut named Izbushka (literally âlittle hutâ) that usually stands on stilt-like chickenâs feet but occasionally on goatâs legs or even on spindle heels. Baba Yagaâs hut obeys orders. Say âIzbushka, Izbushka! Stand with your back to the forest and your front to meâ and it does as directed. The house is formed from bones, personally collected by Baba herself. The doorposts are leg bones; the lock is a sharp-toothed mouth; the bolt is a hand. The fence consists of bones crowned with skulls whose empty eye sockets glow in the dark. The house is dominated by an oven akin to a cauldron of regeneration, and Baba Yaga stories may be understood as tales of initiation, sometimes but not always successful.
PLANET:
Sun
ELEMENTS:
Fire, earth
ANIMALS:
All animals, but especially horses, hedgehogs, snakes, and dragons
BIRDS:
Crows, ravens, and owls
PLANTS:
Poppies, black sunflowers, medicinal herbs, rye
SPIRIT ALLIES:
The Rusalka
OFFERINGS:
Baba Yaga has a voracious appetite and gourmet taste. Offer her lavish homemade feasts of traditional Russian delicacies (blinis, coulibiac, pelmeny, and so forth). The more difficult and time-consuming the feast is to prepare, the more she will like it. Set the table beautifully for her. She also enjoys tobacco products. Baba Yaga drinks strong black Russian Caravan tea and vodka.
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses– Written by Judika Illes Copyright © 2009 by Judika Illes.