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(RNS) — When Madame Pamita was little, her mom informed her tales about her Ukrainian grandmother — how she would pour wax into water to heal the sick; how as soon as when Madame Pamita’s mom was very sick, her grandmother made a doll for her to carry, which disappeared after she acquired effectively.
These tales turned little mysteries for Madame Pamita. The clues to unlock her grandmother’s magic had been exhausting to seek out — whereas she considers herself a witch in addition to a member of the Ukrainian diaspora, Madame Pamita doesn’t learn or communicate Ukrainian, and she or he says that little about Ukrainian folks magic was written or preserved throughout the Soviet period.
Then she came upon a e-book about Ukrainian wax-pouring therapeutic at a buddy’s bookstore. It was like “opening the Cave of Wonders,” she stated.
Within the years since, Madame Pamita has collected dozens of historic and trendy Slavic magical practices, which she has compiled as a brand new e-book: “Baba Yaga’s E-book of Witchcraft: Slavic Magic from the Witch of the Woods.” She additionally hosts an accompanying podcast referred to as “Baba Yaga’s Magic” and owns an internet witchcraft retailer referred to as Madame Pamita’s Parlour of Wonders.
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Baba Yaga is a witch determine who flies round Slavic folks tales in an enormous mortar and lives in a hut that stands on hen legs deep within the woods.
Madame Pamita. Courtesy photograph
Because the COVID-19 pandemic started, Madame Pamita stated, it felt as if the spirits of her Ukrainian grandmother and of Baba Yaga had been urging her to jot down. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, simply earlier than “Baba Yaga’s E-book of Witchcraft” was scheduled to launch, she stated it made sense.
“The proof of that spirit work is the truth that this e-book got here out precisely on the time that it was so wanted,” she stated.
Madame Pamita spoke to Faith Information Service about Baba Yaga, conventional Slavic magic and the way the creator is utilizing her magic to help the individuals of Ukraine amid Russia’s persevering with invasion of the nation.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Who’s Baba Yaga?
In Soviet occasions, specifically, and the twentieth century, you’ll hear about her being a Russian witch. However Baba Yaga exhibits up with many various names. We see her referred to as “Egi Baba,” “Jezibaba,” “Iagonishna” — all these sorts of bizarre names and variations of names, relying on the language and the area — which tells us she’s really pan-Slavic and she or he’s very, very, very outdated.
She’s all the time a secondary character in tales — often an antagonist or a donor. She’ll present up in some tales like this ogre, just like the witch in “Hansel and Gretel.” We additionally see her exhibiting up form of ambiguous. And in some tales, we see her as a donor determine the place the heroine or the hero will go to her and she or he’ll give info or she’ll give a particular magical present that the hero or heroine wants to attain their targets.
So which witch is she? Is she the villain she’s usually made out to be?
I don’t suppose she was ever Glinda the Good Witch. In my expertise of connecting deeply to her, I see her as a grandmother determine, however a troublesome grandma, or like a grandma who is aware of you are able to do greater than you suppose you may, so she pushes you.
If we return far sufficient, we see her because the mistress of the forest, the grandmother of the forest, the mom of the forest, as protector spirit of the forest. She’s that one who is linked to the world of the lifeless and the world of the dwelling. She strikes between these worlds, which is why generally she’s going to kill the individual or she’s going to place them within the fireplace.
In Slavic practices, the fireplace was alive, and the fireplace was the place the ancestors had been. We within the twenty first century don’t have the depth of data about what it means to get put within the fireplace. It means to go to your ancestors. So she’s sending you to the world of the spirits if she’s making an attempt to place you within the wooden range.
In “Baba Yaga’s E-book of Witchcraft,” you write in regards to the embroidery that seems on the normal Ukrainian clothes we’ve seen at demonstrations supporting Ukraine or at Ukrainian Lots. Are you able to clarify its significance?
For diaspora Ukrainians, like myself, it’s a manner to connect with our homeland, to our household and our individuals, and there’s an awesome sense of pleasure in carrying your “vyshyvanka.”
However there’s additionally an underlying sense that there’s magic in that embroidery. Every of these shapes would have a significance {that a} stitcher might have identified, going again hundreds of years. These stitches would have particular meanings of blessings or safety or fertility or no matter. And so you’ll create the shirt with an intention.
A younger lady wearing conventional Ukrainian apparel attends an Orthodox Easter service, Sunday, April 24, 2022, in Bucharest, Romania. RNS photograph by Alexandra Radu
Even the method of constructing the shirt — Ukrainians sing after they weave as a result of they’re singing incantations and blessings into that fabric. Then when you’re stitching, you need to include a pure thoughts, with a peaceable thoughts. You don’t need to include anger or nervousness whenever you’re stitching as a result of then you definately’re encoding that into your talismanic clothes, which is a horrible thought.
I’ve seen cross-stitch patterns that persons are stitching in solidarity with Ukraine, together with conventional Ukrainian designs or sunflowers. Some reference issues which have occurred throughout the Russian invasion. Is there magic in stitching?
I’ve been stitching like loopy since this struggle has occurred as a manner of encoding safety, and I do a visualization the place I think about an enormous tidal wave going over the heads of the Ukrainians and pushing the Russian individuals again throughout the border.
The stitching for me has been so therapeutic once I’m like, “I’ve acquired to do one thing” (in regards to the struggle). It feels very meditative, and you must focus since you’ve acquired to depend these stitches, however you additionally get to get pleasure from that repetitive course of, and you possibly can say a prayer over every sew.
Even the stitches themselves have an influence. The “X” of the cross itself — that equal-armed cross — is seen as an indication of safety. While you make the sew, you may really encode what it’s that you really want with the primary sew after which seal it in with the second sew.
So it’s fairly a robust factor. I imagine all the pieces that we do energetically — when you’re specializing in one thing, it brings one thing. So when you’re specializing in Ukraine as you sew and sending them blessings and safety, that has energy.
What different practices significantly shocked you?
There’s a chapter (within the e-book) about spirit dolls — “motanka.” That confirmed me this connection between what my grandmother was doing with my mother, placing this little doll in her mattress when she was sick.
As I discovered extra, it was virtually like I stored uncovering treasure. I felt like Indiana Jones as a result of all the pieces was just about new to me. Some was going deeper into one thing I already kind of knew — like “pysanky” (painted eggs). Everyone knows pysanky are magical, proper? However I didn’t understand how deeply magical.
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