[2.1] Unveiling the Cosmic Rebels: BABA YAGA 🧹🧙🏽‍♀️🔮🌳

baba yaga or the wise old woman whose wrong side you do *not* want to get on

THE RADICAL BADDIE

archetype is most potently captured by Dark Goddesses across time, space, & culture.

Last week we did a deep dive on Kali & ways to work with the Dark Goddess.

1.1 Meeting Kali 🌚 the First Bad Bitch

1.2 Tracing the Story & Symbology of the Dark Goddess

[1. 3] Working with the Dark Goddess🖤🧿✨

The word shakti means ‘power.’ Shakti, the innate power in reality, has five ‘faces.’ It manifests as the power to be conscious, the power to feel ecstasy, the power of will or desire, the power to know, and the power to act.

Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

Kali is just one of MANY Dark Goddesses who have been fucking shit up since the beginning of time.

This week to honor the Dark Goddess (and because their stories are too rich to reserve all for one post), I’ll be sharing about FIVE Dark Goddesses who have completely rattled my world with their abundant wisdom & tough love 💫😈

Some I’ve been familiar with for a long time, and a few that I got to learn about the first time while researching and I just 😍🤩 There’s so much wisdom here for Radical Baddies. Let’s get into it.

BABA YAGA the forest witch

Baba Yaga, a prominent figure in Slavic folklore, is the archetypal figure of the Crone or the Witch. Her expansive mythology demonstrates the delightful deviant duality of the Dark Goddess. In some stories she is repulsive, mean, tricks and eats young children. In other stories, she offers mystical wisdom and support to the hero. Wise, clever, cunning, and never one to waste a good crisis or a cackle. She can be your peace or your headache depending on her disposition that day.

the bathhouse proprietor from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away

Baba Yaga is also associated with other mythological heroes and heroines from around the world like Hecate from Greek mythology, Loki Norse God of Mischief, and Yamamba the Japanese Mountain witch

“A witch is [simply] a woman with more power than men feel comfortable with.”

Madeline Miller

Baba Yaga ultimately is not your friendly neighborhood Grandma. Baba Yaga lives alone deep in the forest in a house with chicken legs, she has her own mysterious agenda, and is happily independent. She doesn’t give two shits about the male gaze and oppressive beauty standards, which only makes her more potent and powerful.

Baba Yaga embodies traditional domestic associations with the Light Feminine, such as keeping house and cooking. She also flips these associations on her head when she lures and fries children in a stew. Baba Yaga has a divine connection to nature and the mystery of the universe - she is your kitchen witch, abuelita, mystic healer, and wise woman guide. Find the Baba Yagas in your life and earn their respect and trust, they have so many gifts to offer you!!

Baba Yaga in Pop Culture: Wicked Witch of the East, Hilary Clinton, Miranda Priestly in the Devil Wears Prada, all three of the witches in Hocus Pocus, Disney Villainesses, the “bitchy boss” like Sandra Bullock in the Proposal (before she falls in love).

See also this piece from the New Yorker on The Many Faces of Women who Identify as Witches

If you’ve not been able to look away from the car crash that is the one-sided beef between Nicki Minaj and Meg thee Stallion, check out my stories on my Instagram for the RADICAL BADDIE take on the situation 😅

Symbols & Associations:

• Brooms

• Mortar & Pestle

• Forest

• Skulls & Bones

• Samhain (Halloween)

• Winter