Honoring Baba Yaga

[thedevilsfool]

Baba Yaga since I was a teen has been a guardian spirit, babushka, and initiator into witchcraft for me. Not only does she teach me witchcraft of the wilderness, wildcrafting, hedgewitchery, kitchen witchcraft, green witchcraft, but also hearth magic. I view her as a very terrestrial spirit, before the gods came to Russia, there was Baba Yaga. The very soul of my Slavic ancestors, the kings and queens of Kievan Rus. There is something feral and somber but altogether holy and beautiful about the dvoverie, or double faith, of Slavic lands that lasts to this day, and no one is more liminal or burbling with wild magic as Baba Yaga. She manifests very powerfully and smells like cloying honeysuckle and an older lady's perfume, likes to smoke her pipe and knit, and will insist cleanliness is next to godliness. An initiator for women's magic, she tests maidens like Vasilisa in the myths and her chicken legged hut is the fulcrum on which Buyan turns. It is related to charnel houses and a sign of her dominion over the Russian afterlife of Veles's realm. Listening to Mussorgosky's "The Hut on Chicken Feet," you can hear the thrum of Baba Yaga's wizened laughter. Lady of Iron Teeth, Lady of Pestle and Mortar, good offerings for her are chicken feet (easily ordered at Dim Sum or Chinese restuarants and stored for later), vodka, housework, especially sweeping, and she absolutely loves goofy dolls of wizened crones and witches. I have a '60s doll squeaky witch from the Soviet Union she adores. She also loves sprigs of lavender, nightshade, poisonous herbs, and herbal or wildflower tea. Above all, if you want her magic lessons, it's best to offer her sweeping, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and dusting and mopping. She is the greatest raw source of magic I know and the mountains and rivers and dark forests of Siberia given life. Reindeer and chicken and horses and wolves, I have found, are sacred to her. Her manservants are shapeshifting horses Day, Dawn, and Night. She tempts, she tests, she wisecracks, she teases, and remember, in her stew are baby bones, but also wisdom beyond measure.

Intro for THE MUDANG

[revika]

Name You Would Like To Go By: My given mudang name is 무궁화보살 (Mugunghwa Bosal) but calling me Mudang is fine.

Present Path or Tradition: I am an officiated mudang (which roughly translates to initiated shaman-priest) of Mugyo, indigenous Korean tradition (which is called korean shamanism). I have many gods in my pantheon, some of which are Dragon King, Mountain God, Child Gods, Illness/Smallpox God, Buddhist Monk Goddess, Kisaeng Goddess, Mudang Goddess, Aristocrat God, War Gods etc.

Interests: I work as an administrator and as a mudang. I do daily temple rites and services for clients, such as but not limited to: talismans/amulets, small rituals, divination/saju sessions, 굿.

Age (not mandatory): 29

Brief Bio: I'm a Korean diaspora, ISTJ, 3w4, metal snake. I have been a practicing witch since 2003, but got initiated into the 최 lineage of Mugyo August 2017. I also am one of the only people who practice Ryeongki, a form of energy healing similar to reiki.