Baba Yaga - Wild Woman

The following is excerpted exactly from The Goddess Oracle by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and the illustrations are by Hrana Janto. For more information on their work, please visit the following websites:

Amy Sophia Marashinsky: http://www.amysophia.com/
You can download the meditations included in the ritual suggestions at http://deepspiritualnourishment.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

Hrana Janto: http://www.hranajanto.com/

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I walk in the forest

and speak intimately with the animals

I dance barefoot in the rain

without any clothes

I travel on pathways

that I make myself

and in ways that suit me

my instincts are alive and razor sharp

my intuition and sense of smell are keen

I freely express my vitality

my sheer exuberant joyfulness

to please myself

because it is natural

It is what needs to be

I am the wild joyous life force

Come and meet me.

Mythology

Baba Yaga (pronounced bah’bye’yegg-ah), Slavic bireth-death wild Goddess, rode about on a mortar – an extremely hard bowl used with a pestle to grind grain, nuts, et cetera. Her ways were fierce and wild, dep and penetrating, and could be interpreted as grinding away that which was extraneous. Baba Yaga’s house stood on chicken legs and danced about. Her time of death was autumn, for she was the life force present in the harvested grain. In Russia, this Goddess was transformed into a witch who lived in the forest and ate children.

Meaning of the Card

Baba Yaga flies into your life in her mortar to help you nurture wholeness by getting in touch with your wild woman. It is time to reconnect with the natural, the primal, the instinctual. It is time to shake out your hair, your body, and shake up your life. Have you banished your wild woman to the dungeon? Have you chained her, muzzled her, caged her, lest people find out you are not nice, neat and clean? Free her! You need her. That wild woman is part of your joy, part of your vitality, part of your creativity. She is you and you need every part of yourself in order to dance wholeness. Baba Yaga says it is most important for you to learn to integrate your wild woman because an unintegrated wild woman creates self-destructive behaviour. The wildness is there and needs to be expressed. It is your choice whether to express it creatively or destructively.

Ritual Suggestion: Retrieving Your Wild Woman

Click the link below to download the meditation for Baba Yaga for $1.25

http://deepspiritualnourishment.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=33

Find a time and a place when and where you will not be disturbed. Sit or lie comfortably with your spine straight and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and release it with a sound. Take another deep breath and release it with a hum. See, sense, or feel the image of a tree. It can be any tree, one you have seen before or one that exists in your imagination. Take a third deep breath and, as you release it, stand before that tree. Walk around the tree. On the other side of the tree you see a huge opening in the trunk. Step into that opening. Once inside the tree, feel yourself sinking. Down, down, down you go, travelling inside the root of the tree. It feels safe and comfortable and you surrender to the sensation of floating down, down, down. As you reach the end of the root, you find yourself on a slide that takes you right into the Underworld, where you land on a soft cushion.

It is time to call your wild woman. You can whistle or howl, chant or sing, dance or play music to call her. When your wild woman arrives, thank her for showing up. Ask her for what you need. You may not know what you need, but she will and she will give it to you. In return, she’ll ask you for a gift. Giv her what she asks for with an open heart. Now ask her if she is willing to come back with you and be part of your life. She says yes and you hug her, and as you do, you feel yourself and the wild woman merging, becoming one. You feel a sense of being augmented, strengthened, expanded. You feel a surge of vitality and joy.

Now it is time to come back. Return to the tree root. Sense yourself floating up, up, up, feeling refreshed, energized, renewed revitalized. Up, up, up until you reach the inside of the trunk of the tree. You step out and take a deep breath, and as you release it return to your body. When you feel ready, open your eyes. Welcome Back!