Baba Yaga & the power of women

If ever I was going to write a post about Baba Yaga, Friday the 13th would be the day to do it. 13 wasn't always so famously unlucky. Before patriarchy, 13 was an auspicious number because it represented the Goddess.
If we lived by the moon instead of the Gregorian calendar, we would have 13 moons or months in a year with each one being 28 days long. How perfectly tidy would that be? That would be living in tune with the Wild Feminine and nature and women's cycles. According to Witchy Woman (and editor of my book) Lisa Lister, “The number 13 is a witches magic number. It’s considered to be the number of both death and rebirth, creation, fertility and blood. And this is because we have 13 moon cycles and if you menstruate, you may also experience 13 menstrual cycles a year.”

Baba Yaga ties in so perfectly with that. I first found this mythological being called by her original name in Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She is the archetypal healer, the wild mother, the wise witch in the woods we find in countless tales. She's the magical being we seek when we need help, the supernatural aid on every hero’s journey. She lives in a hut on chicken legs and it does not reveal itself to just anyone. It only shows itself if it wants to be seen, if Baba Yaga wants you to find her. And even then, it's a wild thing, hopping around through the forest on these chicken legs, dancing a wild dance. You have to speak to it in a certain way for it to turn around and open its door to you. I love this story so much. The depiction of this joyful hut perfectly mirrors what I wanted to create with mine. A space of healing, magic, and JOY. A playful wagon that carries us, transporting us back to ourselves. And through the power of the mysterious energy that makes it dance, it awakens our own power, bringing out our own joy for simply being alive.

“Yaga’s house is of the instinctual world… This chicken-legged house walks about, twirls even, in some hippity-hop dance. This house is alive, bursting with enthusiasm, with joyous life. These attributes are the main fundaments of the archetypal psyche of Wild Woman; a joyous and wild life force, where houses dance…where nothing is what it seems, but for the most part, is far better than it seemed to begin with.”
~Women Who Run with the Wolves, page 88

She wasn't seen as an evil witch before patriarchy, although she doesn't mess around and is certainly very fierce like a Wild Mother would be, like some of the best teachers always have been. But after Christianity, like many things related to women owning their innate power, she was rebranded as the evil witch - something to be feared. All of our fairytales that depict a witch in the woods, really, are about Baba Yaga, adapted from the original Slavic folklore. She was turned from a fierce healer to a character that eats children. She represents our inner wise, wild, and fierce self. Our inner Crone. She reminds me of a bear or wolf mother, a woodland creature who knows when to show her teeth, knows how to protect her young, how to growl. I think all women know her - that inner ferocity that comes like clockwork every month. She has no tolerance for bullsh*t. She is the one who knows. She is the one who sees. Like Baba Yaga, that part of ourselves has been cast out to become a rejected aspect of the psyche in all women. But if you listen to her, she will teach you, she will guide you and she will lead you to your truth. She will provoke you towards healing.

So when I found the whimsical illustrations of Helen Nicholson, who just happens to be the co-lead of the Outdoors Project (a wonderful nature-based company offering workshops for kids that my son has loved for the past few years), I knew she was perfect! So much aligned when I came across her work. All this time the illustrator of my dreams had been right here. We both graduated from Camberwell, both loved the enchanted and the mysterious…and here she was, every Tuesday guiding my son’s after school club. Unbeknownst to me, possessing such potent creative talent. I knew she was the perfect person to illustrate the hut in this kind of magically wild way. I wanted it to be more friendly, a bit less of the child-eating variety that Baba Yaga has become famous for. Let’s face it, she is a very obscure reference, a very niche character to use for a brief, yet I knew Helen would know her. The whole way to creating everything for Wildish Healing was guided by the one who knows. So I knew she’d know.

Of course, Helen knew exactly what I meant and then she came up with this absolutely genius sketch of a hut on chicken legs. I fell in love with it instantly. We kept going with it, developing the idea into something that illustrated the energy of Reiki and the magical ride we all must surrender to as we embark on the journey of healing. We landed on something really magical and really perfect and not at all scary. Helen’s way of working was generous and intuitive and just lovely.

So, yes, symbolic of Friday the 13th as a day to reclaim the power of women, I thought it was the perfect day to share the power of one woman's work and the story of a woman who is powerful, who inspires, and who is found within all women. She is mighty, embodies her natural self, and made of wild magic. She’s alive within you.

You can find Helen and her gorgeous work over at helennicholson.co.uk or on instagram @helennicholson_illustration

As far as Baba Yaga? You can find her in pretty much every single story. She’s your inner Crone. Meet with her whenever you like.