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It's been a while since I read an occult book! Lately, I have been focusing on reading fiction as a way to help dissociate from reality. Don't get me wrong, I am still doing the work, but we all need a break and to take time for self-care. Reading is one of the ways I do that. Despite focusing mostly on fiction lately, I finally got around to reading Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods by Kris Spisak. I was obviously meant to wait to read this book until after the election, as Baba Yaga has many lessons to teach us during such trying times.
Unlike many other occult books I have reviewed here on Flying the Hedge, this book is purely a breakdown of folklore. There are no discussions of practical application, just pure folklore analysis and history. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am a sucker for folklore. The stories we tell and pass down ring with truth and give us amazing insight into how our ancestors lived, survived, and taught lessons. Baba Yaga is one such figure and boy oh boy does she have some lessons to teach us, despite the lack of practical application, if only one knows where to look.
Spisak does not hold your hand in this book, leaving the reader to do the majority of the work. Sure she breaks down some of the lessons we can garner from the stories about Baba Yaga, but you are required to figure out how to use the knowledge and lessons contained in the stories and analysis. Media literacy is a skill that must be honed through trial and error, and what better place to start than with a teacher such as Baba Yaga?
Each chapter opens with a story, many of which Spisak added to without taking away from the lesson within. These stories are an amalgamation of hundreds of stories passed down through the generations, which have transformed with the people telling them. Following the short stories, Spisak breaks down some of the meaning and history behind the tales, sometimes going so far as to discuss language throughout the centuries. I am such a sucker for language. That analysis of each tale is fascinating and paints Baba Yaga in a completely new light, giving more depth and meaning to her stories than what modern media has. I found myself unable to put the book down once I got started, having to remind myself that it was time to sleep as I had work in the morning.
As I mentioned, this book does not offer practical application, but I don't feel it needs to. The purpose is to ground Baba Yaga in our reality and learn from the lessons she has to share with us. She teaches us to be loud when others are silent; to be cunning and self-sufficient; to be a great power capable of great transformations. She also reminds us that to be such things as a woman will transform us into a "witch" as nothing hates a loud, outspoken, sexual woman more than the patriarchy. In times of great change and turmoil, Baba Yaga reminds us to go against the grain, even if it's difficult to do so. According to Timothy Snyder in his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, one of the greatest ways we can fight back against tyranny and authoritarianism is to not get comfortable and to not go quietly into the night. What better way to do so than to turn into Baba Yaga ourselves?
I highly recommend reading Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods by Kris Spisak and even pairing it with Baba Yaga's Book of Witchcraft: Slavic Magic from the Witch of the Woods by Madame Pamita which touches on many of the same stories with practical application built in. Between the two of these, you are well on your way to becoming Baba Yaga herself.
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