Many of us met Baba Yaga in the cradle, when Afanasiev's Russian Tales were read to us. The evil, big-nosed old woman in rags is known to us from children's cartoons and movies. In adult life, Baba Yaga has not gone away from us, she just powdered herself, dressed up and put glasses on her nose. Let's figure out why she is in our life, why she has a bone leg and what she wants when she screams and saws us.

1. Baba Yaga

“Near this house there was a dense forest, and in the forest in a clearing there was a hut, and Baba Yaga lived in the hut; she didn’t let anyone near her and ate people like chickens ”

Baba Yaga still lives on the outskirts of the forest in a hut on chicken legs, which is sometimes also “backed up with a pie” and “covered with a pancake”. The house stands surrounded by centuries-old trees near a forest lake, surrounded by a fence made of human bones. In her yard live guides of souls to the afterlife, dogs, and prophetic bird-foretellers, crows. Baba Yaga is always busy with something, constantly cooking something in her alchemical furnace. And if it goes out into the world, it appears out of nowhere and does not go anywhere without witchcraft. In one of the fairy tales, her appearance in front of the heroes looks like this: “Suddenly she swirled, became muddied, greenery appeared in her eyes - the earth becomes a navel, a stone comes out of the ground, Baba Yaga comes out of a stone, a bone leg, rides on an iron mortar, an iron pusher urges, the dog chirps behind. Baba Yaga herself makes up a kind of couple of Koshchei the Immortal - they are either an elderly divorced couple, or a brother and sister, or just bosom friends. The name Yaga is related to the Polish jedza and the Czech jezinka - "forest woman": something like the female incarnation of Leshy with the function of controlling snakes. There is an opinion that this woman was the wife of the Serpent from under the Kalinov Bridge, with whom the heroes fought endlessly. And in the Turkic languages ​​there is a consonant with Yaga spirit of the ancestors "babai aga" (translated as "old grandfather"). Baba Yaga is the deity of our chthonic ancestors.

First conclusion. Do not be surprised when an old witch or goblin looks at you from the mirror in the morning: this ancient creature calls you from the depths of the collective unconscious into adventures towards your own integrity.

2. Chthonic creature

Baba Yaga is invariably associated with the forest. The forest, like the ocean, personifies the unconscious of man, the inner lunar kingdom. The forest is boundless in relation to a person, you can get lost in it, you can live in it, or you can die. The Greek goddess of the moon, Diana, lived in the forests, away from the eyes of mortals, where she indulged in unrestrained hunting. One day, a hunter saw Diana and her maiden hunting retinue swimming in a forest lake. This sight is not intended for the eyes of mortals, so Diana, noticing the hunter, set his own dogs on him and they tore him apart. The secret of the forest is hidden from people, and the meeting of a person with the bearer of this secret is usually fraught with death. The same idea is expressed in the first part of "Faust" by Goethe: having called the chthonic spirit of the Earth, the scientist cannot even look in his direction. The embodied nature turns out to be terrible and causes panic in a mere mortal. The trees in the forest do not stop for a minute, they constantly whisper something and communicate with each other - only an ordinary person cannot understand the whisper of the unconscious, so the hero who decides to go into the thick of the dark side will be given magical helpers at the checkpoint of the grandmother's hut. But when she does not help young heroes to wade through another world, Baba Yaga steals and eats children and good fellows.

Second conclusion. When you see an evil fury in front of you, splashing with poisonous saliva, remember: this is her pagan nature speaking. Do not try to shout down the demoniac one: the whole other world is on her side. If you have something to look for in her, be patient, smile and praise her house, outfit and social skills. You will get yours. If just like that, they passed by - run, because otherwise you will die in a senseless fight with a chthon.

3. The dual nature of Baba Yaga

Living on the border with the unconscious (or the afterlife), Yaga herself belongs to two worlds at the same time: one of her legs is ordinary, and the other is bone, dead. Baba Yaga does not always personify evil, in fairy tales she has several faces. Yaga the warrior, Yaga the kidnapper and Yaga the giver are three hypostases in which she, respectively, threatens the hero, takes something from him and gives something to him. You can fall into the clutches of Baba Yaga in two ways: by your own carelessness or just like that. Once upon a time there was a man and did not know dashing. It became interesting to him, what kind of dashing is that everyone is talking about? He went to look for dashing, met the same onlooker and together they got to Baba Yaga. She immediately fried and ate the onlooker, and the hero, as a result, was able to escape, only having lost his finger. Then he walks around and shows his mutilated hand to fellow villagers: here, they say, he took a dashing sip. Fools Baba Yaga teaches what they ask. Nature kills impudent ones who do not know what they want, but are looking for a meeting with her forces. Often Baba Yaga appears in the life of the characters as an evil fate. It seems that the characters are completely innocent of anything: here is a boy catching a fish on the lake, everything is quiet and smooth, and then angry birds fly in, as in the Hitchcock film of the same name, and take him straight to the hut to the old patroness of mysteries, who is going to them tightly have lunch. The boy did not have time to do anything for which he should have been punished, it was just his time to become an adult and undergo initiation.

Third conclusion. Experience shows that you should not look for crazy women: those who come to them with common sense will die from it, and internal chaos will grow so that mermaids will start in it - and you will be fit only for spring plowing and sleeping on the stove nine months a year . Both young and mature Baba Yaga will find you herself: without putting any effort into this hurricane in your life, you can, with a clear conscience, try to carry your innocence through the madness of this situation. If you stay steadfast - get the princess when the villain surrenders.

4. Initiation

The rite of initiation always involves the symbolic death of the old personality of the initiate, followed by rebirth in a new capacity, most often with a new name. In our time, a kind of initiation is the receipt by a teenager of a passport and an identification code: a person acquires a mystical name, in our case, a serial number, and becomes a full member of the tribe. In ancient times, initiations were treated more severely: in order to get a passport-tattoo, a young man had to pass a serious exam - both physical and psychological. Often during this examination, the young man was injured, and in some tribes, in order to achieve the right to be a husband, the young man had to be circumcised. To get something, you must first give.

Baba Yaga is traditionally considered a priestess who initiates youth into adulthood. That is why she threatens children, single young men and unmarried girls: those who have not yet turned into a full-fledged person. The hero, going on a journey to the other world, must allow Baba Yaga to soar himself in a bathhouse not at all for pleasure: the ritual washing of the dead is an indispensable attribute of moving to the next world. And the request to feed is not an idle hunger, but an imitation of a commemoration with ritual dishes: pancakes, peas and kutya. The very image of Yaga and her dwelling - lies in a hut without windows and without doors on the stove, and her nose has grown into the ceiling - resembles a dead man in a coffin.

In ancient times, a special hut was built in the forest, in which the rite of initiation of boys took place. The father took his son to the forest and left him alone so that he would independently find this very hut of initiation. In it, the boy faced severe trials, after which he received the status of an initiate. “The visible symbol of such an initiation is the cutting of the skin of the back from the neck down. Sometimes belts were passed under the skin of the back and chest, by which the boys were hung up. Initiation is always associated with the experience of death, and therefore its indispensable attribute is mortal fear. They explain to a teenager at initiation rites that life is serious, at every opportunity she strives to skin you or burn you in a furnace, so remember this hut in the forest and that Baba Yaga can appear from under a stone any time.

If Yaga does not rip off the skin “on a belt” from the backs of the subjects, then he is engaged in putting the children in a ladle to fry them in the oven. Her figure is related to folk grandmothers-midwives, who could smear a premature baby with dough and put it on a bread shovel into a warm oven, symbolizing the female womb, so that the baby “reached” like a pie.

Fourth conclusion. If you are thirty, and you are still not a pie, it's time to go on an oven adventure. Go to the nature reserve, work as a watchman, forester or caretaker of the reservoir. Let your beard grow, walk at night and study Manly Palmer Hall's encyclopedia of symbols. When something happens, after which you crap yourself with devils, it will be possible to return home: from now on, everyone will obey you without hitting the table with your fist.

5. Hut

The hut is not just hidden in a magical forest - until the hero utters the magic words, it does not appear before him in its true form. Initially, the hut stands with its back to the hero, and in front of the forest, and he must correctly ask her to turn around. Perhaps this is the key to the sexual context of initiation? A wooden house, windows and doorways are traditional symbols of the female womb. To get inside the hut, you need to “know the magic of opening doors”, know a special spell, gesture magic (the hero sprinkles the doors of the hut with water), and also appease the animals guarding Yaga’s house. A modern young man, even in the age of information technology, should not neglect the ancient tales of monsters waiting for him on the threshold of sweet love. Male initiation was a symbol of entering the age of puberty - after it, a man could kill and love. The art of killing was taught by men, and the wisdom of love by women. There is an opinion that the “witness”, who was engaged in initiations, just lived alone, far from the villages, like a temple priestess. The hut full of dangers with a stove in which you can burn to the ground is the personification of the fears of the so-called vagina dentata - a toothy womb that needs to be tamed in different tales in different ways, either by force, or by cunning, or by kindness.

The hut, like the mystical land of Shambhala or the White Lodge in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, opens only to the right person at the right time. It is impossible to simply search the forest and find a hut - you have to be a fool, a hero, at worst - a child in order to get an interview with Baba Yaga: all three are united by spontaneity and determination, lack of cowardice and doubt. Or you can end up in this cursed place at the behest of evil fate. The same "Twin Peaks" mentions "a house in the forest where music is always playing", and in Baba Yaga's house the hero often hears the playing of the magic harp. In this case, the boy is likened to Odysseus, Baba Yaga and her magical jazz band turn into sirens, and the forest becomes the sea along which the hero returns home.

Fifth conclusion. There are many doors in the world. Not all of them open with keys, and even strength and assertiveness will not always help. With a pure heart and a sharp mind, you will discover everything you need and get to where you need to go.

6. Trial and reward of Yagi

A hero who has fallen to Baba Yaga can defeat her only by appealing to the grandmother's natural instinct. When the evil Yaga comes out to meet the young man and is about to eat him, he is not at a loss and in response he asks him to feed him - they say, what kind of conversation on an empty stomach? “Here I am a fool, I began to ask the hungry and the cold,” - Baba Yaga herself is glad to feed the daring guest. As soon as the hero appeals to matriarchal values ​​and reminds Yaga of her feminine nature, she immediately changes in attitude. The hero was not repelled by Yagi's appearance, her withered leg and old unpleasant face. He did not disdain her otherworldly food - only in a few fairy tales does the hero pretend to eat and throw food on the floor, mostly he is really happy with the treat. After the meal, the satisfied mistress of the hut asks the young man about this and that, additionally checking him on the topic “friend or foe”, and then rewards him with a gift. Basically, the mystical old woman gives the young man a magical horse, a strong stallion. The horse in Slavic culture was both a symbol of fertility and a link between the worlds, therefore it played an important role in the wedding ceremony (which was in many ways similar to the funeral). So the horse foreshadowed a quick marriage to the young man, and in one of the tales, Yaga gives the hero a horse to defeat Koshchei the Immortal. As an option, he may get one of Yaga's daughters as a reward, but history is silent about how the relationship with the bone-footed mother-in-law develops. In any case, the old woman personifies the feminine maternal principle in its pagan form: the power of mother nature, which nourishes and destroys, rewarding only those who have their own power.

Sixth conclusion. When you meet a witch, remember that her toothy, screaming face hides a motherly nature. There is nothing more cunning and easier than to reason with the old hag with his own vulnerability. Do not twist your nose, do not bypass what seems scary, but appeals to you. Life, like nature, can be scary, but since it does not kill you, it means that it most likely loves you - so work on reciprocity.

7. Baba Yaga and red girls

If Baba Yaga is in a bad mood, she steals children and rapes men. But basically, she lives an ordinary old woman's life - during the day she flies into the forest, in the evening she has a hearty dinner and goes to bed on the stove, sometimes she fights with harmful neighbors. But, in general, he does not touch anyone and peacefully manages the forest. Usually she has several daughters, whom she keeps in a kind of slavery. How else can you explain that as soon as the young man gets into the hut with the intention of killing Yaga, her daughters are right there with instructions on how to properly cut off their mother's head. As a rule, after the murder of the old villain, the wedding of all her daughters follows, and the main character invariably gets the youngest and most beautiful daughter. With a dead mother-in-law, the young man lives more calmly, but it is not clear what to do with Babin's genes? Apparently, the presence of a daring husband, who often has a semi-animal nature, somehow balances the problem of the heritage of the bone leg. Women's initiation is less adventurous than men's, and has more to do with needlework, housework, and humility. Vasilisa the Beautiful manages to escape from Yaga’s captivity, only by proving that she is a skilled housewife: “When I leave tomorrow, you, look, clean the yard, sweep the hut, cook dinner, prepare linen, go to the bin, take a quarter of the wheat and clean it from blackies." In many fairy tales, in order to receive a blessing as a wife from Baba Yaga, a girl needs to unquestioningly fulfill all her requirements for several days, for example, wear an old woman on her hump. Or crush water in a mortar until exhaustion: this action is a symbol of the interaction of male and female principles and the birth of a new life.

Seventh conclusion. If you intend to get married, remember that there is no better friend for you before the wedding and the worst rival after - than the mother-in-law. If, in the status of a young man, the mother-in-law-Yaga, with the correct polite and humble treatment, reveals all the buttons for controlling the future wife, then after the wedding she will become the button for the destruction of your marriage. Therefore, the mother-in-law must be metaphorically destroyed: for this, the hero has a treasure-sword, a symbol of male strength and a powerful mind.

She ran to a deep abyss, picked up a cast-iron board and disappeared underground.

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Baba Yaga is a mysterious creature that is described in many Russian fairy tales. To this day, scientists are concerned about the still unsolved mysteries surrounding this mysterious creature.

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Who is Baba Yaga?

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Scientists translate the strange name of this old woman in different ways. Some are convinced that "yaga" corresponds in some Indo-European languages ​​to the meanings of "vexation, illness, mourn." But from the Komi language "yag" is translated as "pine forest" or "pine forest", and the word "woman" means a woman. Consequently, Baba Yaga is a forest woman.

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Baba Yaga lives in the forest, she flies in a mortar. Engaged in witchcraft. She is assisted by swan geese, red, white and black riders, as well as "three pairs of hands."

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Researchers distinguish three subspecies of Baba Yaga:

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• warrior (in the battle with her, the hero moves to a new level of personal maturity),
• giver (she gives magic items to her guests),
• also a kidnapper.

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It is worth noting that at the same time she is not an unambiguously negative character.

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She is described as a terrible old woman with a hump. At the same time, she is also blind and only senses a person who has entered her hut..

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This dwelling having chicken legs,gave rise to a hypothesis among scientists about who Baba Yaga is. The fact is that the ancient Slavs had a custom to build special houses for the dead, which were installed on piles, towering above the ground. Such huts were built on the border of the forest and the settlement, and they were placed in such a way that the exit was from the side of the forest.

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Version 1. Baba Yaga - a guide to the world of the dead

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It is believed that Baba Yaga is a kind of guide to the world of the dead, which in fairy tales is called the Far Far Away Kingdom.

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Certain rituals help the old woman in this task:

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ritual bath (bath),

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"deceased" treat (feeding the hero at his own request).

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Having visited the house of Baba Yaga, a person temporarily turns out to belong to two worlds at once, and also receives some specific abilities.

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Version 2. Baba Yaga - a woman healer

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In ancient times, unsociable women who settled in the forest became healers. There they collected plants, fruits and roots, then dried them and prepared a variety of drugs from this raw material.

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People, although they used their services, were at the same time afraid, because they considered them to be witches associated with unclean forces and evil spirits.

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Version 3. Baba Yaga is an alien

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Not so long ago, some Russian researchers put forward another very interesting theory. According to her, Baba Yaga was none other than an alien who arrived on our planet for research purposes.

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The legends say that the mysterious the old woman flew in a mortar, while covering her mark with a fiery broom. All this description is very looks like a jet engine. The ancient Slavs, of course, could not know about the wonders of technology, and therefore, in their own way, interpreted the fire and loud sounds that an alien ship could make.

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This interpretation is also supported by the fact that the arrival of the mysterious Baba Yaga, according to the descriptions of ancient peoples, was accompanied by the fall of trees at the landing site and a storm with a very strong wind. All this can be explained by the impact of a ballistic wave or the direct action of a jet stream. The Slavs who lived in those distant times could not know about the existence of such things, and therefore explained it as witchcraft.

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The hut, standing on a chicken leg, apparently was a spaceship. In this case, its small dimensions are quite understandable. And chicken legs are the stand on which the ship stands.

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The appearance of Baba Yaga, which seemed so ugly to people, could be quite ordinary for alien creatures. Humanoids, judging by the descriptions of ufologists, do not look prettier.

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Legends also claim that the mysterious Baba Yaga was allegedly a cannibal, that is, they ate human flesh. From the point of view of the new theory, various experiments on people were carried out on the ship. Later, all this was overgrown with legends and fairy tales that were told to children. In this form, this story has come down to us.

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It is difficult to prove something when so many years have passed, but still the mysterious Baba Yaga left her mark on history, not only fabulous, but also, perhaps, quite material. It just hasn't been found yet.

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In the days of my childhood, when every self-respecting school held New Year's Eve parties (for junior classes) and "discotheques" (for seniors), performances of invited artists were an indispensable part of these actions - sometimes professional ones, from the local drama theater, sometimes amateurs - moms, dads, teachers.

And the composition of the participants was just as indispensable - Ded Moroz, Snegurochka, forest animals (squirrels, hares, etc.), sometimes - pirates, Bremen town musicians and devils with kikimors. But the main villain was Baba Yaga. In which interpretations she did not appear before the astonished audience - both a hunchbacked old woman, and a middle-aged woman with bright makeup - something between a gypsy fortune-teller and a witch, and a sexy young creature in a dress made of patches and charming shag hair on her head. Only its essence was unchanged - to harm the "good characters" as much as possible - not to let them go to the Christmas tree, to take away gifts, to turn them into an old stump - the list is not limited.

And who is this Baba Yaga really? Folk element? A product of popular imagination? Real character? An invention of children's writers? Let's try to find out the origin of the most insidious fairy-tale character of our childhood.

Slavic mythology

Baba Yaga (Yaga-Yaginishna, Yagibikha, Yagishna) is the oldest character in Slavic mythology. Initially, it was the deity of death: a woman with a snake tail, who guarded the entrance to the underworld and escorted the souls of the deceased to the kingdom of the dead. By this, she somewhat resembles the ancient Greek snake maiden Echidna. According to ancient myths, Echidna gave birth to the Scythians from her marriage to Hercules, and the Scythians are considered the most ancient ancestors of the Slavs. It is not for nothing that Baba Yaga plays a very important role in all fairy tales, heroes sometimes resort to it as their last hope, the last helper - these are indisputable traces of matriarchy.

Was the bone leg a snake's tail?

Particular attention is drawn to the bone-footedness, one-leggedness of the Baba Yaga, associated with her once animal-like or snake-like appearance: “The cult of snakes as creatures involved in the land of the dead begins, apparently, already in the Paleolithic. In the Paleolithic, images of snakes personifying the underworld are known. The emergence of an image of a mixed nature belongs to this era: the upper part of the figure is from a man, the lower from a snake or, perhaps, a worm.

According to K. D. Laushkin, who considers Baba Yaga the goddess of death, one-legged creatures in the mythologies of many peoples are somehow connected with the image of a snake (a possible development of ideas about such creatures: a snake - a man with a snake tail - a one-legged man - lame, etc.). P.).

V. Ya. Propp notes that "Yaga, as a rule, does not walk, but flies, like a mythical snake, a dragon." “As you know, the all-Russian “snake” is not the original name of this reptile, but arose as a taboo in connection with the word “earth” - “crawling on the ground,” writes O. A. Cherepanova, suggesting that the original, not established while the name of the snake could be yaga.

One of the possible echoes of long-standing ideas about such a snake-like deity is the image of a huge forest (white) or field snake that can be traced in the beliefs of the peasants of a number of provinces of Russia, which has power over cattle, can endow with omniscience, etc.

Bone leg - connection with death?

According to another belief, Death gives the dead to Baba Yaga, with whom she travels around the world. At the same time, Baba Yaga and the witches subject to her feed on the souls of the dead and therefore become light, like the souls themselves.

Previously, they believed that Baba Yaga could live in any village, disguised as an ordinary woman: take care of livestock, cook, raise children. In this, ideas about her are close to ideas about ordinary witches.

But still, Baba Yaga is a more dangerous creature, possessing much more power than some kind of witch. Most often, she lives in a dense forest, which has long inspired fear in people, since it was perceived as the border between the world of the dead and the living. It is not for nothing that her hut is surrounded by a palisade of human bones and skulls, and in many fairy tales Baba Yaga eats human flesh, and she herself is called “bone leg”.

Just like Koschey the Immortal (koshchey - bone), it belongs to two worlds at once: the world of the living and the world of the dead. Hence its almost limitless possibilities.

Fairy tales

In fairy tales, she acts in three incarnations.

Yaga-bogatyrsha possesses a sword-treasurer and fights on equal terms with heroes.

Yaga the kidnapper steals children, sometimes throwing them, already dead, on the roof of her native house, but most often taking them to her hut on chicken legs, or into an open field, or underground. From this outlandish hut, children, and adults, are saved by outwitting Yagibishna.

And, finally, Yaga the giver greets the hero or heroine affably, treats him deliciously, soars in the bathhouse, gives useful advice, gives a horse or rich gifts, for example, a magic ball leading to a wonderful goal, etc.

This old sorceress does not walk, but travels around the wide world in an iron mortar (that is, a scooter chariot), and when she walks, she forces the mortar to run faster, striking with an iron club or pestle. And so that, for reasons known to her, no traces could be seen, they are swept up after her by special ones, attached to the mortar with a broom and a broom. She is served by frogs, black cats, including Cat Bayun, crows and snakes: all creatures in which threat and wisdom coexist.

Even when Baba Yaga appears in the most unattractive form and is distinguished by her fierce nature, she knows the future, has countless treasures, and secret knowledge.

The veneration of all its properties was reflected not only in fairy tales, but also in riddles. One of them says this: "Baba Yaga, a pitchfork leg, the whole world feeds, starves itself." We are talking about the plow-nurse, the most important tool in peasant everyday life.

The mysterious, wise, terrible Baba Yaga plays the same huge role in the life of a fairy-tale hero.

Version by Vladimir Dahl

"Yaga or yaga-baba, baba-yaga, yagaya and yagavaya or yagishna and yaginichna, a kind of witch, an evil spirit, under the guise of an ugly old woman. Is there a yaga, in the forehead of the horn (stove pillar with crows)? Baba-yaga, bone leg, she rides in a mortar, rests with a pestle, sweeps a trail with a broom, her bones come out from under her body in places, her nipples hang below the waist, she rides for human meat, kidnaps children, her mortar is iron, the devils are carrying her, under this train there is a terrible storm, everything groans, the cattle roar, there is pestilence and death; whoever sees a yaga becomes mute. An evil, quarrelsome woman is called a yagishna.

"Baba Yaga or Yaga Baba, a fabulous monster, a bolypuha over witches, Satan's handmaiden. Baba Yaga is a bone leg: she rides in a mortar, drives with a pestle (rests), sweeps a trail with a broomstick. She is simple-haired and in one shirt without a belt: then the other is the height of outrage."

Baba Yaga among other peoples

Babu Yaga (Polish Endza, Czech Ezhibaba) is considered to be a monster, in which only small children should believe. But even a century and a half ago in Belarus, adults also believed in her - the terrible goddess of death, destroying the bodies and souls of people. And this goddess is one of the oldest.

Ethnographers have established its connection with the primitive rite of initiation, celebrated even in the Paleolithic and known among the most backward peoples of the world (Australians).

For initiation into full members of the tribe, teenagers had to go through special, sometimes difficult, rituals - tests. They were performed in a cave or in a dense forest, near a lonely hut, and an old woman, a priestess, disposed of them. The most terrible test consisted in staging the "devouring" of the subjects by the monster and their subsequent "resurrection". In any case, they had to “die”, visit the other world and “resurrect”.

Everything around her breathes death and horror. The bolt in her hut is a human leg, the locks are her hands, the lock is a toothy mouth. Her tyn is made of bones, and on them are skulls with flaming eye sockets. She fries and eats people, especially children, while licking the stove with her tongue and shoveling coals with her feet. Her hut is covered with a pancake, propped up with a pie, but these are symbols not of abundance, but of death (funeral food).

According to Belarusian beliefs, Yaga flies in an iron mortar with a fiery broom. Where it rushes, the wind rages, the earth groans, animals howl, cattle hide. Yaga is a powerful witch. They serve her, like witches, devils, crows, black cats, snakes, toads. She turns into a snake, a mare, a tree, a whirlwind, etc.; only one thing is impossible - to take on a somewhat normal human form.

Yaga lives in the dense forest or the underworld. She is the mistress of the underground hell: “Do you want to go to hell? I am Jerzy-ba-ba,” says Yaga in a Slovak fairy tale. The forest for the farmer (unlike the hunter) is an unkind place, full of all evil spirits, the same other world, and the famous hut on chicken legs is like a passage to this world, and therefore you cannot enter it until he turns his back to the forest .

Yaga the janitor is hard to deal with. She beats the heroes of the fairy tale, ties them up, cuts the belts out of their backs, and only the strongest and bravest hero overcomes her and descends into the underworld. At the same time, Yaga has the features of the mistress of the Universe to everyone and looks like some kind of terrible parody of the Mother of the World.

Yaga is also a mother goddess: she has three sons (serpents or giants) and 3 or 12 daughters. Perhaps she is the cursed damn mother or grandmother. She is a housewife, her attributes (mortar, broom, pestle) are tools of female labor. Yaga is served by three horsemen - black (night), white (day) and red (sun), who daily pass through her "gateway". With the help of a dead head, she commands the rain.

Yaga is a common Indo-European goddess.

Among the Greeks, it corresponds to Hekate - the terrible three-faced goddess of the night, witchcraft, death and hunting.
The Germans have Perkhta, Holda (Hel, Frau Hallu).
The Indians have no less terrible Kali.

Perkhta-Holda lives underground (in wells), commands rain, snow and the weather in general, and rushes, like Yaga or Hekate, at the head of a crowd of ghosts and witches. Perhta was borrowed from the Germans by their Slavic neighbors - the Czechs and Slovenes.

Alternative origins of the image

In ancient times, the dead were buried in dominoes - houses located above the ground on very high stumps with roots looking out from under the ground, similar to chicken legs. Domovins were placed in such a way that the hole in them was turned in the opposite direction from the settlement, towards the forest. People believed that the dead were flying on coffins.

The dead were buried with their feet towards the exit, and if you looked into the domino, you could see only their feet - hence the expression "Baba Yaga bone leg." People treated their dead ancestors with reverence and fear, they never disturbed them over trifles, fearing to bring trouble on themselves, but in difficult situations they still came to ask for help. So, Baba Yaga is a deceased ancestor, a dead man, and children were often scared by her.

According to other sources, Baba Yaga among some Slavic tribes (among the Rus in particular) is a priestess who led the rite of cremation of the dead. She slaughtered sacrificial cattle and concubines, who were then thrown into the fire.

Baba - was considered the progenitor of the ancient Slavs. Initially, she was a positive deity and was the guardian of the clan and folk traditions. When Christianity came to the Slavic world, it began to actively plant evil traits of character in all pagan gods and goddesses, and in every possible way to give ugliness to their appearance. Baba Yaga did not escape this fate. She smoothly turned into an old woman who was endowed with magical powers and belonged to the breed of witches. In connection with the intervention of the Christian Church, the mythical characters of the Slavs have come down to us in a distorted form. Baba Yaga now had a stable stereotype: she knew witchcraft and lived in the forest; her hut had chicken legs and was surrounded by a high fence made of human bones. Baba Yaga flew in a mortar and lured small children to her for subsequent frying and eating. That is, the Slavic goddess turned into an ordinary evil old woman, endowed with magical powers and engaged in cannibalism.

Baba Yaga was transformed under the pressure of Christianity According to some ancient legends, another conclusion could be drawn: Baba Yaga was the goddess of hell, located on the border between the two worlds. She was portrayed as a monster in an iron mortar. The Slavs brought her a bloody sacrifice. Under the direct influence of Christianity, she lost her divine features, again turning into an ordinary evil old woman engaged in witchcraft. Christianity had a huge impact on the culture of the Slavs. It instilled in them its understanding of the essence of things, implanting it with "fire and sword." Belief in ancient pagan gods began to be considered heresy. Virtue turned into evil, and the gods into monsters. Gradually, pagan rituals were transformed into fairy tales, and pagan gods - into the characters of these fairy tales. The truth was mixed with fiction, which partly reflected the views of Christians on the beliefs of the ancient Slavs. It is possible to restore the original image of Baba Yaga only by carefully analyzing the ancient Slavic tales that have come down to our days. It is not for nothing that popular rumor keeps talking about a certain hint contained in “false” tales. Perhaps it is in them that the clue to the original images of the mythical Slavic creatures of the pre-Christian period is encrypted. Fairy tales distinguish three types of Baba Yaga: giving heroes magical objects (Giver), kidnapping children and a warrior fighting with the heroes of fairy tales "not for life, but for death." That is, some contradictions can be identified from here. If Baba Yaga was an evil sorceress, then why did she sometimes "condescend" to gift the heroes with magical things? Why did she show them the right path? Out of the goodness of your heart? But she, judging by the fairy tales, was a notorious misanthrope. It is this feature of her “giver of magical items” and guiding on the true path that makes it possible to reveal her original essence - the ancient Slavic goddess. Also in the legends, Baba Yaga is the connecting link of the transition to the other world (Far Far Away Kingdom). She stands on the border of these worlds (bone leg) and allows or does not allow the heroes to penetrate into the world of the dead, performing witchcraft rituals

Heavy tread, and the crunch of dry branches underfoot. The dark forest is no place for the uninvited. Here is another master, to whom the law of the gods is not written. And if he doesn’t love a stranger, he won’t take a step. Here Veles, persecuted by his brothers, stands, and tramples that a small child is waiting for the owner of the forest, who has never been seen or heard of by anyone.
A quiet clang, like copper coins are knocking and no one around. As soon as Veles the Father sees, something reddish flashed among the branches, like a fluffy tail. And what kind of animal is this, which is faster than Yarilo's beam-arrow, and even with such a tail ?!
And the Damned One sees how, from the shadow of the giant trees, like some kind of princess, a maiden of wondrous beauty comes decorously. All in silver chain mail, made of small scales, like mischievous mermaids weaving, and in a simple dress woven from the night haze. And stands in front of him and does not lower his eyes. Neither the bright mother Lada, nor the dark Mara the conjuror is like that. This maiden is more beautiful, but her beauty is not in her fair-haired and heavy braids, up to her toes, and not in a fragile camp, like rock crystal. She looks differently at Veles the exile. He does not hide his green eyes and does not look away, he looks at him as an equal and a friend of his beloved, with whom there was a long separation. And the Great One sees how unexplored wisdom and power in a girl's body splashes like a stormy river. In his small and white hand, the sword grips tightly. She is the protector and mistress here.
And Veles decided that he would not go anywhere and build his house in the world of Naviem, where there are no gods who rejected him. And he will no longer steal other people's wives, because now he will have his own - Yaginya, daughter of Viy the terrible. Kind and with a heart like eternal fire.

Yagina Goddess and Baba Yaga.

The image and name of the bright, kind goddess was lost by the ancestors, when another, one god came to the Slavic land. Instead of Mother Yagin, the evil and bloodthirsty Baba Yaga remained, as unbaptized evil spirits and opposing the prince's retinue. Instead of the fast-moving golden boots that fair-faced people wore around the world, on Yaga's feet there are dirty shoes, unknown paths have been trampled. And not a red-haired girl lives in the thicket of the forest, but an old woman with rotten teeth and an unwashed and gray-haired head.

But still, it was not possible to denigrate the name of Yagini Vievna. Yes, she is terrible and with a bone leg, but her breasts are iron, and iron fights with evil spirits and evil. So Yaga is not evil. Even in fairy tales, the ancestors tried to save their beloved mother and patroness. Only so that the children of the great Slavic Family do not forget about their roots and forefathers.

Yaga is considered an evil sorceress, and harmful, which prevents the heroes and puts up barriers. And they also say that she eats children in the lost forest, but not in one epic and fairy tale, this is not said. And the fact that Yaginya loved children immensely is true. After all, she was called mother because she protected orphans from all sorts of misfortunes, but she took under her wing. She walked in her golden boots through the villages and villages, and people showed her the way, where the children were no man's veins. The yaginya took the children to her and saved them from the cold and hunger. In the thicket of the forest, at the very foot of the Iriysk mountains, which are now called Altai, in the cave of Ra, she cleansed the souls and bodies of children with eternal fire and prepared them for the service of the ancient gods. Those children became sorcerers and witches, got married and gave birth to children, so that the Family could continue theirs. And they were invisible to the world of Yavem and to mortals, since they were pure and sinless for mortal life. But over time, the purification by fire was turned into a barbaric burning, as if Yaga fried and ate children, and gained strength. Yes, it's just not true. The wise Yaginya was not fed up with the souls of the dead, she kept unspeakable wisdom, and guarded the border to the Navi world from demons and all evil spirits.

Veles and Yaginya.

Yaginya was the daughter of Viy the terrible, that in the Navi world without the knowledge of the gods of the Irian rules. And the gloom and darkness of his land they hid from the eyes of the curious, for there lived undead and undead unseen. And Yaginya was the mistress of the borders, and the guardian of the lands of Navi. Without her knowledge, not a single soul could set foot in the Dark Forest. And if her will was opposed, then she burned the disobedient with a sword and dark sorcery, for contrary to her kindness, she was terrible and powerful in her anger.
Viy could not marry his willful daughter for a long time, because the agreement he had with her was this: only the one who, in an honest and equal battle, will defeat the young goddess, and become her beloved husband.
Many who wooed the beautiful Yagina, but only the heart of the maiden did not lie to anyone, as if she was waiting for her hour. And she waited until Veles himself descended into the world of her father. He stepped on her lands, but not by his own strength, he wanted to open the gates, but as expected - by the invitation of the hostess. And they fought on the dark lands, but not to death, but for love. Because, Yaginya, who knows everything, knew that fate was destined for her to become an eternal and faithful wife for Veles the Forefather.
And Naviem, Veles and Yaginya settled in the world, and the roots of all plants on earth stretched from their house, and all the rivers flowed.

Baba Yaga and Yaginya - differences and similarities.

It is difficult to judge after so many centuries the authenticity of Yagini and her rebirth into Baba Yaga. Perhaps these are two completely different characters of ancient Slavic mythology. Some of the scholars suggest that this is the case, and the hypothesis of the unity of these two characters is based on the free aspect of the similarity of names. In favor of this theory, one can say that the very word baba, like mom and dad, refers to human names. That is, the same Ma-ra is the mother who gave birth to Ra. And ma-ma, it means having given birth to the second, after the divine, essence - human.
But be that as it may, it is not possible to finally abandon the idea of ​​the identity of Yagini and Baba Yaga. Both lived in the thicket of the forest, in an enchanted house on chicken legs. It is worth mentioning here that “kurya” is not a chicken at all, as many used to think. Kurya was a smoking, hot place that could spin like a funnel and drag creatures into another world. This was considered the gate to another world. So, it turns out both were guardians of the passage to the world of the dead. Both perfectly understood the language of animals and plants of all kinds, and the forest was in the service of both.
And both instructed the brave and strong in spirit on the path of righteousness. They were severe in testing the spirit and willpower of the elect. Only to the worthy, they gave advice and presented magical gifts that could help the heroes in overcoming obstacles in their path.
Yaginya was considered to be the keeper of not only the interworld, but also the wisdom and witchcraft of the unknown. It was not for nothing that the dark Mara came to her for help every time. And Baba Yaga, contrary to all the fairy tales, accepted and rested all the heroes in her house, put them to sleep on the stove, and sent them on their way in the morning.
To believe or not in the unity of Yaga and Yagini is the choice of everyone. But this is ambiguous, since there is simply no direct evidence refuting or vice versa proving this.