Anna Dressed In Blood - Modern Witches and Witchcraft in K. Blake's Fiction

“It isn’t going to work. I can’t cast the circle. I’ve never had the knack for witchcraft. Mom must’ve told you. I messed up her Beltane cookies every year until I was seven.”  ("Anna Dressed in Blood", Ch. 13, Kendare Blake)

When I stumbled upon Kendare Blake's dark horror story, I expected some kind of violent fiction, full of characters' dark thoughts and intentions.. but it appeared to be a very pleasant read for a teenager age group, and okay, for adults, like me, though I don't feel like I am a grown up woman yet.

Most interesting for me in this story was a leitmotif of witchcraft (obviously!). The author creates a world where the souls are vengeful and like to kill and a hero who kills...  those vengeful souls. The hero's mother is  a witch who helps her son named Cas in his job of murdering the awoken dead. 

Cas calls his Mum a "mobile witch" because they move from one place to another quite frequently. She makes their living by "doing tarot card readings and aura cleansing over the phone, and selling occult supplies online". There might be some irony in those words about people believing in such things, but for Cas it is pretty much a reality of his life. 

I must say that the way Blake portrayed her witches is somehow close to what I got to know about modern witches's lives through some of my blogger friends. For us, people far from the practices of witchcraft (for the time being), what they do is what they believe in, this is their life, and it is not something to be afraid of or go away in disgust. Other story characters accept the fact of having witches as their neighbours totally normal and they are even not as much amazed to see the witches performing rituals accompanied by the ignition of flames out of nowhere or a tremor of the ground and so on.
Nevertheless the story's depiction of the witches is not free from representation in popular TV series. The witches control the weather, ignite flames, get inside your mind, and can destroy. I believe that the entertainment industry of course needs spectacular scenes, breath taking adventures, extraordinary characters. This could be the reason why the witches are presented in a such an "out of this world" way.
What I like about Blake's writing is that she has that witty irony through out the narrative. You can go by the extracted lines I gave in the very beginning of this post - messing up Beltane cookies? Oh my, that could be a catastrophe! But the author makes it feel like an ordinary thing (like burning an oatmeal cake), because it is such for her characters, and there is no exaggeration of the life of a modern witch.
"Anna Dressed in Blood" contains not only witches but also warlocks, one of them is a Cas's schoolmate, another - this schoolmate's granddad, who actually passed on the witchcraft skills to his grandson. So these two and Cas's mother make a magical team who fights with a powerful soul of an obeahman. There was also a good educational moment for me personally as I never knew who that was and had to read about it in the net. For me this novel was a novelty, a fresh insight into the modern witchcraft and a nice free from judgement depiction of what witches do or what they don't. 

Modern Witch - Transportation by ilura-menday-less

P.S. I have the 3d and the last post about Gogol's horror story in my mind, though I decided to switch to another witch in this post. Pannochka is yet to come! Stay tuned, my dears.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and More.

Unconditional Love of The Witch Olesya - Part 1

 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). It's a little strange to start a post about a witch from the Bible's quote.. However these three lines is the foundation of the romantic stories by Russian writer Kuprin A.I.  These stories is another favorite read of mine I got from home this summer.

One of the most touching and beautiful of them is the one called "Olesya". I read it three days back, again. It always boosts my imagination and I walk half dreaming about it for few more days.

The protagonist, from whose side the story is narrated, is an official, sent to the "God-forsaken village in the Volhynian borderland of Polesye" as he says about the place. He tries to keep himself busy by game-shooting, giving medical help to locals, and noting the area's legends and tales. He doesn't like the place much and calls it "out-of-the-way corner... - simple manners, primitive characters". The relations with the peasants "never went beyond the fact that, on seeing me from a distance, they would take off their caps and, as they came alongside, would mutter sullenly "Speedjue," which was supposed to mean "God speed you." The locals would also start kissing the hands - "an old custom from the time of Polish serfdom". The main character is placed in such environment which doesn't relate his vision of the world. He underlines throughout the story the wildness of the local beliefs...

Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898), The hut in the Forest

The rationalism of the main character is opposed to the superstitions which fill the minds of the peasants. One winter day the main hero, which is called master by his helper Yarmola, sat in his room, while the severe storm was blowing outside...
"Where do you think this horrible wind comes from, Yarmola?"
"The wind?" Yarmola looked up lazily. "Why, don't you know, master?"
"Of course not. How could I know such a thing?"
"Don't you, really!" Yarmola was roused. "I'll tell you," he went on, a shade mysteriously. "Either a witch has been born, or a wizard's making merry." I pounced eagerly on this. "Who knows," I thought, "perhaps I may worm out of him some interesting story of magic, hidden treasures, or werewolves."
"Have you got any witches here in Polesye?" I asked..." This is how the main hero started getting involved in the world of witchcraft and... love. Yarmola then tells the master the tale that there was a witch but "the lads drove her away" to the forests, burning her house "so that not a chip would be left of her accursed nest".
Here we can see that the attitude towards witches is completely negative, moreover, the witch is blamed in whatever bad happens in the village. Thus the witch was driven away because she was believed to do loads of harm like casting spells, plait the stalks in the sheaves...and of course to cause serious illness in the family and furthermore a death of one woman's child!
The curiosity of the master rises as he gets to know that the witch is now living in the forest with her daughter or granddaughter. He intends to see her as soon as the days get warmer. Yarmola tells that the witch's name is Manuilikha...
I am going to cover the rest of the story in the next post, as this one gets too long to read at once. I am going to tell about the relations which tie up between the main hero and  the witch's granddaughter...Do you think it's going to be as successful as the mystic venture of the Master and Margarita?
P.S. the citations are from the  book "Olesya" translated from the Russian by Stepan Apresyan. The book is available here.

Margarita's First Flight and Sabbath

Margarita applying a magical ointment

 In connection with the guest post "Margarita - a witch of a Russian descent" I continue to follow the venture of Bulgakov's character.

Margarita the witch

As it had been told, a newly turned witch Margarita heads towards the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a gathering of the witches during the full moon. This event takes place in the novel somewhere on the open grounds, far from  the Moscow city (this is where the story occurs), and Margarita has to reach it by riding her floor broom (a modified broomstick). While flying above the Arbat street she finds out that she is invisible and it gives her a certain amount of confidence. Margarita in anger breaks one of the street signs as she accidentally bumps into it, then flying further and higher she notices a "mass of a eight-storeyed house perhaps a newly built one", she is reminded of something by the board on it and enters the house's premises. She destroys the apartment of a critic who was involved in failure of the Master's writing career.

We can see that Margarita's nature changes. The belonging to the world of dark art makes Margarita to free herself and do things she always wanted to do but was afraid of even attempting. She becomes bold, defiant and even vengeful. This might be considered as a characteristic of a bad witch, however won't you behave the same in order to save your beloved?
The flight of Margarita is described by Bulgakov with such energy and beauty that many times while reading it I wish to try it once in a life myself... Margarita flies above the forests, fragrant meadows, cool ponds. The full moon is escorting Margarita all the way, after a fast ride she feels the proximity of water and later on sees a river and a glimpse of bonfire with small moving figures on the other bank. She then swims in the river's warm water and continues her way to another coast - towards the bonfire of Sabbath. Though Bulgakov doesn't call it so, I think that it is what meant to be.

an image to illustrate the story - couldn't fine the one with the full moon and fire

  As soon as Margarita appears the march is being played in her honour and all the witches bow, moroever she is called the Queen Margo now. The Sabbath gathers such creatures as goat-footed who offers Maragrita champagne, the mermaids (rusalka in Russian), the singing frogs and the witches themselves. The Sabbath in the novel presented as a cheerful event, where the participants dance, consume some wine, mermaids make roundelay and overall atmosphere is quiet pleasing.
Margarita is not at all scared of the sudden change of her life, she accepts it and goes with the flow. As I had told in the previous article, she seems to be a random choice of Woland but Koroviev (from the retinue of Woland) says to her: "... because you are yourself of the royal blood..." and gives few more hints which reveal that Margarita has one of the French Queens of XVI century as her ancestor! There are actually two French Queens who it could be related to: Marguerite de Navarre and Margaret of Valois. However, the latter is considered to be the one chosen by Bulgakov.
Our heroine lived one of the necessary events of the witches' life - Sabbath. Bulgakov's focus nevertheless is not on the witchcraft. itself but on the interpretation of powers hidden within us and the way we use them (or don't). The Margarita's journey hasn't come to an end yet as she still has a task to do after which she will get her Master back.
Bulgakov certainly knew a lot about witchcraft and described so many details of the rituals conducted during the Margarita's turning into a witch and afterwards. Sabbath was one of them. Another one called the great Ball at Satan's will be a culmination and one of the best written places in the novel. You are invited there too.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature