Let Me Be Witch

By the time I knew it, Muse visited me again,offering a somehow witchy piece of poetry. I am afraid glad that this will keep on happening because I felt a sudden need of self-expression. Writing about family stuff and such is great, but one needs to let mind work in another direction too, finding answers and relief in the world of imagination. A little sweet poem "Let Me Be Witch" :) Oh, Let me, please! :))

Let Me Be Witch, no boundaries.
Let Me Be Me, have no fear.
I put in a closet my sundries,
Let my delight be sheer.

Let go off mundane, Be You -
Vengeance is not our fate.
Tell them to smell the sundew -
Then free yourself to create.

Let Me Be Witch, I am ready.
Put on a hat and let's go.
Woods always seem to be shady -
Let your red heart be aglow.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

A Ukrainian Witch in Nikolay Gogol's Short Horror Story "Viy" - Pannochka

I am sorry but you will have to go and check out my latest post about the Ukrainian witch in order to have a link to this one :) Just kidding of course. I am going to tell you what happened after the crone jumped on Homa's back and bewitched him to take her...out in the fields and forest at night! Gogol' knows how to ignite fear... 

In a state of bewitchment Homa sees the nature around him differently. He is able to perceive every single flower, feel the smell of the soil, and the Moon appears to be the Sun to him as it is so bright. Homa's senses are at  the limit, "He felt a tedious, unpleasant and at the same time sweet feeling, rising to his heart". This state of his I can compare with a great Margarita's flight scene, in which heroin's perception of the actuality becomes sharper, transforms and seems like another dimension. There are even more reminiscences with Bulgakov's writing. Like that of when Homa notices a mermaid swimming in the pond, and mermaids are one of the first creatures Margarita sees when arriving at Sabbath.

Our hero though is afraid of what is happening to him (opposite to Margarita), he starts saying some prayers or some kind of exorcism spells, when feels that the witch is no more gets tight hold of him. Homa manages to snatch a log lying on the ground and starts beating the witch for all one is worth. The witch screams, curses, but fianlly falls on the ground with words "Oh, I cannot take it anymore"", when it is already the hour of dawn. However when Homa looks at the defeated witch he sees before him... a beauty, with tousled luxuriously scythe, with long, like arrows eyelashes. Insensitively she threw the white naked hands on both sides and moaned, lifted up her eyes full of tears".

The hero, tormented by the feeling of guilt and strange anxiety, flees the place, with a desire to reach Kiev (a capital of Ukraine) and never be seen again in this spot. But another Russian writer told us, where there is a crime, there is a punishment ...
Homa reaches a nearby settlement and spends some time in drinking and thinking in a pub... when accidentally hears that the daughter of one of the richest centurions who resides on a farm just few kilometers away from Kiev, "came back home from a  walk all beaten up, had barely strength to limp his father's house, is now near death; and in the hour before death she has expressed a desire that the dirge and pray for her to be read for the next three days after the death by one of the Kiev seminarians: Homa Brut".

Pannochka (1) by nordlige-tale Deviantart

To Be Continued...

1. Pa'nnochka (Rus. панночка) diminutive from panna - unmarried young woman, unmarried daughter of a pan (meaning "gentleman"). Pan, panna and other words with the same root, are the words of Slavic languages like Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belorussian. However only Polish language seems  to have  preserved these words for usage in polite or formal communication.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and More.

A Ukrainian Witch in Nikolay Gogol's Short Horror Story "Viy" - Who Is Viy?

Viy (Вий)... I bet no one of you have ever hear this name. But for Russian literature this short story was

of a great significance. It was written by Nikolai Gogol' - a Ukrainian born Russian writer of the 19th 

century, who along with Pushkin and Griboedov created the way for Russian literature development in 20th

century. My favorite 20th century Russian writer Bulgakov, author of the novel "Master and Margarita", was Gogol's admirer and you can definitely find influence of this in his fantastic compositions.

Viy Illustration by Eduard Novikov

But why do I choose to speak about Viy and who is this at last? This would be not easy to explain. Though giving a definition of Viy Gogol himself says that "He is a colossal creation of folk mind.
By such name among Ukrainians is called a chief of gnomes, 
whose
eyelids go till the ground.The whole this story is a legend. I didn't 
want to change it in any way, so I am telling it in the same simplicity as I have heard it." The author told us where Viy was originated 
from...but in real there was never such a creature in Ukrainian 
folklore. Hence Viy is a pure fictitious character, which was born in Gogol's mind, and who knows, how it ever got in there.

However, I am not going to dedicate my post to this "sleepy" monster, as I have something more interesting to discuss. And this is a witch of course. Before I had acquainted you with Russian witches mainly, whose witchy nature either helped in solving love and life issues, or made their love story unhappy. Both however had to flee of the society in order to gain peace of mind and soul.

The witch I am going to tell about has particular differences from those created by Bulgakov and Kuprin. Let us explore this.

Gogol produced such a story which to this day excites reader's mind and lets be honest, scares. On just about 20 pages the complete narrative unfolds with all the details of horror genre which I believe are used by nowaday writers and filmmakers. The author uses folklore plots as well as his own creative mind to describe the scenes and characters. The conventional motif of many Gogol's short stories is a scary legend or a hearsay told by one of the story's characters, which then becomes true as the narration proceeds. This is how  the real world and the world of supernatural is linked  in Gogol's early compositions, and "Viy" is not an exception. However one can not deny the author's subtle irony in his writings somehow prevents you from being swallowed by fear... unlike the protagonist of the story Homa Brut... Now it is time to switch to witch!

Homa Brut is a philosopher - a senior student of a seminary, who being on vacations, makes his way back home with two of his fellows. They cross various places, settlements, stay in the fields over night, but at some point of time they feel to rest and refresh. They make a long journey, but all the efforts of finding a sanctuary for the night come to nothing. Homa with his friends don't give up and when the night already has covered the fields with its cloak they see a flickering light afar - a sign of a farm (a "hutor" in Ukrainian). The travellers are very pleased to finally reach near humans...
As they approach one of the houses of the farm, and knock the door, an old lady opens them and first is not happy to see young lads and refuses to let them stay. But the seminary students good at talking, they coax the old woman, and she being wary makes them sleep in tree different places of the farm. Homa Brut is settled in an empty sheep barn. Late at night he is awaken by a noise of a door opening  in the barn - the old woman enters premises. Homa asks why is she there... but the lady proceeds walking towards him with open arms... He assumes that the crone comes to get some pleasure from him what scares him a lot and he is trying to stop the woman but she stares at him and he is not able to move or speak... : "He could only hear how his heart was pounding, and he saw an old woman came up to him, clasped his hands, bent his head, with the swiftness of a cat jumped on his back, hit him with a broom and by his side, and he bouncing around like a horse, carried her on his shoulders...". That is a moment when Homa thinks : "Aha, it is a witch."

To Be Continued...

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and More.

The Saddest Little Zombie - Not a Cute One

Hello, my dear friends! Hope your days are great and full of things you enjoy to do. I do enjoy reading and, as it happens frequently, some new read finds you itself.

I was looking for some good point and click game in the net, and found one with oh so creepy pictures! Then I saw there was a link to a book, I followed it and met even creepier poem "The Saddest Little Zombie" by Douglas Clegg! Some of you might have heard about this author, for me however, his name is completely new. 

Well, so I'm talking about the book. As the author says himself, it's neither for kids nor for adults...then maybe for zombies? The content is indeed is not kind and sweet,  it's a not a story about a cute living dead chap. The illustrations by Glenn Chandbourne made me speechless, as they are way too expressive, but I liked this. The plot has many scary events which take place during the Christmas holidays. I find that the idea of the presence of something dreadful close to the most jolly time of the year is a reflection of our reality - while someone is happy and celebrating, others dying and suffering.

To my delight I can also include this poem in my research, as one of its characters is a French Voodoo Queen, who actually awakes the little zombie and unfortunately is stabbed by him on the spot. 

The story of course has big bits of irony in it too, and calls for not a "serious" reader, the one who will start complaining about the book's dark content. That's why I'm inviting you to go ahead and simply enjoy this modern dark poem, which you can download here on the author's website for free.

Wise and Beautiful - Vasilisa

Taking care of two blogs is not easy, especially when they differ from each other so much. My Sunny Indian Days is indeed bright and colourful, while Witchcraft and More is dark and has more of tints of black. However I don't really distinguish them, as they both reflect my so various interests which I simply couldn't include in the same blog. I chose to divide, and you see what I got in the end. The topic of Witchcraft was waiting for its next manifestation in here - I'm  letting it happen.

I found out that one of my very first posts "Witch - good and bad? Russian Baba-Yaga" got few back links over the Internet, and the picture I used for it also brings me more and more views per day. So I thought I'd continue with witchcraft in folklore, finding new facts and new pictures. 

As mentioned in the same post, Baba-Yaga is the most popular witch of the Russian fairy tales. She is old, ugly, can be very dangerous nevertheless helpful. I might make a separate post about her, as she deserves proper attention. These are one of the modern visions of Baba-Yaga:                                                     

Baba-Yaga by MarkTriss    

                   
                             Baba-Yaga by AppleSin

Quite scary, isn't it? In some of the blogs I saw that she is even called "Goddess" hence might be worshipped by some Wiccans. But If I talk about the Russian fairy tales, Baba-Yaga is not the only witch or sorcerer. There are also few female characters which have such adjectives in their names like the Wise and the Beautiful.  They either charm with their appearance or/and wit, or they actually are turned to some animal and they do a little bit of magic... Isn't it something obviously witchy in here? ;) I suppose it is, let's see what interesting is in the store of folklore.

Vasilisa the Wise is the character of the fairy tale "The Frog-Princess". Once the arrow sent from  the bow of the prince is caught by a frog - a custom to choose a would-be-wife. Prince Ivan, obeying the tradition, has to marry a frog, and he takes her home. His brothers make fun of him, because of course, he is marrying a..well..frog! Little they knew that this small animal is actually a beautiful girl, a princess Vasilisa the Wise who was bewitched to stay in a guise of a reptile until... some young man (a prince) finds and marries her in spite of her looks. 
The king, a father of the prince, announces different tasks one by one for the wives of his sons. The tasks are such as weave a carpet, bake white bread (called Karavai in Russian) - all in one night, and what is worst, come to the king's feast! The prince feels sad as his wife is just a frog and won't be able to do any of the tasks. She says him to got to bed. When the prince fall asleep, she turns to a princess, leaving her frog skin aside and starts doing magic... The frog-princess successfully performs two first tasks by weaving a wonderful carpet, which embroidery shimmers; she bakes the cake which the king likes the most out of three. 
           
The Frog-Princess, N.Petrov                                Russian Beauty, Konstantin Makovsky

This article pours some light on the meaning of these difficult jobs given to the princess. The author Irina Haustova says that they symbolize the "magic of vital circle", in which, for example, weaving, bread baking are accomplished in one go, from the beginning till end in short period of time, which otherwise couldn't be possible without magic and what was reflected in the fairy tale. If explain the same from religious (pagan) point of view "In those ancient times people believed that the closed life cycle has special properties, special force [...]The committed actions in this magic are frequently weaving, spinning, winding - all symbolically linked with the fate and with the ordering of the world, the creation of the cosmos" (b).

Visit of the feast is the last task, where the Frog Princess reveals her true nature. She appears now in a guise of a beautiful girl, in shining attire and a crown (just like in the pictures above). She astounds all the guests, but more, her husband. The Frog Princess collects some wine and some bones in her sleeves while feasting. Strange. Next, she dances for those present, but in a different way: she throws the wine out of her sleeve, and it becomes a lake; she throws the bones out of another, and they become swans swimming in the lake.

Vasnetsov, the Frog Princess

I found out that this dance has a deep symbolical meaning, coming, once again, from the Russia's pagan past. The author of this essay explains that the Frog Princess's dance represents the pagan ritual activities that occur in the spring of the annual cycle. The throwing of wine and the bones symbolize the revival of nature after the winter.The Frog Princess herself is also linked to the archetype of Women's Self, nature, live, the Earth and the erotic, aspects of which are the Princess and Priestess. I was studying folklore in the university, and we used to review many fairy tales, but not particularly this one, which has so much to tell about.   

Now let's refer to one more typical character of the Russian fairy tales.

Vasilisa the Beautiful shares the same name with the previous princess, however her story is quiet different. Vasilisa's life becomes miserable after her mother's death. Her father marries a widow with two daughters, who try to exhaust Vasilisa, make her ill by giving her loads of house work. However Vasilisa in opposite is becoming more and more beautiful day by day, while step mother and her daughters lose their looks. The thing which keeps Vasilisa healthy and strong is a small doll left by her late mother. And it is a quiet magical attribute. The doll can speak, eat, she does house work, gives advises, spares Vasilisa... just like the mother would and that's what this doll stands for - Vasilisa's mother, who even after her death helps the daughter.

            

                                                       Vasilisa the Beautiful and her Doll (Kinuko Y.)
One night Vasilisa is sent by her stepmother to fetch the light for a candle from Baba Yaga. She carries a doll with her. Baba Yaga agrees to give her fire only when she accomplishes few tasks (some are as same difficult as in "The Frog Princess"). The doll helps her to do so, of course. The picture below illustrates the moment Vasilisa is carrying a skull with the light home. However her step mother and step sisters are burned to the ground by the eye hole's light, as a punishment for treating Vasilisa so bad. Don't mess with a girl with a doll... The doll, obviously, has a symbolic meaning as well. You can read about it as well as about overall meaning of this folk tale which is analyzed from psychological point of view in this nice article.

Vasilisa the Beautiful, Ivan Bilibin

 A female character of the Russian fairy tales inherited a rich system of pagan believes. Vasilisa is not the only wise and beautiful, there are also Elena, Mariya and other young woman who are bestowed with unique abilities. One of them even called Baba-Yaga's daughter. I'd like to continue telling about the world of Russian folklore in the next posts. Hope you are with me and can give suggestions on what else I can speak about in Witchcraft and More. There is so much MORE!

Literature/on line sources used:

1. B.A. Doroshin, Some Socioantropocosmic mytho-archetypal motifs of the Russian folk tale "The Frog Princess", Penza, 2010.

2. I. Haustova, The Magic of  Vital Circle

3. Bolotova L., Features of the female characters in the Russian folk tale

4. Clarissa Estes, Vasilisa the Wise and the Doll

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

One Step at A Time

Manelle Oliphant Illustration, Nice Witch

I know that the Witchcraft and Literature is in a slow motion. The reason is that the object of my exploration is somehow not that easy to write about. It takes me some time to finalise what story, novel, novella will be suitable, and what I am actually going to tell about it. I choose only those books which I myself read and liked. I can't pick up any story with a witch protagonist and start explaining what's going on in it. I need to think over what stroke me in the story, what made it my favourite. In other words, I need to FEEL it. 

Some time ago I made a list of the potential material for my blog, however I am not able to find it now. I have already made some posts about witchcraft theme in the novel Master and Margarita, novella Olesya. Besides I try to get to know more about witchcraft itself and my journey has been successful so far. 

I noticed that the things, we start taking into our interest, arise here and there, make you feel that they are now a tiny bit of your life, and that you also know a little more about them than others. Same is with my expanding knowledge of witchcraft. Though I am not practising it and perhaps, never going to, my mind is able to see the res in a broader way. Whenever I happen upon a witch in a movie or a book, I can apply what  I have already learnt about this topic. There is still so much to get on to...

I can now see that witchcraft is the same part of culture as anything else is. If it appeared in our life so many centuries ago, it became our heritage too. I also got to know that mostly humans are cowardly. Yes, they are, and that's why witchcraft always was and is one of the phenomena presented as horrible, dark, devilish, evil and anti-social. We believe it to be such and we put ourselves into frames. 

When following the stories of two witches from Russian literature, Margarita and Olesya, I found that both were passionately in love and had to suffer for opportunity to be with their "simple" beloved ones. The witch = suffering? Possibly, it is because having a witchy nature means follow the path of feelings, which very often hurt us...

So I am taking one step at a time to create, learn, reflect on the topic of witchcraft in literature. 

Blessings to all my readers! Happy November!
P.S. in recent series of Vampire Diaries I heard a very good term for witch-male a "warlock"! Sorry, but for me it is a new word in my English vocabulary.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

Halloween in Bright Colors

 A quick post to present my witchy creations:) I made some stuff to set my room with, whereas I am going to celebrate Halloween this year. Hope you like these cute crochet pumpkins, bunting and a witch. Halloween doesn't have to be always scary. Let's fill it with bright colors and beautiful things!

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

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

My first guest post on A Witchy Life by Sita

 I am very much excited about first guest writing experience for a blog A Witchy Life by Sita. You can find the article here. The name of the post is "Margarita - a Witch of Russian descent". It narrates a  story of a witch from the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita". I hope you will like it and I am going to post about Margarita in my blog as well as her story still continues.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

Origin of Witchcraft - Greek Hecate

 I had opened a big topic related to a reflection of a witchcraft in ancient Greek literature. Therefore, I would like to continue my thoughts on the subject of the first witch/wizard in the human's history. And I would like to descry ancient Greek mythology and Goddess Hecate and her relation to witchcraft.
Hecate is an ancient Goddess who is presented mostly as a triple formed Goddess: triple headed, triple bodied, six armed and six legged. I also found that  "earliest Greek depictions of Hecate are single-faced, not three formed" (wiki), and that her mystic nature was created later.

Ancient Hecate, 3rd century BCE

Goddess Hecate has associations  with a variety of phenomenon as fire, light, the Moon, crossroads, entrance ways, knowledge of potions and herbs, necromancy, sorcery, magic and witchcraft. Hecate also has a universal rule over the earth, sky and the sea, what might be reflected in her triple bodied figure.

Modern Hecate

Hecate's image as a witch can be treated as much valuable and powerful than any other. I must say that Hecate also figures in a myth about Jason and the Argonauts, discussed here in regard with Medea. Nevertheless, Hecate shall be considered as the source of witchcraft, probably it's origin, or the origin of belief in it.
In the Michael Strmiska's book "Modern paganism in world cultures" I found the lines about the origin of witchcraft and Hecate's cult, where the author says that Hecate conflated with Diana (Roman Goddess) was a protector of witches and sorcerers in their work and was most active at night. This then, in late antiquity and early medieval period, gave a ground for association of Hecate with witchcraft and night rituals.
According to Greek tradition Hecate can be called the first Goddess in humans history which used to have links with witchcraft and officially could be called as a Goddess of witches. However, in my opinion, we can't really know how she was treated by ancient Greeks and did they really worship this side of her deity. For that matter I also would like to know about the magic as a tool of mortal people in ancient Greece. How they used magic and how magic was treated that time.

Witch - good and bad? Classical literature

   Long time back I started reading Greek myths. I was more than fascinated with them, I was stunned by them. I don't  really know what I found so close to my person in them, but there was definitely something special. Oh yes... there was magic in them. All those Gods and Goddesses endowed with supernatural powers made me my imagination go far beyond the rational. My favourite Goddess was Artemis. I used to play as I was her, hunting in the forests with a bow, which was made from a simple hanger :)

Modern Artemis

Classical Artemis

   Well, when I grew up I got to know that besides Greek myths there is also a classical literature, in which Homer's "Odyssey" takes the most attention. A heroic epos, full of adventures, stories about love and, of course, magic. One of the most famous witches in all ancient Greek literature was of course Circe. Was she a good or a bad witch? Let's see what are her actions in "Odyssey".

    Circe is a minor Goddess of Magic. Sometimes she used to be described as "witch" too. "Circe transformed her enemies or those who offended her, into animals through the use of magical potions" (Wiki). If you remember she did the same with the Odyssey crew, when turned them into pigs and only Odyssey could resist her magic as he was warned by Hermes and given a special drug called "moly". As I had said in a post Witch - good and bad? Russian Baba-Yaga, witch as I found out, could play a dual role as a helper and a dreadful ruiner. Circe's function in Odyssey is similar to that of Baba-Yaga. 

Circe

   Circe guides Odyssey and his crew in their further journey. Though she doesn't do it by virtue of her kind nature, she does it only after Odyssey agrees to stay on her island Aeaea for one year as in return of her turning Odyssey's crew into humans again. Hence the witch remains witch - she does good but not forgetting about her own profit.

  Another not less famous than Circe witch is Medea. Her character is presented in Greek myths as well as in an ancient Greek literature. Mythological Medea figures in a myth about Jason and the Argonauts. Her actions start when Jason is asked by Medea's father Aeetes to perform tasks in order to obtain Golden fleece. Medea helps Jason to get Golden fleece with the means like herbs and ointment. In  late work by Apollonius of Rhodes "Argonautica" (3 century BC) Medea fell in love with Jason and promised to help him only of he succeed in the tasks and then take her with him and marry.

I was rather puzzled with the statements that Medea was either Hecate's daughter or her priestess, because this difference makes her less or more powerful witch then.

Jason and Medea

     Obvious that in whatever written sources Medea figures she is said to use such means of a witch as potions, herbs, hypnosis, drugs. However in contrast with Circe, Medea is a mortal woman who has strong emotions and strong character. In Euripid's tragedy "Medea" her personage lives through the Jason's betrayal. Medea takes revenge by murdering Jason's new wife by sending her poisoned dress and coronet. More, she also kills her own children in anger and despair. One important note is that in Euripid's tragedy Medea herself says that she was hated because she was considered to be too wise and cunning. These qualities of a witch, which help her to solve complex issues with an outstanding knack.
   I attempted to understand whether witch is good or bad as shown in classical Greek literature. Witch's good as soon as she acts for a success of the main hero, otherwise her actions are viewed as wrong and punishable.

Yours sincerely,

Witchcraft and Literature

Witch - good and bad? Russian Baba-Yaga

    For many centuries witchcraft has been treated as a devil's gift, as an evil skill. Yes, indeed, it has many connections with the dark side of the existence, with the unknown powers of nature, which can cause destruction and even death. Not surprising that witch in many cases is depicted wearing a black cloak, may be a black hat, she also has a scary look, concentrated on the magical ritual. The image from the "Snow White and the seven dwarfs" cartoon by Disney is a typical vision of the witch in a popular culture:

Evil witch as depicted in Snow White fairy tale

   By the way, did the witches really look like this ever? If it was so dangerous being a witch, why would they attract more attention with such clothes? So this is I think is a modern delusion about the witch appearance.    However whether there was a witch around, everybody knew it and everybody knew how to reach that witch.
    Here I would like to stop by telling about the witch in Russian folklore. The main and the best known of them is Baba-Yaga (Russian "Баба-Яга"). When I was a child I used to love (!) Russian fairytales. First, my Mum used to read them for me, then I learned reading and could enjoy books myself.
     In the Russian folk tales the character of Baba-Yaga plays an important role for the main hero and his further success.

Why I like the topic of witchcraft

    This is not a question, this is a try to explain myself why I like to read about magical stuff or watch it. Well, as far as I remember, I was fond of such things since childhood. Thanks to my Mum, who was always interested, on a hobby level, in astrology, stones properties, chiromancy and so on. It was not that she especially presented all her interests to me, but I am myself used to pick up some book on these topics and read it. It was all curiosity of course. Why not? This is indeed interesting and deserves our attention.

    I don't specifically like a witchcraft or all this black magic things or especially to do it (no way), but as soon as it exists  in our world and it is something what we can't explain yet - it becomes an object of our observation and even research.

    As soon as I am a philologist, I have a special interest in witchcraft. How many of the writers and poets  made magic and wizardry as part of their works! I can't leave the fact that this theme can also inspire to create. You can see different dimensions of it's presentation in the literature, however some books can be called "magical", if you take an example of Harry Potter, the latest top book (hence, movie) about the world of witches and wizards.

   In the next posts I would like to explore the witchcraft, and everything related to it, from the point of view of the literature. All the best to me and hope to realize my witch explorer potential!

Yours Sincerely,
Witchcraft and Literature