July

The Mount Shasta Goddess Temple dedicates July to Baba Yaga.

Artwork Baba Yaga at Mott Cemetery by Devanna Wolf

Baba Yaga is the intimidating wise woman who lives at the edge of the forest, making friends with the plants and animals, testing the courage of those who make their way to her hut, darting among the trees, and dancing under the moon. She is the spry, cackling crone who doesn’t mince words and who knows ancient and secret incantations. Her retinue includes the horsemen of the Bright Dawn, Red Sun, and Black Midnight who govern the process of the day. Around her chicken-legged animistic home we find a fence made of chattering skulls with fire in their eye sockets. She is accompanied by frogs and spiders. Her medicine is powerful: the right dose will heal you, the wrong dose is poison. Baba Yaga is also the one who shows us how our society projects fearsome qualities upon elder women of power. Why? Because she is so strong, so smart, and so ferocious that she needs no outside validation, making her a danger to patriarchal social codes. If you approach her with respect, she might help you. But if you approach her with mockery or presumption, watch out! Her teeth and wit are equally sharp!

Ideas for honoring Baba Yaga, Wild Woman:

 -make and drink a nourishing herbal brew

-take a mycology class or go foraging for mushrooms

-perform a spell to right the wrongs of your past and break ancestral curses

-speak your truth, even if it’s frightening

-wear skull jewelry or clothing printed with skulls

-let the spider in your bathroom or closet live there

-spend time with crones who don’t care what anyone thinks of them

-read the words of elder women who dared to live according to their own rules

-go for long walks in the forest

-do something that scares you

Praise for Baba Yaga

Crone Mother
Bone Mother
Healer, Seer, Witch
Secret Keeper
Screech Owl
Mighty Wolf Bitch
Baba Yaga, Bright Dawn
Baba Yaga, Red Sun
Baba Yaga, Midnight
Baba Yaga, Black Sky Woman
Keep me safe within your sight
Keep me on the path of right

-composed by Temple priestess Yeshe Meryemana Matthews Robles

For more information about the Goddesses honored in the Mount Shasta Goddess Temple, join the Temple as a Mandala Member.