October is a vitally mystical and pagan folklore-rich time of year in the northern hemisphere. It is that magical liminal in-between time where you can witness the transformation of the landscape as it shifts in temperature and hue from summer to winter. The folklore and stories that accompany the dying of the leaves and the onset of cooler weather often feature characters that raise our awareness of death, reminding us of our enduring kinship with nature: after all, we, too, are mortal like the leaves.
The carved and inked linoleum block right before printing. This piece includes scenes from the folktale “Katrina and the Bright Falcon” including: Katrina discovering the Falcon at her window; Baba Yaga’s cabin in the woods on chicken legs; the castle Katrina journeys to in order to find her love; and Baba Yaga herself!
One such folktale is “Katrina and the Bright Falcon” which includes the Slavic folk heroine, the Baba Yaga, a powerful female wilderness creatrix often depicted as a wicked witch, who is feared and avoided and associated with death. However, this particular folktale cleverly gives a new meaning to this “witch”, reframing “death” into something positive, encouraging us to see the true value of the Wise Feminine Elder archetype. At the same time, it offers a more positive representation of the elderly female, or Crone, a refreshing image that stands in contrast to the negative way older women are viewed in Western society today.
Here is a short summary of the story “Katrina and the Bright Falcon” retold by Deborah Gee Zigenis in the January 2021 issue of Cricket (a children’s literary magazine):
Pulling the print off of the carved linoleum block
Katrina is the youngest of three sisters whose father is a merchant who frequently travels afar. Though her sisters always request he offer them lavish clothing and fine jewels upon his return, Katrina only asks for a red rose which somehow her father is unable to find even after three attempts. Finally he brings her a wooden chest decorated with a red rose, and that evening she discovers a falcon’s feather inside it. To her surprise, a Falcon suddenly appears who shape shifts into a prince who claims the feather is his, but says she can keep it because it is a magic feather. Katrina and the Falcon fall in love and enjoy many evenings together, but every morning he must transform back into a Falcon because he is under a wicked spell by the Czar, his father, who has punished him for not agreeing to an arranged marriage with a princess. Their evening get-togethers would have continued had it not been for Katrina’s mean spirited sisters who overhear noises in her room. They wickedly decide to line her window with pieces of sharp glass and the next evening the Falcon cuts himself on the glass and, in a state of shock, believes Katrina does not want him to return and flies back to his castle where he agrees to be betrothed to the princess.
Birch trees at Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, Belmont, MA.
Katrina, in the meantime, is determined to find the Falcon and ventures into the dark woods where she stumbles across three huts with three witches (all Baba Yaga) each of whom ask her to complete an impossible task. Katrina is able to complete the tasks easily with her magic feather, and in exchange, the three Baba Yagas offer her three gifts which she carries with her on her journey to the castle. Upon arriving, she offers Baba Yaga’s gifts to the bride-to-be as a bribe to let her stay three nights with the Falcon before his marriage. The first two evenings the Falcon remains asleep and nothing Katrina can do can wake him. The third night, however, he decides not to drink the sleeping draught disguised as wine that his bride-to-be offers him, and Katrina is able to wake him and finally they decide to get married.
Handcrafted linocut print of the Baba Yaga and characters in the Slavic folktale that inspired this piece including a Falcon.
In this folktale Baba Yaga plays a vital role in assisting Katrina as she journeys from innocence to experience in pursuit of her true love, a Falcon. Some sources suggest that in Slavic folklore, the Falcon is an important talisman for Slavic warriors when fighting their enemy. I believe the Falcon is, similarly, Katrina’s spiritual companion whom she identifies with and pursues in order to harness the strength and courage to leave her abusive sisters who pressure her to conform to beauty standards, play safe and sacrifice who she truly is in order to live a conventional domestic life.
Katrina’s pursuit of the Falcon starts her on a journey into the heart of a forest where meets the Baba Yaga who is wild, adventurous, unrefined, does not conform to conventional beauty standards, and definitely risks being unpopular in order to stay true to herself (after all, the Baba Yaga is widely regarded as a “witch!”).
The heart of this story is about how we all must grow out of the tendency to follow the herd, or submit to pressures of society at the sacrifice of becoming who we really are. The folktale shows us how allowing that younger aspect of ourselves to die, taking the risk of venturing into the wild, experiencing the freedom of being away from the pressures of society, individuating from our families, connecting with our inner Baba Yagas. . .all of these are aspects of the wild and adventurous journey that will connect us to our Falcon, our True Authentic Self.
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Etses, mythologist, folklorist and author of bestselling book Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, talks about the Baba Yaga in her SoundsTrue audio recording The Power of the Crone when she discusses the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. The Maiden/Mother/Crone archetypes can correspond with the changing seasons: the Maiden as spring, the Mother as summer, and the Crone as fall/winter. The Crone/Winter archetype is a reminder of what must die in order for growth to happen and is rightfully associated with the experienced, mature elderly woman.
Natalia Clarke, similarly, beautifully describes and redefines the Baba Yaga in her book Baba Yaga: Slavic Earth Goddess, which she writes from her own Siberian heritage. She talks about how the Baba Yaga embodies both light and dark, all the more reason to associate the Baba Yaga with the fall season of in-betweens. She says: “Deep in the birch forest she dwells between the human and non-human worlds. With every rising sun she witnesses the darkness and light in nature and their world”, and “She holds the balance between the good and bad, dark and light, wet and dry, rich and barren. Maintaining it is feeding herself as they are one and whole”. I love this vision of the Baba Yaga, it offers a more deeper understanding of her role, more specifically, how she may be perceived to be evil or dark, when actually the “death” that she is often associated with may be a reference to the necessary dying away of whatever gets in the way of us maturing or actualizing ourselves. Baba Yaga is a symbol, like the dying leaves we witness every autumn, of what dies in order to make way for Spring, a rebirth of something new.
In addition to being associated with death, the Baba Yaga is also known to live deep in the heart of a Birch forest and frequently in stories she is described sweeping with a silver Birch broom in her hands. I find it intriguing the many feminine names given to Birches including: The White Goddess, The Lady of the Woods, and The Silver Maiden to name a few. In Slavic mythology, Birches are one of the sacred trees, they have been worshiped, and they are associated with feminine power, magic and mythology. Birches are one of the first kinds of trees that sprout up when a forest has been clear cut or burned down, they symbolize rebirth, renewal, and resilience.
This handcrafted print (photo left) includes the following details from the folktale: Katrina and the falcon at her window; Baba Yaga's little cabin on chicken legs in the forest including a grove of birch trees; the castle where the Falcon lives and where Katrina's journey takes her; the Baba Yaga herself! I purposefully put Katrina and the Falcon inside Baba Yaga to show how the story suggests the innocent, the wise, and the wild are all inside each of us. I took full advantage of how the medium of printmaking can offer clear contrasts between negative and positive space in my choice of design and simple coloring, which I feel allow for the contrasting themes of innocence and experience, loss and renewal, to be expressed. I also emphasized the texture from the hand carving, and variations in ink density from printing by hand, and purposeful choice of traditional handmade Hosho paper with the intention of giving the resulting image a rustic charm and age-old feel which would best capture a timeless heartwarming folktale.
Here I am carving a small birch tree grove onto a work-in-progress linoleum print inspired by the ancient Russian folktale Katrina and the Bright Falcon, featuring the Slavic folk heroine: the Baba Yaga. You can see my new birch table in this photo!
Right before I began carving this linocut inspired by this folktale of the Baba Yaga, I bought myself a new desk. It turns out (without my conscious intention!) that the table is actually made of Birch! I love this synchronicity between this table and the theme of my artwork. Although I felt a sadness to think that a birch tree (or a few) had to be sacrificed to make my table, I know the act of creating this piece, and many forthcoming, I will honor Her, this White Goddess, this Lady of the Woods on whose shoulders I do my creative work. She, the Birch Goddess, the Baba Yaga, will live through my art which I consider to be sacred work. I think this is the truth of the Baba Yaga: that when something dies, it gives way for something new to be born. She reminds us gently, like the falling of an autumn leaf, of what it takes to become Whole.
Photo Credits:
Blog Post Cover birch trees: Niklas Hamann on Unsplash.
Header photo of birch trees: Sungmu Heo on Pexels
Birch tree photo insert: this is my own photo.
References:
Clarke, Natalia (2021). Baba Yaga: Slavic Earth Goddess. Moon Books.
Etses, Clarissa Pinkola (1992). Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. Ballantine Books., and SoundsTrue audio recording The Power of the Crone.
Zigenis, Deborah Gee (January 2021). “Katrina and the Bright Falcon”. Cricket Magazine, p. 12-16. (This story is offered in parts, and the 2nd and 3rd parts are in the subsequent issues of the magazine).
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