As I’m thinking about the balance of darkness and light I’m also thinking about
Yaga Baba (In Slovene Jaga Baba) – the witch/crone of Slovene fairy tales. Jaga Baba doesn’t have a direct analog to any Judeo-Christian characters. Some people think that she is the devil since she is an old hag and brings death. (Picture by Viktor M. Vasnetsov [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons). However in paganism and budhism there isn’t a dualism between light and dark and while Jaga Baba brings death and threatens to eat children, she also helps the pure hearted. For more discussion check out Darkness in paganism
As I get closer to being a crone myself (I decided not to dye my hair anymore and let my gray show, but that is another story) I am thinking about darkness. In the past I explored the story of Persephone and her decent into hell and back again when I wrote Walking With Persephone: A Journey Toward Healing, In Creativity and Madness . Now I’m looking into my own cultural background and thinking about Jaga Baba. As a nurse I know that life has a balance of light and dark. I am wanting a time now to rest from the light and acknowledge the dark parts of being, the parts embodied by Jaga Baba.
So why would Jaga Baba help those who are purehearted? The fairy tales make it very clear that the hero must help those in need – sometimes it is people, but often it is animals in trouble. For example a swan about to be eaten by an eagle or it could be a fish in a net asking to be free. Just a tip – if an animal speaks to you do what it asks. The animals are sometimes magical people in disguise and sometimes just animals, for example a fish who retrieves things from the bottom of the ocean for the hero who saved him. The good deeds prepare the hero to show up to Jaga Baba’s house. Even getting into Jaga Baba’s house requires bravery. The house is
described as moving around on a chicken foot and requires a request before the door is accessible. The hero says ‘Turn your back to the forest and your door to me’. The house then turns and the hero can enter. Jaga Baba enters from the chimney. She is horrifying, but also sometimes helpful. (Picture: By Сергей Панасенко-Михалкин (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons).
When I really think about the story it seems that the hero is willing to lose everything in order to achieve their goal, and their goal is always other oriented, often saving the princess, so they are brave enough to ask Jaga Baba for help. I feel braver now that I have lived through the loss of a child than I did before. I not only survived, but thrived, so I trust that I will be OK. I have room for the shadows in my life and the darkness of Jaga Baba in my fairy tales.
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