Was Baba Yaga a Goddess

In the forest near my former Czech home

In an earlier post I introduced you to, Baba Yaga, the Slavic witch and hinted that there was more to her than just being a witch.

In the fairy tale Vasilisa The Fair  the heroine sees three horsemen ride past, one dressed in white, one in red, one in black. When she asks Baba Yaga the identity of the coloured riders, Baba Yaga explains that they are Baba Yaga’s servants: Bright Day, Red Sun and Black Midnight. These are not the servants of an ordinary witch or even of the aunt of all witches, as Baba Yaga is sometimes called. Baba Yaga is a being that is served by the most powerful of natural forces.

It is pretty certain that before Baba Yaga was demoted to a witch, she was some sort of goddess in Slavic mythology. Goddess of what is more debated. As in the story of Vasilisa the Fair, she seems to have powers over nature - both the elements and wildlife - so possibly she was an earth goddess. But in many tales she is more like a goddess of death: her cottage is surrounded by bones and skulls and she is a cannibal, cooking her victims in her large oven. Perhaps more specifically she is a deity that controls the entrance into the other world. Some tales speak of her cooking the souls of the dead until they can enter the afterlife.

It seems to me that the either/or view of Baba Yaga is wrong. To be an earth goddess is also to be one of death. That is how nature works. Modern culture wants to frame her as evil, but the old culture makes no such judgement. Baba Yaga is, she always was, and that is enough.