Where I met Baba Yaga was indeed the jungle, not a forest in the traditional sense but the urban jungle of a big city – London, England. My career (spanning 20 years) as a psychiatrist nurse led me to work on the front line with clients that were termed ‘socially misaligned’ – rejected and dejected. When you work with people that are deeply ashamed of what has happened to them or by what they have done (for example, that their own behaviour has led them to have their children removed at birth; that they have thrown their spouse down the stairs because she refused to give them the milk money for their next hit; been sold as a slave; raped by their father’s drug dealer in lieu of his next heroin bag; sold their pregnant bodies for a higher rate to punters that like to f**k pregnant whores they can then slap after sex (I could go on)) – when you sit and allow people to voice their shame, their stories of violence you learn pretty quick that this jungle is going to devour you if you can’t find and summon an authentic internal resilience to not lose your hope in humanity and its jungle.

I purposefully chose not to highlight the most intense stories of my career, the above examples offer enough to set the scene, for it was often not in the extreme cases that I was most moved by humanity’s rejection and shame but in the quiet soft weeping moments when my clients cried that they could not contemplate sobriety because the shame of catching even a glimpse of their reflection in a shop window would be enough to strike them down and their shame would kill them.

How did I meet Baba Yaga? Was it picking wild berries in the big deep forest? Not really, the closest I brush up to berries is a cranberry cosmopolitan at my favourite inner city cocktail bar…

Baba Yaga came to me then in the drug clinics, the prisons and the streets of London which is a dense urban jungle – wild and free. Baba drew in very close, ‘she found me’, and whispered to me her wisdoms and secret knowledge about the shame of disapproval, the rejection of society and how this ‘pathway’ takes us deeply into the subconscious on a fast track ticket to despair. What help then would this tremendous and mighty Wild Goddess be to a witch not living near a green forest contemplating the 4 directions, in a log cabin watching the stars and perceiving their navel? That is not my life. It’s certainly not my clients’ life, some of whose children have never even seen the ocean!

Baba Yaga is far more than ‘one way or ‘one path’, Baba Yaga restored me and gave me the endurance to continue my career not because I was startling or an exceptional nurse but because she taught me to not fear others shame, and to address my own shame, not to seek external approval and to apologise to no one for my own uniqueness. Ultimately my strongest ally, my most treasured teacher and mentor, my guide in the wild terrain of psychiatric despair and humanity’s desperate need to shun and exclude was and is Baba Yaga. I praise her and honour her as I see fit. I would never judge anyone else’s experience with this Powerful Goddess because I know each path is a deeply personal one. When I spend time in other communities and faiths – with witch doctors in Africa and Shamans in 3rd world communities – becoming familiar with the word ‘archetype’ is helpful to me because many cultures revere Gods that are shunned and wild and although they are not Baba their traits can become almost interchangeable and have cross overs of the archetypal ‘wicked witch’. The Goddess that emanates or upholds an archetypal energy exits as a LIVING God, and She arises in other cultures other than my own as a living life force. I call her Baba Yaga – she prefers rum on my altar over vodka, in other cultures she likes wine and sometimes homemade beer. This is interesting but not essential knowledge. I love hearing how others revere her or other Goddesses in her likeness. I’m open to other people’s impressions and experiences of Baba Yaga because my own relationship with her is not threatened. I love her and I celebrate that she is loved by many in different ways. Hail to Baba! the wild, the shameless and the free! xxx

Francesca is a wonderful festival friend, and the gift of these youtube videos that she has given us we honor with great gratitude. She is a beautiful witch who has spent many years working with Baba Yaga, and we respect both her teachings and the gift of her time and thought. We also acknowledge and respect Wisdom that comes from more Traditional sources. We are a festival that is open to all ways of learning and growing, in a fashion that is inclusionary, respectful and community minded. As such, we would invite anyone who has teachings about Baba Yaga to join us, and send in a proposal for a workshop (if you live in Manitoba) or a proposal for a Baba Yaga piece we can put on this website. We will be putting up more information on her in the coming weeks, and would be happy to have a diversity of respectful perspectives available for the community to learn from. Again, thank you all so very much for your insights and thoughts. If you wish to email us with proposals, you can reach us at manitobagoddessfestival.com.

Warmest Wishes,
Kirsten Brooks, Director

The outer world is a reflection of the inner world. If you really are working with the Gods/Goddess, deeply and intimately it will impact on all levels/worlds including your psyche if you invite it. There is nothing wrong with a bit of inner transformation with their help is there? Can you only call on Baba if you are going for a walk late at night through a forest or wishing to connect with the elemental spirits?I see that we can call on her energy in ritual and ceremony when it fits the time and space.

I work as a tantric practitioner at DIVINE BODY BLISS. People come for different reasons but a lot of men and woman come because they do not feel complete and in tune with some area of their sexuality. This affects all aspects of their life. Usually they will shy about being seen and heard. Sexual energy is wild, primal, and creative and is responsible for us feeling joy. I travel with these clients through massage and healing to assist embracing and reclaiming this energy; the repressed denied wild parts. To shake off caring what others think, update thoughts/beliefs about their bodies and relationship with sexual energy.

You cannot be a wild woman and part of the heard at the same time.
So calling on Baba yaga’s energy in a session is useful in my line of work. She is not one of the old traditional tantric Goddess’s that is true , but her energy fits with today ‘s world and desire to wake up and break out of tradition and following the herd mentality. People wanting to become alive, whole and free …

I am also very clear that the gods are not archetypes, nor are they archetypal, they are gods, they are themselves. We do not command or capture them, nor their energies. They do not exist just for us to understand ourselves. They do not “represent” parts of ourselves in this psychoanalytic sense. Baba Yaga does not exist so we can accept and integrate the dark parts of ourselves etc. etc. etc., whatever the heck that means. Again, I find this disrespectful, spiritually solipsistic and self-absorbed. It is not, for goodness’ sake, all about us and our psyches.

If you invite Baba Yaga, ask to be taught. You may or may not like what She teaches, it may or may not be what you want. She may or may not agree to teach you. But do not treat Her like a toy, nor as a resource for personal use.

I will confess to being a very old fashioned Witch. For me, our walk with the gods is to serve the three worlds, not just ourselves.