BABA YAGA

In Russian folklore Baba Yaga is presented as a fearsome witch with iron teeth.  She is mysterious, dreadful, and cautions against being deceitful and impure.  She has a litany of awful characteristics that are meant to punish those who go about in this world doing as they please with little regard to whom they injure in the process.  She becomes one with the intention of anyone who seeks her out, and the operative word is INTENTION.  

The definition of INTENTION is the thing that you plan to do or achieve : an aim or purpose, a determination to act in a certain way :  RESOLVE

Baba Yaga is said to KNOW the intention of those who pursue her and her actions in dealing with them are a direct reflection of that intention.  We live in a society now that is determined to make INTENTION obsolete; no bearing on consequences and therefore NO PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY required.  Well of course this mentality goes against nature.  Every choice made, whether consciously intentional or subconsciously intentional binds us to the consequences of that choice. Only on a very naive level can we pretend our choices are not our own.  This doesn't change the fact the choice will have consequences. 

Baba Yaga would ask only one question to the visitor bold enough to enter her hut; do you come of your own free will or were you sent.  There could only be one right answer.  A wrong answer was death.  Who would enter a hut surrounded by a fence made of bones, meant to keep out intruders, and topped with the skulls of blazing eye sockets except of their own free will?  And yet we have generations walking about now who want us to believe they should not be blamed for the choices they make regarding how they use products they purchased because they ignored the directions or disclaimers.  Or an industry giant knowingly burying evidence a product is not functioning properly or wasn't properly installed and now people are being injured or killed as a result.  The initial reaction to warn the public before serious injury or death was ignored in favor of protecting investments and careers.  The choice was made and the intention was to deceive.  Of course in the END it fails and investments are lost and careers ruined but seldom will you see ONE person step up and take responsibility.  It becomes the shame of an INDUSTRY or a CORPORATION.  Behind the scenes there is a scramble to RENAME or RELABEL a product so it that it can RESURFACE under new management, that will function as a MOB as well, so as not to make ONE person totally accountable because, well, we don't live in a world that expects ONE PERSON to accept full accountability for any decision.  Even though the salaries get larger as you go up the ladder of accountability, it will be those on the lower rungs of the ladder who suffer the most for the bad intentions of those at the top. We USE the word HONOR to describe honest and thoughtful and mindful people but when was the last time you saw a JOB DESCRIPTION that included the phrase MUST BE HONORABLE?  

Honor and personal accountability go hand in hand so it's not surprising HONOR isn't on the short list of qualifications for the highest paying or most prestigious jobs being offered.  In some cultures loss of honor is a justification for murder.  Yet we don't think honor should be a qualification when asking us to trust someone to lead us, direct us, and represent us.  Honor isn't just something you SAY you have.  You demonstrate it by stepping down when you've failed, when you've lost the trust in people you serve, when a decision you made cost people their savings, their future, their lives.  We used to say it took an act of Congress to force someone to step aside but that is no longer true.  It used to take a lawsuit that threatened a financial empire, or the constant glare of headlines in news papers and blogs declaring someone unwilling to take accountability to make someone buckle under and accept responsibility.   Seems like these days, nothing can force someone to admit they've dishonored themselves.  They simply ride out the controversy knowing another scandal will come along to bail them out any day now. They learn nothing and they make no changes in how they conduct themselves, at least none the public can see.  Life goes on for them as if nothing happened to unsuspecting or innocent people under them.  And people become desensitized to dishonor, almost accepting the fact they will be exploited or manipulated for the sake of saving someone else from dishonor.  Everyone is so willing to 'forget it'.  You hear, "everyone makes mistakes' or 'everyone deserves as second chance'.  Which is all fine and good but where is it written they don't have to be closely supervised or scrutinized the second time around?  

We have a President who feels so strongly about NOT holding people of questionable honor under close inspection that he refuses to profile or vet these questionable people because it's hurtful....to them.  They are questionable because they are unknown, and have questionable intentions. But we have to take their word that they simply want to live a good life and hope they won't turn around and join in marches demanding an end to the very good life that they said they wanted here...because suddenly they aren't happier here than they were in their war torn homes across the ocean.  And STILL he refuses to make them feel badly about hating the people who took them in.

Honor should be at the top our list of qualifications; over how wealthy they are, over how experienced they are, over how many promises they can make to us, over how effective they are using the media, and over which set of genitalia are suitable for the job.  Honor should be more important than the words FIRST IN HISTORY.  Honor should be more important than how they look on television or how skilled they are at making people laugh.  Honor should come before how well they talk, how many celebrities support them, or how much money they can raise in one $5000 per plate dinner.  Honor is so important it should also trickle down to the people they consider their closest friends.

Baba Yaga wanted to know just how honorable the person was who dared to breach her inner sanctum.  In the end she was also credited with helping the most honorable because as it turns out SHE HAD NO POWER OVER THOSE WITH A PURE HEART.  When are we going to get back to demanding honor among our leaders?  In fact when are we going get back to making HONOR more important than gaming the system?


http://www.oldrussia.net/baba.html

BLODEUWEDD 

 GODDESS OF DEATH AND LIFE



A Welsh goddess of beauty and betrayal, created by two magicians for the purpose of fulfilling a curse laid on the son of a goddess determined to maintain control.  She was created of nine types of blossom-oak. Often referred to as flower face.  However, she proved to be bad news for Lleu Llaw Gyffes, her husband.  But what a looker she was....and she represents temporary beauty and bright blooming that must come full circle through death.  Her husband, by means of his mother, was declared untouchable but for a special set of circumstances before he could be killed by mere mortals.  A riddle that went something like 'not in a house, not outside a house, not on horseback and not of foot...'.  So I'm guessing by the time he fell head over heels for Blodeuwedd he was already pretty full of himself.

So, moving on with the legend, Lleu decides to get some man time in with his magician buddies. I'm guessing this was the equivalent of the man-cave time to get away from women for a bit.  In his absence a hunter by the name of Gronw Prebyr stumbles across the path of Blodeuwedd and, you guessed it, falls head over heels in love with her.  The difference this time was she felt the exact same way.  Gronw and Blodeuwedd fall hard for each other and she decides she really can't live without him and fully resents the fact she was created for the sole purpose of being someone's property.  Here is where the goddess in her rises to her full potential.  She tricks Lleu into showing her how he must be posed in order to be killed and that done, she sets him up and Gronw wounds him with a spear.  Lleu is nursed back to health and then the lovers are captured and punished.  Gronw is killed but Blodeuwedd is turned into an owl, a night predator.  In an instant she is turned into the polar opposite of what she was created.  From a beautiful, meek, submissive creation to a solitary, magnificent night hunter that is the owl.  She had gone full circle in the blink of an eye; from innocent maiden to wise crone.  

Such are the lessons of the goddess.  Blodeuwedd was created to be submissive and without her own voice.  She took back that power and entered into a scheme that would clearly be of her own choosing.  In being turned into an owl she maintained her own voice as a singular threat to the night.  

As women we cycle not only monthly but also in stages from maiden to mother to crone.  The idea of being a crone is dreaded by maidens and mothers but fully embraced by the time that cycle arrives.  

Maidens are naive, and for the most part, simply obedient to someone.  It might be a parent or it might be a lover.  But the maiden is without credible voice.  I know they talk a lot and make a lot of noise but they know they aren't taken as seriously as they would like.  But they have youth on their side so they are granted more than a fair share of passes for their impulsive and inexperienced observations.  You see this today in college women who are determined to be passionate about one cause or another that they usually support only to gain credibility.  They have no life experience to back up what they demand or stand for so they make up for it by yelling insults or declaring the object of their scorn worthless until they submit to the demands of her cause.  Youth.  If they maintain the passion they have for these causes they usually either evolve into a different way of looking at the issue or mature to a position of credibility through personal experience.

Mothers, on the other hand, are not to be mistreated.  They have a reason to go unhinged into anyone so arrogant as to forget she is not unhinged for HER benefit but for her offspring.  A woman protecting a child will never be held accountable for what she does to anyone who threatens her nest. She has gained credibility through her child and the more children the more credible she becomes.  But she will tell you herself, it has nothing to do with wisdom.  She is making up the play book as she goes along.  And by surrounding herself with other mothers, she is a voice to be reckoned with, but it's still based on self sacrifice.  Mothers surprise themselves with how loud and persistent they can be when it comes to their children.  Mild mannered maidens only a scant few years earlier but now prepared to take on any one who comes between her and her family.  Mothers don't care how they appear when defending a child.  They are unrepentant and without shame.  But they still lack the wisdom that comes from being a Crone.

The Crone is the full fledged woman to fear, to respect, to envy.  She walks in courage.  She is confident.  She is able to look back and accept how foolish she was as both maiden and mother.  She is compassionate and while comfortable pointing out the follies of the younger women around her, she is empathetic to their journeys.  She sees herself in every woman.  Now if only the maiden and mother could see the wisdom she carries and beseech her to share.  There was a time not so long ago that the Crone was honored and included in all social rituals and community events.  She was the one they invited into the nursery to bestow the white light of protection on the sleeping babes.  She was the one introduced to the 'intendeds' who sought blessings of marriage to young maidens.  She was the one mentoring the soon to be mothers in learning to walk confidently into motherhood and guiding her into the understanding that no one gets through motherhood without making mistakes that will haunt them into old age.  The Crone was an invited guest, not a dreaded intrusion.

Going full circle means taking the journey from naivety to wisdom through personal experience.  The Crone is the one who keeps the maiden from losing hope, and the mother from losing faith.  The Crone bears hard won bragging rights paid for by bought lessons, or lessons learned the hard way.  Some cultures still put a heavy emphasis on honoring the aged.  But more and more the tendency is to put the aged in the corner or in their place where they can't interfere. All that experience sitting off in a corner loving unconditionally every maiden and mother going through a struggle they remember oh too well.  And all it would take is just an invitation to be included in those heart to heart talks or those humorous, and often lusty stories set in 'olden times'.  It's a gift you give to yourself. Allow yourself to be swept away in lessons that don't sound preachy but somehow end up being exactly what you needed to know.

The Crone knows things.


https://journeyingtothegoddess.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/goddess-blodeuwedd/