Wisdom From The Heart

Have you ever heard of Baba Yaga?

Growing up as a child in Russia, I often heard stories about her. Baba Yaga is a well-known figure in Slavic folklore: an old witch who lives deep in the forest, in a strange little house standing on chicken legs. In some of the old tales, she is dangerous, frightening, and even threatens to eat children.

She was ugly. Magical. And evil.

Or at least, that was the story I knew.

I remember being terrified of her when I was little. I even had recurring dreams in which I would look into a mirror and suddenly my reflection would transform into Baba Yaga. She would reach through the mirror and try to pull me inside.

Scary, right?

At that age, it definitely was.

Eventually, the dreams stopped. But somehow, I never forgot about her.

And now, many years later, Baba Yaga has unexpectedly returned to my consciousness.

I’ve been connecting with her energy as part of a project I’m currently working on, and something interesting began to unfold.

She isn’t quite what we’ve been told she is.

And it made me wonder…

What if some of the frightening beings we’ve come to know through stories and folklore have been misunderstood?

What if fear became part of the story because people were afraid of what they didn’t understand?

What if, somewhere along the way, the story became more powerful than the truth?

So I decided to let Baba Yaga speak.

To sit with her.

And to hear the story from her perspective.

—

I see her sitting at an old wooden table with a cup of tea.

She has a hunched back, a large crooked nose with a wart, long straight grey hair, and one white, unseeing eye. A crow sits quietly on her shoulder.

Without saying anything, she pours me a cup of tea from an elegant teapot decorated with delicate red patterns.

She looks at me.

Baba Yaga: “My child, what do you want to know?”

Me: “I want to know the truth. I was scared of you when I was little. I was afraid you would come after me.”

Baba Yaga smiles softly.

Baba Yaga: “Of course you were. Why wouldn’t you be? I would be scared too if someone told me there was an evil witch in the forest who wanted to eat me.

The truth is, people are afraid of what they don’t know.

They take one look at something and make up their minds right where they stand. They don’t ask questions. They judge, and then they run away.

And that is exactly how someone can become ugly in the eyes of the world.

Apparently, my big nose, my crooked smile and my strange fingers were enough for people to decide that I was a wicked witch who eats children.

But imagine if someone had stopped.

Imagine if they had simply asked me a question.

‘What is your name?’

Then perhaps they wouldn’t have needed to invent one for me.

Perhaps if they had come inside, sat at my table and shared a cup of tea with me, they would have discovered something entirely different from what their fear had told them.”

Me: “May I know your name?”

She smiles.

Baba Yaga: “Ekaterina.”

Me: “That’s beautiful. And somehow, it immediately changes the energy.”

Baba Yaga / Ekaterina: “Perception changes when you discover the truth.

When you’re not afraid to ask questions.

When you choose courage over fear.

If people had cared enough to look beyond their fear, perhaps they would have discovered that I am, in fact, a protector of the forest. A mystic wanderer of hidden truths.

And perhaps my appearance isn’t quite as hideous as people have made it out to be.

Tell me…

Do you think I truly look this ugly?

Or do you think people made me this ugly?

With every telling of the story, I became a little more monstrous. A little more terrifying. A little more grotesque.

And just like that…”

She snaps her fingers.

“…I became one ugly swamp monster.”

I laugh.

Me: “So you don’t actually look the way you’re represented in books?”

Baba Yaga / Ekaterina: “No.

I am not what your pictures have made me into.

Ask for the truth, and you will be shown.”

And suddenly, the woman sitting across from me begins to change.

Baba Yaga becomes Ekaterina.

Before me now sits a beautiful woman with long, light hair and a gentle smile. There is something ancient in her eyes, and wisdom seems to emanate from her entire being.

Ekaterina: “See?

This is who I am.

This is the truth of who I have always been.

And some of you believe that you are someone you are not, simply because other people told you who you were.

Because they never stopped to ask you.

Who are you?

Who are you, really?

Instead, they decided for you.

Perhaps someone made you feel ugly too.

Perhaps they made you believe there was something wrong with you simply because you were different.

Perhaps they abandoned you before they ever took the time to discover who you truly were.

And perhaps you’ve been carrying their version of you ever since.

So now…

Stay.

Don’t run away from the person you are underneath all those stories.

Let the old stories disappear.

Let those ugly tales about you fall away.

They were never the truth.

There is beauty in you when you finally learn to see beyond the character others created for you.

So stay.

Sit down.

Have a cup of tea.

And ask yourself:

Who am I if I get to write my own story?

I bet it wouldn’t be an ugly witch hiding in a forest.”

I smile at her.

Me: “Thank you. I think you’re amazing. And you know what? Even as Baba Yaga, I can still see your beauty.”

Ekaterina smiles.

Ekaterina: “There you go.

Now you understand.

Once you see the truth, appearance doesn’t matter anymore. You see straight through it.

Grey hair. A crooked nose. A hunched back.

Who cares?

When you know the truth, you know that beauty was never defined by any of those things.

Beauty is defined by your heart and by your actions.

Everything else is just part of the costume.

So go.

Go out there and be your true self.

Don’t let other people decide who you are.

You are the hero of your own story.

Now go…

and BE IT.”