Taisia Kitaiskaia - Poetic Remedies for Troubled Times from Ask Baba Yaga

Other books by Taisia Kitaiskaia

Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles

Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers

The Nightgown and Other Poems

Poetic Remedies for Troubled Times from Ask Baba Yaga copyright 2020 by Taisia Kitaiskaia. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing

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ISBN: 978-1-5248-6650-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020930963

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Illustrations: Katy Horan

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Contents

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Preface

I wrote this second volume of advice from Baba Yaga because I needed the crone more than ever, and I felt others might need her, too.

Who is Baba Yaga? You can read her own thoughts on the subject (Who are you? on page xii), but we can begin with the facts. Baba Yaga is a prominent figure in Slavic folklore, an old witch haunting the fairy tales and woods of Eastern Europe for centuries, if not longer (like her ambiguous character, Babas origins are difficult to pin down). She lives in a magic hut, which has big, thick chicken legs and a mind of its own. A fence of bones and skulls guards the house. When shes not hanging out in her hut, Baba Yaga goes on mysterious adventures in the forest, using a large mortar and pestle to get around. If her mortar drags on the forest floor, shes quick to cover her tracks with a birch broom. From time to time, humans come to Baba Yagas hutseeking shelter, a special object or person, advice. They find her when theyve been cast out and abandoned, when all is lost. At this juncture, Baba Yaga can be villainous and hungry, even trying to push the person into her oven for a snack. Or she can be tricksy and demanding, put ting the poor soul to work. Or she can be a guardian, giving over all the answers and an enchanted object to boot.

Often, shes all of these things in one tale, which is part of what I love about her: no one knows what shell do next. Born in eastern Russia, I spent the first five years of my life in the woods of Lake Baikal, and Baba Yaga lived there, too. I felt her among the mushrooms and berries and animals; I imagined her sitting in the dark of her hut, knitting something wily and strange. Around her head, she wore a kerchief, like any Russian grandmother, and she did feel like a grandmother to meformidable and unpredictable, sure, but ultimately nurturing and wise. I trusted her to know all that there was to know. I admired her wild life in the woods. I wanted her near me always, setting an example, looking out.

During 20132015, I wrote an advice column in Baba Yagas voice for a site called the Hairpin, later collecting the pieces in my book Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles . The pieces featured real questions from real strangers on love, belonging, and purpose, along with Baba Yagas answers, written in a poetic style all her own. When the book came out in 2017, the world felt more disorienting than ever, and I knew I wasnt done talking to Baba Yaga. Now I was the one who needed Baba to make sense of things. What would she say about climate change, global disasters, the failure of our leaders and neighbors, identity, and oppressive systems? When I put out a call for more questions for Baba Yaga, worries about what will happen to us in these troubled times surfaced alongside the everyday worries.

While Baba Yaga cant replace a therapist or a friend, she offers a different kind of perspectivean ancient outsider to our human affairs, a forest witch who speaks in the language of trees and ponds and fairy tales, an immortal witness to our folly and suffering. I was raised to give my unsolvable problems over to something larger than myself, and for me, that larger presence is Baba Yaga. I hope that you, too, can find some refuge in Babas words.

Taisia Kitaiskaia

Who are you?

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Dear Baba Yaga,

Who are you?

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BABA YAGA:

I am the unknown soul, the chaos in the mud. The snake roiling in butter, the nightmare in the bark, the owl sleeping on the nightmare.; In each egg I am the cracking and the bird, the delirious chicken scratching yr wound. You reach your hand into my dress, come up with diamonds,then worms. Ha!: Im your fear turned inside out like a sleeve. Try and catch me by the tail, Ill coil up in yr goblet. ) I am yr grandmother, the pelt on the wall that wanders off. Im the warm earth youll be buried in, the wind washing yr living hair. I did not come here for you, but I will stay and watch. : When World first exploded, I oozed out. I will survive the next great shattering--I am the shattering.

Is eternal singlehood the future for women?

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Dear Baba Yaga,

Im a thirty-eight-year-old woman who wants to date men, but Ive always been terrified of them and have never been in a relationship. My fear has only grown with #MeToo, and sometimes I feel its truly impossible to find a good-hearted male feministsomeone who would see me as an equal, pure and simple. Ive already kind of given up and have found happiness in my work and social life. Is this single-for-life existence the future for women?

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BABA YAGA:

All my living I have been an old woman, in the woods ;alone. I do what I like : I muddy & sweep my hut, carry myself into the sky & listen to what it says, I gather mushrooms, terrorize foxes & men with my fiendly claws & gait, laugh a long time into a bucket until it laughs back with a spit, breathe as a stone at the bottom of a creek--& many other things I do not say. But none of it is done from fearing. Poke at the fear as into the dying fire in yr hearth: which way do the sparks go, how does the fire hiss? If you , choose my life--know you are choosing it, not hiding in the woods.

How do I fall in love?

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Dear Baba Yaga,

I am in my thirties, and Ive never had a relationship. Ive used my independence as a way to justify my lack of partners to others, but I actually feel an overwhelming desire to experience romantic love. My biggest fear is that I may not be able to be really intimate with anyone. Im afraid that I will never find the love I am looking for, and ashamed to admit my inexperience even if I should find someone, andthough I hate to admit itI am lonely. I guess my question ishow do you fall in love?