Ohmygoddess! I posted this photograph here on 6/24/09 because of my comment, which you'll be able to read below, about "babushkas." This is a photo from around 1960, and I remember that coat (it had brown velvet-covered buttons and brown velvet corded trim), so it was winter and very cold! That is my three younger sisters and me (I'm on the right, second row, my taller cousin Cookie is to my left, slightly behind), and two of my cousins - Cookie and Tootsie, daughters of one of my mother's sisters, Aunt Diane a/k/a Aunt Christine. Five of us are wearing babushkas. Notice the old television set to the far left and the very contemporary 1950's style drapes, LOL!
Juliette Frette is back at Examiner.com with an article about the Goddess Baba Yaga, "Wild Woman:"
Baba Yaga (pronounced bah-bye yegg-ah) is known as the Slavic "wild woman," a sacred old hag who is otherwise considered a goddess of birth and death. Although many goddesses cross-culturally seem to have some sort of reign over the beginnings and endings of life, this one has a unique image all her own. . . .
Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" does not have an entry under "Baba Yaga," "babau" or "Wild Woman." However, she does have an entry under HAG:
Originally "Holy Woman," the Hag was a cognate of Egyptian heq, a predynastic matriachal ruler who knew the words of power, or hekau.(1) In Greek she became Hecate, the Crone or Hag as queen of the dead, incarnate on earth in a series of wise-women or high priestesses.
Hebrew "wisdom" in Proverbs 8 is Hokhmah, from Egyptian heq-maa or Heka-Maat, the underworld Mother of widsom, law, and words of power.(2) Greek and Roman cognate hagia meant holy, especially as applied to the principle of female widsom, Hagia Sophia (see Sophia, Saint). Similarly in Israel, a haggiah was a holy day. Certain Jewish religious literature dating back to Israel's matriarchal period was probably written by wise-women, since it was called the Haggadah. Later patriarchal rabbis declared this material "not legal."(3)
In northern Europe, the Hag was the death-goddess corresponding to Hecate, like the Hag of the Iron Wood whose daughter or virgin form was Hel.(4) Old Norse hagi meant a sacred grove, the Iron Wood, a place of sacrifice. Haggen meant to chop in pieces, which is what happened to sacrificial victims dismembered for a feast. [EEK! This gives entirely new meaning to Robert Graves' discussions about "king sacrifice" and the maenads I was reading about yesterday who participated in the Dionysian "orgies" where men were literally torn apart. Compare also the horse-Valkyries or horse-masked priestesses of Freya, known as volvas, who tore part the acient kings of Sweden in ritual sacrifice.] "Hags" may have been priestesses of sacrifice, like the Scythian matriarchs who butchered for their sacred cauldrons and read omens in entrails.(5) Northmen colonized Scotland, where a haggis or "hag's dish" was made of internal organs. Until the 19th century, people kept the New Year festival of Hagmena, Hag's Moon, going in disguise from house to house, begging cakes. A chronicler said: "On the last night of the old year (pecularliarly called Hagmenai), the visitors and company made a point of not separating till after the clock struck twelve, when they rose, and mutually kissing, wished each other a happy New Year." This is still the custom. But a contemproary clergyman said the Hagmena meant the Devil was in the house.(6)
Devilish qualities were attributed to stone idols of the Hag, such as the famous Stone of Scone, still used at each British monarch's coronation. This stone once represented the Hag and her spinning wheel - i.e., Arianrhod, Goddess of the Wheel of Fate. A danish ballad said the Hag of Scone led the "swarthy Elves;" but she was turned to stone by an incantation of the missionary St. Olave: "Thou Hag of Scone, stand there and turn to granite stone."(7) Helvetian converts to Christianity were compelled to batter to pieces sacred stones in which their Goddess dwelt, reciting her formula, "Once I was the Goddess and now I am nothing at all."(8)
In the 16th century, "hag" was synonymous with "fairy."(9) Old High German called a wise-woman Hagazussa, that is, a moon-priestess.(10) Though "hagiology" still means the study of holy matters and saints, the root word hag declined in its meanings. Shakespeare's verb hagged meant to be bewitched. His noun haggard meant a hawk, a harpy, or an intractable woman.(11)
The Hag as death-goddess, her face veiled to imply that no man can know the manner of his death, was sometimes re-interpreted as a nun. Christianized legends were invented for these veiled figures.(12)
Notes:
(1) Book of the Dead, 351.
(2) Budge, G.E. 1, 296.
(3) Encyc. Brit. "Haggdah."
(4) Sturlson, 39.
(5) Wendt, 137.
(6) Hazlitt, 296.
(7) Wimberly, 36.
(8) Thorsten, 336.
(9) Scot, 550.
(10) J.B. Russell, 16.
(11) Potter & Sargent, 70.
(12) Graves, W.G., 409.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Goddess: Baba Yaga
Ohmygoddess! I posted this photograph here on 6/24/09 because of my comment, which you'll be able to read below, about "babushkas." This is a photo from around 1960, and I remember that coat (it had brown velvet-covered buttons and brown velvet corded trim), so it was winter and very cold! That is my three younger sisters and me (I'm on the right, second row, my taller cousin Cookie is to my left, slightly behind), and two of my cousins - Cookie and Tootsie, daughters of one of my mother's sisters, Aunt Diane a/k/a Aunt Christine. Five of us are wearing babushkas. Notice the old television set to the far left and the very contemporary 1950's style drapes, LOL!
Juliette Frette is back at Examiner.com with an article about the Goddess Baba Yaga, "Wild Woman:"
Baba Yaga (pronounced bah-bye yegg-ah) is known as the Slavic "wild woman," a sacred old hag who is otherwise considered a goddess of birth and death. Although many goddesses cross-culturally seem to have some sort of reign over the beginnings and endings of life, this one has a unique image all her own. . . .
Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" does not have an entry under "Baba Yaga," "babau" or "Wild Woman." However, she does have an entry under HAG:
Originally "Holy Woman," the Hag was a cognate of Egyptian heq, a predynastic matriachal ruler who knew the words of power, or hekau.(1) In Greek she became Hecate, the Crone or Hag as queen of the dead, incarnate on earth in a series of wise-women or high priestesses.
Hebrew "wisdom" in Proverbs 8 is Hokhmah, from Egyptian heq-maa or Heka-Maat, the underworld Mother of widsom, law, and words of power.(2) Greek and Roman cognate hagia meant holy, especially as applied to the principle of female widsom, Hagia Sophia (see Sophia, Saint). Similarly in Israel, a haggiah was a holy day. Certain Jewish religious literature dating back to Israel's matriarchal period was probably written by wise-women, since it was called the Haggadah. Later patriarchal rabbis declared this material "not legal."(3)
In northern Europe, the Hag was the death-goddess corresponding to Hecate, like the Hag of the Iron Wood whose daughter or virgin form was Hel.(4) Old Norse hagi meant a sacred grove, the Iron Wood, a place of sacrifice. Haggen meant to chop in pieces, which is what happened to sacrificial victims dismembered for a feast. [EEK! This gives entirely new meaning to Robert Graves' discussions about "king sacrifice" and the maenads I was reading about yesterday who participated in the Dionysian "orgies" where men were literally torn apart. Compare also the horse-Valkyries or horse-masked priestesses of Freya, known as volvas, who tore part the acient kings of Sweden in ritual sacrifice.] "Hags" may have been priestesses of sacrifice, like the Scythian matriarchs who butchered for their sacred cauldrons and read omens in entrails.(5) Northmen colonized Scotland, where a haggis or "hag's dish" was made of internal organs. Until the 19th century, people kept the New Year festival of Hagmena, Hag's Moon, going in disguise from house to house, begging cakes. A chronicler said: "On the last night of the old year (pecularliarly called Hagmenai), the visitors and company made a point of not separating till after the clock struck twelve, when they rose, and mutually kissing, wished each other a happy New Year." This is still the custom. But a contemproary clergyman said the Hagmena meant the Devil was in the house.(6)
Devilish qualities were attributed to stone idols of the Hag, such as the famous Stone of Scone, still used at each British monarch's coronation. This stone once represented the Hag and her spinning wheel - i.e., Arianrhod, Goddess of the Wheel of Fate. A danish ballad said the Hag of Scone led the "swarthy Elves;" but she was turned to stone by an incantation of the missionary St. Olave: "Thou Hag of Scone, stand there and turn to granite stone."(7) Helvetian converts to Christianity were compelled to batter to pieces sacred stones in which their Goddess dwelt, reciting her formula, "Once I was the Goddess and now I am nothing at all."(8)
In the 16th century, "hag" was synonymous with "fairy."(9) Old High German called a wise-woman Hagazussa, that is, a moon-priestess.(10) Though "hagiology" still means the study of holy matters and saints, the root word hag declined in its meanings. Shakespeare's verb hagged meant to be bewitched. His noun haggard meant a hawk, a harpy, or an intractable woman.(11)
The Hag as death-goddess, her face veiled to imply that no man can know the manner of his death, was sometimes re-interpreted as a nun. Christianized legends were invented for these veiled figures.(12)
Notes:
(1) Book of the Dead, 351.
(2) Budge, G.E. 1, 296.
(3) Encyc. Brit. "Haggdah."
(4) Sturlson, 39.
(5) Wendt, 137.
(6) Hazlitt, 296.
(7) Wimberly, 36.
(8) Thorsten, 336.
(9) Scot, 550.
(10) J.B. Russell, 16.
(11) Potter & Sargent, 70.
(12) Graves, W.G., 409.
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4 comments:
...hag and heq, interesting,
the vowels can and do shift
(a/e) between idioms, all
language is idiom except
nauatl pie, yes, hag/haggard/
haggis/bagpipe of sweat meats,
all have one root in common,
h/th/t/tlacatl(N)=body, which
also translates as, tlatlacatl=
flame being, as life=tlauiz=
the torch, and, heck is goddess
of the hearth where of old,
former dwellers of the house were
buried, heck is very fond of chimneys too, her animal form
is the dog, her birthday is
on wind-dog, day 10 of souls,
she is related to haggis duddle
sack in spanish=gaita(sp)=bagpipe=
eg/ecait(o)a(letra)=ecatl itoa(N)=
hecate speaks, she is the root
of cat, also, ghost/gast(scot)=
g/ca(s)t(letra)=ecatl(N),
a further portrait of her
in baba?/papaca(N)=injure(one woman
to another)?, hmmm, also, to
despise and harm, meaning to wash,
but not white, and yaga=yacatl(N)=
nose, papa-(N/prfx)=to curdle, spy,
revolve, wick of hair, twist,
talk a lot, yeah, that's her.
the old windbucket, spilling
and spieling here and there,
gettin' like that myself, better
watch it, don't want to be overcome by my sign and blow away,
one pays attention to one's sign
or not, and if not, it comes by
to remind one, wind is never far
from its sign.
Hola Carlos,
As always, thank you for your contributions. I don't always agree with your analyses but they do add a lot of insight!
My mother is 100% Polish, although she was born here in the USA (both her father and mother were Polish). Polish was spoken in her home as a child, but the emphasis back then (the 1920s) was on learning English so very little Polish was spoken by my mother and her sisters (seven children, all girls) - except when they did not want us to understand what they were talking about. None of us (my mother's children) learned to speak Polish, only a few words. We learned the word "baba" - which I always thought meant "old woman." But my mother never says just "baba" alone, she always says "old baba," the two words together. So, perhaps she wasn't talking about just an old woman, but meant something more, perhaps a woman with special magical powers, a witch woman.
We also learned a word "babushka" - I don't know the exact spelling, I wrote it out like it sounds in English. A "babushka" is a head-covering, usually a large scarf tied under the chin, but sometimes knotted at the back of the neck instead.
As children, we wore babushkas. It was only as we grew older and things started changing in the Roman Catholic Church with regard to head coverings that we started to wear little lace "caps" when we went to church on Sunday! Of course at Easter we wore proper hats, not lace caps or babushkas, although some of the older women still wore them. I have some old photographs, I will pull them out of my albums and see if I can scan them.
Perhaps the word "babushka" is also related to "baba."
...babushka(russ)is the frequentive of pachoa(N)=patch, pasha, little cap(beret/boina),
=papachoa(N)=pile up, tighten,
comb out,=papachtic(N/adj.)=
hair bun=papachtli(N)=bun(mechón/
copete/sp). papa/babach/tic(letra)=
babush/ka=ca(N)=being.
...so baba yaga=papa(chtli)yaca(tl)=bun(&)nose. in fact bun, of unknown origin in onions, both versions, e.g., meaning squirrel and bunny/cake(muffin/hair)are
from papachoa, the bu(n)=(n)=nauatl, and the vowel wild card,
o/u(E), was originally, a, which shift happens often when a pie word travels to english, e.g., paca(N)=bach(Ger)=b(r)ach(OE)=b(r)ook(E).
pachtli(N) is also the bun-like
parasite that grows in the trees
here, pachtontli/teotleco=return
of the gods=godtrek=time for tree planting, and hueypachtli/tepeilhuitl(N)=mountain
sky(surround a mountain and drive the animals to the top, genghis
khan and his riders did the same)=
feast time. notice -tontli, the
diminuitive=tonto(the lone ranger).
tks.
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