Fall is that haunting time of the year when the veil is thin between worlds, long celebrated in feasts and holidays. And it is the best season to discover our inner witch by exploring her fabled huts, hearth, magical tools, and most bewitching skills.

In this imaginative, lighthearted writing workshop we will enter the hidden abode of an ancient witch through the motifs and archetypes in her folklore and create our own versions. Who else but that of the great, Slavic hag Baba Yaga?

WHEN:  Tuesday, October 21
TIME:  4 – 6 PM / PDT   |   7 –  9 PM / EDT
WHERE:  Online via Zoom
PRESENTERS: Kate Farrell & Megan E. McDonald 
COST: $25

The crone/hag/witch is a major character in the Fairy Tale Heroine’s journey—part of the feminine cycle of becoming. She plays a vital part in the heroine’s transformation. Such a pivotal role possesses the powers of discernment, confrontation, and deep insight. We’ll discover the truth behind the scorned witch through her tales and ancient tropes, making her our own.

WHAT TO EXPECT

We will delve into these motifs with four writing exercises that will reveal our unique interpretations of this archetypal, timeless character, creating new dimensions and personal attributes for our challenging times.

With storytelling and incisive writing prompts, we will focus on three, powerful features associated with Baba Yaga—a hut that walks, a mortar and pestle that fly, and a broom that sweeps away tracks—to identify and explore their personal meanings, entering her world, making it ours. A fourth writing prompt will be to become Baba Yaga, author of an advice column, sharing her wisdom in response to two modern day questions.  

We’ll go deeper into the woods, where pale birch trees stand tall, where shadows stretch in the twilight beyond and beyond, to the place where darkness and its secrets live with an old woman, a hag, a babushka, a lost part of us.

DEEPEN YOUR INSIGHT INTO THE HEROINE’S JOURNEY

Create a renewed identity with the witch for personal empowerment. This workshop can also provide subtext for writers in deepening character development and in knowing the shadow elements of the heroine’s journey in its circular structure.

The goddess hags of Old Europe continue to live in folklore and traditional customs as the Baltic Ragana, Polish Jedza, Germanic Mother Holle, Italian La Befana, Mora and Morava from Siberia, the Irish Morrigan, and Russian Baba Yaga. 

But who are they today in modern culture? Where do they appear to guide us with their wry humor and deep knowledge, with their outrageous arrogance and splendid generosity, so fearfully beloved. 

Take a creative ride with Baba Yaga and write her up again!

The 5th person to sign up for the workshop will receive a copy of Poetic Remedies for Troubled Times: From Ask Baba Yaga by Taisia Kitaiskaia, 2020.