A – Alkonost

The alkonost is a creature half-woman and half-bird. It is beautiful and has a voice that makes the listener forget everything they hear. Usually they are portrayed in art with the sirin, another woman-bird hybrid. They live in the underworld. The part that I always find most fascinating is that when the eggs are about to hatch, the alkonost rolls the eggs into the ocean. When they actually hatch, thunderstorms herald the event. The sea is unable to be traveled during this time.

I’m always fascinated with the sea and thunderstorms, they’re of particular interest to me. I enjoy thunderstorms. They make me feel alive. I think it has something to do with the upheaval that they cause. It’s something to it that I’ve always enjoyed. They have the same kind of delight to me that wind storms hold. It’s all a lot of upheaval and change, renewal and something rather new.

But alkonost themselves, they’re unique. I find them rather unbelievable in that they have the connection to the sea and the thunderstorms.

Minor Frustrations

Such as when one wants to find research on a pantheon. But then learns that pretty much everything easily accessible online is total bullshit. Which is what I find recently.

In research, I’ve begun to learn that pretty much all online websites that pop up in immediate search for “Slavic Mythology” are all bullshit. They mention gods that didn’t exist. Or use 19th Century supposition-created deities as real. And don’t cite much. Even, to my horror, university websites, that are supposed to be scholarly researched, cited and sourced, follow these conventions. It’s frustrating beyond all belief. Even encyclopedias online say that certain deities are real, when it seems that more scholarly research states that the names of said deities come from people doing the equivalent of making stuff up, all dating back to 19th Century romanticism.

It shouldn’t surprise me. They did it for every other culture. It’s just a bit shocking that even “scholarly” sites still uphold it all. I’m buying a reputable book when I have the money later this month, maybe early August, but in the meantime, I wanted to do research. And outside of the internet, books are a bit difficult at the moment. So I thought…at the very least, university sites, with scholarly backing of university research, ought to be at least an acceptable base. But no, not even that. So I’m still at a loss as to research at the moment. I’m looking up academic articles. Even still, I’ve come to the conclusion, based on a preponderance of terribly inaccurate or outright false information, that I’m going to have to be very cautious about even my scholarly research into this for the next few weeks.

So this is just my minor frustration of the moment. As if it weren’t already difficult enough finding information on Slavic mythology, I get to add in the trouble of even “academic” sources being wrong.

Momentary Chaos

Or, why I’m kinda slow on posting. I’d planned on doing more blog posts, I had.

However, my life is in pretty much total upheaval right now. Everything is kind of going crazy…just totally imploding. I don’t really think I can post most of it, I’m not comfortable enough and I’m still shaky. After all, I pretty much know I’ll be doing a form of couch-surfing this summer. Good thing – only 4 weeks of summer vacation for me with the whole situation of being in Germany for this last year. So at least it’s only 4 weeks and not any longer. But it’s still a bit disconcerting.

Long story very short – I’m in the middle of total chaos in my life. And chaos doesn’t really suit me. I like predictability and calmness. I suppose that’s not unusual. After all, I think most people prefer things to remain simple and unconfused. Still though, chaos tends to come in spurts for me. And when it does…well things explode (figuratively). And this time I think I might just have actually done some mental damage to myself. Not really a bad thing, since in the long run I know this will make me stronger. But in the short term it’s painful and it’s going to cause me far more mental anguish than any good. It’s just a mess really, and I definitely did this to myself.

That’s just the way things seem to go for me. I tend to break things to make them better (again, figuratively speaking here).

Always Learning

So a huge thing for me is research. I enjoy reading a lot more than actually doing. Perhaps that’s a flaw. I’m told it’s definitely a flaw at times, since I do spend a lot of time in digging for old resources. It does do me quite a bit of good as a history major however, so I suppose there’s at least some good in my predilection for researching things. Not to mention, lots of times you need to research for the mythologies and folklore. Because a lot of stuff in the “New Age” section of bookstores is sometimes a bit iffy. And, I like academic articles with sources listed.

So being a college kid is great. I have access to JSTOR, ProQuest, EBSCO, etc, and while I’m in Germany, access to several German databases as well. I’m taking advantage of this to get articles on spiritual things, mythologies, folklore, traditions…all with wonderful sources listed. Yes, academic research isn’t the end-all-be-all of this, but it helps. And I’ll admit I’m a bit of a sucker for it. I like having sources. And for mythologies, the studies are very helpful. Not to mention, if I’m uncertain of something, I can see what other people have to say about it. Example, if I want to know about medieval religious practices, I can search for those kinds of things in the databases.

In the last 2 weeks I’ve found 3 or 4 articles on medieval views of magic and witchcraft, by looking up information on my paper on the University of Cologne in the Middle Ages. So by accident I’ve found these. Deliberate searches would lead to more information. And, it’s interesting to see what the analysis on medieval beliefs of religion and spirituality are. So that’s just one little path I’m going to work on going down once I’ve finished the bulk of my homework for my program classes this week. After all, not too many people write well-sourced books on medieval views of magic and witchcraft. At least, I’ve yet to find some good books in the “New Age” section of my local bookstores. And libraries are probably bad too, for the most part. They stock what people will check out. Most people don’t really look for the kinds of things I like to read.

The other thing I’m excited about doing is researching Slavic mythology and folklore. I’ve yet to find books about it in bookstores, and even broad overviews of mythology almost never have anything. So that’s a brick wall. However, JSTOR and my other databases look promising. I might not find a lot, but I have found a few articles that look to be possibly helpful. And from there I can then check out the sources used, to get more information. So my college article database access is going to be excellent. I always like new information.

Then I’m also thinking, once I’m back at home and a bit settled after readjusting to time abroad, I should work on my whole form of practice. I probably research too much. I do a lot of reading, which isn’t necessarily bad, but I do so much that I tend to neglect actual physical practice. I need to find a bit more of a balance so that I’m not working on one to the total exclusion of the other. I suspect I’ll always be a more research, book-bound pagan than a “go out and practice” kind of type. But I can at least work on finding a better balance than the one I have right now. After all, there’s only so much book learning can actually do for one before some action must be taken.

Specificity

I think someone is messing with me. Not a person, and not messing with me in the sense of “oh, let’s cause trouble and problems” kind of way either. I’m more leaning towards some deity is trying to get my attention and I’ve just been too dense to see it. Because this is genuinely weird. And me being dense is no surprise, so it doesn’t surprise me if this is how they’ve decided to get my attention.

Stuff will disappear and reappear, moved around. Not just in the way of “oh, I just misplaced that.” More in the way of, I was looking for my pen, checked everywhere, even in my drawer, and then, not 5 minutes later, it shows up in my drawer when I gave up looking for it and went to just use the stupid pencil instead (I hate pencils for the record). In the exact spot it should have been to begin with, but wasn’t. And then, just papers out of order. Not major, just, 1 or 2 out of place, which I know isn’t me. I’m pretty fastidious about making sure my papers are all in order. And I know they’re in order when I leave class, but when I go to review them, nope, 1 or 2 are moved into the wrong section.

Then there’s just stuff not quite working. I couldn’t get the microwave to work (stupid really), even though it’s super easy. So I twist the timer dial to start it, and instead of the time running down from say 2 minutes to 0, it goes up from 2 minutes to 4. Lucky I pay attention, or I would have burned my food. Warmed up tea in the microwave not 2 minutes after this, and it was working fine, 30 seconds to 0, no problem. But this time I sat and watched it to make sure. Or, my computer inexplicably freezing up randomly. I haven’t lost anything. It’ll just freeze for like 15 seconds, and then be fine. I’ve checked for virus’, problems, etc – there’s nothing. My computer is pretty much perfect and it’s never done this before. All really dumb, super mundane stuff, I know. And I’ve checked for any normal explanation. But…short of me going crazy (which I’m going to have to say I’m not) none of this stuff makes much sense.

But then again…I’ve also begun to feel like there’s something almost watching me. Not in a creepy way, or it doesn’t seem creepy. Which it probably should. I know not to just think “oh, seems like something’s watching me, no biggy”, especially after the neighborhood I grew up in. But somehow this doesn’t scare me. It’s not really comforting either. It’s a bit like an itch, a bit annoying, but not dangerous or anything. And it’s even when I’m alone in my room with blinds shut, so I know no one is watching me, or in the room, but I still have that little twinge in my mind, telling me that something is there.

It’s just all frustrating. Because it’s minor stuff, and if I complain about it to my friends they’re just “well – you’re probably just imagining it.” Which, perhaps I am. I would tend to say I’m not though. I’m pretty sure that looking for a pen, it not being in the place I always set it, and then 5 minutes later, when I’ve basically just told the world “Screw this, I’ll just use the damned pencil”, and then *poof*, it’s in it’s spot. To me that’s more than me just not noticing where the pen was.

So now I need to look into specifics. See, basic mythology research is good. I like it. However, basic research into pantheons is probably not going to help me. I need to look into particular deities. Because my serious suspicion, and the thought that keeps coming to mind, is that someone is trying to get me to talk to them/acknowledge them, and I think this is a way of telling me that they’re tired of waiting for me to open up and figure it out without help. This is ridiculous too. Because 2 names keep popping into my head about this, and neither one is part of a pantheon I ever considered working with. So I’m looking into gods and goddess’ with a tendency for mischief or trouble-causing or for doing little things that are just…almost tricks I guess is how I could describe it, to gain attention. Which then veers into UPG, which I’m not experienced with at all. So this is going to be an adventure of sorts.

Because these 2 deities…well I have nothing to do with either, or their pantheons. But the names keep popping up. So I’m not sure. Because I doubt it’s both of them. So I’m debating as to whether it’s just that I know basics of these 2 pantheons, so the names are “familiar” and that’s why they keep coming into my mind. Or if I’m actually seriously supposed to look at both of them and see if either one seems to fit with all of this. It’s all a ridiculous little conundrum. I’m not so sure I want mischief right now. But then again, if someone is really wanting to contact me, there’s got to be a reason for it. I’m sure there’s probably some stuff out there for me to read, so I’m doing internet searches. Sadly all my mythology books are at home, 7.000 miles away, so I’ll have to do without those. Because I can’t really ask my mom to go reading through them for me. She’d have no clue what to look for, plus, I have a feeling that my answer might not be in my books.

Ugh. This is just ridiculous though. So specificity is the new game I suppose. Because something is seriously bothering me, and it clearly wants attention.

On “Celtic Magic” and the Intro of the Bunny

Amazon.com Listing for this.

I bought a copy of this when I was 11 years old, my very first “witchy” book with my own money. Pretty sure I mentioned this earlier, in one of the Coming Into This blogs (1st I believe), no matter. I liked the cover, it was Celtic…and of course, magic. In my interest I pretty much leapt on this book, since it had loads of things I liked. I had no clue what to look for in pagan/Wiccan/witchcraft books back then. After all, I’d never had one before, and no one around me was interested or knew anything about any of the “occult” things I was interested in, so I was out on a limb.

I’m going to talk a bit about my memories of this book, its contents and what exactly it means to me today, almost 10 years after I bought it.

Firebird

The firebird or zhar-ptitsa is from Russian (Slavic) mythology. I first learned about the real creature itself from listening to Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite. The best known of the firebird stories, at least to English-speakers is “Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf”. Another interesting one is “The Firebird, The Horse of Power and the Princess Vasilisa”.

Prince Ivan and the Firebird

In the folklore the firebird is a large bird with glowing plumage of red, orange, yellow. When plucked, the feathers don’t stop glowing, and one is enough to light up a room if not covered up. Usually the quest for catching the firebird starts when the firebird comes at night and eats golden apples from the Tsar’s garden. So he sets his two eldest sons to catching the bird, but they both fall asleep. The youngest son, Ivan, manages to stay awake and almost catches the bird, retaining just a feather. From there, he goes out to retrieve the firebird.

This bird came to mind for me though because it’s a bit of a conundrum. To possess the firebird is good, considering the beauty of it, and the glowing plumage. But it also leads to quite a lot of misfortune, i.e. Ivan’s travails in retrieving the bird, or how his brothers end up after stealing the bird from him. A bit of a confusing way to look at things, but it makes sense also. After all, magic birds as a quest aren’t too surprising. Also, it eventually ends up that the hardships and troubles suffered by the seeker are far outweighed by the good things that happen. Or at least, that’s how the Tsarevitch Ivan story goes. In any case, the firebird does make for interesting story-telling. It causes problems but is a great reward.

Phoenix

The firebird is similar to the phoenix. Phoenixes are scarlet and gold in plumage, with a 1000 year life cycle, before it burns to ash, to be reborn. They looked a bit like peacocks, or were seen that way by the Greeks, though I believe also occasionally they were seen as eagle-formed. It’s a symbol of renewal and immortality. So it seems that the firebird acquired a far different set of meanings than the phoenix.

Now, how this relates to me personally. My family comes from Russia, so this fascinates me. The sheer fact that I’ve rarely found anything at all about Slavic mythology, folklore or beliefs in libraries or bookstores is another reason I’ve always been interested. Sadly that means I’ve had to rely on internet resources alone for stories about the firebird, but cross-referencing is at least a way to partially ensure that the information is correct.

Just a little bit of information on a fascinating creature.

Sources:

“Storming the Castles” – idea for post

SurLaLune Fairy Tales – “Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf”

Firebird (Slavic folklore) – checked for spelling of zhar-ptitsa