Sacred Forests

We’re deep into looking at trees these days, but we wanted to share this excerpt about a holy place in Bulgaria from the trees book we’re working on. Are there any such places where you live? Have your grandparents or other older people passed down stories of miraculous healing to you? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

The sacred site of Krustova Gora, Holy Trinity Cross Forest, in the Rhodope Mountains in southern Bulgaria, is a place of great spiritual significance and is well-known for its healing power. What gives it this ability is a piece of Christ’s cross, which stories say has been buried in Krustova Gora (Cross Mountain), at a location where the mountain forms the shape of a cross.

It’s interesting to note that the symbolism of the cross predates Christianity. In many ancient cultures, the cross has been viewed as portraying the tree of life, as well as being associated with the sun and fire. Among the ancient Thracians, the four directions of the cross have specific meanings. Although left has often been considered “sinister” in some cultures (and, in fact, the word sinister comes from a Latin word meaning “left), among the Thracians, that direction was the more sacred of the two.

Right and left to them represented the earthly and celestial realms, respectively. Rituals in which actions took place from right to left were ones that took the participant from a lower level of consciousness to a higher one. This was standard practice in blood sacrifice rituals and enabled a sick person to become filled with power.

North and south were also sacred directions among the Thracians. North was the direction associated with mankind and south for immortals and the souls of the blessed. Rituals that included right-to-left and north-to-south movements were an attempt to unify the earthly and heavenly realms with the goal of providing healing.

The holy relic at Krustova Gora is said to be one that Saint Helena gave to her son, Emperor Constantine. According to one story, this piece of the cross made its way to Kurstova Gora after a Russian tsar seized it from a Turkish sultan. Believing that the relic brought his troops and empire victories, the sultan sent his troops after the Russians. The latter had changed their route and arrived at Kurustova Gora and left the relic with the monastery. The monks living there buried the piece of the cross before they were killed during the subsequent invasion.

Church tradition states that Helena had gone in search of Christ’s tomb and discovered it in 326. She placed the cross in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, but kept a piece of it. On September 13, 335, the church was consecrated. The next day, the cross was displayed outside the church, where a congregation of people could venerate it.

In honor of this event, on the eve of September 14, Holy Cross Day or Feast of the Cross (official name of Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Creating Cross) many pilgrims travel to Holy Trinity Cross Forest, praying for God’s blessings to cure their illnesses. They climb the mountain peak for a vigil that ends when the sun touches a metal cross that has been erected there. This time of year is associated with the arrival of autumn, when the sun begins its journey toward winter. In mythology, it is the day when day and night crisscross, being of equal duration, called the crossover of the sun.

If you’d like to learn more about the holiday, check out our previous post on the subject: Hope & Miracles.

If you’d like to hear more about trees, we’ll be launching our Magical Healing Trees Kickstarter campaign in early May. The campaign and our eventual webstore will be the only places you can get a digital copy of the book. Print copies will be available later this year on retailers, but you can get an early copy through our campaign, plus other cool stuff we’ll be offering. Click the link to our campaign above to follow it now, so you’ll be notified when it goes live.

Also, we’re part of the Storytellers Oracle Deck project. You can find out more about this and follow the other authors on our website: Storyteller’s Oracle Deck. We will be offering the “Wisdom” card as part of this project.

A Tribute to Keazim Issinov

Don Quixote with brush, knight of good and love

I lost a good friend and mentor while I was vacationing in Italy recently. I’ve had the honor of being able to incorporate his paintings into our own work, to share them with those who may not have known this master artist. His memory will live on.

When I first saw his paintings, I was captured by the power of the light and their living colors. Only love, harmony, and positive emotions flowed from them.

For me, Kei’s paintings are designed to help us and future generations to remember love. If the earth is destroyed, I think we can recreate life from them. They have so much symbolism embedded within their strokes. He liked to say that when you paint, you need to think, observe and think carefully, until you know what message you would like to send to your audience.

He taught us and reminded us to cherish the love of simple things: the earth, the mother, the family, the fields, the sacred bread, the vineyards. They may be primitive for someone, but in my opinion, they are at the heart of people’s prosperity.

He taught us to stop and look at the little ladybug, listen to the song of the birds, or catch our breath and hear the silence of nature.

Under his brush, Orpheus’ love for his beloved Eurydice was reborn and turned into a beautiful tale. Love described in legends, but reborn on magical sails.

What can I say about his Madonnas? The light of mother’s love is radiated from every picture and envelops us like a gentle hug. We forget and become children, thirsty for love and caresses.

He taught us that every being deserves love and attention and that the power of nature was eternal and unbridled.

Hardly anyone else managed to capture the image of Reverend Stoyna. The saint gave her life to God and help for the poor and sick. He was able to paint her and capture her magnificent goodness power.

He used this phrase “All bad for good and every good for good!” It was another example of his way to teach us to be human and love each other.

I thought about writing a long article, but I don’t need to write it, because his canvas speaks and creates a universe, a magical tale without an end.

A knight of good and light who will always be among us with his excellent works, reminding us to love.

All illustrations are copyrighted by the artist. You can find more about Keazim on the website his son set up: https://www.facebook.com/issinov.

The Magic of World Trees

Since ancient times, civilizations have considered trees and nature sacred. A Bulgarian saying goes “There is a sacred forest but no sacred field.” Fields were where the people toiled so they could survive. It was a part of their everyday lives. But the forest was the mystical, the unknown. To venture there purposefully was to seek a spiritual awakening.

Whenever I drive through the countryside in the New England area in autumn, I can appreciate why trees have inspired awe. The hillsides are awash with a multitude of colors, God’s patchwork quilt placed lovingly upon the land. Or simply walking in the midst of a forest gives me a sense of peace and security.

Trees rise high above the land, spreading their branches to the sky and digging their roots deep into the ground. Some species, like oak, ash, and walnut, are bestowed with the title of “World Tree,” an honor making them like a supreme god among trees. This deeply venerated tree was seen as a force of strength and protection.

The three parts of the tree symbolize the nature of the universe. The crown represents the heavens and all its inhabitants: birds, as well as divine spirits. The trunk signifies Earth, the home of men, animals, and preternatural creatures like nymphs and fairies. And roots represent the underworld, the realm of the dead and creatures like snakes, fish, and dragons, which may embody demons or other beings of darkness. Since the world tree sat at the boundary of all three realms, it was seen as the means to traverse from one to the other.

World trees and other age-old trees were treated with respect. It was forbidden to break or cut their branches. Those who disobeyed suffered calamities—even death. Instead, people would hold rituals beneath the trees, and let the blood of sacrificial animals soak into the roots.

Perhaps the best-known World Tree to the western world is the Norse Yggdrasil. As far as I know, the Slavs do not give their world trees a particular name, but different trees species are called World Trees, a primary one being the oak. In our middle-grade fantasy series, we call the world tree in Dragon Village (Zmeykovo) the Znahar Tree, since znahar is the word for a wise old woman who heals with herbs and charms. The Firebird roosts in this tree, protecting it. The eagle is another animal you may find within the branches of Slavic world trees. Both birds are considered messengers of the gods.

World Tree. Illustration by Dmitrij Rybin. Stock illustration via Depositphotos.

The following is an excerpt about the Slavic World Tree from our book, A Study of Dragons of Eastern Europe.

World Tree

Prevalent in many of these creation myths is a cosmic tree, or a World Tree, that grows out of the water and supports the land. It’s known by various names: “tree of life, tree of knowledge, tree of the Garden of Eden, tree of the cross, Shaman’s tree.”  It’s also been called “a golden fruit bearing tree,” a “straight tree—tall and lean,” and a tree whose branches are “pure silver, dotted with golden bees.”

Ancient civilizations considered nature sacred, and they deeply venerated the World Tree as a force of strength and protection. The three parts of the tree symbolize the nature of the universe. Branches represent the heavens where divine spirits reside. The trunk signifies Earth, which is the home of men and preternatural creatures like nymphs and fairies. And roots represent the underworld and the dead who dwell there. Like nature itself, all these creatures live in harmony with one another.

Many illustrations display the serpent coiled at the tree’s roots or along its trunk. However, in popular belief, it can also live in the tree’s crown as a dragon—thus showing the creature’s dichotomy of being both an evil viper and a benevolent guardian. Also inhabiting the branches are magical birds, such as the firebird (the messenger of divine will and the protector of the fruit of life, the magic apple), nightingale, falcon, and eagle (the symbol of light and heaven). Other birds found there include doves, swallows, roosters, and peacocks. Even bees make their home in the tree’s branches.

The snake and the bird are the most widespread personifications of a human soul. This belief relates to the shaping of the idea about two worlds of death—one below the earth and another above the clouds. Therefore, the images of snake and bird merge to create the winged dragon.

Over time, the benevolent dragon and the eagle have become interchangeable in folklore, thus associating the dragon with both heaven and earth as a cosmic mediator between the two. And so, from serpent to dragon, the creature becomes connected to all three parts of the universe: the roots and the dead, the trunk and the living, the branches and the divine beings.

• The Dead. The World Tree has been called the “Path to the Souls of the Ancestors,” and it symbolizes “the transformation and transition between the worlds.” It’s a place where the souls of the dead reside, and a place from which one can enter the realm of the ancestors, often called the “other world” or the “beyond.” This is a place where not only the dead, but also mythical creatures, live. (You’ll read more about the other world in the “Dragon Slayers” chapter.)
• The Living. The World Tree has a place in the daily lives of people. It underlines “the inseparable connection between the cosmic balance, life—fertility—marriage—death.” Many life-cycle rituals involve trees—especially fruit-bearing trees, symbolic of this World Tree.
• The Divine. Among the Slavs, the World Tree is often oak and sacred to the god Perun, wielder of thunder (who in later beliefs becomes St. Iliya or Elijah, who fights against destructive dragons). In folklore, the tree may also be a cypress or sycamore.

In particular, a budnik (a special log burned at Christmas to celebrate the rebirth of the Mlada Boga or Young God, when the days begin to be longer after the winter solstice) acts as “a mediator between the heavenly and earthly life.” People perform rituals “to magically strengthen the vitality of the World Tree, during the transitional time between the old and the new year, and to further reinforce the equilibrium and order in the universe.”

The more that is discovered about trees, the more awe-inspiring they become.

Make sure to follow our upcoming Kickstarter campaign for our book, Magical Healing Trees in Slavic Folklore, to discover more fascinating information about trees. The main focus is on Slavic beliefs, but general information about the included trees is also included.

For further reading, check out Iva Kenaz’s Tree Magic: The Path of Druids, Shamans, and Mystics.

Also, be sure to check out the Kickstarter campaigns that are part of the Storytellers Oracle Deck project.

The current project is Tales of Akatsuki: Special Edition Hardcovers, which runs from February 14 to March 2, and the oracle card is for CHARM.

Fierce heroines, brooding heroes, and heart fluttering romance collides with anime and fairy tale influences in this fantasy series.

Love and Marriage and Apples

February is the month for lovers!

Did you know that among the Bulgarians, the main tree for love and marriage is the apple? This is one reason it’s part of wedding rituals. The fruit is an ancient symbol of abundance, health, and fertility, and apples are said to have the power of love.

Apples play a role in Bulgarian courting and marriage rituals. At a secret sedyanka (half-working, half-party evening gatherings between young people), young women of marriable age performed many rituals. The last one of the evening was to attach apples to a wooden apparatus used to wind wool and twirl it around as a way to encourage young men to twirl around the girls. After this, the young woman would give her apple to a young man of her choice.

At weddings, an apple covered with gold foil topped the wedding banner as a sign of fertility. In addition, an odd number of apples (also covered with gold foil) were stuck into branches of the branches of the wedding tree (kum’s tree), which could be the crown of a small tree, a bush branch, a forked stick, or a distaff.

Other wedding customs involving apples were that an apple was placed in water in which the bridegroom washed. Afterwards, the apple was brought to the bride’s home and placed in water she would use to wash her hair. After the wedding, the couple would eat their first official meal as a married couple at the bride’s home. This could involve feeding each other apples and lumps of sugar.

Rituals with apples even continue after the wedding. In some areas, the bride is brought into a garden that has an apple tree. Three boys will throw her veil onto the tree. The woman’s brother-in-law puts three reds apples into a bag he brought with him that holds the bride’s wedding shirt as a symbol that healthy children will be born to her.

Apples also are believed to bring children to couples who have trouble conceiving as the story below demonstrates.

Mary and Golden Apples

In Christian lore, Mary once planted three trees that produced golden apples. She entrusted them to Michael to guard. These golden apples play a role in fertility rites in the church of the Dormition of Mary (The Golden Apple) in Gorni Voden in southern Bulgaria. People say the icon of Mary holding a golden apple produces miracles for women unable to bear children. One local story tells of a bed-ridden woman who was unable to go to church to pray to Mary for a child. She asked relatives to light candles for her and to give Mary an apple as a gift. Soon afterward, the woman recovered from her illness and became pregnant.

Childless women or married couples often make pilgrimages to the church and perform rituals to enable them to conceive. Mary’s icon is decorated with apples and wreaths made of leaves from an apple tree. The priest first reads a prayer for childbirth, then the man and woman eat an apple, divided between them.

Rebecca’s Mom’s Apple Pie

Apples also remind me of my mom’s apple pie baking. It was great to eat hot or cold. I haven’t made one in a while, but I scrounged through my box of recipes until I found it. The cold days ahead are a good time for baking and reminiscing.

You can use the premade pie crust from stores, if you want. You’ll need two: one for the bottom and one for the top. I always prefer to make mine from scratch, however. They are so much flakier and tastier than the store ones.

CRUST

This makes enough for the top and bottom.

2 cups flour

3/4 cups shortening

4 Tablespoons cold water

*Mix flour and shortening together with a pie crust maker until flaky.

*Add the cold water and continue mixing until it forms a thick paste.

*Divide into two and roll out each piece until it’s large enough to place into a 9-inch pie plate. Place one sheet onto the bottom. It’s okay if it overflows the edges some. You’ll trim that off later.

*Take a fork and prick the pie crust. (I do a circle of about 5 around the bottom, 1 in the middle, and more around the sides.)

FILLING

6 to 8 apples (I normally use Cortland, but you can choose others for more or less sweetness. Harder apples will take longer to cook.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon corn starch

Cinnamon (to taste)

Dash of lemon juice

*Peel, core, and slice into about 1/2-inch wedges 6 to 8 apples.

*Combine the other ingredients and pour on top of the sliced apples.

*Shake the bowl until the ingredients cover the apple slices.

ASSEMBLING

Pour the apples onto the pie crust. Top them with chunks of butter.

Fold the second pie crust in half and lay it lay it over the apples from the middle. Gently unfold the other half to cover the pie.

Trim both edges of the crust, either to the edge of the pie plate or leaving a little extra (since the crust will shrink some as it bakes). Crimp the two together all the way around the pie. Use a fork to then squash them down.

Prick the top of the crust with a fork, the same as you did the bottom.

BAKING

Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes (until it bubbles). You may want to put some kind of foil pan beneath it, since it’s sticky and makes a mess.

Bake an additional 15 minutes at 400°F (to brown the top).

Alternately, you can use a baster to spread can milk over the top of the crust to make it brown.

Eat warm with ice cream or let cool and top with whipped cream, and enjoy a favorite treat!

***

Sources are from our book Light Love Rituals: Bulgarian Myths, Legends, and Folklore and our upcoming book, Magical Healing Trees in Slavic Folklore, which you can find on our Kickstarter that will launch in May. Don’t forget to also check out other Kickstarter campaigns that are part of the Storyteller Oracle Deck project.

Original source of “Mary and the Golden Apples,” which appears in Light Love Rituals: Baeva, Vihra, “A Local Cult, a Universal Symbol: The Golden Apple in Gorni Voden, Southern Bulgaria,” Our Europe, Ethnography – Ethnology – Anthropology of Culture, Vol. 2/2013, pp. 73-88, http://www.ptpn.poznan.pl/Wydawnictwo/czasopisma/our/OE-2013-073-088-Baeva.pdf.

***

The month of February, you can also find many Kickstarter campaigns on “Kickstarter is for Lovers” promo.

Love pink valentine’s banner with hearts. Vector illustration.

Colorful and Cheerful

All the glitter of Christmas is over. The tree and decorations have been taken down. I miss the lights, the holiday colors and greenery of a fresh Christmas tree. Even the trees outside are bare. Nature feels empty. From time to time, I catch a glimpse of a red dot on the treetops, and know it’s my favorite cardinals that are preparing for spring.

This weekend I was cleaning my closet and opened a box to discover a small colorful rug, a gift from my mother, hidden with other memories from Bulgaria. The flowers on it are woven together like a multi-colored rainbow and touched my soul with happiness and warmth.

Throughout the ages, our mothers and grandmothers have woven the beauty and wisdom of nature into carpets, shirts, and other traditional clothing. Each stitch tells a story or is a code for well-being and health.

Colors play an important role in our lives. Some evoke joy, others nostalgia. Everyone has favorite colors. Every culture has its own meaning about colors, so much so that it would take a whole book to describe them.

Today I’ll tell you about the meaning of some colors in Bulgarian folklore and how you can use them to bring yourself luck. Who doesn’t want luck and good news? We all need them.

White

A white thread symbolizes woman. This is the color of purity and innocence, joy. For the Bulgarian, it’s the color of beauty. In many songs it’s about a white bird, white maiden, white flower, white horse, or white cloud. Festive clothes for christenings and weddings are white.

Newlyweds walk to the new home on a path made from white cloth. The white color of the wedding flag is a symbol of the sun and the purity of the bride. Angels dress in white robes, and priests do also, as a symbol of purity and knowledge. In the past, the color of mourning was white; through this color, mourners joined the world of the afterlife and the souls of their loved ones.

Red

Red, one of my favorite colors, is a sign of warmth, vitality, flame, and the fire of love. It’s the light of the rising and setting sun, fire and blood. The apple in the Garden of Eden is red, Mary is painted wearing a red praying mantle, and a man’s belt is also red as a symbol of masculinity and strength. Women of child-bearing age wear red color in their clothing. Children and grandmothers don’t wear red. The traditional wedding veil is red.

A red thread symbolizes man. Red threads are also used for the new year’s survacha, a ritual object made of a wooden stick. We have more about the ritual in our Light Love Rituals book and how you can make one. It is a fun activity for both old and young.

The red thread has magical power and is used in many Bulgarian traditions and amulets. It’s used to make martenitsi, a gift of friendship that’s worn until the arrival of spring. I love this red and white amulet, and it’s one of the most beloved by all Bulgarians. You can also learn about them in our book Light Love Rituals, as well as how to make one in our children’s short story The Miracle Stork.

Red thread is used to embroider a baby’s clothes. It’s also put in the bride’s bouquet and worn by pregnant women.

Gold

This color is associated with the sun and the afterlife. In rites, it symbolizes the transition from this world to the other world and vice versa.

Green

Green signifies fertility, health, revival. In the Bulgarian Peperuda (butterfly) ritual, in which they pray for rain, a young girl is dressed in green and paraded around the village. People from each household pour water over the greenery-covered girl and pray for rain.

Blue

This color is the symbol of water and the sky. It’s the color of a glass talisman that protects against evil forces, the “evil eye.”

Black

Black is a heavy color, as well as brown. I don’t like to use them in my paintings. Black is used in black magic and attracts bad forces and unhappiness. When saying goodbye to loved ones, a black ball of yarn is rolled in front of the ceremony to protect the dead person from evil forces.

Amulet for Luck and Happiness

It’s believed that white, red, and blue threads twisted to the left make a strong talisman for good luck, against demons and bad turns of fate. Two people should twist the threads and say twelve times out loud: “God give us luck.” People then wear the twisted thread on the arm as a bracelet until the threads become dirty. At that point, the person throws the threads into a river or burns them and makes a new amulet.

I don’t follow any strict instructions. I like to make up my own ritual. Try it out with a friend or a family member and share with us if it brings you luck.

We wish you a happy and blessed new year. We have so much planned out for the coming year, and we’ll be launching new projects on Kickstarter, so be sure to follow us there. First up will be a book on Magical Healing Trees to complement our book on Herbs. As part of this project, we are working with other authors to create a unique oracle deck. Visit the website we’ve set up for it to find more details: https://storytellersoracledeck.wordpress.com/

Later in the year, we’ll be launching the completed Dragon Village series—plus plenty of goodies to go along with the books—and all new covers! We’re also setting up our website to be able to more easily sell books direct, where we can offer special discounts unavailable on retailers.

Article source: Bulgarian spells and fortune telling (in Bulgarian) by Lilia Stavreva

The Magic of Water

A Bulgarian proverb says: “You can live without bread, but you can’t without water.”

We’re talking about water because today, January 6, is the Epiphany, the day among the Bulgarians when a priest tosses a cross into the icy river water. Whichever of those brave souls that rushes in after it and retrieves it is bound to have a healthy new year. This ritual is part of the Voditsi, a holiday divided into three parts: it starts the day before St. Jordan’s Day, continues with the Epiphany, and ends with Ivanovden on January 7.

Throwing the Epiphany Cross from the Stavros Bridge (Cross) or Hadjikavur Bridge, Ber, 1908. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

You can watch the “chilling” event here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TrYDDnMFZHc

***

Of course, the Epiphany is more than that. It’s a celebration of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River. It’s also a celebration of the day the three kings, the Three Wisemen or Magi, visited the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

Bulgarians revere water and use it in all important rituals, for births, weddings, and farewells to the dead.  Water is even a part of more ordinary events. I remember when my grandmothers or my mother poured a whole cauldron of water in front of me or my brother when I needed to do something important. They used the same words every time that can be translated into a simple “I wish you luck.” The wanted to make sure that everything would flow easily like water. To this day, this ritual has been preserved and is a part of the beginning of the school year, before an important school exam, or before a trip. Its purpose is to bring good luck. The ritual is done with special brass or clay vessels that are decorated with zdravetz, the Bulgarian geranium.

In Bulgarian legends and folklore, every water body, from rivers to lakes to streams, has its own spirit who guards and protects the water. These are places you’ll find all kinds of mythical creatures: nymphs, fairies, and dragons.

At midnight on Epiphany, Bulgarians believe that rivers and streams stop flowing and gain healing powers. Before the cross-throwing, river-jumping event, water is consecrated at the church. People bring this holy water home, keeping it all year to ensure good health. They will also put some of the water into wine to make it strong and keep it from spoiling. Additionally, people take a sip from the water and wash their faces to ensure good health.

After the event at the river, the sick are sprinkled with the holy water in which the cross was thrown. Some people throw three splinters from their Budnik (a ritual piece of tree that is burned on Budni vecher, Christmas Eve) into this the river as a means to remove evil from their homes. The Budnik is an important part of the Christmas Eve celebrations. The tree used for the log is preferably a young, straight oak. It’s cut own in a ritual early on the morning of Christmas Eve. Every part of getting the Budnik is surrounded by elaborate rituals: the cutting, the preparation, bringing the log into the home, and placing it on the fire.

Ronesa’s News

We’d also like to tell you about what we’ve been up to. December was a month to relax, or at least get somewhat caught up on tasks that have gone undone for too long. At any rate, it was a month free of writing. I spent time tracking statistics from our website. We revised it in April of 2017, so data from the time we first published is lost. But from April 2017 until December 2023, we have had visitors to our site from 122 countries! And people have viewed our pages 19,523 times! We thank you for that. So many of those visitors have been you, our subscribers and viewers! And we’ve already gained one new visiting country in January.

We are excited about this growth. Back in 2014 when we first published, the thought of reaching almost two-thirds of the countries in the world would have been a fantasy.

Now, we are back to work and eager to write more stories and produce more nonfiction books for you to enjoy. Our current projects are to finish up the final two books of the Dragon Village series. We’re hoping to launch a Kickstarter campaign on the series in September or October.

Our second, ongoing project will be a book on Magical Healing Trees. We offered a short ebook during our Herbs campaign, but now we will be updating that information with more detail and adding several new trees that have a special meaning in Bulgarian folklore. And we’ll be making a hardcover version of the book. We’re hoping to run that Kickstarter campaign sometime during the March to May period.

Be sure to follow our Kickstarter profile to get notified the moment we launch these campaigns: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/ronesa-aveela.

As part of the Trees campaign, we are also participating in a Storytellers Oracle Deck project. Here’s our official description of the project:

The Storytellers Oracle Deck is a multi-author project spanning a variety of genres. Each author has designed a card that distills the essence of their book or one of their characters. Put them all together and you have a truly unique Oracle deck that can be used for divination or displayed however you see fit.

Each author will offer their own card plus a two-card starter deck in their Kickstarter campaign. Back as many campaigns as you’d like to assemble your Oracle deck. These campaigns will be staggered throughout the year and on-going into the years to come, resulting in an ever growing, ever evolving deck.

You can find the author who are running the first of these campaigns in January below. We’ll keep you updated about all new participants as they begin their campaigns.

I’ve seen some of the cards that they are offering, and they’re really awesome. If you’re an Oracle fan or just want some cool cards, be sure to check out and back these amazing campaigns.

In other news, we have more cool projects we will be working on throughout the year. Vampires will join the Spirits & Creatures collection, although this book likely won’t be completed until early to mid-2024. Plus, we have other, smaller projects we hope to fit into 2023. We’ll keep you posted.

Storyteller Oracle Deck Kickstarters

Here are the first of the Storyteller Oracle Deck projects for you to check out this month. We appreciate you taking the time to visit with our fellow authors. Be sure to follow the campaigns now, so you’ll be notified when they go live. Thank you.

100 Gilded Dragons Art zine & other fantasy art prints.

Limited edition art zine, gold-foil art prints, & more featuring hand-illustrated dragons! A make 100 project!

January 18 – January 28

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/therena/100-gilded-dragons.

Effigest Illustrated Hardcover: A Weird Western Fantasy

Saddle up for a tale of fierce outlaws, reluctant heroes, loyal pegasi, and magic. (Make 100 Project)

January 10 – January 26

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legendhasit/effigest?ref=2721t7.

Crossbow University Series: Books 1-3 Dark, NA, Romance

Additions to Book 1, and Books 2 & 3 four months before available anywhere else! Bonus content only available here.

January 10 – January 29

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/naglenorthpublishing/crossbow-university-series-books-1-3-dark-na-romance.

New Hopes, Fears, and Dreams

The chilly weather has set in in the north. The cold pinches my nostrils, and my cheeks turn pink. But along with the cold, that flame of Christmas magic appears in the eyes of everyone.

I love Christmas. It’s such a festive season, filled with feelings of giving and forgiving.

And the New Year will be knocking on the door soon as well. It’s a time when we once again wish others health and prosperity and dream about happiness and good surprises in the coming year.

We count our blessings and look back at our achievements. It’s also the time when we start wondering what the future has in store for us. We all hope for better lives, to have prosperity, and to be healthy and happy. We wish for global peace and free travel.

But these last few years have put a damper on hope. Since COVID, many people are afraid to smile and gather with others, but we’re humans and we need to have contacts. And dire predictions about 2023 discourage people even more. For example, Baba Vanga, who has been called the Nostradamus of the Balkans, predicts solar storms, a change in the Earth’s orbit, and testing of bioweapons. Some people believe her, some don’t. In any event she was a great healer and respected fortune teller.

You can learn more about her in our Herbs book. The book has a lot of recipes to help you rejuvenate your body and soul and have a great new year!

A Bulgarian tradition is to put lucky charms in pita bread we make and roll up Bulgarian traditional banitza like our grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

We wish you happy and healthy holidays! May loved ones and good friends surround your table! Thank you for supporting and believing in us!

What Do Baba Yaga and Santa Have in Common?

November was a busy month and so we didn’t get any newsletters out. We were getting the final touches on our Baba Yaga book so we can send it out the rewards to our Kickstarter backers, and we also attended in-person events, craft fairs, and such. Things have settled down a bit now, thankfully.

Looking back, since December 2020 until December 2022, we’ve published 12 books, averaging 6 books a year; whereas before, our average was one or two a year. Needless to say, we’re a bit worn out and will be taking off the month of December before we start on our next projects.

After that, we’ll get going on finishing the final two books in the Dragon Village series and start doing research on the next book in the Spirits & Creatures series: Vampires! We’re hoping to do a Kickstarter campaign for the complete Dragon Village series in September, so be sure to follow our Kickstarter profile so you’re updated. We want to have the books completed this time before we start the campaign, so we’ll be able to ship them out as quickly as possible.

https://www.rawpixel.com/image/4021271/photo-image-nature-red-natural

***

Back now to the Santa/Baba Yaga connection. In our research on Baba Yaga, we discovered she has an association with mushrooms, in particular fly agaric, Amanita muscaria. It’s believed that this may be the magical food Baba Yaga feeds to heroes before she sends them off on their journey to the otherworld, the land of the dead. This gave them the ability to unlock the keys to eternity as well as allowing him to become part of the world of the dead, to speak and see there in the same manner as the dead.

So, how does this connect to Santa?

It all relates back to Amanita muscaria, that red-capped, white-spotted mushroom. The toxins in it have psychedelic properties, and shamans (in particular those of the Sami people of Lapland) have used it to put themselves into a trance so they can travel to the other side and get advice from the dead. These shamans didn’t just nibble on the mushrooms to get into this state, they also drank reindeer urine, which contained the mushroom’s compounds that were free of toxins. The rein deer ate this mushroom, but filtered out all the toxic elements.

The Amanita muscaria gives one the sense of flying.

Reindeer… flying…

Are you seeing a connection yet?

People believed that those who ate the Amanita muscaria ended up looking like the mushroom: a big, fat person with red splotches. They traveled to homes on a reindeer-pulled sled in winter. And they came down the chimney to enter the house.

Sounding familiar?

These shamans who ate the mushrooms would perform healing rituals and solve people’s problems from the advice the shamans received from the dead. In return, people gave them lots of food, making the fat man even heftier.

***

The source of this information about the Amanita muscaria and Santa comes from this great article and video, “How the Psychedelic Amanita Muscaria Mushroom May Have Inspired the Santa Legend of Lapland,” which you can find here: https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/12/02/mushroom-santa/.

And be sure to check out our book to find out more about Baba Yaga.

Equal-Opportunity Witchcraft

October is a month filled with magic that culminates on Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, when witches, goblins, and other creatures of the night prance about. Although many people see magic as a fun party trick, others take it more seriously. Magic and witchcraft have been around probably as long as mankind has existed and has been perceived differently over the ages and by various cultures.

Our latest book is about Baba Yaga, because she is considered the most powerful Slavic witch. You may think of the word “witch” as applying only to females, but this is incorrect. Men are called witches, too, and practice magic. In Slavic languages, common words for a male witch are ved’miak or vedun, and ved’ma for a female, the root of the words comes from vedat’, which means “to know” and came to be associated with sorcery. Among the peasants, people like these who had supernatural powers were called “people with knowledge.”

But their knowledge was meant to cause harm and misfortune. As a child I heard my grandmother and other people in the village frequently talk about someone using dark magic. People in Slavic villages still perform secret pagan rituals that focus on the four elements: fire, air, earth, and water. In Bulgarian and Slavic folklore there are a lot of rituals for making and breaking spells. There are spells for love, money, health, you name it. We included some in our book 77½ Magical Healing Herbs.

Even when these witches or sorcerers died, they still could inflict harm on people. In such a case, they were called “heretics.”

Today, the word implies a connection with the Devil, although this was not the case for trials for witchery among the Slavs for the most part. This kind of sorcery was not associated with religion. Those who practiced it, instead caused harm to an enemy’s person or property, being accused of causing diseases and famine, and using the forces of nature.

Although these sorcerers looked like their neighbors, they could be found out because they possessed a tail. At least those who were born a sorcerer had a tail. Others who trained to become one could be given a tail that eventually grew on him. Other features that were harder to conceal were his busy eyebrows, his penetrating glance, and his desire to be secretive. He was also a bachelor with a little black book, only this one didn’t contain names of his female conquests… It held magical knowledge about herbs and spells.

We hope your Halloween will be filled with a lot of magic, laughter, and candies. Wear your favorite costumes and please be careful with the spells. We don’t want to see a lot of ugly frogs hopping around after Halloween.

If hear a noise in the sky, look up. Who knows? Perhaps it’s Baba Yaga flying on her mortar, visiting a friend to have some fun.

And don’t forget to take a look at our campaign about Baba Yaga. It’s ending on November 1, so don’t miss this opportunity: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ronesa-aveela/a-study-of-baba-yaga?ref=d97tft

If you’ve never logged into Kickstarter before, you’ll have to create an account. But then, you’ll have access to all the great projects going on every day, not just for the Witchstarter program.

 

Dragon-Repelling Herbs

October 26 is Dimitrovden, St. Demetrius’ Day or St. Dimitar’s Day. This saint is sometimes called the twin of St. George, the mighty dragon slayer. But did you know that St. Demetrius also fought dragons? I bet he never came across Baba Yaga when she was in dragon form, though.

What? You didn’t know she could appear as a dragon or giant snake in fairy tales? She is so huge that when she opens her mouth to swallow the hero, her jaw reaches from the clouds to the ground. Unlike the Bulgarian version of this dragon, this incarnation is always evil. But, there’s no need to worry, unless you’re the hero’s brother. Your sibling may toss you into the dragon’s mouth so he can escape.

In these stories, the dragon is defeated in a couple of ways. One is to toss in so much salt that she has to go to the sea to quench her thirst. Another is to hide in a blacksmith’s shop. When the dragon Baba Yaga arrives, the blacksmith will tell her to stick her tongue through the keyhole and grab the hero. While she does this, the crafty blacksmith will pinch her tongue with red-hot tongs and hold her there while the hero makes his way outside to kill the dragon Yaga.

But there are other ways to defeat dragons. By herbs. A few are used mainly to stop the amorous advances of a dragon, such as Melilotus officinalis (called komuniga in Bulgarian folklore), Gentiana cruciate (called tintyava), and Tanacetum vulgare (tansy). However, if you just want to drive away an angry dragon, such as a Baba Yaga one, you might want to stick with wormwood (Artemisia vulgaris). It’s one of the most effective anti-demonic herbs to protect you from dragons and other evil entities.

Its greatest magical strength lies in its buds and tips. Hang a bunch of the herbs around the house (preferably in a bedroom or hallway), or burn it as incense for a short time and in small doses. Its smell will drive out every unclean, evil force from your home—whether it’s a spirit or simply anger and negative energy. Another way to drive out evil spirits is to gather wild wormwood on Eniovden (Midsummer’s Day, June 24), make a broom with the stalks, and sweep the unwanted beings from your house. If you can’t harvest the herb on that day, do it when the moon is waning. This is when wild wormwood will be more powerful.

Common methods for applying the herbs include:

• Wearing them as a small bouquet or corsage. Bulgarians like to include a geranium (здравец, zdravets) among the flowers. Its leaves smell nice and protect against the evil eye, and bring health and strength to the wearer. Men often pin the herbs onto their shirt, while girls make herbal and floral wreaths to wear in their hair.
• Burning them and spreading the smoke like incense, including burning hay in a field that contains the herbs. The smoke from burning herbs will protect and purify you, and its smell will sicken the dragon so she’ll no longer come near you. It may even kill the dragon.
• Soaking them in water, then sprinkling the water on the victim or the place where the dragon resides.

***

We have more interesting topics like this in our book 77½ Magical Healing Herbs. You can get the book here: https://77-1-2-herbs.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders.

Or if you want to find out more about dragons, check out our book A Study of Dragons of Eastern Europe.

And don’t forget to take a look at our campaign about Baba Yaga. It’s ending on November 1, so don’t miss this opportunity: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ronesa-aveela/a-study-of-baba-yaga?ref=d97tft

If you’ve never logged into Kickstarter before, you’ll have to create an account. But then, you’ll have access to all the great projects going on every day, not just for the Witchstarter program.