I’ve spent the last month slowly working on a new Vasilisa doll for my friend Sadie and her daughter. I love this image of her in the apple tree above. It’s a little bit like that at the moment isn’t it? Or the start of a big journey or pilgrimage. We know we must move forward but there are definitely new issues to think about and perhaps some wariness too. But when I look at Vasilisa she reminds me of how brave we can be in difficult times and situations.
She was so brave that she entered the dark forest to seek out the wild witch, Baba Yaga.
It was interesting to note just how many times this doll changed outfits before she felt ‘right’. We can relate to that too. There is a lot of change happening right now and perhaps there is an old ‘outfit’ or ‘personna’ that you feel you have outgrown. Truly, the best way forward is always with authenticity and we are growing and changing - maturing - do you feel as if you growing into a new stage too?
When I first dressed Vasilisa I had an outfit that was beautiful but just felt too ‘cute’. I wanted this doll to journey with her keeper into a very difficult situation and give her STRENGTH. And so I had to sit the doll aside for a couple of weeks, even though I did feel that time was important, and that she was needed by her keepers, I just had to wait until she was clear. I think that’s the best way to think about the spirit doll - when the energy is clear, it feels like a ‘knowing’ - the doll is now ready. And so, what you see here is her in her final form and importantly, she was finally ready to travel to her new home right on the day of the full moon eclipse.
You see we can get confused and think dolls are about OUR timing but they have their own path and story and timing. This timing is more important I feel and is linked to much bigger spirit stories and perhaps connections to the keeper even if they aren’t aware of it.
I see this cosmic timing as a big spirit gathering in the ‘otherworld’ where our human time is irrelevant but the threads of connection and meaning are of utmost importance.
Now here’s a strange little incident that I now see as being very important also. When the doll finally told me that she was ready to travel to Sadie, I took a small group of photos beside the candles in my studio. I was so focussed at looking through the lens of my camera that I didn’t realise that the doll had caught on fire!
The candle had singed her hair on the left side of her head just near her left eye. It was quick and weird - it had never happened before. But when I looked at Vasilisa, I thought about her pilgrimage to request fire from Baba Yaga. I see the element of fire in this story as the ‘getting of wisdom’ or intuition. She can only receive this from Baba Yaga when she has completed the tasks set out by the witch and is finally allowed to return home.
Interestingly the fire burnt the left side - the intuitive side or the witch side. I told Sadie about it and we laughed but I knew that this was the last piece of ‘medicine’ for the doll.
She was ‘initiated’ and ready to travel home to Sadie with her wisdom and bravery.