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.

A few nights ago there was a strange tapping and scratching at our window. It was hard to work out where it was coming from but when Tony went outside he found a little finch trying with all it's might to come into the house. I went up to the window from inside and could see it's little outline just sitting there looking at me. I quickly went outside but heard him take flight in the dark night and he was gone. Later on I fell asleep and dreamt of a colourful bird trying to fly with a big heavy feather in it's mouth. I said hello to the bird and it said hello back to me before flying off.

Whenever an animal comes out of the forest to communicate with us I pay careful attention - such a tiny, shy bird knocking at my window in the forest night - what did I need to be more aware of? I felt the message of a need for discernment.

Soon after, I began making a series of grandmother dolls like the doll above. They all have a piece of fossilised wood, an ancient tree over their hearts. When I received these beautiful stones I was drawn to their subtle colours - this subtlety flowed into the colours the dolls chose to dress themselves in and the fact that each had eyes that looked both open and closed at the same time. The all-seeing and dreaming spirit of the grandmother. I thought about the crone and spirit of the witch and how they teach us about discernment and the wild feminine.

One of the stories and archetypes that kept being brought to me just before I left for Spirit Weavers Gathering and all through the gathering was that of Vasalisa the Beautiful, her magical doll and Baba Yaga (the witch, the crone, the mother of us all). Here is a link to a beautiful retelling of the story and I made the doll above last year after reading it - I felt she held the energy of Vasalisa after her training with Baba Yaga and the helpful little doll. Perhaps this doll is carrying the 3 archetypes of doll, growing maiden and wisdom of the grandmother all at once.

With this story so alive and being brought up in many conversations, it led me to re-read Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD the renowned scholar, poet and cantadora (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition) rendition of this old, Russian story of the wise crone, and the young girl and her doll who come in search of fire. I am also very inspired by her writings on the magic of the doll:

"For centuries humans have felt that dolls emanate both a holiness and mana - an awesome and compelling presence which acts upon persons, changing them spiritually. Dolls are believed to be infused with life by their makers.
The Doll is the symbolic homunculi, little life. It is the symbol of what lies buried in humans that is numinous. It is a small and glowing facsimile of the original Self. Superficially, it is just a doll. But inversely, there is a little piece of soul that carries all the knowledge of the larger soul-Self.
The Doll is related to the symbols of leprechaun, elf, pixie, fairy, and dwarf. In fairy tales these represent a deep throb of wisdom within the culture of the psyche. They are those creatures which go on with the canny and interior work, who are tireless. In this way the doll represents the inner spirit of women; the voice of inner reason, inner knowing, and inner consciousness.
The doll is like the little bird in fairy tales who comes and whispers in the heroine's ear, the one who reveals the hidden enemy and what to do about it all. This is the wisdom of homunculus, the small being within. It is our helper which is not seeable, but which is always accessible.
The dolls serve as talismans. Talismans are reminders of what is felt but not seen, what is so, but is not immediately obvious. The talismanic numen of the doll is that it reminds us, tells us, sees ahead for us. This intuitive function belongs to all women. It is a massive and fundamental receptivity. Not receptivity as once touted in classical psychology, that is as a passive vessel. But receptivity as in possessing immediate access to a profound wisdom that reaches to women's very bones.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, 'Women Who Run with the Wolves'

I love that this ancient story keeps circling and returning when it is needed. I feel ready now to create a Baba Yaga for myself to learn more about discernment and the message from the little bird at my window too - what if it was not trying to come in but beckoning me into the dark forest? I think I have been working at my desk too much and like Vasalisa I need to cross the threshold into 'the green world' to feed the wild.

Vasilisa's Doll and Her Strange Magic

Little Bird in your Ear - Baba Yaga, Vasalisa and the doll archetype