Ragana Round Pillow
Ragana is a Baltic goddess of magic, witchcraft, women, menopause, abundance and death. She is a powerful prophetess and master healer who can cure any ailment. She controls fertility, the weather, and the cycles of nature- birth, death and regeneration. Compared by many to Slavic Baba Yaga for her ambiguity, she could bless or curse, harm or heal. She could appear as beautiful woman, or one of the many animals associated with her, including owls, toads, crows, magpies, hedgehogs, and female dogs, to name a few. She has been described as “patriarchy's nightmareâ€, and was venerated in the region from at least the Neolithic era, before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans. Her time of power is from Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice. She is pictured here with several things she's associated with including the horned/crescent moon, fly agaric mushrooms (poisonous and healing plants are sacred to her), birch trees, owls (Eurasian Eagle Owl & Tengmalm's Owl), northern pike, and the colors red, white and black. Her clothes were inspired by archaeological reconstructions of women's clothing from the 7-13th centuries. The KrupÄ«tis (toad) symbol was used for the border & trim on her dress, as it symbolizes intuition, knowledge, wisdom, strength, and the subconscious. It's also linked to Aizsaule (“beyond the sunâ€), the mythical habitation of ghosts. The other symbol in the border & elsewhere is MÄ“ness, symbol of the Moon. Although most often worn by men, as is the bronze owl fibula she wears, I felt they were both fitting with her character and strength, as well as her independent nature - in the old myths, she is one of few goddesses who was not linked to one of the gods in marriage. In modern Latvian and Lithuanian, “ragana†is the word for “witchâ€.
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