Slavic Witchcraft

SLAVIC WITCHCRAFT: Mythology and Magic of the East Slavic WorldBy Dr. Elena Vasilieva Deep in the forests of Russia and Ukraine, something ancient has always watched from the shadows. Long before Baba Yaga became a fairy tale, she was a terror. Long before the rusalka became a legend, she was a warning. And long before the village healer became a curiosity, she was the most important person in the community. Slavic Witchcraft is the definitive scholarly journey into one of the world's most fascinating and least-known magical traditions. Drawing on the great ethnographic collections of Afanasyev and Zelenin, on Church trial records, on centuries of folk charms passed down through generations of healers and cunning women, Dr. Elena Vasilieva brings the full richness of East Slavic folk magic to life with the authority of a scholar and the passion of someone who has spent a lifetime in its company. Discover the terrifying logic of the domovoi. Understand why the koldun could not die without a fight. Learn what really happened at Ivan Kupala night, and why the crossroads at midnight held a power that the Church spent a thousand years trying to suppress and never could.This is the world behind the witches — their practices, their spirits, their social power, their extraordinary survival across centuries of persecution, revolution, and suppression. Vivid, rigorous, and endlessly compelling, Slavic Witchcraft is essential reading for anyone drawn to the dark, deep magic at the heart of Eastern Europe.