Baba Yaga: Where Shadow Work Begins

In this episode of Magic in Motion, we step into the story of Baba Yaga, a figure from Slavic folklore who has long been known as a witch, a crone, a gatekeeper, and a guide. She is not a gentle presence. She does not offer easy answers or clear direction. Instead, she presents challenges, gives tasks, and watches what unfolds. But this isn’t just a story.

Baba Yaga represents something much deeper… a threshold we all encounter at certain points in our lives. The moment where growth asks more of us than we feel ready to give. The moment where the path forward isn’t handed to us, but revealed through what we are willing to face.

In this episode, we explore:

• A retelling of a classic Baba Yaga story and what it reveals about transformation
• The deeper meaning behind her role as a gatekeeper rather than a guide
• What her methods reflect about real-life moments of uncertainty, challenge, and change
• A grounded look at shadow work, not as a concept, but as something we actively experience
• Why the work beneath the surface shapes what we are able to call in
• How to approach personal growth in a sustainable way, without overwhelm or pressure

We also talk about the connection between this kind of work and the spring season we’re moving through. Because just as the earth shifts and begins to bring new life forward, we are often asked to do the same. Not by forcing growth… but by clearing, noticing, and allowing space for something new to take root.

Rather than offering step-by-step practices, this episode focuses on awareness and intention. What it means to notice patterns, to recognize what is being revealed, and to begin working with those insights in a way that fits into your everyday life.

We'll talk about a simple, ongoing approach using journaling or Tarot/Oracle cards, not as a task to complete, but as a way to gently stay connected to what is unfolding beneath the surface... Because this kind of work isn’t about doing more, it’s about seeing more clearly.

Whether you’re familiar with shadow work or just beginning to recognize these patterns in your own life, this episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and step forward with a deeper awareness of what is shaping your path.

The Baba Yaga forest doesn’t ask you to be ready. It asks you to be willing.

Links:

• If you’d like to explore this work more deeply, you can find additional resources and weekly practices inside the LightFUL Witch Circle on Patreon
• Connect with me on Facebook at The LightFUL Witch 
• Explore my books and journals designed to help you bring intention into your everyday life on Amazon

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Magic in Motion. I'm Pat Formasano, the Lightful Witch. Here we explore witchcraft, everyday magic, and the practice of bringing attention to ordinary moments. Because your craft doesn't have to live outside of daily life when it's woven right into the rhythm of your day. That's Magic in Motion. Welcome back to Magic in Motion. I'm Kat Formasano, the Lightful Witch, and today I want to start a little differently than usual. I'm going to change it up a bit and begin our time together with a story, which I can only introduce the way one of my favorite storytellers, probably a true Stregonona herself, Sophia Petrillo, would tell it. Picture it. Eastern Europe, somewhere between myth and memory, a very long time ago, probably about 500 years. There's a young girl named Vasilisa. And her life up until this point has already asked a lot of her. After her mother dies, her father is some kind of a traveling salesperson who's never home. And she's left in the care of a stepmother and stepsisters who don't do don't just dislike her, they despise her. And basically they amuse themselves by finding new ways to make her life more and more difficult. One night they send her into the forest. Not for a walk or like just a regular errand, they send her to find fire. And when they do this, they know full well that there is only one place to get the fire, and it is from Baba Yaga. And everyone in town knows what that means. You don't go into the terrifying Baba Yaga forest unless you are desperate. So knowing it is the only way Vasilisa goes. She goes through the trees and deeper and deeper into the woods where she's never ever ventured before until she finally finds it. Baba Yaga's house. Now, this is no ordinary woodland cottage smurf house shaped like a mushroom. It is a house that stands on chicken legs and it turns and it watches and it waits. So she finds the house with its fence made of bones and skulls. And when Baba Yaga appears, she doesn't greet Vasilisa kindly. She doesn't offer help. This is not the warm welcome of a grandma who just pulled some cookies out of the oven. Baba Yaga just tells her straight up, you can have what you came for if you earn it. And then come the tasks. Sort this pile, clean this space, do this work without getting mauled by a bear, and do it perfectly. Yes, there really is a version of the story with a bear. But anyway, the tasks are wild. Each one is more impossible than the last. And what makes them really hard is, I mean, besides the fact that they are so overwhelming, what makes them really hard is that none of them come with instructions. Baba Yaga doesn't guide her through it. She just watches and waits to see if Vasilisa misses the details, or if she's barely eking by and overlooking something, or if she's fully triumphing and dotting every I and crossing every T. She just watches Vasilisa work through it all. And Vasilisa doesn't fight it. She doesn't run away screaming like I probably would. She just pays attention. She observes what's happening and she leverages whatever she can. She works with what she's got. And when she finally completes all that's been asked of her, Baba Yaga gives her the fire. But not in the way you'd expect. She doesn't give her like a glowing torch like they do on Survivor. She sends her home with a skull that glows from within. I know, put it down on your Christmas list. But when Vasilisa returns home with her glowing skull, that fire doesn't just light her way, it burns away everything that was never truly meant for her to carry. All the things that did not serve her. There's much more graphic versions. Highly recommend your research. I love a good Baba Yaga story. But anyway, this is where Baba Yaga gets really interesting because when we read all the different stories about her, and there are many volumes and versions of each, she doesn't behave the way we expect guidance to behave. She doesn't comfort, she gives tasks and she watches and she withholds clarity. And if you've ever been in a moment where you don't know what you're doing and no one is giving you clear answers, but you're still expected to figure it out anyway, then you've been exactly where Vasilisa has been before, too. Now, I know there's a lot of variations of this old folklore, but this is how my great-grandmother told me this story a very long time ago. Um, it's funny, you know, there are so many things that she showed me that I always thought were so random, but now, well, now that I can only hold tight to what I remember and wish that I had known or rather recognized what she was teaching me back then. I'm very grateful for all of her guidance. But anyway, as with everything that my gram taught me, this story always stuck with me until I finally reached the part of my journey that I figured out its true value. And that came to me the other day. So I was working on the Baba Yaga article that I wrote for Patreon. You can find it there now. It's in the Free Lightful Library. But I was writing it and it dawned on me that all of these Baba Yaga isms is what we often call shadow work. Not the aesthetic version, not the witch talk viral video about shadow work, but the kind where you actually have to face what's uncomfortable and unclear and probably a little inconvenient. If you aren't already familiar, or maybe you call it something else, to me, shadow work is the practice of turning toward the parts of yourself that you usually avoid, the reactions or overreactions, um, the patterns, the beliefs that quietly shape your choices without you even realizing it. And the work itself, it's not about fixing yourself. It's more about understanding what's actually driving you. It can look like noticing the same frustration showing up in different situations in your life, or maybe you catch a reaction that you have that feels bigger than the moment. Or maybe it's realizing you've been holding on to a story about yourself that just isn't even true anymore. And this is something I come back to often in my own practice. You know, I refer to myself as the lightful witch because I believe that everyone carries light within them, not something you have to earn or something you have to prove, but something that is already just inherently there, glowing with all of the power and beauty and amazingness that we each possess in our own unique variations. But we've got to remember that light can't exist without shadow. And when it comes to magic, you can't fully shine your light if your shadow is running the show behind the scenes. So this work, this shadow work, is what makes the magic possible. And here's the part that doesn't always get said out loud. I love a spell jar. I love a money bowl, I love a good cord cutting. I will absolutely throw someone in the freezer if it's warranted. But none of that works if I haven't looked at what's underneath it first. If I'm trying to call something in, I have to be willing to clear what's in the way of it. And most of the time, that's not external, it's patterns and beliefs or old stories or habits we don't even realize that we're repeating. Shadow work isn't about fixing yourself, it's about seeing yourself clearly. And sometimes what you see isn't the version that you'd prefer to believe in. And that is the work. Now, here's where I think people get tripped up. They think that once they start this shadow work, it has to be all-consuming. But it's not meant to be every day is deep emotional excavation, ravaging emotions and memories and scrubbing those areas so relentlessly that they become raw, like the scene out of Mommy Dearest in the bathroom. It needs pauses and breaks in between the cleaning to be truly cathartic and effective work. To me, it's more like working out than burning the old vestiges to the ground, you know? Like, for example, at the gym, you don't do leg day every day because if you did, your legs would be exhausted, they would be overworked, and they'd eventually stop responding the way that you want them to. Instead, leg day is one day, followed by days you're working your arms or your back. And on those other body part days, your legs are still doing something. They're recovering, they're rebuilding, and they're getting stronger from the work you already did. For me, shadow work is the same way. You don't need to dig into your deepest patterns every single day. You need to give yourself space to integrate what you've already uncovered. Because growth doesn't just happen in the moment of effort, it happens in the pauses in between. And this is actually something we've been doing inside the Lightful Witch Circle over the past few weeks. We've been taking these bigger ideas like removing blocks and breaking patterns and setting down the old baggage by working through them in pieces, not all at once, just a layer at a time, like on a weekly cadence. Because real change doesn't come from overwhelming yourself. It comes from staying with the work long enough for it to actually shift something. One really simple way to stay connected to this work is to choose one awareness to carry with you for the day. Maybe it's I'm going to notice when a certain reaction comes up. Or maybe it's I'm gonna catch this pattern in real time. Or maybe it's just asking yourself in a moment, what is driving this? Not fixing it, not judging it, just notice it. And that alone starts to shift things. If you want, you can take it a step further and just jot it down. What were you feeling and what was happening right before it? Because when you start to look back at those moments, the patterns begin to show themselves. And this is where it really matters because your magic is only as clear as the space it's moving through. When you haven't looked at your patterns or your beliefs or the old stories you're carrying about yourself, those things don't just sit quietly in the background. They shape what you ask for, they shape what you believe is possible, and they shape what you're actually available to receive. So you can do all the spell work you want, but if a part of you still believes this won't work for me, or I'm not ready, or this never really happens for me, that energy is still in the room. Shadow work doesn't make you more magical, it makes your magic more honest. It clears the static and it brings your intention into alignment with what you actually believe, not just what you wish you were true. And that's when things start to shift, not because you did more, but because you're no longer working against yourself. Don't be afraid to hold up the mirror, even when it's not showing you what you expected or what you'd prefer to see. Sometimes the most valuable insight comes from the moments that feel a little uncomfortable, a little unclear, or a little too honest to ignore. And just because you see something doesn't mean you have to fix it immediately or have it all figured out right away. There's no rush here. This isn't work that needs to be forced or completed on a timeline. It's something you can move through gradually, returning to it when you have the space or when you have the energy and you have that willingness to look a little closer. You're allowed to take this one layer at a time and pause when you need to and revisit it when you're ready. This kind of work deepens over time. The more you give yourself permission to move through it at your own pace, the more clarity you'll begin to build. Not all at once, but in small, meaningful shifts that start to change how you see yourself and how you respond and how you move forward, really. When I look at shadow work this way, I realize it. This is Baba Yaga's method. She doesn't remove the obstacle, she puts you in front of it and she watches what you do. She doesn't hand you instructions or clarity or even a deadline. She just lets you develop it because the version of you that walks into the forest isn't the version of you that walks out. You might try to just raise your awareness with a simply weekly practice. It's a good way to get started, right? Nothing time consuming, nothing complicated, just a few minutes to check in with yourself. You can journal. Write down a moment from your week that felt charged or uncomfortable or unclear and gently explore what might have been underneath it. When I do this, I like to use automatic writing. It's a really comfortable, non-thinking kind of way for me to just go and let that stream of consciousness be unleashed on the page. Um, another favorite way to do this is if you work with tarot or oracle cards, just pull a single card and ask, what is something I'm being invited to see more clearly right now? There's no pressure to solve it, no need to have the answer right away. This is just creating the space to notice and let that awareness build over time. Before we wrap up today, I want to take one small moment together. Wherever you are right now, grazing Amazon, meal prepping, answering emails, or stock pairing or bill paying, whatever it is, just take a slow breath in. And a slow breath out. This shadow work invites us to notice things a little differently. Not just what feels good or easy, but what's asking for our attention. Take this moment to reflect on something from your day, a reaction, a pause, a moment that just felt slightly off. And instead of pushing it away, acknowledge it. Maybe even feel a little bit of gratitude for it, for what it might be showing you. Because sometimes the smallest moments of awareness are the ones that begin to change everything. If today's episode resonated with you, keep it in mind as you continue to develop your craft. The path isn't always meant to feel clear. Sometimes it asks you to step forward anyway. And when you do, notice what shows up. Notice what asks for your attention. Not everything that surfaces is a problem to solve. Some of it is simply something to understand. So let yourself just notice what's being revealed without rushing past it. You may be closer to clarity than you realize. If you'd like more ways to weave magic into the motion of your life, you can find me on Facebook at The Lightful Witch or in my Lightful Witches circle on Patreon. Be sure to check out the free Lightful Library where I share lunar practices, journaling prompts, tarot spreads, spell work, shadow work, and practical tools for living a little bit more intentionally. You can listen to Magic in Motion on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you like to listen. And if you enjoy working with the rhythms of the season, my books and journals are available on Amazon. Until the next time, remember how bright your light is and notice the magic you bring to whatever you choose to shine it on, whether you're taking a quiet pause or moving through your life in motion. This is Cat Formasano, the Lightful Witch, wishing you a day filled with light.