TWH – For more than ten years, Patricia Robin Woodruff has been diving deep into Slavic lore. She began her magical journey pursuing and completing initiation as a Priestess with Stone Circle Wicca, an open-minded path of Wicca that encouraged her to begin researching her heritage and personal history as a basis for her magical practice. As the eldest daughter of an eldest daughter from the Carpathian mountains, surrounding the countries of Romania, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czechia, and Serbia, she started her research into that vast pool of knowledge and practices.
Like many American practitioners, Patricia’s family assimilated to American culture when they emigrated, disrupting the direct lineage and passage of wisdom. Though she doesn’t speak any Slavic languages, Patricia is studying Polish as her background is that of the Lemko of Poland, a mountain-dwelling people similar to the Scottish Highlanders. “I learn just as much (or more) from understanding Proto-Indo-European roots of words,” she adds.
Patricia Robin Woodruff [Courtesy]
It’s not easy to define Patricia’s path, or any Slavic path, as by necessity, these practices reflect the syncretic universality across multiple cultures. “In essence, all Slavic practitioners are spirit initiated even if they come from a hereditary line of teachings,” Patricia explains. “While some specific teachings can be considered a ‘closed practice’,” she clarifies, “what I am studying is the ancient indigenous beliefs of the Slavo-European lands.” Her work primarily focuses on what she calls “commonality of belief”, answering the question of what happened after we left the Proto-Indo European path. Due to the slow diffusion of tribal migration, Slavic paths share commonalities with paths of other European connections, particularly through practice and depiction of deities.
That means there are often regional or connected deities that might not be apparent until you start reaching out and working with them. For example, “Matka Zemla, a Slavic mother goddess, looks a bit like Ceres of Rome, or Greece’s Demeter and has the same associations.”
Patricia’s focus is the Black Sea cultures, such as Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, and as far as Turkey. Because of the Indo-European connections, the research she conducts often takes her to the writings and folklore of Finland, Sweden, or Norway, and even over into Ireland. When she “says Slavic,” Patricia explains, “really it’s the linguistic connection that makes the cultures of these deities and the commonalities in the developed cultures” that inspires her practice. “Finnish belief,” she explains, has a healing practice that involves “pouring a liquid through a ring branch,” or even a whole person if they can fit through a large enough hole in the tree. This rebirthing concept of healing shows up again in Poland, Slovakia, and even Croatia in similar ways.
Sometimes her research into ancient cultures leads her to remnants found in modern folk practices. For example, in Poland, when a baby is born, a red thread is tied around their wrist as an amulet of practice and influence. This goes back to the ancient association of the color red with new life and protection.
Additionally, Patricia’s work is about reclaiming the power of the words we use to describe magic in a Slavic context. Patricia’s chosen title is “bosorka”. Having a similar meaning to “hag” or ‘crone” in English, it is a negative word in the mainstream that she is reclaiming the original meaning of “wise one”.
While Slavic belief is often personal, tribal, and culturally diverse, there are some commonalities of belief across the cultural landscape that have become foundational to Patricia’s beliefs and teachings. “There is no good or evil”, Patricia explains. “There is only life-giving energy and the management of that. Cancer is a bad thing, even though it’s life unrestrained”, she continues. “[As practitioners] we know how to keep a balance of energy.”
Animism is another core belief of Slavic cultures. “Give of me your wood, and I shall give you of mine when I am a tree in the forest”, Patricia shared, is a Slavic and Germanic incantation for praying to the tree before cutting it down. This belief that we are connected to the plant world, and must honor it, is deep in every Slavic culture.
Slavic belief also teaches that we have two components of spirit. One part enters the fetus in the womb, and this becomes our dreaming soul. The second part enters during a child’s first breath – this is our life. When the breath leaves, that soul leaves too. But the dream soul becomes the journeying soul. Slavic shamans can send this journeying soul, called a mara, through the spirit world to do magic upon their request. The spirit world of souls is thought to be a watery sea beneath the earth. The word mara has roots with the word “mare”, “mar” or “more”, meaning “sea,” in French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian and more, not only connecting these Slavic beliefs across the world, but showing the Proto-Indo European language roots shared by so much of the world.
This connection reaches even further. Dedicates of Mora, the wintery, Crone-like Goddess also called Morana/Marzanna can be called “moras” or “zmora”, sharing the same root as “mar”, “more”, or “mare”. And in Italy, a Ma’ara is another word for witch. “Ma’ara”, “mora” or “zmora” all have negative connotations today, much like “crone” or “hag”, or Patricia’s chosen title of “bosorka”. Remembering our geography can help us understand why Italy and Slavic cultures might have some commonality. Slovenia borders Italy, and Slavic country’s borders are always shifting throughout history. “People think in terms of divisions, but it’s all connections”, Patricia explains.
Patricia’s work is taught through the Roots of Slavic Magic Facebook group. Over 10,000 people are members, and through that group, she is also making sure the practice is about connection across races, cultures, and beliefs. She invites everyone to her Facebook group and learn more about her and her work on her site.
The Wild Hunt is not responsible for links to external content.
To join a conversation on this post:
Visit our The Wild Hunt subreddit! Point your favorite browser to https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Wild_Hunt_News/, then click “JOIN”. Make sure to click the bell, too, to be notified of new articles posted to our subreddit.