Vasilisa Lists

Characters that figure in the Vasilisa story:
Young Mother (dies at beginning of story)
Vasilisa (main character)
Husband of Young Mother (Father of Vasilisa)
God
Doll (gift, promise, blessing from Young Mother to Vasilisa)
Step-Mother
Step-Mother's Daughters (2)
Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga's Men (in white/ red/ black) on Horses (of white/ red/ black)
Baba Yaga's Hands


Scenes/Places in the Vasilisa story:
Dying Young Mother's bedroom
Hearth
The Wood/ Forest
Baba Yaga's Hut
Baba Yaga's Mortar-shaped Flying Cauldron
Home


Events in Vasilisa story:
Bequeathing of Doll from Young Mother to Vasilisa
Death of Young Mother and subsequent Grieving
Arrival of New Family
Sending out of Vasilisa to Forest
Searching for Baba Yaga
Tasks and Tests assigned to Vasilisa by Baba Yaga
     (various house-keeping tasks, plus sorting good/bad corn, and sifting poppy seeds from dirt)
Completion of Tasks and Passing of Tests by Vasilisa w/ help from Doll
Carrying Fire
Returning Home
Fire Burns up Step-Mother and Sisters


Estes' List of Tasks:
"Allowing the Too-Good Mother to Die"
"Exposing the Crude Shadow"
"Navigating in the Dark"
"Facing the Wild Hag"
"Serving the Non-Rational"
"Separating This from That"
"Asking the Mysteries"
"Standing on All Fours"
"Recasting the Shadow"

I must admit: I'm not entirely following Estes' interpretations.  I'm not convinced her assigning some things as all w/in one psyche and other things as externals is consistent or adequately explained.  I'll have to come back to this after I've read more.  To me, everything in the story should be understood as an aspect of the young psyche.  While it may be true that we find and act out externally dramas that we are sorting internally, the interpreter of the myth should be able to interpret the myth entirely in terms of the internal workings of the psyche.  And maybe Estes' is doing this and I'm just not understanding her writing.  Regardless of Estes' interpretation, I'm interested in exploring my own!

Re Vasilisa Myth and the various challenges portrayed:

First of all, this story reminds me of Cinderella.  I imagine Cinderella is a more recent variation on Vasalisa.  Or maybe the story of Cinderella is the older story?  Either way, there is at least one significant difference: Cinderella's Fairy Godmother has a very different character compared to Vasilisa's Baba Yaga!  The version of Cinderella I grew up w/ portrayed the Fairy Godmother as maybe old enough to be Cinderella's mother or a very young grandmother, but certainly not ancient, and she was very very beautiful and attractive.  In every version of Vasilisa, Baba Yaga is portrayed as an ugly, frightening, old hag!

While both have special powers, Fairy Godmother is portrayed as all-good, but Baba Yaga is a terrible mixture of good and bad, helpful and dangerous.  It's true that Fairy Godmother gives Cinderella a warning about negative consequences if she doesn't follow her instructions, which is a prominent facet of Vasilisa and Baba Yaga's relationship, but Fairy Godmother OFFERS Cinderella help and advice and gives it w/ encouragement toward success, whereas Vasilisa must seek out Baba Yaga, and Baba Yaga's instructions and warnings bear the character of tests w/ Baba Yaga seeming to cheer for Vasilisa's failure!

In both stories, the young woman has lost her mother to death.  She no longer has her mother's companionship, protection, guidance, and wisdom.  In both stories, the step-mother is unkind, offering none of a mother's blessings.  Cinderella and Vasilisa, once cherished children, become servants or slaves.  This is the opposite progression of relationship as compared to redemption stories from Jewish and Christian Scriptures.  In redemption stories, the main characters progress from a position of alienation from God toward favor w/ God, or from actual slavery to freedom, or from outcast of society to belonging in a holy family.  (Consider the stories of Ruth, Hagar, and Mary Magdalene.)

...to be continued in my next post...