Marija Gimbutas

all

across europe in megalithic sites uh sometimes they're they're not flat which most of the ones we find in southeast turkey are they're not flat ground or flat top pillars In other countries, you find them on sides of things, angles, carved out, and you're like, what the hell? But in tradition, according to JJ's research, I mean, she's been following the work of Maria Gimbutas and the goddess traditions.

They're often revered as like receptacles of the goddess, where water, sacred water, would be collected overnight, often dew water or rainwater sometimes.

And then used in healing and ceremony rituals and things like this.

And it's like, well, what's that all about? Why are they there in that particular spot, you know, there and at Karahan Tepe? So there's something significant about them.

But, you know, we're kind of just clutching at straws, trying to look at other old traditions to get an answer.

And I think the Maria Gimbutas and JJ's it makes a lot more sense than anything so far.

Have you, what about, have you, have you found anything with like nubs?

Attempts to connect Baba Yaga to pre-Christian tradition then have to make educated guesses from the material that we have.

The archeologist Marija Gimbutas went as far as describing her as an ancient Slavic goddess of death and regeneration.

In Gimbutas' interpretation, death and renewal were part of the same cycle, so a goddess could be connected with both.

That would explain why Baba Yaga can threaten to eat someone in one tale and give a hero the fire, horse, or knowledge they need in another.

... which is when I met Jennifer Beresand, amazing sister, originally from Calgary, a musician, and she does these sacred journeys to Malta every year.

With Joan Marler, who is the protege of Maria Gimbutas.

Joan Marler has Maria's library.

Wow.

And would spend a week and do a retreat.

And Starhawk, Vicki Noble.

I had this dream once that I was gonna be sitting at a table, and we were all together, and I thought we were having tea, but when it really actually happened, I went to a gathering in San Francisco to celebrate Maria Gimbutas.

She had died, and this was a celebration of her work.

There's this great interview.

It's part of Signs Out of Time, which is the movie that Starhawk and Donna Reed made about Maria Gimbutas, the archaeologist Maria Gimbutas, or anthropologist.

And Maria says in the interview that her first experience with anthropology was collecting folk music.

And she went all over Lithuania, which was her birthplace, collecting ancient songs.