Category: Inspiration

Seems every time I try to write this 3rd part, I’m getting interrupted…

Now having spent 2 years on studying various witches, from Greek and Scandinavian mythology, through fairy tales throughout Europe, and into Russian folklore, I had thought I had covered it all.

Little did I know, the Teotihuacan, Navajo, and Pueblo had a witch of their own…

Spider Woman

I had actually put the whole witch idea on the backburner. Having in my mind this idea to bring something new to the world of Halloween, and spiders.

Disappointed that no one could see my webs from last year in the dark, I was determined to remedy that situation at some point in the future. And, what better way than making them the focus? But, as with everything, I couldn’t just go about COPYING the normal ways to do this.

I had been formulating designs when something on TV caught my attention.

Monster Quest is a SUPERB series. They find some cryptid critters to research that I haven’t heard of before on occasion (quite a feat, actually). But, one morning, I saw they were going to do a show on Giant Spiders.

Who knows, maybe they’ll find something I can use, I thought. So, I recorded it and forgot about it as I went about my chores. A few days later, with nothing on to watch, I saw it in my recorded list.

The show started in the typical over dramatic fashion: “From the dawn of time, man has told stories of giant spiders.” Yeah, yeah, blah, blah…it lists a bunch of creatures “…and the Navajo had the Spider Woman”.

Wait, What?

Rewinding, I had heard correctly. And there on the screen was a picture so remarkably similar to Yaga Baba. Wild hair, red cloths, carrying away a child.

It struck me instantly. I had to research this.

Spider Woman

To the Pueblo, she was the goddess of weaving and creation. As she thought of stories, they came into being. In fact, she is thinking of this story now, and I am telling you what she is thinking…The threads of her stories connected us all together in this story that is life.

From Halloween buildup 09

To the Teotihuacan, she was the goddess of Darkness, the Underworld, and war, shown with spiders on her body, hair, and servants with shields made of spiderwebs. Keeping company with the Jaguar and Owl in addition to spiders. She guarded the portal to usher the honored dead into the underworld.

From Halloween buildup 09

One might find objection at the suggestion this goddess was a witch. Yet, at the end of the day, here we are seeing the story of the Norn retold. A woman weaving the threads of destiny, both at birth, and at death…

It was the Navajo who pulled everything together for me.

The Navajo Spider woman is surely something special.

Playing roles in creation, and the formation of society, her influence is everywhere. Yet, not satisfied with just weaving the threads of fate, the Navajo Spider Woman takes on the aspects of Yaga Baba in the stories.

As with Yaga Baba, Spider Woman will often eat her victims. While Yaga Baba is typically partial to cooking them, Spider Woman, as the name suggests, simply drinks the blood.

Yaga Baba lives in a mysterious house that only opens when a password is spoken. Similarly, Spider Woman’s den has a door whose door will enlarge or shrink to allow passage when a password is spoken.

Yaga Baba chooses to decorate with the bones of those she’s eaten in the form of a fence. Spider Woman decorates her walls with the leftover bones of those she has eaten.

Yet, as clearly DANGEROUS as these characters are, the heroes and heroines of the stories always survive by being virtuous, courteous, and kind to Yaga Baba/Spider Woman and/or her servants that they end up HELPING.

From hiding children away, to consuming enemies, Spider Woman comes with a rich tapestry of lore that re-affirms my views that all these stories are connected. And, all these witches are connected. In Europe, we had the Norn. In Russia, Yaga Baba. In the Americas, we had Spider Woman.

THIS is the witch of witches…

The challenge now is to bring her to life.

My journeys through the Norn folklore had left me wanting something more. Something that had several connecting visual keys I could tap.

The Bone Mother

I first came across Yaga Baba as an unnamed witch reading through the old Brothers Grimm stories as a child. (Think Hanzel and Grettle for you unfamiliar with her)

But, my re-awakening to the idea came while contemplating this whole witch ‘problem’ one night, with the kids finding Miyazaki’s Spirited Away on the TV somewhere. Sure, I had seen it before, but never in that mindset. And, it was followed by Howl’s Moving Castle. I knew then and there, these were the kinds of witches I wanted. Not “evil”, per se. Back to the OLDE way of looking at this things. Not Evil, just…DANGEROUS.

Going back to my favorite musical, Into the Woods, as the Witch says. “I’m not good, I’m not nice, I’m just RIGHT. I’m the witch”

And, a little research into Miyazaki’s inspirations led me to Yaga Baba.

From Halloween buildup 09

HERE was a Witch I could get behind. The further I dug, the more I enjoyed her.

Also known as the BONE MOTHER. She lived in a moving house in the deep forest. A fence made from human bones surrounded the house, and was lit by human skulls. Stories had her eating children. Cooking them in her giant oven (hmm, hanzel and grettle?). Others had her meeting with her 2 sisters, also named Yaga Baba so as to confuse you when more intense assistance was required in a story. (Hmm, here we see the Norn/fates being depicted…)

Assisted by disembodied hands, a couple of spirit riders, and various creatures, there were MORE than enough visual cues to make this into a haunt.

I had it all worked into a story for the yard. All witch stories were just one or more of these sisters. There being three, they wandered, perhaps for that one night, one of them settled here in my yard…

I had gone so far as to making some tests of a concept for the human skull lighting. Basing my design on some of the drawings of them…

From Halloween buildup 09

I had a test set up of these skulls in the dark…

The problem became, I REALLY wanted this to be the PRIMARY source of lighting, these skulls to stay as true as possible to the mythos. But, it’s much too dim, even when I put bright bulbs in the skulls. I was stumped.

Then, I had a revolutionary idea. These stories were OLD. VERY OLD. And, the written accounts don’t really specify HOW these skulls lit up…

Perhaps this witch was merely using them as candle holders…

From Halloween buildup 09

From Halloween buildup 09

A CLASSIC visual of bad things, it certainly fits.

But, there was no way I was going to be able to complete THIS whole idea in time. Moving castles and disembodied servants were going to take some time. Plus, there was this OTHER idea I REALLY wanted to give a go, so I had more or less shelved the concept.

Little did I know, there was a witch left untapped. One with the power to tie this all together with my other idea, AND the existing yard all at once…

Witches.

The word just oozes Halloween.

For a long time, I actually wanted to avoid anything even resembling a witch. Too NORMAL, too BORING.

Say ‘Witch’, and it conjures images of a green faced hag standing over a cauldron tossing in eye of newt to come up with some spell that’ll consume children’s souls.

Thank you Wizard of Oz…

More than a year ago, however, I came across a barrel alongside the road. Fallen off of some passing truck. A roughly 80 gallon plastic barrel (it lists liters on the side). It just screamed ‘turn me into a cauldron!’

Now, sure, I could have a cauldron for our setup to cook some cannibal stew. But, one can’t look at a cauldron and not think of “witch”. In fact, I even presented a (boring and conventional) witch theme as an option for the school fundraiser.

But, if I was going to even THINK of doing witches for our yard, it was SURE going to be something DIFFERENT.

The Norn

The first thing in my mind came the Graeae.

The gray witches of Greek Mythology. Most notably, the story of Perseus, who stole their shared eye to ransom it for knowledge. Depicted in Clash of the Titans quite remarkably.

Cave full of bones, put with cannibal stew boiling, 3 witches closing in.

Or, better yet, drawing from MacBeth.

Specifically, Orson Wells version…

From Halloween buildup 09

But, in reading up on this, I came across the Norn.

Here we were presented with many witches. Arriving at childbirth to set the fate of the child. They were both malevolent and benevolent. Their arrival ended the bliss of the gods, yet at the same time, they watch over man.

Daughters of gods, elves, Jotun, and man. They are argued to play the role both of selecting the fate at birth, and of the role of the valkyries, selecting the honored dead.

From Halloween buildup 09

So, the original plan was going with a Norn/Fate/MacBeth style scene. Problem being, it was fairly small in nature, so it wouldn’t fill my entire needs, and it didn’t really fit in with my other stuff anywhere.

So, I kept searching…