{"id":26289,"date":"2022-06-01T01:10:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T05:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/?p=26289"},"modified":"2022-06-11T12:13:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T16:13:31","slug":"exclusive-interview-with-author-madame-pamita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2022\/06\/01\/exclusive-interview-with-author-madame-pamita\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview with Author Madame Pamita"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madame Pamita Talks About Slavic Magic and Baba Yaga, the Slavic Witch of the Woods <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you follow the guidance within you, you get led to do the right things,\u201d said Madame Pamita, author of <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Baba Yaga\u2019s Book of Witchcraft: Slavic Magic from the Witch of the Woods,\u201d which was reviewed here last month<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She has, and amazing things have happened.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>My mom bought me a tarot deck when I was ten years old. She grew up in a magical household. We lived in a magical household. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Albeit<\/span><\/span><\/span>, it was Catholic magic. You go to church and you light a candle and you\u2019d make a wish or a prayer. That\u2019s candle magic. In being immersed in this magical household \u2026 divination was something people did,\u201d she said in an interview on Friday, May 13th, from her childhood home in Santa Monica, California.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She fell in love with libraries at a young age. Because information about magic was difficult to find in the 1970s, she read everything she could find about the paranormal, ESP, pyramids, mythology, ghosts, and similar topics. In junior high, she was excited to find \u201cDiary of a Witch\u201d and other books by Sybil Leek and was on her way to being one. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Pamita<\/span><\/span><\/span> began finding more and more information, and in her twenties, she studied formally with a feminist Wicca group.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked that path because it was structured,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cI\u2019m not Wiccan anymore. Your spiritual path unfolds and evolves. I see myself as part new thought\/Law of Attraction, a big part folk magic, and really an animist \u2014 seeing life force in all things \u2014 and a spiritualist \u2014 being connected to spirits rather than working with deities.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While employed as a high school librarian, she began doing tarot readings at cafes and bookstores, willing to trade or barter with clients. When she was laid off, she assumed she\u2019d find another librarian position. Instead, she was led to open a small storefront and begin doing readings full time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her first book came about when her online friend, author, card reader, educator, fellow Cancer, and editor at Weiser, Judika Illes, asked what she was writing. It was a course for love magic, and Judika suggested <\/span><\/span><\/span>Pamita<\/span><\/span><\/span> write a book, telling her to send in a proposal. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Feeling there were no tarot books that explored the potential of the cards, how to work with their energy, and use them magically, she wrote the book \u201cthat needed to exist in the world,\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span>Madame Pamita<\/i><\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>s Magical Tarot<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Just as she never expected to write, and come to love it, she said, \u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be making candles, but no one was making beeswax spell candles so I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to do it.\u2019 I learned how to make candles and I love it.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finding only candle magic books that were more like recipe books, she wrote<\/span><\/span><\/span> The Book of Candle Magic: Candle Spell Secrets to Change Your Life<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span> to teach readers how to create their own spells.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By this time, she was in a larger retail space, which, when directed by spirit, she closed, opened a factory, and transitioned to an online presence. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Madame Pamita<\/span><\/span>\u2019s Parlour of Wonders<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> is an emporium where you can book a spiritual session; purchase magical goods; and learn about witchcraft, hoodoo, tarot, and the law of attraction. There is much to explore including free guides and videos about magic, and a Spell Squad<\/a> you can join.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cSix months later, the pandemic hit,\u201d her second book was published, and she began writing <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Baba Yaga\u2019s Book of Witchcraft<\/span><\/span><\/span>.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone had told me what I had to do to write this book I would have never done it. Never! Ever! Not in a million years. It was so many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of research to compile all this information, and verify this information. It was insane,\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Pamita<\/span><\/span><\/span> said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For years she had been trying to learn more about something her Ukranian grandmother would do that involved water, wax, and healing. \u201cThat little nugget of information I carried with me like a little seed, always looking to find more information about that.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At a retreat, she became friends with Katie Karpetz, a Canadian-Ukranian woman who owned a shop called The Witchery<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe and I bonded over our shared Ukrainian heritage and I went onto her online store and saw this book called, \u201cThe Word and the Wax.\u201d It was about Ukrainian wax pouring and healing. Before discovering that book, I thought this was something that was completely lost. That was inspiration for me writing this book.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLittle did I know that it was going to be a task worthy of Baba Yaga. It was the hardest book I\u2019ve ever written, but the book I\u2019m most proud of. It was so much intense, deep, doctoral-level research. I had to look at people\u2019s theses. I had to translate things from Ukrainian to English, or Russian into English. All of this stuff was so challenging. I had tears many time. It was not easy, but I did it. I can honestly say this is the first book in English that talks about Ukrainian practices.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After seventy-two years of Soviet suppression, Ukrainians began to reclaim their traditions during the last thirty years that had either been abolished or, like Baba Yaga, co-opted. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pamita<\/span><\/span><\/span> explained, \u201cIn the old country, you had magic and Christianity and they weren\u2019t mutually exclusive. That\u2019s a creation of Americans since the 1980s. Superstitions are spiritual practices. The one that\u2019s really unique to Slavic magic \u2026 and Ukrainian magic is if you find money on the ground, you don\u2019t touch it \u2026 particularly if the money was near a crossroads or in the city near an intersection. Why? Because someone is leaving that as an offering to the spirits to get rid of a curse and if you pick up the money, you pick up the curse. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn slavic magic, we work quid pro quo with spirits. You make an offering to the spirit, and this happens in Celtic magic too, you make an offering to the fae folks, you make an offering to the spirits to appease them or to get them to look kindly upon you and help you. But it\u2019s always done with an offering. You never order the spirits around. It\u2019s not like ceremonial magic where you control spirits, it\u2019s more like we co-exist with them and they co-exist with us, and we want to honor them, appease them, or have a little trade with them.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Baba Yaga is a spirit existing long before written history. All the Slavic countries believed in the forest grandmother, who was called by various names. Warriors, children, and those wishing to learn the old ways would go to this old, powerful crone to be gifted information or a tool, or initiated into a practice. She didn\u2019t hand out certificates of participation, she challenged individuals with difficult, seemingly impossible tasks. Those who succeeded were rewarded and those who failed were punished. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Research and writing the book took about eighteen months. \u201cIt was all during Covid and I was working from home. I had someone else making candles and I was sitting for eighteen hours a day just working. It was such an amazing passion project. The remarkable thing about this, again, blessings and blessings and blessings have come from it. The timing of this, to me, was confirmation of working with a spirit. When I started this book, how would I know that Ukraine and Russia would get into a war and the book would come out right when that happened?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Teaching and empowering people is <\/span><\/span><\/span>Pamita<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2019s joy and passion.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Asked what she wanted readers to know, she said, \u201cMagic is not a religion. Magic can be a part of any spiritual practice. There are religions that emphasize magic, Wicca for one, but there\u2019s been this schism where we think magic belongs with Wicca and if you are practicing magic and you\u2019re Jewish, or you\u2019re practicing magic and you\u2019re Catholic, that you\u2019re bad or wrong. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlso important to talk about \u2026 is this idea of the closed practice and the open practice. I feel you can practice Slavic magic even if you don\u2019t have Slavic heritage, as long as you come with curiosity and <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>acknowledgment.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201d Using the <\/span><\/span><\/span>Motanka<\/span><\/span><\/span>, a powerful s<\/span><\/span><\/span>pirit <\/span><\/span><\/span>doll, as an example, she said that you don\u2019t need to be Ukrainian to make one, \u201cbut you have to acknowledge the culture and the practices it came from. Be authentic and honest and give credit where credit is due.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Currently she is making candles, working on a book Stephanie Buscema\u2019s <\/span><\/span><\/span>The Silver Acorn Tarot<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>, and co-writing a book about magic with an amazing author. She\u2019d like to be writing more about Slavic magic. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you follow the guidance within you, you get led to do the right things,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She continues to do so.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>all photos provided by <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>Chris Strother<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

**<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lynn Woike<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

thewitchonwheels.com<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

All my life I have known magic was real. As a child, I played with the fae, established relationships with trees and \u201cjust knew things.\u201d In my maiden years I discovered witchcraft and dabbled in the black-candles-and-cemeteries-at-midnight-on-a-fullmoon magick just enough to realize I did not understand its power. I went on to explore many practices including Zen, astrology, color therapy, native traditions, tarot, herbs, candle magic, gems, and, as I moved into my mother years, Buddhism, the Kabbalah and Reiki. The first man I dated after my divorce was a witch who reintroduced me to the Craft, this time by way of the Goddess. For 11 years I was in a coven, but with retirement, I have returned to an eclectic solitary practice. When accepting the mantle of crone, I pledged to serve and teach. This is what I do from my skoolie \u2013 a 30-year-old school bus converted into a tiny house on wheels that I am driving around the country, following 72-degree weather, emerging myself into nature, and sharing magic with those I meet. Find me at <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>thewitchonwheels.com<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, Facebook and Instagram.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madame Pamita Talks About Slavic Magic and Baba Yaga, the Slavic Witch of the Woods   \u201cIf you follow the guidance within you, you get led to do the right things,\u201d said Madame Pamita, author of \u201cBaba Yaga\u2019s Book of Witchcraft: Slavic Magic from the Witch of the Woods,\u201d which was reviewed here last month. She has, and amazing things have happened. \u201cMy mom bought me a tarot deck when I was ten years old. She grew up in a magical household. We lived in a magical household. Albeit, it was Catholic magic. You go to church and you light a candle and you\u2019d make a wish or a prayer. That\u2019s candle magic. In being immersed in this magical household \u2026 divination was something people did,\u201d she said in an interview on Friday, May 13th, from her childhood home in Santa Monica, California. She fell in love with libraries at a young age. Because information about magic was difficult to find in the 1970s, she read everything she could find about the paranormal, ESP, pyramids, mythology, ghosts, and similar topics. In junior high, she was excited to find \u201cDiary of a Witch\u201d and other books by Sybil Leek and was on her way to being one. Pamita began finding more and more information, and in her twenties, she studied formally with a feminist Wicca group.   \u201cI liked that path because it was structured,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cI\u2019m not Wiccan anymore. Your spiritual path unfolds and evolves. I see myself as part new thought\/Law of Attraction, a big part folk magic, and really an animist \u2014 seeing life force in all things \u2014 and a spiritualist \u2014 being connected to spirits rather than working with deities.\u201d While employed as a high school librarian, she began doing tarot readings at cafes and bookstores, willing to trade or barter with clients. When she was laid off, she assumed she\u2019d find another librarian position. Instead, she was led to open a small storefront and begin doing readings full time. Her first book came about when her online friend, author, card reader, educator, fellow Cancer, and editor at Weiser, Judika Illes, asked what she was writing. It was a course for love magic, and Judika suggested Pamita write a book, telling her to send in a proposal. Feeling there were no tarot books that explored the potential of the cards, how to work with their energy, and use them magically, she wrote the book \u201cthat needed to exist in the world,\u201d Madame Pamita\u2019s Magical Tarot. Just as she never expected to write, and come to love it, she said, \u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d be making candles, but no one was making beeswax spell candles so I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to do it.\u2019 I learned how to make candles and I love it.\u201d Finding only candle magic books that were more like recipe books, she wrote The Book of Candle Magic: Candle Spell Secrets to Change Your Life to teach readers how to create their own spells. By this time, she was in a larger retail space, which, when directed by spirit, she closed, opened a factory, and transitioned to an online presence. Madame Pamita\u2019s Parlour of Wonders is an emporium where you can book a spiritual session; purchase magical goods; and learn about witchcraft, hoodoo, tarot, and the law of attraction. There is much to explore including free guides and videos about magic, and a Spell Squad you can join.   \u201cSix months later, the pandemic hit,\u201d her second book was published, and she began writing \u201cBaba Yaga\u2019s Book of Witchcraft.\u201d \u201cIf someone had told me what I had to do to write this book I would have never done it. Never! Ever! Not in a million years. It was so many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of research to compile all this information, and verify this information. It was insane,\u201d Pamita said. For years she had been trying to learn more about something her Ukranian grandmother would do that involved water, wax, and healing. \u201cThat little nugget of information I carried with me like a little seed, always looking to find more information about that.\u201d At a retreat, she became friends with Katie Karpetz, a Canadian-Ukranian woman who owned a shop called The Witchery. \u201cShe and I bonded over our shared Ukrainian heritage and I went onto her online store and saw this book called, \u201cThe Word and the Wax.\u201d It was about Ukrainian wax pouring and healing. Before discovering that book, I thought this was something that was completely lost. That was inspiration for me writing this book. \u201cLittle did I know that it was going to be a task worthy of Baba Yaga. It was the hardest book I\u2019ve ever written, but the book I\u2019m most proud of. It was so much intense, deep, doctoral-level research. I had to look at people\u2019s theses. I had to translate things from Ukrainian to English, or Russian into English. All of this stuff was so challenging. I had tears many time. It was not easy, but I did it. I can honestly say this is the first book in English that talks about Ukrainian practices.\u201d After seventy-two years of Soviet suppression, Ukrainians began to reclaim their traditions during the last thirty years that had either been abolished or, like Baba Yaga, co-opted. Pamita explained, \u201cIn the old country, you had magic and Christianity and they weren\u2019t mutually exclusive. That\u2019s a creation of Americans since the 1980s. Superstitions are spiritual practices. The one that\u2019s really unique to Slavic magic \u2026 and Ukrainian magic is if you find money on the ground, you don\u2019t touch it \u2026 particularly if the money was near a crossroads or in the city near an intersection. Why? Because someone is leaving that as an offering to the spirits to get rid of a curse and if you pick up the money, you pick up the curse. \u201cIn slavic magic, we work quid pro quo with spirits. You make an offering to the spirit, and this happens in Celtic magic too, you make an offering to the fae folks, you make an offering to the spirits to appease them or to get them to look kindly upon you and help you. But it\u2019s always done with an offering. You never order the spirits around. It\u2019s not like ceremonial magic where you control spirits, it\u2019s more like we co-exist with them and they co-exist with us, and we want to honor them, appease them, or have a little trade with them.\u201d Baba Yaga is a spirit existing long before written history. All the Slavic countries believed in the forest grandmother, who was called by various names. Warriors, children, and those wishing to learn the old ways would go to this old, powerful crone to be gifted information or a tool, or initiated into a practice. She didn\u2019t hand out certificates of participation, she challenged individuals with difficult, seemingly impossible tasks. Those who succeeded were rewarded and those who failed were punished. Research and writing the book took about eighteen months. \u201cIt was all during Covid and I was working from home. I had someone else making candles and I was sitting for eighteen hours a day just working. It was such an amazing passion project. The remarkable thing about this, again, blessings and blessings and blessings have come from it. The timing of this, to me, was confirmation of working with a spirit. When I started this book, how would I know that Ukraine and Russia would get into a war and the book would come out right when that happened?\u201d Teaching and empowering people is Pamita\u2019s joy and passion.   Asked what she wanted readers to know, she said, \u201cMagic is not a religion. Magic can be a part of any spiritual practice. There are religions that emphasize magic, Wicca for one, but there\u2019s been this schism where we think magic belongs with Wicca and if you are practicing magic and you\u2019re Jewish, or you\u2019re practicing magic and you\u2019re Catholic, that you\u2019re bad or wrong. \u201cAlso important to talk about \u2026 is this idea of the closed practice and the open practice. I feel you can practice Slavic magic even if you don\u2019t have Slavic heritage, as long as you come with curiosity and acknowledgment.\u201d Using the Motanka, a powerful spirit doll, as an example, she said that you don\u2019t need to be Ukrainian to make one, \u201cbut you have to acknowledge the culture and the practices it came from. Be authentic and honest and give credit where credit is due.\u201d   Currently she is making candles, working on a book Stephanie Buscema\u2019s The Silver Acorn Tarot, and co-writing a book about magic with an amazing author. She\u2019d like to be writing more about Slavic magic. \u201cIf you follow the guidance within you, you get led to do the right things,\u201d she said. She continues to do so.   *all photos provided by Chris Strother   ** About the Author: Lynn Woike thewitchonwheels.com All my life I have known magic was real. As a child, I played with the fae, established relationships with trees and \u201cjust knew things.\u201d In my maiden years I discovered witchcraft and dabbled in the black-candles-and-cemeteries-at-midnight-on-a-fullmoon magick just enough to realize I did not understand its power. I went on to explore many practices including Zen, astrology, color therapy, native traditions, tarot, herbs, candle magic, gems, and, as I moved into my mother years, Buddhism, the Kabbalah and Reiki. The first man I dated after my divorce was a witch who reintroduced me to the Craft, this time by way of the Goddess. For 11 years I was in a coven, but with retirement, I have returned to an eclectic solitary practice. When accepting the mantle of crone, I pledged to serve and teach. This is what I do from my skoolie \u2013 a 30-year-old school bus converted into a tiny house on wheels that I am driving around the country, following 72-degree weather, emerging myself into nature, and sharing magic with those I meet. Find me at thewitchonwheels.com, Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10004,10005],"tags":[10346,13662,13810,10057,13812,10322,12955,13813,10075,13815,10399,10872,13811,13814,12790,10204,13698],"class_list":["post-26289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monthly-columns","category-reviews","tag-author","tag-baba-yaga","tag-baba-yagas-book-of-witchcraft","tag-books","tag-candle-magic","tag-interview","tag-madame-pamita","tag-madame-pamitas-parlour-of-wonders","tag-review","tag-russia","tag-shop","tag-slavic","tag-slavic-magic-from-the-witch-of-the-woods","tag-spell-squad","tag-store","tag-tarot","tag-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26289"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26292,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26289\/revisions\/26292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}