The Snake Lair

VVitches live here. Zmiyina. Ukrainian artist. 30.

[zmiyinaart]

The Snake Lair 𓆗

Zmiyina. 30. Ukrainian.

Digital artist. My main blog is @zmiyina.

Ask box and commissions are open, message me for details.

This is a side blog.

[zmiyinaart]

Faith

A fire priestess - heavily inspired by the Scythian costume.

One of the chief gods of the Scythians was Tapiti, compared to Hestia. Today her name still lives in the words like teplyi (warm) and topyty (to melt/drown).

[zmiyinaart]

The Keeper of the Apples of Youth

Idunn has been on my mind the past couple of days. Ended up with a bit of a Slavic and Norse syncretic imagery situation.

[zmiyinaart]

A Demon of Noontime

A Poludnytsia is a spirit in Slavic folk belief, the embodiment of noon heat and heatstroke. In order to avoid her attacks, it was seen as best practice to avoid field work at the height of day.

I was so tired,to be honest, but the current weather conditions oblige to follow through with this suggestion. Hopefully the Lady is appeased and shall be merciful to us all, phew.

[zmiyinaart]

An art therapy session to regulate myself after the week.

[zmiyinaart]

The Underground

A Ukrainian folk story tells of a young girl who finds her way into an underground serpentine kingdom, the chambers of the Queen of Snakes. There she observes the snakes lick a magic stone to satisfy their hunger, and after some time does the same, gaining the ability to understand the language of animals and plants.

[zmiyinaart]

A Demon of Noontime

A Poludnytsia is a spirit in Slavic folk belief, the embodiment of noon heat and heatstroke. In order to avoid her attacks, it was seen as best practice to avoid field work at the height of day.

I was so tired,to be honest, but the current weather conditions oblige to follow through with this suggestion. Hopefully the Lady is appeased and shall be merciful to us all, phew.

[zmiyina]

Mokosh, the Crone

We sometimes fall into the trap of keeping our gods pretty, conventionally attractive. But Mokosh is not only a buxom young woman in a vast field - she is old as earth, disheveled and aged Friday, the Back Madonna, the Harvester, and a strict teacher.

[zmiyina]

Autumn is the vampire lady appreciation season, I do not make the rules🍷

[zmiyinaart]

Inanna and the Huluppu Tree

Absolutely unacceptable.

[vyvilha]

speaking on chornobyl, the word chornobyl, lit. "black-weed", is one of ukrainian folk names for wormwood. there is a legend about wormwood, described in vasyl tovstyi's book "legends and myths of ukraine". in this legend, a girl got lost in the forest and fell into a cave with vipers, who didn't eat anything, but when they got hungry they licked a stone. so when the girl got hungry herself, she licked the serpent's stone too, and from now on she understood the language of herbs and beasts. and so she lived in the cave until spring, and when the spring came, it was time for the serpents to leave the underearth and into the human world, and so the cave opened and stairs appeared, and the girl could leave. but the serpent tsarytsia told her: "you now know the language of beasts and herbs, but never say the word "wormwood" (chornobyl), or you will forget all this in an instant". the girl was excited to return home and ran to her village, but then, a voice came from behind her, and asked: "what is this herb, with the leaves all black?" and the girl, lost in her longing for home, answered: "chornobyl". and so all her knowledge was lost. this is why, the legend says, chornobyl is also called "zabudka" or "zabudiok" (forget-weed).

[zmiyinaart]

At the shrine of Veles

A pilgrimage at the height of summer.

[zmiyinaart]

The Underground

A Ukrainian folk story tells of a young girl who finds her way into an underground serpentine kingdom, the chambers of the Queen of Snakes. There she observes the snakes lick a magic stone to satisfy their hunger, and after some time does the same, gaining the ability to understand the language of animals and plants.

[zmiyina]

MAkosh-MAter-MAtrix

Mother Mokosh, the Morning Star Cow, and copper apples (the imagery courtesy of the spirits, execution mine).

If you are one of my very special friends, you know what you did.

[zmiyinaart]

At the shrine of Veles

A pilgrimage at the height of summer.

[zmiyinaart]

The witching tree

In every lifetime and in every realm.

[zmiyina]

Mokosh, the Crone

We sometimes fall into the trap of keeping our gods pretty, conventionally attractive. But Mokosh is not only a buxom young woman in a vast field - she is old as earth, disheveled and aged Friday, the Back Madonna, the Harvester, and a strict teacher.