The Witch and the Tsar Quotes

“Perhaps marriage was not ownership so much as choice. To choose to define each other in terms of forever, even in times of darkness, even in death. Wasn’t there a certain freedom in that? Freedom in certainty, and in love, which grounded even someone like me in the face of life’s chaos.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“A smile flickered on my lips as I ground three cloves in my mortar, to ward off hostile spirits, along with three drops of vodka to cleanse and disarm, three koliuka blossoms to hit my target, and three roots each of hawkweed and weeper grass, to subdue and frighten.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“But our gods, the ancient ones born of the Universe, had been worshipped then. While Mokosh had not spoken of it, tales say she helped to create the Earth with Perun, the Supreme God and Lord of the Heavens, and many other gods besides. Perun forged the sky with his thunderbolts; Mokosh gave birth to the land. Her spindle spun the cloth of humanity, thread by thread, woman by woman, life to death, generation after generation. She was Moist Earth, mother of all living things and my actual mother.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“Whoever came ... did so when their prayers had gone unanswered, when the mortal healers had thrown up their hands. They came in the depths of their despair.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“Once war is on men's minds, it festers within, claiming them.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“Fate was not an easy mistress to walk away from. She was always there, waiting, biding her time.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“bowed my head and whispered a little charm over Yelena: “The first mother is the Holy Mother of God; the second, Moist Mother Earth; the third, the mother who gives birth in pain. Keep our newest mother safe.” Though it spoke of new gods in addition to the old, I liked to use the charm; two mothers watching over a young mother was better than one.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“I imagined becoming lost in some spiritual plane. Would my body stay here while my mind fled, never to return? “I still want to learn,” I said eagerly despite these risks. “Then close your eyes, Yaga, and raise your arms up to the sky.” Dusha’s voice was soft and reverent. “Can you feel the cyclone of energy above you in the sky?” I raised my arms and immediately sensed a force pressing against my fingers, as if the clouds were slowly creeping toward the Earth, toward me. “Feel your body, Yaga, hollow, waiting to be filled!” chanted Dusha. “It is only with your entire being that you can tap into this place of earth magic, this spot of spiritual power. Feel the energy from the sky and draw it into your body with your arms!” I felt my heart pounding and my blood heating, then my body emptying. I allowed the energy from the sky to flow into me through my arms until a warm light burst into my every cell, my every organ, my very skin—natural energy, the magic of the earth, spiritual power. It crackled until my entire being vibrated with it, as if I had come in contact with a lightning bolt and swallowed it whole. Though I had always been attuned to nature, I had never felt it to this extent or felt such power in the earth magic. I had never known how to accept nature into my own body and harness it. Indeed, how to be aware of my body at all. Dusha was right—Mother had taught me the immortal side of earth magic, of doing without awareness, without feeling. With Dusha, I learned to listen to the natural world around me, not only to the sky, the trees, the waters, the very air, but also to myself.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“A FEW MONTHS later, all of them as cool and gray-skied as ever, in a grove of birch trees on the edge of her woodland, Dusha spoke to me. “There are places on this Earth that are sacred—hills, mountains, groves of trees like this one. They are called svetiye mesta, wells of spiritual energy where earth magic is at its strongest.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“I turned my face to the east. “Moist Mother Earth, subdue every evil and unclean being so he may not cast a spell on us nor do us any harm,” I whispered to Mother, the prayer coming out stiff and lifeless.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“The footprint reminded me of grass and trees, the green of the forest. It could point to Vodyanoy, the old Water Lord out in the rivers who dragged people underwater and enslaved rusalkas. There were the rusalkas themselves, drowned maidens turned sirens unable to let go of the Land of the Living. There were other sprites, nymphs, and spirits—the poleviki and poludnitsy of the fields and meadows, the treelike leshy, mushroom-topped lesovichki, Wild Ones, and vily fairies of the forests. But like the gods, these spirits had not been seen in a very long time and never by me.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“My usual reaction to icons was a stab of jealousy. This god was exalted, celebrated in resplendent wealth; my gods were forgotten, prayed to in shameful, guilt-ridden secrecy. He had triumphed while my gods had lost. But Our Lady of Vladimir was different. Though I was a stranger in this church, a heathen, the Lady seemed to speak to me, to convey such tender sorrow, such a depth of suffering, that I wanted to weep. I realized why the Lady was suddenly so dear to me; she reminded me of my mother.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“Fool, I almost added. Do I look like a baba? I was not a babushka, lying on my stove in the throes of advanced age and infirmity. Nor was I a hag, a demon, or an illness. Nothing about me was ill or demonic or old, except the occasional thread of silver in my wild black hair. My father may have been mortal, but Mother had been a goddess since before the Christian god had come to Russia. Because of her immortality, my body had not aged past thirty after centuries on Earth. I sent a little prayer of thanks up to her.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar

“The first mother is the Holy Mother of God; the second, Moist Mother Earth; the third, the mother who gives birth in pain. Keep our newest mother safe.”
― Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, The Witch and the Tsar