Honoring my creative lineage: Berehynia

This month, I will write a series of vignettes and poems honoring my creative lineage, which includes the people and forces that have shaped me, prayed for me and dreamed me into being, so that I may walk my own empowered path guided by them and the gifts they shared with me. 

Berehynia - The Great Goddess 

Berehynia (also Bohynia) is the Ancient Mother Goddess who is believed to be source of life and death in Ukrainian mythology. 

She is celebrated as the life giving mother, the creator of heaven and all living things, and the mistress of heavenly water (rain), upon which the world relies for fertility and fruitfulness. On the other hand, she was also thought to rule destiny. 

Symbolism is very important to Ukrainians. It is how we connect the Divine to the every day. 

Berehynia has many depictions. In Pysanky or the painting of magic eggs, a Ukrainian folk art that has been handing down from generation to generation, Berehynia is portrayed with arms raised, always in pairs of 2. 

She is also seen as the tree of life. 

Similarly, she is seen as a plant or “vazon” with roots firmly planted in the pot. 

In many traditional folk art, you can recognize the vazom motif.

Only recently, with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, did I learn that Berehynia stands at the gates of Kyiv, the city where I was born. In modern times, Berehynia is believed to be the protector of the home and the hearth.

Last year, as a way to cope with the trauma that I was witnessing in the news and social media, I started to connect to Ancient Mother for my own protection and sanity. I painted her everywhere I could: on canvas, rocks and ornaments and prayed to her for guidance and healing of the Ukrainian people, animals and land.

To me, she is the emblem of what it means to be Ukrainian, rooted firmly in the earth and reaching out her arms in delight and awe for life. Standing tall and proud, she is the symbol of the protective mother who does not let the hearth or hope die out.

Thank you, Berehynia, for holding me through the toughest moments of my life, for reminding me that there is more strength and courage in me that I knew was possible and for being the expression of abundance, joy and creativity midst darkness and uncertainty.