MASLENITSA

Very soon (February 16 - 22), Maslenitsa will be celebrated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and some other Slavic countries!

Maslenitsa is one of the most vibrant and archaic holidays in Russian folk tradition, deeply rooted in pre-Christian symbolism that was later reinterpreted within the Orthodox calendar. It is much more than just a "pancake week"; it's a complex ritual cycle connected to seeing off winter, welcoming spring, commemorating ancestors, and ensuring a future harvest.

This was not just a dressed-up doll but an anthropomorphic image of the holiday, Winter, and death itself. It was created, honored (paraded, "fed" blini), and then ritually killed—burned, drowned, torn apart. This rite aimed not just to "see off winter" but to ensure the rebirth of life through sacrifice, echoing ancient rituals of a dying and resurrecting deity.

Each day of Maslenitsa week had a specific name and strict ritual purpose:

· Monday – "Meeting" (Vstrecha): People built snow hills and forts, dressed up a Maslenitsa effigy (the embodiment of Winter/the holiday itself), and paraded it on a sleigh around the village. Baking of blini began.

· Tuesday – "Flirting" (Zaigrysh): Festivities started in earnest. Young people went sledding, men flirted with girls looking for brides, and merry play-acting took place.

· Wednesday – "Sweet Tooth" (Lakomka): Sons-in-law visited their mothers-in-law for blini. The mother-in-law's pancakes were a folklore symbol of special feast and hospitality.

· Thursday – "Revelry" (Razgul, "Wide Thursday"): The peak of public festivities. This included the "Capture of the Snow Fortress" (a symbolic battle of Winter vs. Spring), fistfights "wall against wall" (a ritual fight to "awaken" the earth's force), and horse-drawn sleigh rides ("combing" the earth to make it fertile). All restrictions were lifted; ritual chaos reigned.

· Friday – "Mother-in-Law's Evening" (Tёshchiny vecherki): Now the son-in-law had to invite his mother-in-law to his home, demonstrating reciprocal respect.

· Saturday – "Sister-in-Law's Gatherings" (Zolovkiny posidelki): The young wife invited her husband's relatives, especially his sisters, strengthening family bonds.

· Sunday – "Forgiveness Sunday" (Proshchenoe Voskresen'e), the Farewell to Maslenitsa: The most important day in terms of folk magic. People asked each other for forgiveness to enter Lent with a pure heart. The climax: The burning (or sometimes tearing apart and scattering across fields) of the Maslenitsa effigy. Its ashes were often spread on fields—a classic ritual of "returning" the symbol's power to the earth for fertility. Old junk was sometimes burned too, symbolizing the disposal of the old.

Maslenitsa doll.

☾Past life regression☽

Hi there! My name is Anastasia, and I am a past life hypnotherapist.

In this post, I’ll share a story from a regression hypnosis session with my client — I hope it will be helpful and insightful for you. ✨

Regression hypnosis is a therapeutic technique that guides a person into a deep state of relaxation or trance to access memories from the past — sometimes from childhood, past lives, ancestral lives (where a person connects with the experiences ancestors), spiritual realms or even between-lives realms.

It helps uncover hidden emotions, patterns, or experiences that influence a person’s current behavior, relationships, or well-being.

A case from a regression hypnosis session:

How often do you ask yourself — how deeply do I love myself?

Do you love yourself for beauty, for success, for praise or validation of your worth 🥇, or simply because you exist?

The case itself:

“I found myself in an incredible temple with a garden — a reflection of my own soul. In the middle of the garden stood a stone statue of a young man holding a mirror. He was so beautiful… But then I was told that my heart was as stone-cold as this statue.” (At this moment, she began to cry.)

Then she was taken to a past life — as a young boy living in England. His family was very wealthy, he lived in luxury but felt utterly lonely and unwanted. His father would call him worthless and hit his fingers when he played wrong notes on the piano. His only friends were the family’s dog and the gardener.

One day, he overheard his parents saying they regretted having a son like him. The feeling of loneliness became unbearable — and a very dark entity appeared. It made a contract with his soul, promising that he would never be alone again.(“You’ll never be alone… because I’ll always be with you.” 🫠)

But in truth, the entity made his heart so hardened that he stopped caring for anyone but himself. His only value became his beauty — the thing others admired.

What happened at that moment?

Her soul’s main lesson in that incarnation was to love herself, to seek that love within — and not close her heart despite the pain. ❤️‍🩹 But by closing his heart, she turned away from God, forgetting that divine love was already within her.

During the session, we were able to break that old contract that still affected her life — and return to her the love for herself and an open heart.

“I’m back in that garden,” she said. “The young man came to life, and the mirror turned to dust.” He smiled and said, ‘I know my worth — even without it.’

Can you imagine how vital it is to love yourself simply for being?

Self-love is a return to light, to the Source, to the Creator from whom we all came.

It’s not hard to find — you just need to look within. 🧿

I’m currently open for a few online hypnosis sessions — DM me for details!