Baba Yaga’s Apprentice

Baba Yaga’s Apprentice:
A Faerie Tale Ritual

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If ever we needed ways to stay focused and whole, and experience some gentleness, this is the time.

Baba Yaga’s Apprentice is my gentle enchantment that creates focus and wholeness. I believe this magic is all the more powerful and effective for its gentleness.

This storybook is for grown-ups . . . but the sort of adults who remain, or want to remain, childlike at heart.

This book’s format: PDF.
List price: $25
Price: $19.99

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The tale is my revisioning of Baba Yaga folklore.

As the book’s story proceeds, a ritual simultaneously unfolds for the reader.

Here’s one of the illustrations:SampleILLstrtn

Baba Yaga’s Apprentice is fun, easy reading.

Along with being a Faerie tale and a gentle ritual, this book is also a work of art for you. Trying to evoke the embellishments in old Faerie tale books and add a layer of enchantment to the magical foundation I’d spun with the text, I ornamented every page with my original full color art. Most of the art is my spin on Poland’s folk art.

I have felt immense mojo on the project; I wanted this spell to happen so much.

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From the preface:

“The spell is very easy to do. You don’t even have to “do” it. The sheer reading of the Faerie tale to oneself, just for fun, even silently, and enjoying my paintings, is all it takes for the spell to work.”

“The storybook’s magical current helps you:
* Focus on what’s important to you.
* Follow through on it.
* Stay centered in your power and your love.
* Protect your dear heart from being hurt or blocked.
* Feed your witchy soul.

“The ritual also supports you if you are introverted, empathic, exceptionally magical, or sensitive psychically.

“And when you are fearful or nervous, this is a good tale for you.”

The book is 7000 words and 46 pages.

Here’s another sample, a text frame I painted:
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This volume was created with my sincerest hope that the gentle love and hope with which the Muse infused the pages will sustain and empower you … over and over.

Available only from the author.

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33 thoughts on “Baba Yaga’s Apprentice

  1. Francesca hello.

     My energy shifted quickly as I read Baba Yaga’s Apprentice. Your artwork is mesmerizing and so beautiful. It led me back to my heart. And with love. A lot of it. I’d stop reading and walk outside to one of my many projects and pick up something and the energy started to flow again.  Then I would come back inside and continue to read, to say the prayers, read more, and go back outside again, to my shed full of unfinished projects. I moved things around, the energy shifted and greeted everything as love. Your colors and embellishing lines go straight to a place where  I can only feel what you’re saying. Wow. And, also, what I realized is how much I love colors. Thank you for showing the prayers. The words, the meanings , the colors, the symbolism, all opened my heart.

     

    • Oh my goodness, Mary, you make me so happy. I live in a world that is magical, and I’m thrilled when I get to share it. Most people do not spot what I’m sharing, so when someone does, it makes me feel such companionship, as well as joy that I’m able to serve them.

      What a gift you give me to tell me that the book brought you love and helped energy flow again.

      I am utterly pleased to meet you and hope we can share more magic.

  2. I am definitely getting this book! After reading the reviews it is exactly what I have been needing in my life presently..A delightful read with magic and ritual to a waken and bring to life ones inner child and hold her heart open for a beautiful journey.

  3. Dear Francesca!
    Wowza. I just finished reading Baba Yaga. It felt like it was written just for me. ❤️ Although I’ve had this book for a while it’s the first time I’ve read it all the way through. Thank you.

  4. I just finished reading Baba Yaga’s Apprentice, which I bought from you last month, it’s helping to keep my spirit refreshed! Thank you Francesca, for all your work on behalf of us sensitive, empathic souls out here 🙂

  5. Baba Yaga’s Apprentice is a magical fairy/faerie tale told by master story teller Francesca De Grandis, beautifully illustrated by Francesca herself. This is an uplifting tale that transports the reader into a world of enchantment. A spirit of love and imagination speaks quietly from each page that cannot fail to touch the reader’s heart.

    • Michael, your praise both humbles me and makes me grateful.

      Humbles because you are so giving in what you wrote.

      Makes me grateful because, despite the current world of noisy flash, you heard my quiet voice. Bless you.

      In gratitude.

  6. Reading Baba Yaga’s Apprentice was a wonderful experience/ritual that allowed for me to more accurately navigate and acclimate to the changes that were occuring in my life. It is a wonderful way to connect with what is classicaly labelled as the darker aspects of the Divine Feminine and allow for a more holistic view of the Goddess. Thank you for creating this book! I greatly appreciate it, you, and the love that is so obviously engrained in each word ❤

    • Rabbit, I appreciate YOU, your beautifully articulated understanding of what I was attempting in this book, and your supportive feedback. I’m delighted to know that the book was helpful. Tu!

  7. Pingback: Baba Yaga's Apprentice | Dreams of Ýdalir

  8. Hi, I purchased Baba Yaga’s Faerie Tale the other day – I was curious about a ritual you only had to read but still skeptical – but since it was written by you I figured it had promise but I wasn’t sure what to expect… As I was reading it I was like ok, how is she in my head – how is this so completely about my life… especially two very challenging areas I’ve been (mostly mentally) dealing with. I’ve had one of those situations brewing for 7 months and I didn’t know why … I was terrified … anyway the day after reading the tale, I finally solved the problem – I had spent so many months constantly worrying and making the situation far worse in my head to the point it was starting to physically effect me too – To have all of that lifted in 5 minutes was amazing….

    I also loved the artwork – the Vardos so spoke to me – it has always been a dream of mine to have a tiny little Vardo or hut just to have a space of my own – even if it is just in my backyard lol.

    Anyway, thank you again, for the Faerie Tale and also for being accessible. I’ve been a new age/occult/magic/witchcraft etc… solitary student for 25+ years, and you truly are one of the Masters, and I think it amazing that its possible to actually reach out to you and you will answer. Thank you again for all that you do.

    • Jessica, thank you for such support and kindness in your comments!!

      Plus, I really appreciate you for having enough trust in me to try the book.

      I suspect some people don’t buy my books or enroll in one of my events because they just seem too good to be true, lol. So your trust means a lot to me. (I’d probably make more money if I told folks I wasn’t great at my work, lol.)

      And so glad the book was able to help! Delighted for you!

      I believe in the fairytale I wrote, so I’ll take some credit, but ultimately the credit is yours. No amount of help matters unless you take action, and you did. You resolved a seven-month problem. Rock on!

      As to being accessible, for what it’s worth: after my first best-seller, folks in publishing were shocked that my contact information is public. But doing otherwise is elitist. I cannot serve community if I’m supporting an elitist system.

      Mind you, public contact information has risks. A lot of dangerous people try to intrude on bestselling authors. But, if I live my life based in fear, I cannot serve community.

      I can protect myself without isolating myself in fear. I maintain boundaries needed for my privacy and well-being.

      And now I will get down from my soapbox except to add one thing: I’m so glad I know that privacy and boundaries are not synonymous with isolation. Otherwise, I’d never get to meet new people and experience their wonderful energy, like yours. Thanks for many many kind words.

  9. I have all of Francesca’s books, and I was so excited to see another one coming out. I love her writing, and so will you! “Baba Yaga’s Apprentice” has some of my very favorite illustrations she’s ever done, too. Francesca is the kind of teacher who gently guides you rather than plonks down a series of rules and restrictions, which allows her works to unfold a bit at a time for each individual. I’ve come back again and again to her work and always found something new. This is something you won’t just read once and set aside.

  10. What a great book!!

    The art is so luscious and creates a visual weave for this story spell to live within.

    I was tickled by the storytelling and totally felt inspired and invigorated in my heart.

    Thank you Francesca for your wondrous words!

    • Jenelle, when a working artist such as yourself likes my art, it feels so good. I almost can’t believe it. Thanks as always for your support. I’m so glad the book touched your beautiful heart.

  11. The world Francesca creates with her words and images is a place I would love to inhabit! Luckily, her book is also a road map to that place, so that we may all live it every day.

  12. Pingback: Baba Yaga’s Apprentice—A Faerie Tale Ritual – Dreams of Ýdalir

  13. Blessed Francesca, every day, I’m going to open the book you made and give myself the wonderment of a single page, just being with it, open, quiet … and let it do that marvelous thing you do: create a space for magic to happen.

    I wish I could put words to the magic your writing and painting create, but it’s untranslatable. I make myself present, in whatever state I may be in, no requirements of being at my “best”! … and then just open to whatever comes next. You’ve made a safe place where that is possible.

    You conjure a wonderfully VITAL experience: a desperately needed, wider sense and experience of reality.

    Such a richness immediately touched me, the colors and shapes. I love you so much and honor your gifts and most of all your heart and your spirit beyond my power to say. Thank you!

    • Rebecca, thank you, thank you!

      You are so eloquent, even if your words weren’t so kind, I’d love reading them.

      And your review repeatedly hits the core of what I try to do as a shamanic guide. Wow!

      Your feedback is valuable to me. Your saying that what you get from the book is beyond words shows me you see what I’m trying to do and that I succeeded: though I use my words and my paintings in this book to explain shamanic truths, I also tried to use words and art as a doorway through which a reader can walk into the wordlessness of deep magics.

      And yes yes yes “creating a space for magic to happen,” that sums up a core aspect of how I guide. All beings are so special that, given a safe space for their magic to emerge and for them to connect to the magic around them, most people soar.

      I’m happy you’re letting yourself come to the book in whatever state you’re in. That too is core to my work and something I passionately want us all to know about ourselves: we are each fabulous just as we are. As a matter fact, wait till you see what the character in the book learns about allowing herself to be exactly who she is.

      And yes yes yes “a wider sense and experience of reality.” You are so eloquent.

      Thank you again!!!

  14. This is a wonderful story with beautiful illustrations. I devoured the book in one sitting. Every book I read of yours I always have an “ah ha!” moment while reading it, this one was no exception. I cant wait to read it again because I know I will have a different “ah ha!” moment when I do, your books always give me what I need when I need them.

    • Thank you so much, Brianne! May you have many wonderful aha moments, every time you read this book. (Judging from her comment, Brianne clearly knows the following, but for anybody else reading this comment: the book can be read again and again, to continue to nurture you.) I feel blessed by your saying my books give you what you need right at the moment. It makes me feel like we are in the Goddess’ flow of beauty and grace. Love and big gratitude, FDG

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