It was a moment that John Beckett rightly called Witchcraft at its finest: A Ukrainian woman confronted a Russian soldier and offered him sunflower seeds to put in his pockets, “so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.”
People worldwide have responded to the video with awe and admiration, and I have quite a few friends currently planting sunflowers out of solidarity. It was an amazing example of Ukrainian resilience in the face of a relentless enemy.
But it was also a curse. As the woman herself said, “From this moment, you are cursed.” And it was a highly effective curse at that.
The sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower, so the implication of the curse is clear: The blood of the Russian invaders will feed the soil and strengthen the country. I’ve seen some negative reactions to the sentiment, along the lines of, “Well, I wouldn’t wish death on anyone like that,” but a) now is really not a great time for virtue signaling, y’all, and b) the woman technically did not wish death on the soldier. That’s the foundation of a good curse: There’s always an escape clause.
Think of a curse like a bear trap, with a big, neon arrow pointing at it and a sign that reads, “DO NOT STEP ON THE BEAR TRAP.” Most people are going to read the sign and look at the arrow and think, “That is a bear trap, and I choose not to step on it.” And some people are going to be like, “I don’t believe in bear traps,” and ignore the warnings and then wonder why they can’t walk and have tetanus.
There’s actually a scene in The Craft, when Rochelle and Sarah are discussing the spell they put on Laura, that sums up cursing perfectly.
“What do you think will happen to Laura?”
“If she leaves you alone, nothing will happen to her.”
If Laura had stopped picking on Rochelle, her hair wouldn’t have fallen out. If the Russian soldiers stop invading, the sunflower seeds won’t grow out of their pockets.
All they have to do is not step on the bear trap.
It is 100% understandable if you, like that woman, are moved to throw curses right now: There are evil people in positions of power who are actively trying to make the world a worse place, and they deserve to have bad things happen to them. But if you do decide to curse one of them, just remember to give them an out — the goal is to sanction them until they stop wreaking havoc, at which point the curse is lifted.
We don’t want to become as inhuman as they are.
And if cursing is not your bag, that’s understandable, too. But there are still ways to utilize your Witchcraft to help. Bindings can be placed on those attempting to persecute the marginalized; spells to promote justice and kindness can help shift the balance of power towards a more egalitarian existence; magic to safeguard those trying to escape violence can bolster humanitarian efforts.
Things are very scary at the moment, and they’re probably going to remain scary for awhile. But Witchcraft has always been a resource of the oppressed. We can draw some bravery from that, and we can use the tools at our disposal to at least try to make things a little better, at home and at a distance.
I’ve seen some writers referring to the Ukrainian woman as Baba Yaga, “Grandmother Witch,” and that’s certainly an appropriate epithet, but the probability of her being an actual Witch are pretty slim. Even though cursing is a time-honored tradition in the Ukraine, it’s more likely that she’s just a standard-issue resident of Henichesk who doesn’t take shit from anyone, much less an enemy soldier.
But she cursed him in front of a camera, and in doing so got most of the free world on her side. She’s become a symbol of resistance, and symbols have a lot of power. Every sunflower planted from here on out adds seeds to her curse and pushes back harder against Russian incursion.
And the more support that gets poured into that curse from all of us who witnessed it, the better the chances are of an independent nation under attack transmogrifying into a massive, Old World bear trap. And I am here for that.
A lot of people, myself included, have been sharing pictures of sunflowers on their social media, although I did come across something in a Chaos Magic forum that offered a different view:
The reason I’m not sunflower posting is it symbolizes occupying soldiers staying long enough to get killed.
And… I mean, I get it. Ideally, the situation won’t escalate into a global conflict, and Russia will pack up and go home before anyone else has to die. But in the meantime, the curse is in effect. Even if everyone on the Internet stops sharing images, the seeds have already been planted.
And speaking of Ukrainian agriculture: Earlier today, a farmer was spotted using his tractor to steal a Russian tank while onlookers laughed and cheered, and the driver chased helplessly behind him.
As far as symbols of cultural identity go, you can’t get much more Slavic than that. Here’s hoping a whole lot of untamed sunflowers grow in its wake.
ETA
It has just been brought to my attention that over on Facebook, the Cult of Eris, Mistress of Discord is encouraging its members to donate to UNICEF (please do if you can), and to mail sunflower seeds to the Russian Embassy.
To that, I say this:
Embassy of the Russian Federation
2650 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In