The Rusalka Ritual Wash Pitcher & Basin Porcelain

Perfect for ritual purification & cleansing of oneself or your ritual space & altar. This beautiful wash pitcher & bowl is vintage & created in Canada.

In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalky/rusalki; Cyrillic: русалка; Polish: rusałka) is a typically feminine entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water, with counterparts in other parts of Europe. Folklorists have proposed a variety of origins for the entity, including that they may originally stem from Slavic paganism, where they may have been seen as benevolent spirits. Rusalki appear in a variety of media in modern popular culture, particularly in Slavic language-speaking countries, where they frequently resemble the concept of the mermaid.

In 19th-century versions, a rusalka is an unquiet, dangerous being who is no longer alive, associated with the unclean spirit. According to Dmitry Zelenin young women, who either committed suicide by drowning due to an unhappy marriage (they might have been jilted by their lovers or abused and harassed by their much older husbands) or who were violently drowned against their will (especially after becoming pregnant with unwanted children), must live out their designated time on Earth as rusalki. However, the initial Slavic lore suggests that not all rusalki occurrences were linked with death from water.

It is accounted by most stories that the soul of a young woman who had died in or near a river or a lake would come back to haunt that waterway. This undead rusalka is not invariably malevolent, and would be allowed to die in peace if her death is avenged. Her main purpose is, however, to lure young men, seduced by either her looks or her voice, into the depths of said waterways where she would entangle their feet with her long hair and submerge them. Her body would instantly become very slippery and not allow the victim to cling on to her body in order to reach the surface. She would then wait until the victim had drowned, or, on some occasions, tickle them to death, as she laughed, It is also believed, by a few accounts, that rusalki can change their appearance to match the tastes of men they are about to seduce, although a rusalka is generally considered to represent universal beauty, therefore is highly feared yet respected in Slavic culture.

In most beliefs rusalki always have loose hair, which is popularly considered a sign of unclean spirits. According to Dal’s Explanatory Dictionary, the expression “Walks like a rusalka” (Russian: Ходит, как русалка) is applied to girls with unkempt hair. The hair of the rusalka can be fair, black, greenish or completely green. An important attribute of the water maiden is the comb, usually made from fish bones.

These beautiful pieces feature traditional stylized embroidered Rushnik symbols. Rushnik is a ritual cloth embroidered with symbols & cryptograms of the ancient world. Each region has its own designs & patterns with hidden meaning, passed down from generation to generation.

Vintage 1960s