© ethnic photographer Anna Senik
Model: Valentyna Fedorenko
Costume: Olena Didyk
MARENA / MARA (in ukrainian)
Marzana, Śmiertka – in Polish
Morana, Smrtka – in Czech
Morena, Marmuriena – in Slovak
According to Slavic folk beliefs – the evil goddess of darkness.The mistress of the dark night and evil spirits. She brings death, sows sorrow, sends diseases, puts black thoughts, madness, nightmares, sows quarrels between people. By her evil deeds she paves the way to eternal darkness.
She takes human life by cutting it with a sickle and scythe, and she gives it again: but eternal life, because she has no power over immortal souls.
In winter covers the ground with darkness, sends frost that breaks bones. But defeated by the forces of light, in the spring she disappears. Retreating, she takes with her all the dead and obsolete, giving way to new prosperity.
Marena is a frightening symbol of transition. Without the destruction of the old, the birth of the new is impossible. She is evil that opens the way for good. An irreversible point in the continuous cycle of eternal life in this world and the afterlife. An integral part of being and established order. Terrible, but beautiful.