Aan Uokhan- Sakha SpiritSpirit"Mistress of Fire"

The Living Fire

Every Sakha household maintained a fire, and the fire had an inhabitant. Aan Uokhan dwelt in the hearth flames as an ichchi, a nature spirit bound to a specific element of the physical world. She warmed the dwelling, cooked the food, and held the abaahy at bay with her light through the long Siberian winter. In return she received daily offerings: drops of butter and small pieces of meat cast into the flames before meals, feeding the spirit who sustained the household. The hearth fire was a barrier the forces of the Lower World could not easily penetrate, and Aan Uokhan was the one who kept it burning (Seroshevsky, Yakuty, 1896; Jochelson, The Yakut, 1933).

Taboos and Consequences

Spitting into the fire was among the gravest domestic offenses. So was poking the flames with sharp iron, letting the fire die through neglect, or casting refuse into the hearth. Each act insulted or injured the spirit inside, and the consequences came quickly: illness in the household, sickening livestock, a settling atmosphere of misfortune. A shaman might be called to determine whether the hearth spirit had been offended and to make restorative offerings. But prevention was always preferred. The fire taboos were among the first lessons taught to Sakha children, before they could understand why, so that the knowledge of how to treat the fire lived in the body before it lived in the mind (Seroshevsky, 1896; Alekseev, Shamanism of the Turkic-Speaking Peoples of Siberia, 1984).