ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
AN AVOWED WITCH, Natalie Kononenko raises herbs such as rosemary, mint and catnip to make teas to cure sore throats, body aches and other ailments.
When she's not lecturing about fairy tales or Slavic literature, Natalie Kononenko can sometimes be found mixing herbal potions and mudpacks, which she claims hold special powers to invigorate the healthy and heal the sick.
``I consider myself to have knowledge [that] is not something I could possibly teach anybody,'' said Kononenko, a 50-year-old associate professor at the University of Virginia.
That's because you can't teach someone to be a witch, she said.
Make that a good witch.
``Good witches don't sell their soul to the devil,'' she said, explaining the tradition in her native Ukraine. ``Good witches don't become unquiet dead.''
A professor at UVa for 20 years, Kononenko is somewhat reluctant to talk publicly about her witchcraft. That's not surprising, because in the United States witches have an image problem.
This week during Halloween, little children will shriek at the sight of the American image of the witch, the brooding, broom-riding sorceress with the long nose and pointy black hat.
But in Kononenko's home country, not all witches are scorned. Some are revered as people with special knowledge about the Earth, plants, animals and people.
They are called vedma, or born witches - not to be confused with those who learn witchcraft by cutting a deal with Satan.
Kononenko plans to address some of these distinctions in a talk on Halloween about Slavic fairy tales. The noon talk at the university's Minor Hall is open to the public.
``The learned witches are the bad ones,'' Kononenko said. ``When they die, they can't rest, because the Earth won't accept them. They have to go around being unquiet dead for as long as they were a witch.''
The tradition of witches in Ukraine is an old one that went underground during Soviet times but has experienced a rebirth, much like organized religion.
Kononenko said she didn't always know she was a witch, discovering it only during her 20s. She said she uses her powers only to help people, although she sometimes fears that when she gets angry she will give someone the ``evil eye.''
In her back yard, she raises herbs such as rosemary, mint and catnip, which she combines in different ways to make teas that cure sore throats, body aches and other ailments. She also cultivates different kinds of mud to make mudpacks for healing skin conditions.
She has to taste the mud to tell if it is ``right,'' she said.
Although she learned some herbal secrets from her father, Kononenko said her ability to mix her mud and grow herbs is inborn, something she cannot impart to others.
But she does serve her concoctions, especially tea, to family, friends, colleagues and students.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Natalie Kononenko says tradition from her nativeby CNBUkraine holds that some witches are born with special knowledge
about the Earth, plants, animals and people. "Good witches don't
sell their soul to the devil," she says.