Libuše, prophetess, tribal judge, and founder of Prague, Czechia

Max Dashu

The Czechs preserved a legend that three witches had governed their country in a time before women were deposed from power. The first chief, Krok, was said to have founded a school of pagan wisdom. His daughters mastered this knowledge and were chosen to succeed him. They were Libuše (pronounced Libushe), Kazi (or Brelum), and Teta.

Kazi "knew the healing powers of various herbs and plants and the use of magic incantations and she treated the sick from far and wide." [Jirasek, 7] Teta (Tekta, Tecka) was a pagan priestess, a diviner who could locate lost or stolen things. (Her name appears elsewhere in eastern Europe, in a Latvian trinity of the fate goddess Laima and her sisters, Kārta and Dēkla.) Libuše, the youngest sister, was a prophetic sibyl with a vast knowledge of witchcraft. It was she who was chosen as the Czech leader at Krok's death in 690.

Libuše became the tribal judge, hearing cases while sitting on a rug-covered platform under a linden tree. Legend says that the entranced Libuše stood on a rocky cliff high above the Vltava river and prophesied: "I see a great city whose glory will touch the stars." She founded the city of Prague on this spot, instructing the Czechs where to build its castle.

The old priestess often resorted to a deep riverine pool beneath a cliff, much as the Germanic seeresses Veleda and Aurinia had done centuries before. While "gazing into the swirling stream" Libuše saw what was to come. She was able to determine where various minerals could be mined: "The voice of the gods will speak through me | To show what is hidden deep down in the earth." She saw troubling visions of the country's future because of that same mineral wealth. She foretold villages in flames,and battles of "brother against brother" as foreigners came to dominate the country. Libuše sent her son's cradle to the depths of the Vltava river, saying that it would reappear one day as an omen of Czech recovery from these wars.

One day, a man who had lost a land dispute bellowed out a challenge to the authority of Libuše. He declared that Czech men were an international laughingstock: "Where else does a woman rule over men, except here?" The men agreed, clamoring to have a duke like other nations; none of them spoke up to defend the wisewoman. Libuše warned the Czechs that a feudal lord would tax them unmercifully and send their sons to be killed, but they insisted. She then called an assembly of the clans and told them to choose a duke whom she would marry. (It would be someone who she had magically designated.) But she gave her people a last warning that they were giving up compassionate government for lordship:

You did not appreciate the freedom that I gave you... You want a man, a duke who will take away your children to serve him, who will choose the best of your cattle and horses for taxes according to his whims. [Jirasek, 9-10]

To find this duke, Libuše directed the Czechs to follow her white horse. It led them to a field where the farmer Premysl was laboring at the plow. The new duke told the Czechs that he and his descendants would rule them with a rod of iron. He founded the Premyslid dynasty (sometime in the 8th century). Though Premysl made harsh laws, Libuše still retained great authority. Kazi died and was buried in a mound in southern Bohemia. Teta too was buried on a sacred hill. Then at last Libuše died. Her treasure remained hidden in the rock. [Jirasek, 12-17]

After the death of Libuše, the women saw that they were no longer respected by the men, who heaped ridicule on them. The women took up arms, led by Libuše's chosen successor Vlasta (“country”). They built the maiden castle Devín, saying, "Let the women rule while the men attend to the fields!" Women came from all over, leaving their husbands to fill Devín castle and swearing to be faithful to each other.

The men continued to mock, though Premysl was worried by recurring dreams of a male defeat. They marched to Devín castle, and the women rode out on horseback to meet them. Vlasta roused them with the knowledge that they would be slaves if defeated. Her companions Mlada, Svatava, Hodka, Radka and Chastava fought by her side. The men stopped laughing as hundreds of them were cut down. The rest fled into the forest.

This war went on for a long time. The women stuck together, sending out spies and laying traps for the men. A male party found Sharka tied to a tree. She told them that the amazons had taken her by force from her father, and had placed mead and a bugle out of her reach. The men helped themselves to the wine and once they became drunken, began to blow the horn. That was the signal for an army of women to descend and kill them. (Sharka valley is named after this Czech amazon.) In the end, Vlasta was separated from her warriors and picked off, leading to the women's defeat and the razing of their castle. [Jirasek, 18-21]

In Baroja's version of this legend, "women had become so accustomed to directing affairs that they refused to submit to the rule of men again." Vlasta appealed to them to take power, declaring her own witch powers to be like those of the three sisters, and the women agreed with her. Baroja says that Vlasta gave them a potion to make them hate men and war against them, beseiging Premysl in his castle. [Baroja, 50-1]

The Czech Amazon legend directly connects witches' powers to female political sovereignty before written history. The tradition is a historical memory of shamanic offices held by women among the tribal Czechs, who opposed lordship, took women's part and were in turn supported by them. The theme of their struggle against Przemysl speaks to this. The legend interprets witchcraft as a repository of female power which women used to resist male domination.

Sources:
Jirasek, Alois, Old Czech Legends, Boston: Unesco/Forest Books, 1992

Baroja, Julio Caro, The World of the Witches, translated by Nigel Glendinning, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961

Other prophetesses:

Dahia al-Kahina, Amazigh prophetess, Aurès mountains, Tunisia

Essie Parrish, yomta and Bole Maru Dreamer, Kashaya Pomo, Stewarts Point, California

Muhumusa, exiled Rwandan queen, oracle of Nyabingi in Uganda

Teresa Urrea, la Santa de Cabora, healer and revolutionary seeress, Sonora, Mexico, El Paso, Texas, and Clinton, Arizona.

Mauricia la Bruja, prophetess of the Old Ways, Venezuela

Pau, kaula wahine / seeress, Hawai'i

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