You are a guest in his house and he may not want you there
Warning
He leads you in circles until you are lost and hides the path home
Resonance
Hunters foragers and woodcutters
Symbols
Tree stumpBast shoesWindfallMoss
Mythology Summary
The leshy is the tutelary spirit of the forest in Slavic folk belief, master of the game and of hunting, a shapeshifter who can match any man in size and stature and lead travellers in circles until they are lost; he has a wife, the leshachikha, and children, the leshonki. Nineteenth-century Russian ethnography (Dal, Afanasyev) records the beliefs, and he is sometimes compared with the West Slavic forest god Porewit. He is a forest being with a domain rather than a temple deity, and his attitude depends on how you treat the wood.
Modern Practice
The practice is the courtesy of the guest: ask before cutting or hunting, leave bread and salt or a coin on a stump, do not boast in the forest, and turn your shoes or clothes inside out if he has turned you around. It is a working relationship with a place, not a devotion to a person.