Pedigree history of Slavic sorcerers

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In Russia, sorcerers traced their ancestry from the ancient Slavic Magi. It is not for nothing that the very word "sorcery" is a synonym for the word "conjure". But the attitude towards them among people who had already become Orthodox was somewhat different. They were no longer considered mediators between gods and humans. But the people took seriously what the sorcerers said and did.

In Russia, sorcerers were called differently. Depending on the "specialization": sorcerers, sorcerers, sorcerers, fortune tellers, obasniks and sorozhtsy. Their essence was the same - these people possessed supernatural abilities, with the help of which they could do both good and evil. Here is what Alexander Afanasyev, a collector of Russian fairy tales and folklore, wrote about them in the middle of the 19th century: “The sorcerer and the witch were creatures hostile to those favorable vital forces that were previously protected by them, now, due to the negative impact of new views, they began to harm … According to the primitive idea, the sorcerer and the witch brought down fertilizing rain and warmth from heaven, later they began to conceal rain, dew, and light, and produce sterility, hunger, began to harm agricultural works with their conspiracies, take milk from cows and, in general, from animals and people - strength fertility …"

"Horns" and "scientists"

The Orthodox Church fought in every possible way against those whom the rumor considered to be sorcerers. In the church charter of Prince Vladimir, Red Sun, it was said that they were all subject to spiritual judgment, and their punishment for divination and sorcery was to be burned at the stake. The Nikon Chronicle said that in 1227 in Novgorod "in the Yaroslavl court, four wise men were burned for indulgence and witchcraft." Later, everyone who was suspected of witchcraft was sent to distant monasteries "to repentance."

Where did the sorcerers come from? Who are they and how did people become carriers of magical power? It was believed that sorcerers are either "born" (they were called "rozhok"), or "scientists". A boy born out of wedlock in the third generation became a born sorcerer. According to other beliefs, if seven boys were born in a row in a family, then the seventh will certainly have supernatural strength. In some cases, he could be a werewolf, transforming into various animals.

Trained sorcerers received their magical power from other sorcerers or from an unclean person, concluding a contract with him and renouncing God. Such an agreement was concluded at night at the crossroads of two roads or in a bathhouse. His text was written in blood on the skin of the gallows.

Unbeknownst to the priest

According to legends, a sorcerer could send various ailments to a person, but he could also cure a serious illness or help with advice in difficult situations. Although most often evil came from sorcerers - diseases, natural disasters, crop failures.

In Russian villages, not a single wedding could do without a sorcerer. He was invited so that he would not damage the newlyweds, and also so that he would protect the wedding from another sorcerer.

After all, if not invited, he could be offended and ruin the holiday. The sorcerer could stop the wedding train, send hysteria to the young woman, deprive the groom of male power, embroil the guests at the wedding …

They said that once two sorcerers came to a wedding. One, a stranger, not knowing about the presence of his fellow magician, began to swagger, promising the owners all sorts of troubles if he was not properly fed and drunk. But then the local sorcerer decided to show who is the boss. The ending options for this story are different. In one - the local sorcerer forced his competitor to kneel in the corner for the whole wedding, in the other - to take off his pants in front of everyone and gallop around the hut, in the third - to sweep the floor endlessly.

So it was expensive to quarrel with the sorcerers. Moreover, sometimes the sorcerers helped their fellow villagers. Although the Orthodox Church disapproved of the fact that people turn to a sorcerer for help. For this, the priest could not admit to communion, impose a penance and force him to atone for sin.

Beyond death

Needlessly, people tried not to have anything to do with sorcerers. Well, since he lived in the same village with them, then when you met him on the street you could not look him in the eyes, and fold your fingers into a fig. But these were, so to speak, passive methods of defense. Active methods involved influencing the sorcerer himself. It was possible to deprive him of his magical power by beating him to the point of bleeding, shaving off his beard, or knocking out all his teeth. There were also more humane methods of dealing with magic. For example, at a meeting, hit the sorcerer with a swing with your left hand. To kill the sorcerer could only be done with an aspen stake or by shooting him with a copper button.

Death could not come to the sorcerer until he transfers his magical knowledge to another person. It was believed that without this, a dying sorcerer could be in agony for up to three years. And if there were no volunteers, then the sorcerer indulged in tricks. For example, he could transfer his knowledge to an unsuspecting person by handing him an object and saying, "Take it." If a person took or said: "Come on," magical knowledge passed to the new owner.

People were sure that devils were getting into the body of the deceased sorcerer. This could be seen by anyone who looks at the deceased through a hole in the board from a knot that fell out, through a clamp or through a hole made in a new pot. They also believed that the death and funeral of the sorcerer is accompanied by a storm, a whirlwind, bad weather - this is an unclean force that flies for his sinful soul.

Sorcerers died hard. First of all, they knew in advance about their hour of death (three days in advance). Moreover, if the Psalter is read over the deceased, then at midnight he will jump up and begin to catch the reader who has turned blue with fear. I recall Gogol's "Viy", where the witch Pannochka, having risen from the grave, in the church chases to death the frightened Homa Brutus.

Different regions had their own ways to make sure that the sorcerer did not harm people after his death. In Vologda, sorcerers were laid face down in a coffin, having previously cut off their heels and popliteal veins. In the Smolensk region, an aspen stake was driven into the sorcerer's grave so that he would not leave the grave at night and wander around the village, frightening the honest people.

If death came to the sorcerer in his own house, then he could not die until the relatives thought to remove the skate from the roof or knock out the board on the ceiling. At the same time, it was impossible to look at the face of the dying person or put anything in the coffin to the sorcerer.

In one of the tales, it is said that at the funeral of a sorcerer, no one noticed how the daughter of the deceased, obeying his will, put a bunch of compressed rye in the grave. The next day, a terrible thunderstorm with hail broke out, destroying all the crops. And so it went on every year on the day of the sorcerer's funeral until the peasants with the whole world decided to dig the grave and remove the rotten sheaf from the coffin. After that, celestial cataclysms ceased forever.