I remember a long time ago my grandmother Maria told me about magic rituals: “You can only do magic at night. After all, when the sun is in the sky, the paths lose their strength …”Grandmother Maria was the same age as the past century. She herself bewitched, knew spells for all occasions.
Indeed, during her childhood and youth, in the 1910-1920s, ancient customs and rituals were still preserved, and not only somewhere in the highlands of the Carpathians, but also in Central Ukraine.
Wrong time
But, as it turned out, many people in Ukraine still practice fortune telling, so to speak, everyday white magic directed against the dark forces. However, if you believe the rumors, the real black witches, who send diseases and even death to people, are not extinct here.
One incident occurred in the town of B., not far from Kiev. For obvious reasons, we omit the name of the town. Once upon a time, as they say, a husband and wife lived. We lived for twenty years. They put two daughters on their feet … But something went wrong with the spouses, maybe for so many years they got tired of each other. And then the husband (gray hair in the beard, the devil in the rib) met a young woman. He was an economic and non-drinker, so a lonely rival took the peasant away. The wife fell ill with grief, but then, on the advice of friends, she turned to one grandmother. She was reputed to be a real witch, they said that the disease could send, and ruin life, but she also knew how to bewitch.
The witch took the money and got down to business. It is clear that it was difficult to give the fugitive husband a love potion to drink. Therefore, the magician began to follow the man and on one of the sunny days, whispering a spell, stepped on his shadow - they say this is a sure way to keep a loved one. To consolidate the effect of the spell, the witch brought the abandoned wife of cancer into the courtyard and buried it in the ground, again with a special spell.
Cancer, as you know, moves back, so the unfaithful husband will take a walk, take a walk, and will return to his own home. In addition, the old woman told the unfortunate wife to pierce the heart of the mole, which she brought with her. The husband, according to the sorceress, now had to again blindly, like a mole, fall in love with his abandoned wife.
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But a month or two passed, and all these witchcraft tricks did not work on my husband. Looks like he really fell in love with the young. Or maybe she was a more powerful witch than the old grandmother … It became clear that one could not do without a love potion. And the witch found a person who agreed to help and managed to add a potion to the unfaithful husband at one feast.
And soon after the feast, the husband died. Later, the witch confessed to the poor widow that she conjured over the potion on the night of Monday to Tuesday, and this divination is not for a love spell, but for hatred and death. They say that a love potion should be cooked at midnight from the juice of primrose, verbena and blueberries, moss and wheat, honey and clover leaves. The person whom they want to bewitch is given literally a few drops of such a decoction.
So that the teeth do not guide …
Is it possible to find out if there is a witch or a sorcerer nearby? The people argued that it was possible. One way is with cottage cheese. On the last day of Maslenitsa, you need to take a piece of cottage cheese, wrap it in a cloth and hold the bundle behind your lower lip for three nights. Then dry it, tie it in a knot and carry it with you as a talisman. The witch herself must come and ask for cottage cheese.
Another way is to use ashes from the Kupala fire. Ashes from an extinguished fire need to be collected in a rag and quickly leave without looking back. The next day the witch will come and ask you for fire. In general, it is good to bury the ashes from the Kupala bonfire in front of the threshold of the house, hide it at the entrance to the apartment: this is a sure way to scare away witches and sorcerers.
But witches are relieved of the need to look for a villain in their environment. They already see through everyone. And so that the magic power does not run out, they sprinkle their clothes with ash from the branches of ash. Such clothing makes them almost invulnerable.
But what to do if you suddenly realized that your neighbors are solid witches and evil sorcerers? How can you protect yourself from them? The easiest way is to get up at night on the threshold of your home, look towards the "enemy object" and say:
The night is dark, the night is quiet
You are sitting on a horse with a bullock, On a saddle like a falcon
You close the bolts and doors
Churches and monasteries!
Close to my enemies
Lips-ruin, Washed cheeks, Ochi-praochi, So they are on me
Born and baptized (state your name here)
The teeth did not guide
They didn't stare, They had no anger in their hearts, To be respected by everyone
And they had good thoughts.
I'll wrap it up, I'll wrap it up!
But let's talk about white magic. After all, there are sorcerers who heal people and do good. After praying (usually to Nicholas the Wonderworker), the sorceress begins treatment. For pains in joints and tendons, abscesses, warts, tumors, the rite of "gnawing" the disease is usually performed. The sore spot is lightly bitten by teeth, while a spell is whispered.
For healing, especially children, in Ukraine there is a rite of "wrapping". A sick child is placed on the threshold of the house, his height and the width of his arms are measured with a thread. Then a hole is made in the doorframe at the level of its crown, this thread is inserted into the hole and clogged with an aspen peg. Sometimes the thread is wrapped three times around the head of a small patient and burned.
And for the correctness of the treatment in some localities, they "wrap up", that is, they drive into a hole in the door not only a thread, but also the trimmed ends of the child's hair. The disease should go away with the hair and thread.
To drive out evil spirits from the house or the patient's body, paths, as they are called in Ukraine, use fumigation. Purifying, healing smoke is obtained by burning heather and juniper twigs, oak leaves and wormwood stems. Smoke from burning a dried bat, the skin of a frog, the crawling of a viper, or from burning a shirt left after a deceased is considered especially effective.
The method of pouring out the wax is well known for healing. At the head of the sick witch, he puts a new bowl of water and pours the melted wax into it. When it freezes, by the shape of the spot it forms on the water, the trail determines who or what the child was afraid of and why he fell ill. Hence the treatment.
You need to know the favorable time for sorcery. A good love conspiracy is done at night, on a full moon. At the same time of day, they speak, whisper sick teeth. Colds are treated with word and potion before sunrise.
Her own witch
But is it worth waiting for help from amateur sorcerers? Maybe turn it around yourself? According to the magic rules, having seen the flight of wild geese in early spring, you need to throw up a bunch of straw and say:
Geese, geese, you - to the nest, And for us - for warmth.
It is believed that after that, the selected straw is saturated with strong positive energy. It is used in the household. Chickens do not lose their eggs on such straw, and a couple of these blades of grass in the house, on the windowsill, are a strong amulet.
The people know that the primrose, found on the feast of the Annunciation, means a quick wedding. And if a girl often smears her body with honey, then the guys will just stick to her and not let her pass … Well, the one who sat in the girls, folk magic advises to eat a spoonful of flour with salt slightly moistened with water at night. Soon after that, the betrothed will certainly appear in the house.
If you suddenly meet a mermaid (in Ukrainian mavka) at the reservoir, then you need to say, crossing yourself: “Ivan da Marya! I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! The spirit of the river or lake will immediately leave you behind. By the way, it would be nice to carry wormwood or mint with you - as a talisman. Well, if you need a magic wand, then you can get it. You just need to track down when the caught frog is already swallowing.
It is necessary to grab him with his left hand so that he does not have time to swallow that frog, and with his right, taking a stick in it, pick out the unfortunate frog from the mouth of the snake. The wand with which you saved the amphibian will become magical. She, for example, will be able to extinguish fires by walking around a burning building.
Oles ILCHENKO