In July 2011, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians shuddered: in the Carpathians, in his hut in the village of Verkhniy Yaseniv, 81-year-old Mikhail Nechai, molfar, was brutally killed. In the culture of the Hutsuls - Ukrainian highlanders - people endowed with superpowers are called Molfars; they combine the gift of magicians and healers.
Repeat offender Pavel Semyonov, who for some reason ended up in those remote places, killed Mikhail Nechai with knife strikes in the neck … Semenov was declared insane. But popular rumor had firmly linked this murder to the prediction made by the molfar a year earlier. On the day of the inauguration of Viktor Yanukovych as president, he told a Kiev journalist:
- There you have some kind of gentleman today "sow" in the king … But after three years he will end badly …
This prophecy was published, but the majority did not understand what Nechay was talking about.
Character brothers
Molfars have been known since the days of hoary antiquity. Their connection with the Cossacks-kharaterniks is traced - after all, both of them originate from the priests of the Aryan tribes who lived on the territory of modern Ukraine and subsequently settled down to Northern India.
The Ukrainian classic writer Mikhail Kotsyubinsky beautifully describes the ritual of pacifying a thunderstorm with molfar in his famous story "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (in 1964, director Sergei Paradzhanov created a film of the same name, which brought him world fame, based on this book).
Promotional video:
“He stood against the cloud, one foot forward, and folded his arms over his chest … He stood there for a long minute, and the cloud was coming towards him …
Yura raised the staff in his hand to the cloud and shouted in a blue scream:
- Stop! I won't let you in!
The cloud thought a little and shot a fiery arrow in response.
- Aha! You are so! - Yura shouted to the cloud. - Then I must curse you. I conjure you, thunders and thunders, clouds and miserable, I scatter you, fortune, to the left, to the forests and waters … Go, spread like the wind around the world …
When a cloud is to the right, then he is to the right, a cloud to the left - and he is to the left. He ran after her, struggling with the wind, waving his arms, threatening with a staff … The cloud growled, splashed with thunder, rained down in his eyes, ready to fall … I felt that the forces were already weak, that the cloud was winning, and with the last of his strength he raised the staff into the sky:
- Stop!..
And the cloud suddenly stopped."
Molfarov was primarily known precisely as the winners of thunderstorms and clouds. And according to their "specialization" they distinguished between "hmarnykiv" - those who could control clouds and storms, and "gradivnykiv" - the masters of hail and lightning. Even in antiquity, mol-lights of the Carpathians went, for example, to the east, to Podillia (Vinnytsia region) to wealthy peasant owners. For the whole summer, such a host fed and watered the molfar, and he drove away the clouds with hail from the fields in order to save the harvest - from the Annunciation to Ilya. Then, in the fall, the owners gave grain to the molfars …
There are also molfars, "prophets," or "fortune-tellers," who know everyone's past and see the future, and sorcerers, "prymovnyk", ie those who cure ailments with herbs, prayers, and speak illnesses.
What is the strength?
The origin of the word "molfar" is not entirely clear. They say that it comes from the word "molf", which means a charmed object. After the molfar utters a conspiracy over a certain object, this thing then serves the magician all his life.
But, of course, the main power of molfars is in conspiracies, special words. Molfar “received” these words and sacred knowledge at birth. Or the elders passed on knowledge to the future molfar. In the latter case, the boy with a special, still unrevealed gift, but already seen in the child, was taken to the mountains, where he transferred knowledge and skills, developed the gift. The future molfar also received quite practical skills - for example, the ability to heal with herbs.
When the boy was 12 years old, a rite of passage was performed over him: they fumigated secret herbal preparations with smoke. At the same time, the boy opened a "vision", he entered into contact with the world of spirits. And they recognized him as their own. During the ceremony, the future molfar acquired a personal spiritual guide who helped to see the past and future, to fight diseases and natural phenomena. Growing up, molfar improved his ability to use the secrets of both black and white magic.
Interestingly, there were very few molfars who went forever high into the mountains, dense forests and were engaged only in personal magical practices. Basically, Molfars lived in villages, among people, with an ordinary family life in their hut. But they always helped their fellow villagers and even newcomers who were looking for health and happiness.
How did the molfars maintain the reserves of their energy, which they generously gave when serving people? In early spring, as soon as the snow melted, they performed the ancient rite of "gaining strength." Molfar went to the mountains, found, according to some signs, a special cave and walled himself up in it without food and water. He simply blocked the entrance with stones, turf and moss, so that neither a ray of light nor sound would penetrate his secret refuge.
For 12 days the sorcerer and healer was in deep meditation. He was cleansed of all filth that could stick to him after a year of serving people, curing them from diseases. And on the 13th day, molfar received a charge of sorcery, physical and spiritual strength.
"Weapon" of the sorcerer
To disperse clouds, drive out lightning and hail, molfars used staves, short sticks, special long sharp knives made from old braids. Zgardas were very important for them - a kind of medallions, amulets.
These are signs from different materials, known since the hoary antiquity, they were also used by the priests of the Aryans - the Brahmans, or Rakhmans, as they have been called since ancient times in Ukraine (it is interesting that the expression “Rakhmanny land” in Ukrainian still means a blessed, generous land) … The zgardas spoke and after the ceremony they were put on the neck. And so it was repeated with each rite - more and more enemies remained on the strap, like orders. Such decoration carried a huge protective charge and strengthened the magician's strength.
Well, the molfar moss ring is generally an amazing item. Massive, with a high relief in the form of the head of Aridnyk (Chernobog, that is, the ruler of the dark part of the world) or Chugaister (the formidable and at the same time just spirit of the Carpathians) - they were cast from a special alloy for each specific molfar. Having such a ring, the sorcerer could open the Heavenly Gates and get into the past, future or some parallel world, even become invisible. Also, the moss ring protected its owner from bullets and saber strikes.
Even today, talking with a molfar, from time to time you hear the word "thunderbolt" from him. This is the storm itself, and the tree, scorched by the fire of lightning. It is the chips of such a tree that are used to treat people - they are fumigated with smoldering sticks, especially for diseases of the nervous system.
Molfars are treated, of course, with conspiracies, with a cross, and with consecrated water. They use minerals, herbs that they themselves collect on strictly defined days and hours. The roots are taken in the late afternoon, and the ground part of the plants - in the morning. After all, each living potion has its own biofield, the strength of which changes from the time of day; and Molfar knows when to pick herbs and roots.
A special method of treatment for Molfars is music - playing the drymba, an ancient Hutsul instrument. Playing drymba is not easy. She makes sounds similar to the chants of Buddhist mantras. Molfars believe that this musical instrument has magical powers. Disease can be expelled by sounds of drymba. She gives the molfar its magical power - after all, he makes drymba himself. With the help of the sounds of this instrument, you can enchant a person, tame a wild beast, and turn an enemy into a friend.
The stones of the Carpathians are also important for molfars. For them, these are not just minerals, but living beings, with their own character and behavior. They treated with stones, removed damage. For this, molfar took a large, round, smooth and gray stone. The sorcerer with such a stone ascended a mountain or cliff, stretched out his hands to the sky and shifted the stone in his hands for a long time.
At the same time, the molfar imagined how the disease comes out of him or the person who turned to him and winds up like a cobweb on a stone … After the disease came out, molfar threw a stone into the abyss or just further away. The disease was defeated. But if someone found such a stone and took it, then the disease acquired a new owner.
… The death of Mikhailo Nechay shocked people also because he was considered the last molfar of the Carpathians. But, fortunately, later it turned out that there are two more molfars in the Carpathians. We do not specifically mention their names - good sorcerers need to be protected. They have yet to find and educate their successors.
Petro Dvoretsky