The explanation of such a historical and cultural phenomenon is the interpretation of pagan beliefs, which boil down to the fact that a person once had a desire "to reign and to own everything", while ignoring the sacred wealth of the bowels of Mother Earth - the Essence, who used to dispose of the deposits of ore and clay "according to at your own discretion."
According to the beliefs of the pagans, the ancient artisans - "bozoters" in this case encroached on the "origins", which continued to be considered sacrilege long after them. However, the "lords of fire", although they kept themselves apart from society, were never opposed to it - the products of blacksmiths and potters in Russia at all times were in great demand.
From pagan to Budulai
The ambivalence of the status of earthly "masters of fire" - potters and blacksmiths for the first time in the twentieth century, was scientifically tried to prove by the Romanian-French-American philosopher and religious scholar Mircea Eliade. He even had earthly ores "charged with dark sacredness." The manifestations of the progress of society in the early stages of its development, expressed in the extraction and subsequent processing of metal ore, Eliade compared with the process of artificial termination of pregnancy or a caesarean section in a woman (Mother Earth, who herself would have disposed of her wealth).
Eliade believed that the pagans' smelting furnaces symbolized an artificial womb, where ore matures and then something originally vicious, taboo, is born from it. Only a renegade, an outcast, should handle “this” - such an “obstetrician”, according to the historian, was a blacksmith, who, like a shaman, a medicine man and a sorcerer, was once considered to be the “masters of fire”. They were alienates - they could be respected, but at the same time they could be afraid, shunned, despised. However, contempt was based primarily on a feeling of envy - small, evil people understood that, due to their worthlessness, they would never reach the same level of skill that the ancient professionals - blacksmiths and potters - possessed. This is confirmed by archaeological excavations - centuries-old earthenware dishes and metal blades from the time of the Battle of Kulikovo sometimes look like this,that even now they are in business.
It is noteworthy that the alienation, "untouchability" of blacksmiths-potters in Russian history, most likely, actually took place. Although not in the classical sense of this term - blacksmiths and potters in Russia never belonged to pariahs. The ambivalence of the image of the creator-sinner, the "master of fire", was even embodied in works of art.
Let us recall the wonderful Soviet film "Gypsy", where the Don blacksmith Budulai Romanov was played by Mihai Volontir. Budulaya's smithy is on the outskirts, and the gypsy himself is a stranger, not one of his fellow villagers. Even his difficult love Klavdia (and then his own son) looks at the hard work of the blacksmith secretly, unnoticed by Budulai - as a kind of sacrament, to which the uninitiated cannot openly join.
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Maybe they didn't like it, but they badly needed
Mircea Eliade in her research provides evidence that in ancient times, blacksmiths and potters were creatively integrated with other personalities who possessed shamanic abilities, as well as vocal, instrumental and poetic gifts. Perhaps it was so, but this assumption does not contradict the historical realities, which testify to the prestige of the professions of a blacksmith and a potter.
Blacksmiths in Russia were perhaps the most popular artisans. There is not a single well-known Russian folk tale where the blacksmith is a negative character (as well as the potter). Almost all metal objects requiring heat treatment and used in everyday life, on the farm and in military operations, from time immemorial, were forged by professional blacksmiths. Even horses, the main means of transportation for many centuries, were shod with them.
A good blacksmith (like a potter) always had a good income and could support his family. If they shunned the "master of the fire" himself, they never passed by his high-quality goods, and each time they repaid them a hundredfold.
Nikolay Syromyatnikov
