Experts have heard that there are some strange wooden idols in the Karelian taiga.
Scraps of ancient legends and legends about statues, set by unknown people in such remote places that the locals could navigate there with great difficulty, are still preserved in the people's memory. But the researchers had no doubt that the sculptures had rotted long ago. Therefore, going on an expedition to the Belomorsky and Kemsky regions in 2003, the staff of the International Academy of Mega-Science (Petrozavodsk) did not even hope to find something special.
However, the findings exceeded all expectations. Wooden sculptures of pagan idols, located about half an hour walk from each other, all completely different, represented a kind of museum of wooden sculpture in the open air.
Lost in the deaf Karelian taiga, accessible by their incomprehensibility, surrounded by the halo of holiness they knew, they silently and menacingly looked at the newcomers who dared to disturb their age-old peace. When and by whom were they raised? Whose divine image do they carry? What magic power protects them from destruction?
“At first glance, it seemed that the wooden statues were located without a visible system,” said Alexei Popov, vice president of the International Academy of Mega Science. - We immediately began to doubt. After all, the work on their manufacture was considerable, and hardly anyone, out of nothing to do, turned heavy logs in the Karelian wilderness just like that, especially since before starting work, the log was soaked for a long time so that it acquired special strength and would not undergo rapid destruction … Or, behind the apparent randomness, there is a certain meaning in their arrangement, and the chosen place for some reason is not accidental? And if so, what determined the choice of location? There were plenty of questions.
the figures differ sharply from each other both in size (from one to 2.5 m in height), and outwardly, one especially stood out, with all its appearance resembling images of the famous and mysterious stone statues from Easter Island. Either this is an accident, or echoes of some ancient knowledge that we will never hear about. Images of other idols do not lend themselves to any interpretation, since information about the wooden pagan gods of our ancestors is very scarce even in special literature, not to mention the images.
Judging by the structure of the tree, the finds are more than a hundred years old (legends also testify to this), that is, the figures were erected at the end of the 19th century. At that time, despite the already rooted Christianity, elements of paganism (witchcraft) were still quite widespread in Karelia. But the most striking thing is that next to the found idols were their former half-decayed "remains", which confirmed the reports of their periodic restoration (according to some sources, the idols are "restored" every 150 years).
The members of the expedition decided to first check the locations of the idols using the dowsing method (this is the name of the ancient dowsing technique). Since ancient times, with the help of the vine, they searched for underground water sources, metal deposits. In early times, the dowsing technique was widely used by the inhabitants of Karelia. It is no coincidence that the branches of the vine - the symbol of the miners - decorated the first coat of arms of Karelia. It is possible that the ancient idol builders could have used the dowsing technique.
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With the help of two L-shaped metal frames, experts studied the locations of the statues, approaching them from different sides, and invariably the frames reacted with a deviation to the sides, not reaching the idol 1-1.5 m. This indicated that the idols were installed in the centers so-called geoactive zones with a diameter of about three meters.
And here Alexei Popov came to an amazing discovery. Having made marks on the map, he was surprised to find that the chain of idols was oriented strictly in one direction, located almost in a straight line, towards the no less mysterious and fascinating place by its name - Lake Karma. (Karma is one of the basic concepts of ancient Indian philosophy, associated with the law of spiritual and physical rebirth of man.) Surrounded by many kilometers of impenetrable swamps, the lake has practically not been explored and is not described in the local history literature, although some legends associate with it a kind of "repository of ancient information" a veil of secrets over the "Hyperborean" past of Karelia.
The legend about the sacred "world tree" allegedly growing on the territory of the republic, which was planted by the northern magi in the XIV century, is also connected with Lake Karma. In the middle of the XVI century. the Monk Kassian Muezersky, who arrived in this area from the Solovetsky Monastery, founded a monastery, and in 1602 the Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker was erected. Until now, the neighboring "tree" and the temple are a place of pilgrimage for the few keepers of the ancient faith. According to the Sami and Karelian legends, it is the “tree” that is a kind of beginning of the “initiatory journey” through the milestones-idols to Lake Karma.
- Itself a heretical thought suggested itself: really in ancient times someone deliberately set some kind of idol milestones in order to indicate a certain path? By the way, even the very name of the Okhta River, flowing several kilometers away, is translated from Old Sami as “a guiding river,” says Aleksey Popov. - All of this is reminiscent of an initiation rite, a "dedication journey." After all, there are still echoes of the ancient tradition of the Sami and Karelians, who considered such images, made of wood or stone, to be a kind of "tool" for direct instruction of promising young men for their introduction into the "state of shamans." Perhaps due to the fact that the effect of magical structures was different depending on their location and other features,full dedication required a "initiatory journey" from one sacred place to another.