Each of us has at least once in a lifetime encountered inexplicable phenomena. You may not have seen ghosts and UFOs, you haven’t seen Nessie or the Bigfoot, but you must have watched fortune telling on maps or listened to scary stories as a child. Many times, without hesitation, we followed the advice of our parents: "sit on the track", "knock on wood", "do not count money for the night." and then, becoming older, enthusiastically read books about the fight of elves with goblins and could not tear themselves away from Star Wars ...
Interest in the "parallel world" persists in the 21st century - remember at least the success of the films "Night Watch" and "Day Watch". We decided that in the 13th issue of the magazine it is just necessary to talk about the evil eye, premonitions and signs.
Evil eye
Everyone is familiar with the psychological tension that occurs when people stare at each other. Such behavior is unconsciously perceived as aggression or provocation.
Eyes play a very large role in communication between people. Therefore, even in Ancient India, it was believed that an evil soul lives in the pupils of the ill-wisher or sorcerer, which can harm others. No wonder it was from the evil eye that the most amulets were created, keeping peace for children, livestock, and home; developed many means of preventing it.
For example, the Serbs laid a large stone in front of the house or beehives so that the gaze of an evil person would “hit” it. Residents of Russia hung absurd, funny, strange things, for example, a bunch of old bast shoes in front of a house or some other protected object. It was believed that the evil gaze that first falls on this distracting object will thereby be neutralized.
In Istanbul, there is still a “bongjuk” at every step - a glass blue-turquoise amulet that looks like an eye. It varies in size from a pea to a large plate; It is found both as an independent object, and as part of a ring, bracelet or anything else. For tourists, this is just the most popular souvenir, but the locals take it very seriously: in Turkey they are very afraid of the evil eye. Therefore, small amulets must be hung at the cradle, and large ones usually hang out at the windshield of the car. If your bongjuk suddenly crashed, it means that he has just successfully protected you from someone’s machinations and you need to immediately get a new one.
The Maltese still adorn the noses of their boats with the image of Osiris’s eyes - this tradition dates back to the Phoenicians, who thus protected their ships from sea weather. In the United States, a recent survey of 1,300 students at Stanford University showed that 84% of girls and 72% of boys believe in the evil eye. In a word, from the time of our ancestors, hanging bast shoes in front of the house, the fear of the evil eye almost lost its sharpness.
I feel the spinal cord!
In the story of Nabokov, "Signs and Symbols" (1948), a young man is described who is lying in a psychiatric clinic. His life is hard: "pebbles, spots, glare of the sun, folding in patterns, in some terrible way make up messages that he is obliged to intercept. / ... / You have to always be on the alert and every minute, give every bit of life to decipher."
However, outside the hospital ward, the world continues to speak the language of symbols. Parents who visit their son are haunted by the feeling that their son is in danger, and strange phone calls ringing in the middle of the night. A similar situation, albeit in a relaxed form, is familiar to many of us. Something did not let onto the pavement and saved the truck from the wheels, something kept on the edge of the pit or the open hatch, something made it stop ...
History has preserved many such examples. Say, the famous pirate Flint never went to sea if his pipe was not lit twice. And the naval commander, the Duke of Cumberland ordered to turn the carriage home if he saw more than two chimney sweeps on the street on his way to the port. This signified a fierce storm. Another famous British sailor, Admiral Benbow, while still a simple captain of the ship, noticed that a red or spotted cat crossing the road promises a shipwreck.
French researcher d'Aubuisson has been researching foreboding for many years. In the Theory of Small Signs, he argues that we are surrounded by many benevolent good forces that seek to save us from impending troubles and remove from the danger zone one whose karmic path is not yet completed.
Perhaps superstition acts on us insofar as we expect it. Australian Aborigines have a rite of execution, when a shaman pronounces magic words, points to a prisoner with a bone - and a person dies from this. It is significant that this ritual does not affect white people who do not know which spell is imposed, and do not expect anything bad. From a medical point of view, Aborigines commit the so-called "psychosomatic suicide."
Scientists disagree on whether signs are simply a consequence of life experience, or whether intuition helps us to predict the events of the near future. True, many remain deaf to the warnings that the sixth sense sends us. According to d'Aubuisson, we must learn to perceive the good signs that give us higher powers.
Not always these forces can speak directly, communicate clear information. They need intermediaries - events, lost objects. Then the loss is located, and we calm down. Although this is sometimes a foreshadowing of some other, more important, irreparable loss. Disappeared glasses, keys, watches, money or documents are not only signs of sclerosis or carelessness, but also important omens. American researcher Dyakonoff and German professor Obermeier independently put forward the theory of "contact signs." “Something,” they wrote, “lets us know that in the future we need to be afraid of something. And it doesn’t matter how to call it: an internal voice or an impulse of the global information field. It is important not to miss the sent signal and be able to correctly interpret it.”
On the basis of such "contact signs" a system of popular signs was created. In them we find a storehouse of centuries-old experience of different nations, a list of situations that most often serve as harbingers of misfortune. For example, they say that a stumbling or losing wallet should be prudent, because the next drop or loss can have much more serious consequences. Small signs also include prophetic dreams, in the wake of which people composed dream books.
Easter omens
The mass will accept, superstition, customs was timed by the people for Easter. On this day, the elderly combed their hair with the wish that they had as many grandchildren as there was hair on their heads. The old women washed themselves with gold, silver and a red testicle in the hope of getting rich, while the young climbed onto the roofs to meet the sun.
This moment was also used by hunters who specially came to the church with guns and, as soon as they sang “Christ is Risen” for the first time, shot into the air, believing that they would kill the devil and ensure a successful hunt for the whole year.
The thieves tried during the Easter morning to steal something from the worshipers in the church. Then boldly steal the whole year, they thought, and no one will catch you. The last week before Easter obliged to observe a particularly strict fast. Thursday before Easter was considered Great or Clean Thursday. On this day, all the money should have been counted three times so that it would be spent all year.
Everyone in the family should have taken a handful of salt and sprinkled in one packet. This "Thursday" salt should treat itself, relatives and friends; charms were made from it for the family, livestock, garden and home.
On Clean Thursday, they cleaned the house and washed it. On Friday, we scraped all corners with a rag, which was believed to help get rid of lower back pain. She also wiped her legs in the bath after washing, so that they would not hurt. The ash, taken on the Friday before Easter, was supposed to help cure alcoholism, black shaking, the evil eye and mortal longing.
On Friday, they looked out the window, noting who would appear there first. The man who saw the man was well-being for three months. The old woman marked three months of failure and illness, and the young woman was the absence of trouble and anxiety. The family showed itself to peace in the family, to the reconciliation of those who were in a quarrel; a dog - to longing, a cat - to profit, a bird - to a new acquaintance and good news, a disabled person - to the death of a loved one. All preparatory work (cooking, egg painting) should have been completed before Easter Sunday.
On Easter morning, they washed themselves with water left from Pure Thursday. A silver item or spoon should be put in it, you can put a coin. On Easter, the husband and wife did not christend at all (it was believed that this was separation), but parents and children could kiss three times.
If the girl could not marry, then the towel that she wiped on Clean Thursday, had to be given to Easter for the poor, along with painted eggs and Easter cake. During cooking, they usually made puzzles for every Easter that was put in the oven, and for every member of the family: who had Easter failed - to a serious illness, or even death. If Easter is neat, not burnt - to well-being and health.
The dark side of the Force
Signs extended to Easter night. It was believed that at this time all the devils were unusually evil, so with the sunset the peasants were afraid to go out into the courtyard and the street: in every cat, dog and pig they saw a werewolf. At the same time, the villagers believed that if you kiss the castle at the church on Easter, you will definitely see a witch; and if you go out with an Easter egg to the crossroads and roll the egg along the road, then the devils will certainly have to jump out. On Easter Sunday, you could even find out who the witch is in the village. To do this, it was worth taking the enchanted cottage cheese, standing with him at the church doors and holding on to the door bracket - and then the witches would be clearly visible along the tails.
Our closest neighbors, living in the Land of a Thousand Lakes, have been celebrating the Witch Festival annually for two centuries now. The period from Good Friday to Easter Day is considered in Finland to be the time of evil spirits, when witches and trolls leave their shelters and steal luck from people who are in the neighborhood. According to popular belief, witches are old women who sold their soul to the devil. They were very afraid, because witches could injure people and pets. It was necessary to light bonfires, the flame of which frightens off witches. So do the Finns in our time. During the holiday, young children wear itroll witch costumes and beg for candy or coins from adults.
People’s belief in otherworldly forces is completely independent of their national or religious affiliation. A good illustration of this is the episode from Viktor Lebedev’s recent book. In it, he talks about the behavior of Arabs who perform the hajj to Mecca.
"Only a few were born in these holy places of Islam. The majority of prejudices are brought to the Meccan shrines by millions of Muslims from all over the world. / ... / Among the stones scoured from ritual niches with tetrahedral pillars symbolizing the devil, the Meccan workers make unexpected finds. / ... / Clearing niches shows that not only stones fly into the “devils.” In an effort to personify devotion to the Almighty, Muslims smash their mobile phones and pagers on pillars, throw personal symbols of religious hostility "watches, pens, and other things that should confirm their personal participation in the beating of evil, personal commitment to the All-Good and Merciful. Some pilgrims literally understand the rite of stoning the devils and look for real unclean power in holy places, threatening the safety of believers."
We hope that you will not follow the example of the "warriors of Allah." As well as trembling from every knock and turning pale at the sight of a black cat. However, you should be more attentive to the world around us, full of forces capable of protecting us.
Perhaps in the folk experience there is knowledge that in the future can be explained from the standpoint of science. Now, alas, the true nature of paranormal phenomena is unknown to us. In Russia, research in this area began recently, but has already yielded promising results.
Ivan Sheiko-Little
