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Zagovory (singularzagovor) is a form of verbal folk magic inEastern Slavicfolklore andmythology. Users ofzagovory useincantations to enchant objects or people.
The present-dayRussian wordzagovor (заговор) corresponds to the English wordconjuration, which once meant a 'conspiracy, plot, act of plotting'.[1]Zagovor ('what is performed with speech') originates fromRussian folklore. So does the termnagovor (наговор), with its prefix of initiationna- and the root-govor ('speech'), meaning 'what is launched with speech'.
Their slight difference in sense can be seen in constructions like "zagovory frommaleficium"/"from bullets" (defensive,apotropaic aspect) andnagovory onto water (to make it "healing"). The latter phrase seems to reflect a more offensive action.[a][b]
TheUkrainianzamovliannia (замовляння) andBelarusianzamowy (замовы) are semantically identical to the Russianzagovory, as they both possess the root-mov ('speech'). Both of theseEast Slavic words are close to thePolish termzamawianie. Polish folklore retains rudiments of verbal magic aszamawianie choroby ('popular healing').
The practice ofzagovory arose frompagan prayers and incantations, and so was initially based on the belief in the power of the human word. Hence followed the importance of exact pronunciation of the words (whether whispered or sung) as well as exact observing the associatedrites. A great deal of life stamina was obligatory for a performer of the rites. As an example of this, azagovory practitioner should have either a full set of teeth, or a knife as a symbolic substitute for teeth that were missing.[3]
Originally part of the art of avolkhv (Cyrillic:волхв;Polish:wołchw), who disappeared during the prosecution of theEastern Orthodox Church, thezagovory tradition survived until the 20th century in popular folk culture, often under the guise of anoncanonical Christian prayer.
In theRussian Empire,zagovory praxes were for centuries prosecuted by its church and by its secular,caesaropapist authorities[c] (at least from mid-17th till mid-19th century). Russian archives yielded more than 600 cases of church and civil prosecution of witchcraft, blasphemy and rational heresies in the 18th century.[4] Even in 1832, afterDigest of Laws of the Russian Empire had been first codified under the leadership ofMikhail Speransky,[d] witchcraft and sorcery still remained a subject of the secularPenal law.[5][6][full citation needed]
For the sake of survivalzagovory tradition began to mimicChristianity.Zagovory imagery became saturated with Christian themes and motifs, used as a reference base for performing magic acts. However within Byzantine written tradition (which embraced the Southern Slavs cultural intermediation) both Christian orthodoxy and some heterodox manuscripts circulated, which might echo back localheathen concepts.
For example, one of thezagovory (apparently influenced by christianization, though representing rather a specific vision) named "how to heal wounds" said "asJesus Christ having been crucified felt no pain,[e] so may this person I heal feel no pain from any wounds, from any illnesses".[7][8]
Another layer inzagovory heritage could be of Western origin. Each of the motifs shared by East and West Slavs has West European (mostly Germanic) matches. This indicates that West Slavic charms served as a mediator between the East Slavic tradition and Western influences.
The magical formula "Stop, blood, as still in the wound, as water/Jesus in the Jordan" is an example of a treated person's bleeding wound assimilation with a medieval apocryphal story of how the Jordan waters stopped flowing when Jesus entered them. It is attested in Belarus, Ukraine, somewhat rare in South and West Russia. As for other Slavic traditions, the formula occurs in Poland and, even more commonly, in Polish texts recorded inLithuania; it is also found inCzech charms, though intended against disorders other than bleeding.[9][page needed]
Geographically the Eastern Slaviczagovory tradition area could be roughly divided into two subareas (with their own subtraditions, correspondingly).
One of them is the tradition of theRussian North and adjoiningCentral Russian regions. This tradition was less influenced by neighboring cultures through direct contacts, though strongly influenced by the manuscript tradition. As a result it is not too diverse in the composition of plots and motifs. But the most famous plots, motifs and formulas which are considered an authentic feature of Russian (and all East Slavic)zagovory (such as the motive of the sacred center,Alatyr stone onBuyan island amidholy sea) seem to come from there.
Within the second tradition, covering most ofUkraine andBelarus, as well as the south and west Russian regions, the West and South Slavic (as well as Byzantine) influence manifested itself to the greatest extent. The result is the coexistence and active interaction of plots, motifs and poetic formulas of different origins.[10]
While the idea of the mythological center is totally absent in incantations of West and South Slavs, it is known in the folklore of all East Slavs, especially in Russian tradition ofzagovory.
In Eastern Slavic folk religion the concept ofNavel of the World is embodied by a sacred stoneAlatyr (frequently referred as white and hot), located somewhere in the East (either in a pristine ("clear") field orBuyan island amid a holy sea/ocean).
The Alatyr appears in most of thezagovory under a variety of names. Much less than usually it is replaced by a sacred tree (for instance, a willow or a white birch) or a non-specified Christian church.
Appeals to such natural phenomena as dawn with red sun (and Eastern side of the world as such), young (new) moon, stars, winds are also very frequent.
As to personalized phenomena in those mythopoetic texts, one can see that heathen and Christian characters are often interchangeable. For instance, in different versions of the samezagovory, the supreme power that a practitioner applies to is either Maria (Mother of God) or "Dawn the Red[f] Maiden" (Zorya).[11]
In some of thezagovory a practitioner appeals to Western side of the world for help inmaleficium. Nevertheless, the absolute majority ofzagovory texts focused on good deeds, such as healing people and livestock, attracting luck, love affairs, wedding protection, birth support and public relations. InWestern Siberia azagovor was written down, named "for good deeds", which should have been read thrice around new moon. It said: "...I behold a young crescent with golden horns, give, my God, golden horns to new moon, so give to me, for good deeds..."[12]
Another type ofzagovor involvedlove magic "just as doves live in love, so would we with so-and-so do..." The practitioner performing thiszagovor (recorded inPerm Governorate) had to perform a bird sacrifice: the young man had to catch and stab a dove and knead its fat into dough to bake a kind of a smallkalach, which he then had to feed to the girl he loved, saying as he did so the short incantation quoted above.[13]
A recorded in 1648nagovor ontowax named "how to endure a torture" established that "both heaven and earth are made ofbast", and then made a wish "just as the dead in the earth feel nothing, may so-and-so likewise feel no pain from any atrocities, any tortures".[14]
The most usual beginning of a Russian Northzagovor was "blessed I rise, setting forth through doors and gates opening to the East, to the Eastern side, to the pristine field, to the sea-ocean, onward to the holy island of God... where lies the stone Alatyr..."
In the middle ofzagovory the practitioners were influencing reality by speculative assimilation their reality situation with natural or sacred phenomena, as in thishaemostatic example for curing a bleeding body part: "... just as the stone Alatyr yields no water, may I yield no blood ... neither a hen yields any milk, a cock any egg, nor would so-and-so bleed... neither blood from a bone, nor water from a stone..."[15]
The typical ending ofzagovory (accompanied by symbolism of both key and lock) often included the statement "May my words be (both)elastic andplastic".
In Russian humanities, the termzagovory is often used broadly, for any manifestation of faith in the magic power of the human word, thus applied to completely different cultural phenomena of the humankind (fromAnglo-Saxon metrical charms[16][17][18][19] toAtharvaveda's suktas).[20]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) («Восточнославянские лечебные заговоры в сравнительном освещении: Сюжетика и образ мира»){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (Знахарь и знахарка // Русская мифология. Энциклопедия.){{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)