Orthodox people about witchcraft. Magic - the search for safety

1. You choose which problem to solve.
2. See, according to the description, which icon you should turn to for help.
3. Find in what period of time (in a certain sign of the zodiac, or on the day of the icon) it is worth praying and asking for help from this icon to get the maximum result.

1. Aries March 21 - April 19"Fadeless Color" - The Virgin and Child holding a flower. The original was lost during the time of Elizabeth Petrovna. It contributes to the correct choice of the path, they pray to her to meet with her soulmate, to resolve problems in the family and in a couple, she gives strength to carry out her plans, helps to preserve women's beauty and youth.

Prayer:

Oh, Holy and Immaculate Mother Virgin,
The hope of Christians and the refuge of sinners!
Protect all those who resort to You in misfortune,

Hear our groaning, incline Your ear to our prayer. (Further...)

Lady and Mother of our God,
Do not despise those who demand Your help and do not reject us sinners,
Reason and teach us: do not depart from us, your servants, for our grumbling.
Be our Mother and Patroness,
We entrust ourselves to Your merciful protection.
Lead us sinners to a quiet and serene life;
May we pay for our sins.
Oh, Mati Mary, our favored and quick Intercessor,
Cover us with Your intercession.
Protect from enemies visible and invisible,
Soften the hearts of evil people who repay us.
Oh, Mother of the Lord our Creator!
You are the root of virginity and the unfading flower of purity and chastity,
Send help to us weak
And overwhelmed by carnal passions and wandering hearts.
Enlighten our spiritual eyes
Let us see the ways of God's righteousness.
By the grace of your Son, strengthen our weak will in the fulfillment of the commandments,
May we be delivered from all misfortune and misfortune and be justified
Your wonderful intercession at the terrible judgment of your Son.
To him we give glory, honor and worship
Now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen.

2. Taurus April 20 - May 20"The Inexhaustible Chalice" - the Mother of God in a prayerful gesture and a baby standing in the Communion bowl. The original image was lost in 1929. The most famous copies are kept in the city of Serpukhov in the Vladychny Monastery and in the Intercession Church of the Vysotsky Monastery. It promotes healing from any ailments (especially from alcoholism and drug addiction), helps to survive mental anguish and physical suffering, promotes purchases, sales and other financial transactions.

Icon Day - May 18.

Prayer:

“Our Queen, Most Blessed, Our Hope, Most Holy Theotokos,
Receiving orphans and strange Intercessor,
Distressed helper and embittered patroness.
Behold our trouble, behold our sorrow:
From everywhere we are possessed by temptations, but there is no intercessor.
Help us yourself, as if we are weak,
Encourage, as if strange, instruct us, as if lost,
Heal and save us, as hopeless.
We have no other help, no other intercession, no consolation,
Except You, O Mother of all who mourn and are burdened.
Take a look at us, sinners and those who are in embitterment,
Cover us with Thy Honest Omophorion.
May we be delivered from the evils that have befallen us,
Most of all, drunkenness (drug addiction, etc.).
May we always praise Your Most Holy Name. Amen."

3. Gemini May 21 - June 20 The Mother of God of Vladimir is the most famous and ancient face of the Mother of God, the original is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery. Promotes any help and obtaining various benefits, reconciles the warring, protects people of a different faith from oppression, strengthens morale,

Icon Day - June 3, July 6, September 8.

Prayer:

“O All-Merciful Lady Theotokos, Heavenly Queen,
Almighty Intercessor, our shameless Hope!
Thanking You for all great blessings,
In the genera of the genera of Russian people from you former,
Before Your most pure image, we implore You:
Save this city (or: this whole city, or: this holy abode)
And the upcoming (his) servant (a) Thy (his) and all the Russian land
From gladness, destruction, earth shaking, flood, fire, sword,
Foreign invasions and internecine strife.
Save, Lady, and have mercy on all Your servants
And grant us the path of the earthly field without blemish to pass.
Confirm us in the faith of Christ and in zeal for the Orthodox Church,
Put into our hearts the spirit of the fear of God, the spirit of piety, the spirit of humility,
In adversity, give us patience, in prosperity - abstinence,
Love for neighbors, forgiveness for the enemy, prosperity in good deeds.
Deliver us from every temptation and from insensibility,
On the terrible day of Judgment, vouchsafe us with Your intercession
Stand at the right hand of your Son, Christ our God.
As he deserves all glory, honor and worship with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
Now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen."

4. Cancer June 21 - July 22“The Mother of God of Kazan” - the original was destroyed, but there are a lot of high-quality copies and they are miraculous. Promotes insight, (in the literal and figurative sense), the cessation of oppression of people of a different faith, helps in difficult times (in the economic and political sense), she is blessed before marriage.

Day of the icon July 21, October 4.

Prayer:

“Oh, Most Holy Lady of the Theotokos, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
The highest angel and archangel and all creatures, the most honest, pure Virgin Mary,
The world is a good Helper, and affirmation to all people, and deliverance in all needs!
Look now, Lady All-Merciful, on Thy servants,
To you with a tender soul and a contrite heart of those who pray,
With tears falling to You
And worshiping Your most pure and healing image,
And your help and intercession to those who ask.
Oh, the All-Merciful and Most Merciful Virgin Mary Pure!
Look, O Lady, upon your people:
We who have sinned and have no other help,
Except for You and from You begotten Christ our God.
You are our intercessor and representative.
You are the offended protection, the grieving joy,
Orphan refuge, widow keeper,
Glory to the virgins, joy to the weeping, visiting to the sick,
The weak are healed, the sinners are saved.
For this sake, O Mother of God, we resort to You,
And on Your Most Pure Image with the Eternal
On Your hand holding the Child,
We behold our Lord Jesus Christ,
We bring tender singing to Thee and cry: have mercy on us,
Mother of God, and fulfill our petition,
All its essence is possible through Your intercession,
As glory befits You now and ever and forever and ever. Amen."

5. Leo July 23 - August 22"Passionate" - next to the Virgin 2 angels holding the instruments of the passions of the Lord. Located in Moscow in the Resurrection Church in Sokolniki. Helps to get rid of passions and bad habits, fears and sins, helps people with weak immunity, in case of serious epidemics, saves from fires.

Icon Day - August 13.

Prayer:

“Oh, Blessed Lady, Lady Virgin Mother of God!
Accept prayer and fervent worship before your miraculous icon,
Graciously visit Your humble and sinful servants,
Don't leave us to perish in our sins,
Be a Helper and Intercessor to all Orthodox Christians,
And at the hour of the death of our life, intercede, O All-Immaculate!
Have mercy on us by the mercy of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ
And by Your motherly intercession
Make me worthy to get rid of eternal death. Amen."

6. Virgo August 23 - September 22“Burning bush” - the Mother of God is compared with a fireproof thorn bush, a miracle that happened before the eyes of Moses on Mount Horeb. The oldest and most famous icon is kept in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. It helps to support in the most difficult trials, when a person has a “black streak”, protects from fire and generally helps to clear the negative and maintain the positive energy of the living space.

Icon Day - September 17th.

Prayer:

"O Holy and Blessed
Mother of our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ!
We fall down and worship You before Your holy and most honored icon,
With it you create wondrous and glorious miracles,
You save our dwelling from fiery ignition and lightning thunder,
You heal the sick and fulfill all our good petitions for good.
We humbly pray to you, the all-powerful Intercessor of our kind,
Benefit on the weak and sinners
His Maternal participation and well-being.
Save and save, Lady,
Under the shelter of Your mercy, the Holy Church,
This monastery, our whole Orthodox country,
And all who fall to You with faith and love,
And tenderly asking with tears of Your intercession.
Hey, Lady All-Merciful, have mercy on us,
Overwhelmed by many sins
And those who do not have boldness towards Christ the Lord,
Ask Him for mercy and forgiveness
But we offer you to Him for supplication
His mother according to the flesh: You, the All-good,
Stretch out Your God-receiving hands to Him
And intercede for us before His Grace,
Ask us for forgiveness of our sins,
Blessed peaceful life,
Good Christian death
And a good answer at His terrible Judgment.
At the hour of the terrible visitation of God,
When our houses are on fire,
Or we will be frightened by lightning thunder,
Show us Your merciful intercession
And sovereign help: let us be saved by your almighty prayers to the Lord
Then we will escape the temporary punishment of God
And we will inherit eternal heavenly bliss there:
And with all the saints we will sing the Most Honorable and Magnificent Name
Worshiped Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit,
And Your strong mercy towards us, forever and ever. Amen.

7. Libra September 23 - October 22“The Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos” - symbolizes the head covering of a woman. Stored in the Tretyakov Gallery. Helps to establish and strengthen the relationship of all lovers.

Icon Day - October 14.

Prayer:

"Oh, Blessed Virgin Mary, accept this prayer from me,
Thy unworthy servant, and exalt her to the Throne of God Thy Son,
May he be merciful to our requests.
I resort to You as our Intercessor:
Hear us praying to You, cover us with Your cover,
And ask God Your Son for all the best for us:
To the spouses of love, yes consent, to the children of obedience,
Offended by patience, grieving complacency,
To all of us the spirit of reason and piety,
The spirit of mercy and meekness, the spirit of purity and truth.
Save me from pride and selfishness
Give me the desire for diligence and bless my labors.
As the Law of the Lord our God commands
People in an honest marriage to live,
Then bring me, Mother of God to him,
Not to please my desire,
But to fulfill the purpose of our Holy Father,
For He Himself said, It is not good for a man to be alone
And having made him a wife to help him,
Blessed them to grow, be fruitful and inhabit the earth.
Holy Mother of God, hear the humble prayer
From the depths of my girlish heart:
Give me an honest and pious spouse,
So that we, in love with him and in harmony, glorify You
And the merciful God: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

8. Scorpio October 23 - November 21“Joy to All Who Sorrow” is an image of the Mother of God and those who are suffering for help. Stored in the Church of the Sorrowful Transfiguration in Moscow. It helps to get rid of mental pain and sadness, grief for the departed, with epilepsy and similar problems, tuberculosis, diseases of the hands, throat, relieves other people's oppression (dependence on someone), protects orphans.

Icon Day - November 6th.

Prayer:

“My queen, my blessing, my hope, Mother of God,
Friend of orphans, and strange representative,
Grieving joy, offended patroness!
Behold my trouble, behold my sorrow; help me as if I am weak,
Feed me like a weirdo.
I’ll offend my weight, let it be what your will is;
Because I have no other help than You,
No other representatives, no good comforters,
Only You, O Mother of God, save me and cover me forever and ever. Amen."

9. Born November 22- "Skoroshlushnitsa" - the Mother of God with the baby, whose right heel is turned to those who pray. The original is in the temple on Mount Athos, there are a lot of copies, one of them is in the temple of the Life-Giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills. Facilitates first aid.

Prayer:

“We resort to the Mother of God in our urgent troubles
And now we fall down to her holy icon
With faith we call from the depths of the soul,
Hear our prayers soon
Virgo, called a quick listener.
In you, your servants in need are looking for a ready helper. Amen"

10. Sagittarius November 23 - December 21“Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker” is a portrait of a real person, a wanderer, sage and mentor, later canonized. A particle of the relics and the icon is stored in several places, in particular - in the Troparevsky Church of the Archangel Michael, in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" in Aksinino, and in St. Petersburg Nikolo-Bogoyavlensky Naval Cathedral. Protects from problems along the way, contributes to the passage of various trials, protects from danger, patronizes all undeservedly offended and condemned, who have known the pain of loss.

Icon Day - December 19.

Prayer:

“O all-praised, great miracle worker,
Holy Hierarch of Christ, Father Nicholas!
We pray you be the hope of all Christians,
Faithful protector, hungry feeder, crying joy,
A sick doctor, a ruler floating on the sea,
Poor and orphan feeder and quick helper and patron to all,
Yes, when we live a peaceful life
And may we be vouchsafed to see the glory of God's chosen ones in heaven,
And sing with them incessantly
One in the Trinity worshiped God forever and ever. Amen."

11. Capricorn December 22 - January 19“Unexpected joy” is the image of a repentant person who initially conceived an evil deed. Stored in the Church of the Prophet Elijah Ordinary in Moscow. Contributes to the fulfillment of the most cherished desires, when a person has completely lost hope for their fulfillment, heals those who are hard of hearing.

Icon Day - December 22, May 14.

Prayer:

“Chosen from all generations of the Mother of God and Queen,
Appearing somehow to a lawless man,
To turn him away from the path of wickedness,
We bring thanksgiving singing to You, God's parent;
But you, as having mercy inexpressible,
Free us from all troubles and sins,
Let us call you: Rejoice, granting unexpected joy to the faithful.

12. Aquarius January 20 - February 18“Recovery of the Lost” is an illustration of the legend about the “Repentance of Theophilus”, praying before the image of the Virgin. The original has been lost, and the highest quality copies (lists) are stored in the Moscow Church of the Resurrection of the Word, standing on the Assumption Vrazhek, in the St. Petersburg Intercession Church in Marienburg, in the Samara Intercession Cathedral. Helps to comfort those in a difficult, seemingly hopeless situation, heals a feverish condition, eye diseases, relieves headaches, toothaches, instructs those who deviate from the true faith, drink excessively, heals “lost” or dying children, and promotes a good marriage.

Icon Day - February 18.

Prayer:

“The zealous intercessor, the compassionate Mother of the Lord!
I resort to You, cursed and most sinful man above all, in
Listen to the voice of my supplication and hear my cry and groaning.
How my iniquities visited my head,
And I, like a ship in the abyss, sink into the sea of ​​my sins.
But You, the All-good and Merciful Lady,
Do not neglect me desperate and perishing in sins,
Have mercy on me, who repents of my evil deeds,
And turn to the right path my erring, accursed soul.
In You, my Lady Mother of God, I place all my hope.
You, Mother of God, save and keep me under Your shelter,
Now and forever and forever and ever. Amen."

13. Pisces February 19 - March 20"Guest of sinners" - Mother of God, interceding for all sinners who want to repent. The 2 most valuable copies are kept in the village. Odrino, Bryansk region, and in the Moscow church of St. Nicholas. Promotes recovery from mental and physical illnesses, helps to ask for mercy in case of repentance, deep depression.

Icon Day - March 20, June 11.

Prayer:

"My Blessed Queen, My Most Holy Hope,
Helper of sinners! Here is a poor sinner standing before You!
Don't leave me, abandoned by everyone,
Do not forget me, forgotten by everyone,
Give me joy, who knows no joy.
Oh, my troubles and sorrows are heavy! Oh, my sins are immeasurable!
Like the darkness of the night - my life.
And there is not one among the sons of men capable of helping me.
You are my only hope. You are my only cover,
Refuge and Affirmation.
Boldly I stretch out my feeble hands to You
And I pray: have mercy on me, All-good,
Have mercy on your blood-bought Son,
Satisfy the sickness of my many-sighing soul,
Tame the fury of those who hate and offend me, in
Restore my fading strength,
Renew my youth like an eagle's,
Do not let us weaken in doing the commandments of God.
With heavenly fire, touch my confused soul
And fill her with shameless faith, unfeigned love and known hope.
I always sing and praise You, Blessed Intercessor of the world,
Our cover and guarantor of all of us sinners,
And I worship Your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
With His Father Without Beginning
And the life-giving Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen."

What is the attitude of the Orthodox Church towards magic? The main credo of Orthodoxy is love, humility, forgiveness, help, donation, patience; the main credo of magic is manipulation. Orthodoxy makes the main emphasis on the need to build relationships with people based on all these virtues, endure injustice in the process, forgive, suffer, self-improving, working on oneself.

Magic, on the contrary, guarantees getting what you want without the titanic efforts that the Orthodox make in this case. Orthodoxy compares magical rituals with violence. For example, a performed ritual for a love spell deprives the will, freedom of a person who has become a victim of a love spell.

The Orthodox Church teaches that the establishment of such a connection is false, it is just a manipulation of consciousness. Therefore, in this case, it is necessary either to build trusting relationships with the object of love, or to come to terms with the impossibility of building them. At the same time, people involved in magic guarantee a positive result, in turn, the church offers only to pray, ask God for something, lead a righteous life and hope that the desired will come true.

Magic as a way of thinking and acting

Clergy seek to distinguish between manifestations of magic (worldview) and magic itself (specific rituals, ceremonies, etc.). They also warn believers against perceiving Orthodox rituals and sacraments as magical acts. And they warn that their mechanical reproduction without true faith will not bring them closer to God and will not solve their pressing problems (recovery, a good job, a strong family, and much more). However, it is quite difficult to distinguish Christianity itself from this very magic, in other words, ritual for the sake of ritual. That is, when the ceremony is more important than the knowledge, help, and faith received from it.

The “magical habits” characteristic of our society are so in demand because Orthodoxy, having actually been implanted more than a thousand years ago, mixed with paganism, and therefore all church processes, actions are perceived by many as a certain spectacle, when the shell is more important than the thoughts and thoughts of people. Magic is based on the same principle: exact words when casting a spell, well-honed movements, specific magical accessories. The slightest deviation has serious consequences.

All these ideas partly passed into Orthodoxy and have not been outlived to this day. Therefore, Orthodoxy condemns magic, which largely creates its modern image. The Orthodox Church calls on believers to give up worldly goods, not to arrange a performance from going to a prayer service, from baptism or wedding, prayer. Orthodox priests note that people turn to magic when they forget about God. Or they turn to him with a request when something unpleasant happens in their life (this is also akin to magic - the desire to get a quick and guaranteed result).

Orthodoxy and magic

The Orthodox Church also condemns magic for the fact that in the process of performing magic rituals the name of God is pronounced, people who turn to the magician are called servants of God, the pages of the Bible are quoted, thereby people are misled about the correctness of their choice in favor of magic, and not the church in difficult moments . The church is against magic because sooner or later the person who converted to it will have to answer for turning to it, you always have to pay for what you get in this way, it destroys people's souls.

However, many contemporaries strive to prove that it is impossible not only to confuse magic and religion, but also not to endow one with the qualities of the other. For example, it is noted that asking God (at prayer in a church or at home) for some earthly, that is, material good, should not be identified with the desire of magicians to get what they want with the help of a single ritual action or word.

Thus, for magic it is fundamentally clear and without the slightest deviation to observe the rules of the corresponding ritual, for Orthodoxy something else is important - to turn to God, to believe in him, not to replace faith with a mechanical reprimand of prayers, sacraments and rituals.

Magic and frequent recourse to it characterizes modern man as a rebellious personality. Magic is an attempt to make your life manageable, predictable, it is a desire to subjugate life circumstances, to solve your problems on your own. Orthodoxy teaches humility, points to Divine Providence, to the non-randomness of everything that happens. In such conditions of the existence of modern man, magic and the Orthodox Church appear as certain rivals for the direction of the life path of each person.

Magic and Christianity

Communicating with colleagues, I often see that many of them wear a cross and have icons at home. Someone "just in case" (like many of our contemporaries, a tribute to fashion), others sincerely consider themselves Christians. This situation has developed among Reiki practitioners, cosmo-energetics and esotericists of all stripes (especially those who call themselves psychics and "white magicians"). From time to time they go with their students on excursions (or even pilgrimages) to the monasteries of Russia, to Israel ("to the holy land").

Let's see if these two qualities contradict each other - to be an esoteric and a Christian. Let us turn to the Bible as the main source of faith. Unfortunately, few of today's "advanced spiritual teachers" who appeal to Christianity are familiar even approximately with the text of the Scripture itself.

At the beginning of our story, we will give a definition of the term "occultism" (now the popular word "esotericism" is often used, which is synonymous). This is a system of sacred practices based on the theory that everything in the world is connected by invisible threads. They are also called sympathetic bonds. Knowing the laws of the occult, you can "pull" these strings, that is, control people, nature, and even the spirits of the other world. The goal of occultism is the conscious development of para-abilities (psychic, magical), as well as the ability to receive information bypassing the five ordinary senses (clairvoyance, clairaudience, divination). The classic subjects of occult science were magic, astrology, palmistry, the science of arcana (Tarot), hermetic teaching (a synthesis of Kabbalah, treatises of the Gnostics of the early Middle Ages and neo-Platonists), psychometry and telepathy, sacred therapeutics (healing spells, magical prayers, passes - here you can include modern sessions of psychics).

Before moving on to specific quotations from the Bible, let's define who this text was originally addressed to, in its essence. Christianity originated in the second half of the 1st century. AD, as the religion of the slaves and the oppressed, the poor and the destitute, many of whom found refuge in the catacombs under the cities. It is the poor and the sick who are promised the Kingdom of God in the first place. Those who live in prosperity, the authors of Scripture clearly did not like - which is understandable, since this contrasted sharply with their own existence.

Matthew 19:23-24“Jesus said to His disciples: Truly, I say to you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

The kingdom in heaven is conceived as a reward for all the hardships of the life of the common people. After the Last Judgment, at the end of the days of the earthly world, the resurrection of the dead and the golden age are expected.

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 “For we do not want to leave you, brethren, in ignorance of our affliction that was with us in Asia, because we were weighed down exceedingly and beyond our strength, so that we did not hope to remain alive. But they themselves had a sentence of death in themselves, in order to hope not in themselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

John 11:25“Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.”

The Christian doctrine itself arose as a reaction to the despotism of Rome, in the context of the messianic movements of Judaism. Not without reason, many historians decipher "the number of a man, the number of the beast" as the name of Emperor Nero, a cruel ruler and persecutor of Christians. In those days, there were coins in circulation, on which he was depicted along with the signature "Emperor Nero" ("Neron Kesar"). As we know, the Hebrew alphabet assigns a number to each Hebrew letter. "Neron Kesar" gave a total of 666.

The power of the Roman Empire suppressed the peoples of Israel, in society there was a rigid differentiation into rich and poor. Priests-high priests traded at temples (as well as now), lived prosperously, all this could not but cause indignation among the common people. Did Jesus himself exist? Undoubtedly, as an idea. Replacing the old ancient gods. Christianity became a world religion because, firstly, it introduced the concept of God-man, eliminated the gap between the Creator and creation (through the sacrifice of Christ, the atonement for the sins of mankind). Secondly, it put people of different social classes on the same level, all people in Scripture are equal before God. And, finally, it promised all the destitute and oppressed the Kingdom of God in heaven.

" Seeing the people, He went up the mountain; and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:1-3)

There is nothing about the personality of Jesus as a historical character in the annals of that era. A contemporary of Christ, Philo Judeus (20 BC - 50 AD) wrote over 50 treatises on history, philosophy, and religion. But nowhere does he speak about Jesus of Nazareth, although, for example, he writes about Pilate in sufficient detail. And only around 117 AD. Tacitus (a well-known Roman historian and chronicler) casually mentions the "superstitious sect of the Christians." Others also write about this (for example, Pliny the Younger), but not about Jesus himself, as a public figure who existed in reality.

Modern scholars tend to think that the New Testament was written by the famous missionary Paul (Jewish name - Saul) and his "editors", who was martyred in 62 AD. The plots themselves surprisingly repeat the stories that circulated at that time among the people - with regard to the miracles that were once performed by Pythagoras, Empidocles, Epimenides and other prophets of the Hellenic world. The plots are also repeated (a meeting with a Samaritan woman, walking on water, distributing bread, and many others). The figure of Christ echoes the Egyptian myths about Osiris (God dying and reborn), the Greek epic and, for example, the image of the same Mithra from Indian cosmology. Explicit parallels point to the continuity of Christian mythology.

Example 1. It is common knowledge that the oldest version of Scripture is the text in Aramaic, later translated into Greek, then into Latin. Translations from Latin are the basis for modern versions of the Bible. As the famous scientist N.A. Morozov points out in one of his works, there is no cross in the Greek translation. Instead, there is the word "stavros" (that is, a pillar, a pole). Therefore, the representation of being tied to a pole seems more plausible (the executed were left to die in the desert in the sun, this is a very common form of execution in that era). Here is a quote from A.Drevs: "The two-rammed cross in Christianity is just as much a symbol of new life and the divine... as are both pillars in the cult of Tyrian or Libyan Hercules, Shamash or Simon... pillar in such a way that they form the figure of an (oblique) cross. It must be said that the hero of ancient myths, Hercules, carrying pillars (bent under their weight) was a favorite symbol of the Hellenic world.

Example 2. Krishna-Christ. The same N.A. Morozov in the book "History of human culture in natural scientific illumination" writes: "The change of the path of the eightfold incarnation of the almighty god Vishnu in the opposite direction from Greek Syria to India is in full agreement with linguistics, where the word Krishna is a modification of the national Greek word Christos, t i.e. “initiated by anointing with oil.” As is known, the Vedic teaching arose in India long before the advent of Christianity, and even its primary source - the Old Testament religion of the ancient Jews.

"For you trusted in your wickedness; you said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and your knowledge have led you astray; and you have said in your heart: "I am, and none but me." And disaster will come upon you: you will not know from where it will rise; and trouble will attack you, which you will not be able to avert, and destruction will suddenly come upon you. which you do not think of. Stay with your sorceries and with your many sorceries, which you have practiced from your youth: perhaps you will help yourself, perhaps you will persevere. You are weary of your many councils; and forerunners at the new moons, and they will save you from what is to happen to you.Here they are, like stubble: the fire burned them up - they did not deliver their souls from the flame; there was no coal left to warm themselves, no fire to sit before him (Isaiah 47:10-14).

"But Elimas the sorcerer (for that means his name) resisted them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who is also Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit and fixing his gaze on him, said: O full of all deceit and all villainy, the son of the devil enemy of all righteousness, will you cease to pervert from the straight ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you: you will be blind and you will not see the sun until a time. looking for a guide" (Acts 13:8-11).

Scripture rejects any healing courses (the right to learn this), treatment with something other than faith in God (thus, Reiki and cosmic energy can be included in the list of prohibitions for a Christian). A person is denied the right to heal himself and others, but only endure all suffering and illness, as a test of God. It is no wonder that numerous Christian sects arose that refused even medical care - after all, their ideological leaders simply read the Scriptures, the words written there in plain text.

Acts 8:9-24 "Now there was a certain man in the city, named Simon, who had previously been working magic and astonishing the people of Samaria, pretending to be someone great. Everyone listened to him, from the smallest to the greatest, saying, This is the great power of God. And they listened to him because he amazed them with sorcery for a long time, but when they believed Philip, who announced the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.
Simon himself also believed, and having been baptized, he did not depart from Philip; and, seeing the great powers and signs taking place, he was astonished. The Apostles who were in Jerusalem, having heard that the Samaritans had received the word of God, sent Peter and John to them, who, having come, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He has not yet descended upon any of them, but they have only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Simon, seeing that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles, brought them money, saying, Give me this power also, so that whoever I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him: let your silver be in destruction with you, because you thought to receive the gift of God for money. You have no part and lot in this, for your heart is not right before God. So repent of this sin of yours, and pray to God: perhaps the thought of your heart will descend upon you; for I see you full of bitter gall and in the bonds of unrighteousness. Simon answered and said, "Pray to the Lord for me, that nothing of what you have said may overtake me."

Leviticus 20:27"Whether a man or a woman, if they call the dead or perform magic, let them be put to death: they must be stoned with stones, their blood is on them."

Not without reason, in Scripture there is an expression "God-jealous." Have you been doing Christmas divination? Have you read horoscopes in the newspapers? Did you go to your grandmother for treatment - did you cure a hernia in a child? According to the Bible, you deserve to die. God can punish you at any moment. How he burned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, arranged a worldwide flood, sent to the Egyptian cities so that his angels would kill everyone who was against the word of Moses, along with women and children. Have you read the Bible? I advise you to look through this sacred text. Especially those magicians and Reiki Masters who consider themselves Christians.

Let's try to understand, first of all, what magic is.

Magic (lat. magic- witchcraft, sorcery) is a set of rituals and actions aimed at influencing the surrounding reality with the help of mysterious forces. These are conspiracies, spells, love spells and lapels, all kinds of accompanying rituals (for example, tying knots, writing certain words and patterns), as well as the necessary tools: talismans, knives, needles, bones, hair, blood, resin, herbs, etc.

Usually, magic is treated as a convenient tool at hand, which does not require serious mental costs. After all, it's so simple - pronounce a verbal formula, blow, spit and believe that now everything will change. However, behind the magic itself lies a serious worldview (in fact, which can be called magicism). It is worth getting to know him in order to understand the key differences between magicism and the Christian faith.

In Christianity, it is confessed that everything in the world is subject to Divine Providence. There is nothing left out of the wise and sensitive care of the Heavenly Father. Even sorrows and troubles, even our spiritual falls are allowed by God for our possible enlightenment. Therefore, it is possible to achieve true good only through a personal appeal to God. Man is endowed with free will, and therefore he is free to turn to Christ, about no matter what happens around him (whether war, revolution, economic crisis, etc.). The magical worldview, on the other hand, believes that there is neither Divine Providence nor unconditional freedom, but there is a secret, hidden power that invisibly embraces the entire universe. People, invisible spirits, elements of nature - all are subject to the occult laws of influence. Whoever has found the key to these laws owns the world. To put it figuratively, in magic it is believed that all the things of our world are connected by invisible threads and that a correctly pronounced spell affects these threads. In magicism, people themselves are just living puppets, to which the threads of an invisible puppeteer are tied. With the help of magic, you can pull the desired thread, and no matter how the living doll resists, the action will be irresistible - illness, damage, excitation of sexual desire, etc. It is surprising that conspiracies are very numerous just with the involvement of threads and knots. The process of tying, in particular, is interpreted as a process of inducing or removing damage: “A sick person is tied with a thread, therefore, the disease is also tied; a person is tied - the disease is also tied; the thread is removed from the person, the disease is removed with it; the thread is thrown, buried in the ground, placed in the hole of the tree, which is then clogged, the associated disease is thrown with the thread and buried in the ground ”( Eleonskaya E.N. Fairy tale, conspiracy and witchcraft in Russia. M., 1994. S. 174).

The principles of magicism are vividly represented in the well-known legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The story, the solution of which scientists still cannot find, is captured in the European chronicles of the Middle Ages. On June 26, 1284 (even a day is recorded) in the German city of Hameln, a rat-catcher-musician led 130 children by playing the pipe, who disappeared forever. Before that, the city suffered greatly from rats, the invasion of which in the Middle Ages was sometimes compared to an epidemic. The magistrate promised a big reward to anyone who rid the city of rats. It was then that a flutist appeared, demanding, in case of success, to give him as much gold as he would carry on himself. The city fathers immediately agreed. The rat-catcher took out a magic pipe; all the city rats came running to her sounds, and, fascinated by the enchanting melody, the rat-catcher led them outside the city. In the meantime, the magistrate regretted his hasty promise and denied the flutist a reward. Appearing a little later, the Hamelin rat-catcher again played the magic flute, only this time the city kids ran to him, whom the rat-catcher took out of the city - either to the river, or to the mountain gorge, where they disappeared. Scholars give different versions in an attempt to explain this story; it is suggested that this legend may be a veiled reflection of both the children's crusade and the withdrawal of prisoners after an unsuccessful battle, or the death in the mountains under a landslide of children led by a musician to a feast along a swampy basin ... As for rats, they say that they react to a high-frequency sound made by tin pipes, used in those days everywhere by rat catchers. This event is captured on the stained-glass window of the Hamelin church, which was made around 1300, and the people of that era perceived what happened as a manifestation of magical spells. Indeed, in occultism, it is the performance of certain actions, a magical ritual (in this case, the performance of an enchanting melody) that inevitably entails the necessary consequences in people's lives (in the Hamelin legend, the departure of children).

If in Christianity spiritual success depends on how open a person's heart is to Christ, how much a person fulfills the commandments of Christ and strives for God, then in magic there is a rare indifference to God. It is not that atheism is confessed in magic - sometimes the name of God is mentioned in conspiracies, and the person being spoken to is called a servant of God - however, all the goals of magic are of an exclusively earthly nature. Here everything is obtained by one's passionate effort in breaking through to the spiritual world: to achieve success, money, health, the favor of a loved one, etc.

Not a living appeal to God, but the action of laws, the expectation of the effect of one's rituals - this is what magic professes. And if in Christianity spiritual perfection depends on the personal meeting and unity of the human soul with God, then in magic, technology and a mysterious ritual are in the foreground.

Let's open the curtain. In fact, all the secret knowledge of modern magic comes down to knowledge of the witchcraft pyramid. The magical pyramid is the four "truths" that are taken into account in magical rituals: imagination, willpower, faith in magic and observance of secrets. For effective witchcraft, the magician must, firstly, use a vivid imagination, fantasy, colorfully and emotionally presenting the necessary objects and faces; secondly, he concentrates all his attention, all his will on the magical action; thirdly, he unforgettably believes in him (and not in God, even if he mentions the name of God), believes that his word will be fulfilled, and, fourthly, does not reveal his secrets to anyone. And therefore, here we will not meet a single bright ray descending from Heaven, we will not meet that Divine help and spiritual consolation that are given in response to the pure and peaceful prayer of a Christian.

Researchers note that magic recognizes several spheres in our universe. Good spirits live in the upper realm, and evil demons live in the lower realm. If Christianity testifies that dark spirits reside in a radically different sphere of being than bright angels (the former are in the heavenly sphere, and the latter are in heaven) and that pure life and warm prayer are needed to contact the latter, then in magic the situation is completely different. In magic, it is believed that with the help of secret ceremonies, one can get in touch with invisible spirits, not only with evil ones, but also with good ones, and allegedly receive help from them. Moreover, an agreement can be made with the spirits, and then the magician controls the spirits in his own interests - they belong to the sorcerer while he lives, and after death the magician belongs to these forces forever. But the sorcerer does not particularly think about the latter. He thinks about something else, namely: if the world is subject to spirits, and spirits to spells, then he who has mastered spells becomes his own king and god.

Of course, it is a profound mistake to think that good spirits can be won over by rituals and spells. Because for communion with angels, fidelity to God, whom angels serve, sincere prayer and cutting off carnal and spiritual passions, and not passes, whispering and inhaling overseas incense, is needed. And those spirits that pretend to be good to magicians are actually not as good as they seem.

Magic in its inner essence is inseparable from ancient paganism. Paganism professed polytheism - polytheism. And if the Divine Revelation testifies of God exceeding our created world, then in paganism the gods are just parts of the material world, as part of which are the heavenly bodies and stars. They, the gods in the pagan sense, are also limited, dependent on fate and all kinds of vicissitudes, and therefore, in a certain sense, they can be controlled. Magic appeals to invisible spirits, these “gods” close to people, but it appeals to make them serve a person in achieving his earthly interests.

So, in magic there is an attempt to manage your life and the world around you without obedience to God, and instead of personal unity with Him, it is proposed to achieve perfection for yourself. Since such goals are in reality unattainable for a fallen person, fallen spirits help to create an imitation of power and perfection. Let us remember how Satan tempted Jesus Christ Himself before the beginning of the gospel sermon: “And the devil said to him: I will give you power over all these kingdoms and their glory, for it is delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I want; therefore, if You worship me, then everything will be Yours” (Luke 4:6-7). Christ resolutely rejected the tempter, but the tempter offers the same temptation to people in the form of mysterious knowledge, extrasensory self-development and occult "power" over the world.

The question is often asked: is there a ritual of consecration of the soul to the devil in magic? Such a ritual really exists, however, without those colorful mythical details about the appearance of the devil in reality and the drawing up of a “mutually beneficial” contract. There is simply a ritual of special actions from the category of black magic, which we will not describe and in which an unfortunate person devotes his soul to the devil. It is assumed that the temporary price of the “contract” is strength and power over other people and nature (if you want, induce illness, but if you want, give healing), the eternal price is the hellish torment of the soul.

Once again, let us pay attention to the key truth in magicism. For the magician, moral values ​​and the spiritual content of the invisible world are not important; he recognizes the operation of laws, that certain magical passes must inevitably be followed by the desired consequences. Thus, in magic, the main thing is a correctly performed ritual. This is the cardinal difference between magic and church sacraments, which cannot help a person without his living relationship to God. With an outwardly correctly observed ceremonial side, for example, the sacraments of communion, a person may not partake of Christ, since he turns out to be an unworthy communicant. The effect of church sacraments on a Christian is directly related to his personal inner state, to his personal relationship to Christ. In magic, all this is not important: he performed the ritual, believed in its effectiveness, and nothing more is required.

Unfortunately, some Christians have a magical attitude towards church sacraments, when baptism, communion, weddings and other sacraments are understood as means to earthly well-being by virtue of the most perfect action. He was baptized - and protected from all temptations, took communion - and you will not get sick, got married - and you will avoid divorce - so a superstitious person with a magical consciousness believes. And often a person does not suspect that he (perhaps he himself is an active fighter against sorcerers and magicians) is in the grip of an occult worldview. Magism is manifested, for example, in such phrases: “You baptize the children, they will still get sick less” (and if you haven’t baptized them yet, then don’t let anyone near the baby - they will jinx you), “Put a candle - and you will pass the exam”, “Be sure to score Epiphany water - helps from the evil eye. That is, magic manifests itself when a person forgets about God and relies only on a visible ritual, and also when earthly and mercantile things are obviously expected from the spiritual.

This also happens when the read prayer rule is perceived as a guarantor of all kinds of success, as if a kind of pledge obliging the spiritual forces to fulfill all your wishes. Even church services are perceived by some as something magical, a kind of action filled with ancient and incomprehensible aesthetics, which in itself endows a person with invisible power. It is important for a Christian to remember that the most important thing in prayer is the very communication with God, Who knows how to arrange a person's life - to Him we entrust our lives and successes. In the sacred rites of the temple, a person ascends with his soul to God, and God looks at the heart and therefore bestows grace as the soul of a person turns to Him.

The magic of many of our contemporaries is manifested in the fact that, for example, a person believes that he fell ill only because someone wished him bad or, God forbid, brought damage to him. Thus, a sick person forgets about the Providence of God, that God takes care of us through our sorrows and illnesses. Attention is unjustifiably drawn to the magical idea of ​​the cause-and-effect relationships of slander, curses and malevolence with our troubles and illnesses. Someone else's word or an evil eye seems to be the root cause of suffering, but the holy fathers called sorrows a Divine visitation: it is in them that the spirit of a Christian is brought up, when a person is distracted from vain earthly aspirations and turns his soul to what is eternal.

People with a magical consciousness think about God in an abstract, impersonal way, and often do not think about Him at all. In the best cases, they present the Divine as the highest principle, according to which our life should be arranged, as if some kind of cosmic law, the violation of which entails suffering, but they do not notice in Him a higher personal principle. Therefore, they do not know how to ask God for anything and do not know what it is to trust Him in their lives. Let us note in passing that those Christians who in prayer do not have a living sense of standing before God, who rely on the text of the prayer, as if acting on its own, and pronounce the words of prayers only according to custom, for the sake of ritual, such Christians slide into a magical understanding of the world. spiritual.

And if a person believes that he is able to reach spiritual heights only by his own efforts, if perfection itself is considered as a certain result of the method of spiritual self-development, then magic is also noticeable in this. For the result is expected from human efforts in themselves, verbal formulas and passes, while the heart with its feelings, the mind with its thoughts, the will with its desires remain without a living appeal to God.

Genuine spiritual life is based on trusting God (and, therefore, entrusting your fate to Him), turning to Him with a heart and fulfilling His commandments, and not on the mechanical performance of rituals and the thoughtless utterance of even the most church prayers. Actually, Christian perfection is the transforming action of God in the human soul, to which the person himself either promotes or hinders. And the whole fullness of church life with its divine services and sacraments, with its traditions and rituals, with its prayers and spiritual culture is the environment in which the soul of a person must open in his free, warm and sincere ascent to the Heavenly Father.

From the book "Greek Magic in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and in Modern Times"

Definition of the term " magic' is a debatable issue. Below I will illustrate this statement by observing how the boundaries that existed between Christianity and magic. At the same time, special attention will be paid to the situation taking place in Greece. In the West " magic» has historically been perceived as a category opposite to such socially significant and highly valuable activities as religion and science. In small and unlearned societies, where there is neither a religious nor a scientific institution, there is probably not even such a category that would correspond to the concept " magic". Usually it is those people whose activities are related to religion or science - that is, theologians, clerics, scientists and philosophers - who decide what magic is. Magic helps us define what religion and science are by illustrating what it is not. Magic is a "bad science" or non-standard religion, a compendium of superstitions and delusions.

Victorian anthropologist I.B. Taylor and Sir James Fraser believed that magic is a "primitive" view of the universe. They believed that in the course of human evolution, magic would inevitably be transformed into religion, and finally into science. In "civilized" societies - such as Great Britain, where these authors lived - magic was eventually to be supplanted by science. Any magical practices, which still existed in such societies, were considered unfortunate but harmless "remnants" of the early stages of evolution. By identifying these atavistic survivals, anthropologists could help to eliminate them and thus contribute to general human progress.

Recognizing magic seems like a simple thing these days, because our concepts of religion and science are already articulated and shared in society. However, those practices that are defined as magical have changed over time, reconciling themselves to changes and development in the mainstream religious direction and generally recognized science. This process did not take place in the open, it was not consistent, but was carried out through numerous shuffles. yesterday's Orthodox most Christian practices have now become magical practices, just as alchemy was once an accepted form of science, but is now considered a magical practice. In his essay entitled Les formses élémentaires de la vie religieuse (The Elementary Forms of Religious Life), the French sociologist Émile Durkheim systematically contrasts magic and religion.

A Magic Circle used to predict the future. Codex 115, early 18th century. The image is kept in the Historical and Ethnographic Society of Athens.

Magic, he argued, is individualistic, it is designed to achieve goals that do not benefit the whole society. "There is no church of magic," Durkheim declared. Magic cannot be used as a ritual that would appeal to the general public. By definition, it is a marginal and anti-social movement. The possibility of the existence of "white magic" Durkheim did not take into account at all. For him, magic is by definition a black art. I believe that all the theory about magic by the supposedly uninterested, publicly recognized atheist scientists, was mainly based on the stable views of the main Christian churches. Early Church Fathers such as John Chrysostom regarded most pre-Christian practices as "superstition" and therefore desired their extermination. Belief in the existence of many lesser gods and nature spirits; communication with these deities through sacrifice, divination, or astrology; as well as the conviction that such practices caused direct changes in nature or helped to achieve such a unique ability as insight into the future - the presence of any of these signs was a sign that a person was engaged in magic, that is, absorbed in superstitions (δεισιδαιμονία: fear of demons/demon worship). The main principle of the division was the adoption of monotheism. If a person turned to the idea of ​​the existence of the One Almighty God, then it logically followed that he could not be related to magic. People very soon realized that prayer and appeal to the permitted church rituals and clerics is the best means of obtaining divine help. They realized that the Will of God is the highest powerful force in the cosmos, and Christianity offers the only effective and efficient means of communication with God. The idea that nature could be directly influenced or controlled by spells was anathema. And yet, despite the fact that Church Councils clearly proclaimed these provisions, it was problematic to convey this information to distant church parishes in a form in which they would become understandable to semi-educated local priests and for the most part completely illiterate local ones. parishioners. At the local level, there were still difficulties in distinguishing magic from ordinary Christian practices. In chapter 12 of his book, Kalofonos presented a study of the "Life of St. Andrew the Blessed", written in the 10th century, in which the current situation is wonderfully illustrated. A pious woman turns to Wigrin, who is highly respected in the Christian world, to solve her family problems. It was only after she followed his advice that she realized that she had fraudulently become involved in an anti-Christian magical practice. Then the assistant of St. Andrew helped her free herself from the magical networks of Vigrinos. According to Kalofonos, this story can be considered an attempt to convey to the people the recent decrees regarding the prohibition of all types of magic, which was made possible by the design of this message in the form of a life of a Saint. This story shows how difficult it was sometimes for the people to distinguish between magic and religion.

Western Christendom faced the same problem. Russian medievalist historian Aron Gurevich argued that the only way to distinguish "miracula" from "maleficia" was to observe who performs this action. 2 Any ritual performed by an authorized cleric was a de facto Christian practice. However, the "Blessed Saints" (Άγιοι Σαλοί) of the Eastern Church, such as Saint Simeon or Saint Andrew mentioned earlier, make even this pragmatic distinction between magic and religion problematic. The Blessed Saints, who wore only rags on themselves, or did not walk in clothes at all, performed all sorts of amusing or surprising ascetic practices from the outside, without a doubt, were marginal personalities in relation to the dominant Church. It would be difficult for the average person to tell if they were truly Christian Saints or if they were just social nonconformists. 3 This difficulty in determining the nature of the practitioners was precisely one of the main themes of the story of Vigrinos. Even if we could think of objective criteria by which to distinguish religion from magic, we would still be faced with another problem. Rituals once recognized by the Church may eventually be rejected by it and even demonized. Anthropologist and historian William Christian provides an excellent example of this in Catholic Spain. The local priest of one of the villages in which the research was carried out told him that people should pray only for the souls of those dead who are in purgatory. That is, prayers to God should apply only to those dead whose souls will eventually be admitted to Paradise. Theologically, it was considered unacceptable for people to pray to souls in purgatory, as if the souls themselves had an independent power to help people. Historical research, however, unearthed a 19th-century Christian manual for priests that sanctioned the practice of praying to souls in purgatory. 4 People who now pray to souls in purgatory are probably following the earlier teachings of the Catholic Church, and do not realize that their actions were subject to a ban.

If this example shows how the doctrine of the Church, which belongs to some time, can become superstition in time, then the attitude to such a concept as " evil eye in Greece illustrates the opposite. The belief that people are able to adversely affect others through their eyes alone is as ancient as the myth of Perseus and Medusa the Gorgon in Greece. Historical evidence shows that belief in " evil eye"It was firmly rooted in all societies of the eastern Mediterranean, and it continued to exist until the end of the period of Antiquity. The early Christian Church Fathers disapproved of this popular belief and considered it an element of pagan superstition that righteous Christians should abandon. St. John Chrysostom condemned women who covered the faces of their children with mud so that no one could experience envy and “jinx” them. He believed that because of this "ugliness" (askhimosyni), these women fell into the "devil's trap" (diavolikas pagidas). 5 St. Basil, in his Sermon on Envy, denied the notion that just an envious look could do any harm. From his point of view, all this is just old maids' tales. 6 The fact that all these condemnations of belief in “ evil eye”continued to be repeated in spiritual sermons in the Middle Ages, shows that this belief itself, as well as the practice of this very “evil eye”, did not cease to exist among the laity. Obviously, realizing that the popular belief in the "evil eye" could not be exterminated, the Orthodox Church included a special prayer against the "evil eye" in Christian practice. This prayer was included in the "Small Prayer Book" (Mikron Evkhologion) after the 17th century. This prayer, officially recognized, obviously relies on traditional incantations against the "evil eye" (xematiasmata) in its wording. 7 Thus the Church legitimized what she had previously criticized as superstition. Yesterday's magic has become established as the current religion.

In the course of anthropological research on the island of Naxos, I found similar uncertainties and changes in the realm of "superstition" and the recognized Orthodox religion. As in many other places in Greece, various spells» (giteies, xorkia), intended to cure diseases such as erysipelas (anemopyroma), sunstroke (iliasis) and jaundice (ikteros) continued to spread until recently. Like rituals designed to get rid of the "evil eye", these spells were addressed to the Saints, to Christ and God the Father.

People did not always notice that these spells» are not allowed Orthodox prayers. The villagers call them "prayers" (prosevkhes); only outside analysts such as Orthodox clerics and folklorists classify them as spells. In the future, the situation became more complicated for the reason that the priests who grew up in this kind of rural areas often did not receive a high-level theological education. 8 Therefore, the village priests were prone to commit the same errors of judgment as the laity. An obvious example of this occurred in the 19th century, when a parish priest of Apiranthos named Primikirios came to the Archbishop of Paros and Naxos, where he was reprimanded for reciting "kharti tis yalous" (χαρτί της γιαλούς), an exorcism against Gello, who steals children. The text of this exorcism spell was published by folklorist D.B. Iconomidis, who noted that he found this copy of this text from a village teacher, as well as a local archimandrite in the 1930s. 9 All this implies that even high-ranking members of the local society did not consider "kharti" to be a text outside of accepted Orthodox religious practice.

Now I want to turn to a broader question - the possibility of origin orthodoxy and magic in Greece from common sources on the basis of religious ideas in the Hellenistic and early period of the empire. Perhaps this circumstance was the beginning for a certain similarity between them at the level of form and meaning. This was probably the cause of the difficulty that arose for ordinary people in Greece in distinguishing between magic and religion. Consider, for example, a ritual for "disenchanting" someone who has been "flattened" (xematiasma). In Greece, many ways of such "disenchantment" are known. For some of them, a carnation or coal is set on fire and thrown into the water, or a cross is thrown into the water. One of the most famous forms of the xematiasma ritual is as follows: oil is dropped into a bowl of water while reciting a prayer. Sometimes a prayer is read for every drop of oil falling into the water, or it can be said after all the oil has been spilled into the water. It is believed that by looking at how oil and water interact, a “disenchanted” person can determine whether he has actually been “jinxed”. If the water separates from the oil, this means that the person was not "bewitched", but if the water and oil are mixed, then, indeed, the person has become a victim of the "evil eye". In either case, the ritual ends in the same way: the patient is sprinkled with a mixture of oil and water. I call the words spoken at the same time "prayers", because, despite the fact that they are not officially approved by the Church, they mainly contain an appeal to Christ or to the Saints. Sometimes they include obscene language or serious threats towards the person who has "jinxed", as, for example, in the following spell from Naxos:

If a woman [jinxed], let her breasts swell.
If a man [jinxed] let his testicles swell.
Ships float, ships sink.

However, this is more the exception than the rule. For the most part, the prayers and actions in the "disenchantment" ceremonies are compatible with Orthodoxy, which is confirmed by the fact that the official Orthodox ritual of "disenchantment" also includes the sprinkling of Holy Water (agiasmos).

In Naxos, a person who thinks he has been “jinxed” can silently list nine bodily orifices while also silently praying. 10 This practice reminds us of the ritual of baptism, when the sense organs of the new initiate are anointed and sealed with oil and then with myrrh. This symbolizes the "sealing" of the human body by the Holy Spirit so that it is inaccessible to the invasion of demons. At that moment, when someone suspects that he has been "jinxed", he again enumerates the holes, saying a prayer, thus confirming the effectiveness of the baptismal ritual, replacing a certain part of it.

It can be argued that the ritual of getting rid of the "evil eye" and the Orthodox baptism ceremony correspond to each other. Their ritual form is similar, and similar is the design itself. Water is blessed by the addition of oil in both rituals, then the participant in the ritual comes into contact with the water. The difference lies in the fact that at baptism a person is completely immersed in water, while during the xematiasma ceremony, sprinkling takes place. In both rituals, however, water is used to purify a person from demonic possession.

Since there is a risk that the water, through which a person will be cleansed, may contain demonic spirits, she herself undergoes purification in both rituals. At the very least, the ritual of getting rid of the "evil eye" can be considered a folk form of agiasmos, but I would also consider the ritual of agiasmos as a mini-baptism. It represents the remembrance and renewal of the purified state of a person at baptism.

How to explain these similarities between the central rituals of Orthodoxy and magical rituals? I suspect that many people will argue that the Orthodox ritual of baptism came first. The ceremony of getting rid of the "evil eye" and the ceremonies of agiasmos were to appear later, and the partial imitation of the ritual of baptism, and references to it, are very similar to the way village children continue to imitate the procession of "Epitaphios" after the weeks and months after Easter. I think that both of these rituals developed independently of each other in the later period of Antiquity, and they are derived from common Hellenistic ideas regarding demonic power, the effectiveness of exorcism, the sanctifying power of oil, and the purifying action of water. Both rituals, baptism and xematiasma, were thus both cut from the same cultural attire. However, they then continued their movement in various trajectories in the Hellenistic culture, which continued for two millennia. The essence of the Orthodox baptismal ceremony was formulated in the 2nd century A.D., and this ritual was further developed by theologians and clerics, who gradually formalized the text of the ceremony. Meanwhile, the ceremony of getting rid of the "evil eye" followed a different course. Although it was based on the same ideas as the baptismal ceremony, the xematiasma ritual, as well as other spells to cure diseases, was forbidden by the Church. They were transmitted orally, subject to certain restrictions, such as, for example, the transmission of spells by members of the same sex from generation to generation, from mother to son, and from father to daughter, and so on. This oral transmission has led to the fact that there are certain differences in the spells, they are modified in comparison with the textually formalized, doctrinally protected ritual of baptism.

One of the curious elements of the xematiasma ceremony is its divinational component. By looking at a mixture of oil and water, according to this belief, a person can determine whether or not the patient was actually "bewitched", and even if he was not "bewitched", the ritual is not interrupted, but brought to an end. The practice of divination by looking into a bowl of water, with or without the addition of oil, was called "lecanomancy" and was known in Antiquity. It continued to be used in the Byzantine period. The xematiasma ritual probably retained some of the formal elements of lecanomancy 11 , but it is clear that the element of divination has atrophied, since it does not affect the course of the ritual. The baptismal ceremony may also be based on the principles of lecanomancy, but since divination was classified as a pagan practice in the early Church period, it is not surprising that this significant part of the ritual was completely removed.

Christianity for the most part developed within the framework of the Hellenic culture of the first centuries of our era. Christianity was originally a Semitic idea, which then spread beyond Palestine, and found many converts in the Greek-speaking society that today constitutes Greece. Christianity developed as a systematic religion in this way. Much of the New Testament was written in Greek, which was the language into which the kerygma was translated and the culture to which it was adapted. Thus, Greece is now in a very unusual position. It is an example of what anthropologist McKim Marriott called "the local grand tradition." This means that the Greek form of Christianity (in this case we mean Greek culture in the broadest sense) is the result of local development and not of external colonial or imperial introduction. 12 In other words, there is a genetic connection between Orthodoxy and the local culture in Greece, which is not inherent in many countries of the world, for example, in South America or Africa, where Christianity was adopted by people who were completely non-European, where social and climatic conditions were very different from the same conditions of the eastern Mediterranean.

One consequence of this provision is that local religious practices considered "superstitious" by the Church are in fact formally very similar to its own central rituals. The centuries of interaction and compromise between these two traditions, as outlined above in particular, have further complicated the situation. Foreign, imported forms of magic can be easily recognized by the Greeks, but the dividing line between folk magic and Orthodox practitioners are often much harder to notice. Ultimately, the whole question rests not on considerations about who performs the ritual, but on what the Church declares. For the same, to declare something, it may take time, and, moreover, after the decision may change. This is the reason for the arbitrariness and uncertainty in trying to distinguish magic from religion in Greece.

Notes:

1. Luhrmann 1989.
2. - Gurevich 1988: 74.
3. – I thank George Kalofonos for this research.
4. Christian 1989: 94.
5. - Veikou 1998: 61. Regarding "atopa" and "geloia" as means of getting rid of the "evil eye", see Engeman 1975:
30.
6. Greenfield 1988: 112.
7. Stewart 1991: 235.
8. - In 1920, only 1% of the entire Orthodox clergy (excluding bishops) received a university education. By 1975 this number had risen to only 8%. See Ware 1983: 217.
9. - Oikonomidis 1940: 65ff.
10.- A similar question regarding Crete is discussed in Herzfeld 1986: 107-20.
11.- For this and related practices, see Delatte 1932.
12. - Marriott 1955.

Book article "Greek Magic in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Times"»