just curious....is there a tradition of black or white witchcraft in Latvia?

freely admit I have not done my homework as regards google or libraries, but would like to hear contributions, particularly spells and anti-spells.

i.s.

melbourne
oz.

Perhaps I am way off base here - but I believe that it depends on your definition of witchcraft. Traditionally I believe that anything outside the so-called normal tenets of religious belief, has been inproperly been termed as being witchcraft, or occult, or demonic, or simply pagan. I know that there are many that are re-aquainting themselves with traditional lore - much of this has now been associated with the popular concept of the power grid that runs along certain lines of the earth. Many people seem to have the ability to read these lines,and/or determine certain events through their interpretation of this phenomina. The way I saw much of this though, was simply that these people seem to be able to commute with nature. As one individual told me - the old gods are very much alive, but they are not devine beings, they are simply the same energy forces that have always surounded and influenced human kind. Perhaps from a religious concept this qualifies as witchcraft per se. I certainly found it to be fascinating, and even magical (did not believe in that before) - but I certainly would not define it as witchcraft.

As to my experience of dialogue with the Latvian magicians I met one, and even helped him to get the Russian visa. As far as I have understood, he was the single in its genre on that moment , but professed extremely white magic, not-traditional healing and so on. But I also read about different “ places of force “ in Latvia (I now do not remember where it is exact) where various representatives of nonconventional methods of treatment and magicians gather.

Besides as it is strange, I read about Latvian representatives of various similar schools practising in Russia, in Asia - in area of Altai, near Himmalaya and East “ centres of force “. it not seemed to me surprising, that these schools are headed by Latvians. I do not know why.

And also the great story about Ed Ledskalnins, who had build corral castle in Florida by himself. But is very well-known story,

Regards,

Juris

Generally I have recollected, that each my arrival Latvia was connected to something similar. It is a lot of mysticism there. I now can not remember and tell everything, but for example, somewhere in the middle of 80th I was at the gipsy of Jelgava. It is very ancient gipsy clan which lives in Jelgava since 17 centuries. Their occurrence there is connected that dukes of Kurland (the Byrons) have based the Latvian horse breeding, and gypsy were very much into this theme. But the most surprising that they did not leave Jelgava since then. Even when Germans came during war, they lived there all this time and nobody touched them. When Soviet artillery has demolished Byrons’ palace in 1944, they were hidden in a cellar of the palace at that moment.

But inhabitants of Jelgava have any superstitious horror before them. When I walked on this city, I have asked: what is it there? My guide has answered, that there - gipsy quarter, and it is better to not go there. I have not understood, and have offered to go. But my guide has refused, and I have gone alone. I was deeply charmed and moved, but I can not explain, why. There was something completely unusual in them (by the way, they are absolutely not similar on the gipsy).

And still they have played some role in that when the exiled representatives of the French Royal family lived in Mitau during Great French revolution (by the way it was predicted by Nostradamus).

Regards,

Juris

thanks for the contributions so far.

I am specifically interested in spells and curses and whether there is a history of such in Latvia. There is some parallel to the apparent Australian indigenous peoples “poinitng the bone” (death curse), but if that works at all, then I believe that the person who is cursed is aware that the curse has been placed.

Come on all you Latvian culture vultures out there! I’d like to hear from you.

i.s.
Melbourne, Australia.

You would think that if there was anything much to it - that there would be something on the net - but no returns on “Latvian witchcraft”. There are a number of returns on “burvju maksla” however - so if you read Latvian go through some of these results. I think every language has so called curses - but the Latvian language is traditionally even very mild as far as profanities/cussing are concerned. There are certain rituals of course. The only one that presently comes to mind is certainly later day, in that literacy in Latvian is relatively late in the culture’s developement. The ritual (a curing ritual) regards what what ails you. The belief is that inside your home you write down what is bothering you - fold the paper into a small piece - place it in container (an ashtray perhaps) - set it on fire - burn it entirely - take the container outside and scatter the ashes to the wind.

There are other beliefs as well. Don’t go visiting without taking a visiting loaf for instance - many also believe that when you return a dish that someone sent/brought to you, that you should not return it empty.

My only real personal experience with a magical type of reading - would actually fall under dowsing. This particular individual was amazing in their use of a pendulam (even just her hand) in determining areas of an indiduals body that were or even had been injured. Again - this is more in keeping with natural harmonies - but perhaps the use of the pendulam itself would associate this practice with witchcraft.

Most guys are convinced that they are married to a whitch, so, most
of whitches are Good Witches...........
My wife told me to write that.......................LOL

http://raganam.blogs.lv/

Some beliefs......

http://ai1.mii.lu.lv/ticejumi/janad.htm

You will need to find a latvian speaking witch to get
this digested, Ravi.

Hi Ivar,

A lot of the traditions we’ve talked about here over the years could be looked upon as a type of witchcraft… but I suspect that’s not really what you mean.

There was indeed witchcraft more along the lines of what you asked about in Latvia, with hexes, words of power and so forth.  The reason we don’t have more is because first of all, it was generally passed along in the family, often jumping a generation (so that grandmother would teach granddaughter), and never in writing, so the demographics issue really hurt the passing of these particular traditions.  More importantly, these traditions weren’t shared by a community - it was “knowledge” shared by very few people.  And finally, considerably fewer people (mostly women) shared these beliefs / words with the folklorists than they did the other folklore customs.

A lot of these “bursanas vardi” often weren’t really words - more like syllables strung together.  There are a few collections here and there, but absolutely a drop in the bucket compared to the more widely known traditions and the tautas dziesmas.

A family anecdote - my great-grandfather was said to have had no patience for this type of behavior.  Supposedly one of his neighbors grew angry about this outspoken “dissing” of her art, so she came onto his land to curse it.  She was standing by the corner of the house muttering her incantations when my ancestor noticed this.  So he got a bucketful of water, came up behind her, dumped it on her head and told her to take her hexes elsewhere… “Ej buries citur!” A diplomat, apparently, my great-grandfather…

I know I’ve been rather tardy about this, but a big thank you to all who contributed on this thread. Very interesting material!

i.s.

So..............what’s the wichcraft like around where you are, Ravi?

well, really I’m hoping that there’s none around here, at least of the black type. Having been educated in a scientific background makes it difficult to believe that such things even exist. However, I’m one of those who believes that a good scientist should be aware of all of the possibilities, even the bizarre ones.

Otherwise, I’m only aware of one self avowed ‘white’ witch, the singer Wendy Rule.

http://wendyrule.com/mystory.html

Nice witch, Ravi. What does she sound like?

ps. what is Mark Bolton going to do? Retiring at 28..........

at least one of the samples works....I tried “Circe”

http://wendyrule.com/samples.html

Who the h… is Mark Bolton? footballer?

Bolton played for “Bombers”.  I suppose he got tired of getting bombed..........
Didn’t listen to Wendy yet, my son Erik has stashed the headphones.

Ivars.
I find it rather bemusing of you being interested in spells and curses of witchcraft. I still remember you dabbling with sending the wrath over me.  The first time was 4 years ago, shortly before the X-mass. I didn’t know what it was all about. A week later you told me you will send me a proper wrath after x-mass. It really shook me: “es trīcēju kā oša lapa”. I was woried for a long, long time. I expected neadles and pins sticking in my body, but nothing happened. Hm, what happened?
Well, nothing happened untill… midlle of january it happened. One evening my monitor went with a puff and all was black. Was I writing to you Ivars? Can’t remember. Oh, well, it was a time to get a new monitor. All went well for a couple of weeks when the scanner went puff and no copying for me. Must have been the old age, they do wear out, don’t they? Next day got a new one, all up to date. Or was it? Another couple of weeks and the good old computer decided to stop working. It was only about four years old. But I was still lucky, my local computer supplier made one to my requirement in a couple days, and I was on my feet again, or should I have said, sitting at my all new computing array. Hurray.
I was back to my hobby for a year, when it happened again. One evening my computer started doing all sorts of things except what I wanted it to do. Next morning called my PC engineer. He arrived, had one look at the box and said he is taking it to the works. Late in the afternoon he returned with the box, set it all up again and all was OK.  I was shaking again to see the bill. Slowly opened it, expecting to see a very large amount to pay. A component replaced, time and setting it all up the total cost was…£ooo.oo. Thought it was a mistake, but the man explained the guarantee was still one day inside 12 month.
Well Ivars, tell me was any of this to do with you sending the wrath over me? I don’t think you do, nor do I.  Everything just happened. One could say it was just a coincidence.
“then I believe that the person who is cursed is aware that the curse has been placed.”
I was not aware of anything about your curse, because I just don’t believe in any curses.
”I am specifically interested in spells and curses and whether there is a history of such in Latvia. There is some parallel to the apparent Australian indigenous peoples “pointing the bone” (death curse), but if that works at all,
Come on all you Latvian culture vultures out there! I’d like to hear from you.
i.s.
Melbourne, Australia. “

Best wishes,

I don’t recall cursing anyone at any time, unless it was the sort of stuff that most of us do on a day to day basis (eg. when stuck in traffic or some other pain in the neck occurrence).
I did not bring up this topic because I wish to curse anyone. That is not my style, even though I have encountered many people who have crossed me and occasionally I wish I did have the power to pay them back in kind.

At the same time, I’d rather not go into details about why I brought up the topic except to say that it certainly is related to adverse events in the lives of some people I know in recent years. Yes, most likely they could be coincidence and probably are. As I wrote, I am of a scientific background and certainly would not want to believe that an old woman’s wrath could cause a whole series of adverse events in the lives of other people.