Mystic Mari El in Albina Shaimuratova’s Project

Many of us are superstitious — some stay away from black cats, some sit down for a bit before a journey (to have a good journey), some always go round a post on the same side as their friend (the post being in between them symbolizing a quarrel in the future, not to quarrel). l wanted to visit a place where the concentration of this magic reaches its peak. In winter 2014, my friends and I went to Mari El Republic. We were looking for pagan settlements, where the locals knew ancient enchantments.

We found ourselves in a different world, living by its own laws. I heard: do not sit on the doorstep — you will scare your fiance off or get sick; do not stand with your arms crossed. Some people told us stories about how they drove the spirits away from their homes with juniper branches or how they hung pig noses around the house to safeguard their family. Some people had needles scattered under their doors — it means the person who did it wished them ill. I heard a lot of stories about love spells and malefices.

This was all like the Russian fairy-tales, but with the element of some dark poetry. I wrote some of the stories down, here is my favorite:

There was a time in our family when bad things happened one after another. My son died, I was hospitalized, my brother’s house burned down. That month I found the stump of a candle in my house. I have never had candles, so it definitely was not mine. So, I threw it in the stove. A couple weeks later, I told my friend about it, and she said: “What did you do? Your house was jinxed, someone planted a candle stump in your house, and you only made it worse, put it in the stove! Put the ash from the furnace in a jar, and bury it in the wood!”. I collected the ash and put it in a cupboard in the kitchen, but I forgot to bury it. In another week the friend asked me: “Did you do as I had told you?”. I replied to her that I had forgotten. She said again: “What have you done? Take that jar, come to the crossroad when it is a new moon, throw the ash on all four sides, and run home.

If you hear that someone is stomping and breathing behind your back, that someone is running behind you — do not turn around.

When you come home, lock the doors and the windows, and go to bed. If you hear someone knocking on the window — do not look out of the window.” This time, I did everything as she had told me. I threw the ash away at the crossroad, and I ran home. Indeed, I heard heavy breathing behind me the whole time, I was scared, but I never turned around, I came home — and heard that very knock on the window… After that, things started going better for my family.