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Mironova V., Ivanova L. The Semiotic Status of Magical Items and Means in Karelian Ritual Practices

V. Mironova
Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History, Karelian Research Centre of the RAS
Petrozavodsk, Russia
ORCID: 0000-0001-6310-5561
E-mail: tutkija@mail.ru

 

L. Ivanova
Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History, Karelian Research Centre of the RAS
Petrozavodsk, Russia
ORCID: 0000-0001-9549-2674
E-mail: ljuchiki@mail.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. This article explores the semiotics of the magical attributes that “versed” people used in the context of Karelian life-cycle rituals and in medical practices. The research draws upon an extensive corpus of linguistic, folkloristic and ethnographic materials that reveal the roles of holders of magical knowledge and the ritual attributes they utilized. These materials compiled by Finnish and Russian scholars from the late nineteenth to the second half of the twentieth century are supplemented by data collected in recent decades, including the author’s own fieldwork. The analysis demonstrates that “versed” people (sorcerers, folk healers) employed a wide range of magical items, substances, symbols, and natural objects in ritual practices. One category of attributes possessed inherent sacred meaning, were used exclusively in magical rituals, and retained magical properties regardless of context. The other category acquired sacred significance only within the framework of specific rites, with its potential realized solely within the spatiotemporal boundaries of the ritual and through the direct actions of a “versed” practitioner. These attributes could be of either natural or man-made origin. Some were exclusively associated with ritual practices, while others served common purposes. Magical artifacts varied in size and physical state, including gaseous, liquid, or solid forms. In most cases, the manipulation of magical object during rituals was accompanied by incantations (and, less frequently, with prayers), in which the spoken word and the object were sacralized as a unified entity, each enhancing the other’s magical power. Rituals often involved combinations of objects and substances that served healing or apotropaic purposes.

 

KEYWORDS: magical attributes, sorcerers, folk healers, Republic of Karelia, ritual practices of Karelians

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2026-2(32)-6-29
UDC 398.4 + 398.3(=511.1)

 

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