Slavic Witchcraft – The Real Story

Slavic witchcraft is part of the ancient and rich culture of the peoples who today occupy a vast territory of Eastern Europe and Russia.
According to our convictions, the real story will allow the reader to better understand the possibilities of Slavic black magic.
Therefore, we decided to publish here another story taken from the books of N.I. Stepanova.

Marriage proposal of a sorcerer

I heard this story at the monastery, where I will pray almost every year. The woman who told it to me had a completely different name. For obvious reasons, I’ll call her Tanya. Other names have also been changed. I have no doubt about the veracity of the story, this woman kissed her cross to confirm her words. Second, I know that such things exist.

I saved her story in the form I heard. She began her confession with an exclamation:

If someone had told me that before, I probably would never have beleived that myself. Of course, I had already heard a lot about witchcraft, but I never thought that such a story could happen to me.

I was 16 years old when a family of four settled in our village: a husband, a wife, a grandmother and their son. The house they bought was right next to our hut. The former owners of this house were very wealthy and their house was the largest and most beautiful. They could not sell it for a very long time because they were asking a high price for it. But this foreign family came to buy them this house. A rumor ran in the village that the house was sold for some funny pennies.

The former owner of the house, Elizabeth, personally spoke to my mother about it:

– I do not know how it happened, but we gave our visitors the house for nothing, obviously it’s a spell. I understand it in my mind, but I can not say anything against them. On three occasions, I went to the door of my old home to cancel the purchase, at least with an allowance, but I could not even get into the fence, so scared.

New neighbors quickly settled. We must honor them, their courtyard was clean, with lots of flowers. Through the fence that separated us, everything was clearly visible.

In the garden of Alexandra (the new neighbor) everything grew like yeast. Once I was weeding carrots when I felt someone’s eyes on me. Looking back, I saw Alexandra at the fence. She gave me compliments and immediately taught me:

– Spade the carrots from the middle of the garden, but first say: “Grow up, my carrots, high, wide, like the church’s domes. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen”. If you will do this, you will have carrots, like mine.

That said, the neighbor has pulled out a huge carrot from her garden. Never in my life have I seen such a carrot! I started to thank her, but she said:
“Do not thank us for our science.”

Then she called me to taste her jam. I did not want to go, but my legs carried me against my will. She poured me some tea with some grass, the aroma was heavenly. While drinking, she sat opposite, looking at me. And then the strange thing began that frightened me, surprised me, but did not give me a chance to leave.

From under the table came a huge black cat, it jumped on a chair and sat down. Its muzzle was cat’s like, but the appearance was rather human.
I realise that it’s hard for you to understand me, but it’s not easy for me to explain it either. Following this cat, three more cats jumped on chairs and sat around the table. All four sat down and stared at me. My head was spinning, and the walls, like living ones, were swaying. But I tried to not mention it. So, I asked the hostess:

– And what kind of cats are they, they seem strange, what are their names?

Alexandra, smiling, answered:

– These are my assistants, demons.

I watched again, but the cats disappeared. It made me so terrible that I was ready to get up and run without looking back. But I could not move, and I sat like in a dream. Then she stroked my head and said:

– Today, the mayor will die. Sorry, he’s still young.

She was still saying something, and as if, by the way, without addressing anyone. Then for some unknown reason, she mentioned the lost cow of a disabled person on our street. The cow was near the farmyard.

To better describe my condition at that moment, I can only say that I felt like very drunk and that, in a spirit stunned by wine, I heard someone speak.

Then she led me out of the gate. At home, I lay down and immediately fell asleep.

Mom came from work and began to tell the news: as if, at four o’clock in the afternoon (I was drinking tea at my neighbor’s house), our mayor was dead, his heart stopped abruptly. Even the nurse did not have time to come in and give him an injection.

Mama sighed and I wondered: how could Alexandra know that the mayor was dying? After all, it turns out that when I got to tea, he was still alive.

The next news was the disappearance of the cow Lopatin, the disabled neighbor. Mom felt sorry.

“It’s at the swamp,” – Alexandra’s phrase flashed through my head. But the most strange thing is that I did not tell my mother anything: neither that I was visiting my neighbors, nor about carrots, nor about a cow, nor about a mayor. As if someone had put an invisible lock on my mouth.

Then I started to notice that Michael (the son of new neighbors) was trying to take care of me. In the village dance club he always stands where I am, looking and smiling. He did not talk to me much, only once did he say, “You have very long braids. Girls now rarely wear this. And he added: “You are the most beautiful of this village”.

One day, Alexandra came to ask us if we had red threads. While I was looking for them in the box, she said to me:
– Tanya, and yet we want to ask you in marriage for Michael, he loves you a lot. Marry him, you will live in full prosperity. He is non-drinker and kind, only silent. For our son’s sake, we will not regret anything. What are you saying, Tanya?

I told him that I loved the other, that his name is Nikita, he was now in the army and I would wait for him. Michael is probably good, but I will only marry Nikita.

A week later, Nikita’s parents were informed that their son had died in combat. In time, I have not yet connected this event with Alexandra’s witchcraft.

For two weeks, I cried and I did not want to see anyone. Once mom said:
– Alexandra gave me water to wash you melancholy, but it’s scary to look at you, you’re so exhausted.

I did not want to wash myself with this water, but my mother convinced me, of course, she wanted me well. You may not believe it, but the next morning I was absolutely calm. I no longer thought about my dead fiance.

I put on make-up and went to dance with Michael. Many people from the village surely condemned me, but that was indifferent to me.

More and more often, I visited my neighbors. And each time I was surprised to see something in their house. For example, I saw how Alexandra had prepared a large bowl of dough from a handful of flour, from which she had then baked a mountain of exceptionally tasty pies.

Sometimes their grandmother unfastened my braids and ran into my hair with her long crooked hands. And once again the room around me was moving and the walls were shaking. There was a feeling that she was not fumbling in my head, but in my brain, in my thoughts.
Such feelings I had because the grandmother spoke about exactly what I was thinking at that moment. For example, one day I thought: “Phew, how she stinks.” And she immediately said aloud:
– You will live like me for hundreds of years and you will not emit the smell of milk either.
Then she laughed.

Coming home from them, I was always tensely remembering what we were talking about in their house, but could not remember, as if someone erased my memory.

And suddenly one day I remembered that at their request I was stripped naked, and all four of them, silently, looked at me as they looked at the horse they want to buy. Vaguely, Michael’s father’s laughter and his voice faintly reappeared in my mind:
– Michael, caress the girl, she will not even notice it, take the opportunity!

On Tuesday, Alexandra came in.  She took a veil and a wedding dress in her bag, and ordered me to try it.  She told me how she went to the district center, to  the bride and groom shop, and asked me for my shoe size.

At this moment, my mother came home. Seeing me in the bride’s clothes, she was taken aback. And then Mom was outraged that no one asked her consent. In fact, I was still considered a minor, and I was an only child.

My mother has character and she started screaming at the neighbor to drive her out of our house. But at one point she stopped suddenly and was silent, as if an invisible had shut her mouth. But that was not what made me shudder, but the fact that black cats sat next to my mother and, raising their noses, looked straight into her eyes.

Nobody will convince me that cats came to our house together with their mistress. After all, before that Alexandra herself said that she came to us directly from the train, after a trip to the district center, to the wedding salon.

The next day, our paramedic Mrs Kozikhina, my uncle Fedor and our principal came to see me. By their appearance, it became clear that something terrible had happened. I have been informed that my mother has fallen on a pitchfork, and that I no longer have a mother.

During the funeral, Alexandra and Michael did not leave me a single minute. And when, after the commemoration, everyone left, Alexandra said to me:
– If you want to see your mother again, look out the window at midnight. You will not have another chance.

At first, frightened, I sat in this corner where there was not a single window, but at midnight I got up and my legs took me to the window. Fear did not let me open the curtains. But the thought that I would never see my mother again made me determined. Overcoming fear, I drew a curtain. Just in front of me, my mother was standing in front of the window. She was in that I buried her. With a nod, my mother called me on the street. My whole body was covered in goose bumps. My head darkened, I sank to the ground. There was a desire to hide under the bed, but I could not move.

And two days later, at night, Alexandra, her husband, Michael and their grandmother came to my house. They announced the wedding, set the table themselves, sat me next to Michael, and sat down themselves. On the table were the Cahors wine – the Orthodox Church’s mass wine, Koutia (a dish of the Orthodox Church to commemorate the deads), two fish and a loaf of black bread.

I began to mumble that fellow villagers would condemn me, you cannot make a wedding, before one year had passed after my mother’s death.

In response, I heard that the wedding will be in their narrow circle.

– And to the people, we will say that you are pregnant, and therefore come to live with us as my daughter-in-law. Answered Alexandra.

As they said, so it was. Our wedding was at night. There were five of us, and there were … cats. Yes, I forgot to say that their grandmother did not bless us with an icon, but with a fire iron. They laughed at the same time with childish laughter.

One more strange thing. They seemed to me different every day, that is, as if their faces became different. They were young at first, and then old, like their grandmother.

Once I entered the pigsty and saw my mother-in-law, who was standing next to a pig on all fours, eating slop. with it. I could not resist, I cried out:

– What are you doing, that’s for the pigs?

She answered: “I am checking that it’s not too hot.”

I asked her how she managed to make a mountain of pies with a handful of flour. In response, I heard: “You will live here, you will deserve it, and we will teach you”.

As for Michael, during the first few months, I did not notice anything questionable, and then he began to surprise me more than his mother.

Once I woke up at night, there was no Michael next to me, and I must say, I missed him madly. I now understand that it was their merit. Then I got up from the bed, I went through the house, he was not there. And I had such a feeling that if I did not find it, I would die. The snowstorm was terrible that night. I went outside, saw two footprints in the snow nearby, as if someone were standing there for a long time, but there was no more step forward or backward. I looked up and saw footprints on the roof. I shouted, “Michael!” And then a pillar of snow formed next to me, turning like a whirlwind. I looked, and here is my husband in his jersey, all covered with snow, laughing.

I lost the thread of time. And strangely, looking at me in the mirror – I saw sometimes an old woman, sometimes a schoolgirl.

One day, my father-in-law with my mother-in-law and their grandmother went to town. I woke up somehow from my sleep. I looked around me, the walls seemed familiar to me but where I was, I did not remember. Suddenly, I remembered my mother, and I burst into tears.

I must say that Michael always knew what I thought, just like his family. This is where my husband told me:
– Do you want me to call on your mother?

I was terribly happy, I promised not to speak with the deceased, but only to look at my mom.

At night, Michael lit many, many candles, closed all the mirrors and the glass doors of the cupboards, sat down in a corner and began to read an antique book. He knelt me in a circle he drew on the floor.

I heard someone walking down the hall, I looked, and I saw my mother coming to the door. She stood near the circle, her eyes empty, like unwashed glass. She was looking at me, moving her lips. All of a sudden, I understood, reading on her lips, that she was saying “church, church”. Michael closed the book abruptly and everything disappeared.

The next day, I persuaded my husband to take me to town. We were going up with him on the train when he frowned. I asked him:
– Are you in pain somewhere?
And he answered:
– No, my mother is upset that we left.

The farther we went from the village, the brighter it was in my head, and the frown grew my husband. I thought about everything that had never thought about before: what do my father-in-law live with my mother-in-law on, why my husband does not work, how old is he, and how old am I now. After all, in fact, I lost track of time and do not remember how long I stayed in their house.

Suddenly, I remembered my home. Who lives in it? Maybe my father-in-law sold it and that’s what we live on? Why so far none of the villagers nor my girlfriends were interested in me and did not visit me. And again the words said once by my mother-in-law surfaced that if she wanted, people would walk around her and not notice her. That she said, when she urged me to marry Michael, three days after my mother’s death, in response to my worries, on what people in the village will say about it.

And now about how I got to the monastery.

In the city I managed to escape from my husband. I longed for the church, remembering the whispers of my mother’s dead lips. How did I escape? Cheating. I went to the women’s toilet, while he went in the men’s room. And I fled. After I was sent to a monastery. I have been here for several years. I will never leave the monastery. I’d rather serve God than the four devils. Yes, and I am afraid to leave the walls of the monastery. I know, if I’ll get out of here, I’ll meet them, and they will punish me. “