Wahya Circle
Tuesday Travels

World Studies 101
Eastern European Practices

From the Byzantine Empire to World War II, the Magick and Medicine in Eastern Europe has held on to many of its ancient practices, even when Christendom had set in. The people of this part of Europe, who stretch from Belarus and Kashubian to Hungary and Ukraine, simply incorporated the practices, utilizing Folk Medicine and Magick daily.

They knew that Christianity was simply a taking of other practices and adding of dogma to them for control of land… and control of the conquered people. It was an easy transference for most Europeans to make. For the znakharki, babka, or babka-sheptukha – the “granny whisperer” or known amongst the Orthodox as “whispering witch”, it was a bit more.

Granted, fear-mongering took place through the times and ancient beliefs were twisted and stories were inserted into those indigenous to the land. ZAGOVORY, or “verbal folk medicine” was a common practice, and continues to be to this day.

This attempt at control only kind of worked on the Folk Magick in this part of Europe. Many practitioners still cast wax and “whisper” away “demons” … or ailments. Even those from the Church come to them to be healed, from the Ukraine to Bulgaria, they are known amongst them by their many names.

EASTERN ROOT
The beauty of Eastern Europe has always been its ability to practice magick and keep indigenous practices, “despite what the Church thinks”. Many of the Elders have been able to keep their practices and share them with their family and community, just as they do their gardens and animals. It is the way of the “shaman”… or wise one.

Take a moment and watch this video on “granny whispers”, or “Whispering Witches”: Whispering Witch Video LINK

World Studies 101
Vlad Țepeș (Tep ish)

Not the TV trope vampire, the real man. Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. He was the second son of Vlad Dracul, Dracul meaning ‘dragon’, who became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436.

Many people of the land feel Vlad HAD to act in the ways he did in order to hold out for his people, even though they were forced to accept the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire in 1417. This is an evidenced time of “harming” Magick, or Subtractive and Protective Magick, amongst the citizens of Wallachia in their attempt to save themselves.

EARLY HISTORY
The title Vlad briefly achieved was voivode. That is a title denoting a "military-leader" or someone viewed as a "warlord" in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe. This is what people wanted to fight the onslaught of those who would later colonize them. In the English language, the title he achieved is often translated as "prince" or "duke” to pretend to be “more PC”. This was very fitting as the entire continent was in turmoil. It was in deed a “time of war”.

This term, voivode, had been in use since the Early Middle Ages. It began to fall out of regular use around the 1700s the more the people assimilated to those who came.

Before that, many considered Vlad simply a local person who fought to protect the land, rights, and dignity of his people against the foreign invaders of the Ottoman Empire.

CHILDHOOD
To go back a little further, when Vlad was 11 years old, he and his brother Radu were sent to the court of the Ottoman sultan Murad II as hostages. This act both was an attempt to keep his father’s loyalty to the sultan and planted the seed of vengeance which would later grow and fuel his actions against the Empire. As history tells, Vlad’s father and elder brother were assassinated when he was just 16. Vlad spent the rest of his life fighting to reclaim his father's title, fueled by that seed that had been planted so many years previous in the Sultans Court.

It seemed the fighting was endless. Ottoman offensive was held in check and then finally driven from the field on January 10th, 1475. But that final drive would cost Vlad dearly.

THE FINAL PUSH
Vlad later died from an Ottoman ambush in December 1476. The Ottomans returned again, this time assisted by their newly conquered allies from Crimea, the Tartars and their newly colonized Vassal of Wallachia. Wallachia fell to the rule of the Empire. This lasted until the 19th century, albeit with brief periods of Russian occupation between 1768 and 1854.

We here at Three Circles Medicine & Magick will spare you the gory details of war and the things Vlad did to keep an already demented sultan and his forces at bay, but the history is public record.

Just know that many consider Vlad a “folk hero” to the indigenous of the area. So, the curtain fell and time passed. Wallachia began to change.

EASTERN EUROPEAN MAGICK
Through that time, revivals happened. Magicks and stories were spoken in hushed tones and romanticized by the colonizers from the Church. In reality, the reason Vlad and his families attempts were held well in certain regards because they were NOT the Church.

They were not trying to take over a foreign land but rule their own. The psychology behind the cruelty that was induced by Vlad was warranted in many eyes. His father and brother had been murdered, effecting him deeply. That means an inordinate amount of emotion to some.

There was no “vampire” as created by these stories from the Church and later its Hollywood mecca. Yes, he was cruel, but he did not get to write his own history explaining the logic behind his broken emotion, did he? In some circles it is said the sultan broke that young boy, and not in a good way.

The Sultan essentially tried to crush Vlad’s spirit. Not many can say “what they would do” in a situation as dire — as they have never been in it. But, let us not repeat the past. Let us take the anger, hatred, vitriol, misgivings and any other word you can attach to such a history as you have now seen and let us transmute it.

Let us utilize the energy for other Magicks and Healing Medicines for those spirits who survived. Let us move that perceived hurt through Time, pull it to us, especially if we are genetically connected to Eastern Europe and address the Shadow.

It is a heavy undertaking but it is something you can keep on the shelf of your library in your psyche, with the purple candle. See, it all eventually ties together. Keep the thought as a Kkey” for when you need it. Know that the energy is real, the stories told by humans are not always so Truthful, but that pain… felt by Vlad the boy, was life changing.

In but a moment of Time, he was made Timeless.

Contemplations 101
Thoughts on the Region

What interests you about this region? Are you genetically tied to any of it? What part? What do you think of how the “whispering witches” incorporated other practices?

1448 WORLD HISTORY
In the year 1448 in history:

JANUARY 6
(ALWAYS a volatile time, in the sense of gematrian value)

Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, dies with no designated heir, leaving all three kingdoms with vacant thrones. Brothers Bengt Jönsson Oxenstierna and Nils Jönsson Oxenstierna are selected to serve as co-regents of Sweden.

FEBRUARY 1
After a long episode of drought, floods, locust infestations, and famine in the Ming Dynasty, these natural afflictions finally began to wane. (travesties since 1434)

MARCH 11
Hundred Years' War: England cedes Maine to France.

MARCH 16
Hundred Years' War: peace negotiations break down over the issue of English control over Brittany.

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER 23
Scottish victory over the English at the Battle of Sark.

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

It was a volatile year. These blanks were left intentionally. Remaining “clean, clear, and curious”, can you fill any in?

Tuesday WS4

General - Journal - Book of Shadows

SUBMISSION
WS4 TUE CONTEMPLATIONS 101
(Due by Sunday)
Please take a moment with Contemplations 101 above, find at least TWO other global acts that occurred in 1448.

It is up to you how ‘significant’ the event is.
For example, “witches” and “heretics” were being persecuted more often as the dogma driven by the Roman Senate spread across the world.

”Those accused of ‘heresy’, amongst other atrocities, were persecuted across the Alpine valleys of Dauphiné between 1424 and 1448.”

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