Can man turn to stone? Pagan legends and biblical tales show that this is quite real and happened more than once in ancient times. Remember the stories about Medusa Gorgon or naughty Lot's wife. Modern scientists do not exclude that such a transformation is possible in reality. The question is, by whose will and how does it happen?
This happened amazing story several years ago in Samara... “The groom came to Zoya for the Nativity Fast. Zoe's devout mother begged her daughter not to throw a party on the day of fasting, but she could not be convinced. The mother goes to church, and Zoya meets her friends with young people, total number fourteen. Nikolai, the groom, should appear fifteenth, but he is not there. They wait for about an hour, and then they start having fun. They dance. Zoya has no one to dance with. And so she declares: “I have another Nikolai!” - and removes the icon of St. Nicholas from the wall.
A girl dances holding an icon in her hands. The friends persuade: “Put the icon back in its place!” Zoya exclaims in response: “If there is a God, he will punish me!”
Still from the film "Miracle" (2009) about the case of the petrified Zoya
A few moments - and the incredible happened. The roar and noise completely drowned out the music. A blinding light flashed - as if lightning had flashed, and as if a tornado had passed through the room. Zoya froze with the icon in a dazzling column of light. The others had not yet understood what had happened; everything seemed to be returning to its place. Someone smiled tightly. And then things got even worse. Everyone saw something for which it was impossible to find words.
Zoya stood like a marble statue. They approached her and were convinced of the impossible: her body had become stone! The guests were blown away by the wind - they left to spread the news of what had happened throughout the city. Zoe's mother collapsed when she returned from church and was sent to the hospital for several days. So the girl stood in the room for 128 days and nights. Under the stone her heart beat, its beats could be heard. The doctors tried to give injections, but the syringe needles broke: with the same success one could try to give injections to a marble column.
Many curious people flocked to Zoya’s house, some even entered her room. Soon the police appeared and stopped this “pilgrimage.” Policemen kept watch day and night, changing three times during the day. Zoya did not eat, although there were attempts to feed her.
She simply could not eat. It’s hard to imagine what her mother went through, praying all night long. The youngest of the policemen could not stand it: this was considered a particularly difficult duty, and the difficult nights left many of them with early gray hair as a memory, because at night the girl screamed. During the day there is deathly silence, at night there are heartbreaking screams. Gradually, the content of the girl’s requests and cries became clearer and gained stability: “Pray, pray for our sins! The world is perishing in sin! The earth is burning in lawlessness!”
This happened for many nights in a row.
“He who punishes will have mercy!” - the highest church official allegedly responded when he was approached with a request to take part in Zoya’s fate.
The influence of unearthly forces on events was obvious. And neither the mother, nor compassionate people, nor priests - no one could return the icon of St. Nicholas to its place: the girl’s petrified hands did not give it to anyone. Only on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, Father Seraphim was able to free the image of St. Nicholas and return it to its place. Before doing this, he blessed the entire room.
Moscow Metropolitan Nikolai came, served a prayer service and consoled: “We must wait for the great feast of the Resurrection of Christ.” Another significant visit: an old man came to the girl. Nobody knew and still doesn’t know where he came from. He asked her: “Are you tired of standing?”
The police twice refused the elder and did not allow him into the apartment. Only the third time, on the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation, he was admitted and uttered these three words. No one heard what Zoya, who was usually silent during the day, answered. But even if she answered him, it would be exactly what he expected to hear... The police entered the room to escort him to the exit, but found no one. The old man disappeared.
On Easter, Zoya returned to her normal state. Her body freed itself from the stone shackles and became elastic and soft. She was put to bed.
“Who fed you?” - they asked the girl.
“The pigeons fed me,” Zoya answered.
On the third day of Easter she died..."
“It would be possible to come up with something more believable,” I thought after reading it and forgot about this story. But it continued. In the spring of 1997, the III International conference “Special states of human consciousness. Experimental and theoretical research in parapsychology".
During the break, I discussed with one of the participants - let's call him Yakov Ivanovich - the report I had just listened to. And Yakov Ivanovich said that in his youth he witnessed a real “miracle” with negative sign. With the Komsomol propaganda team, he traveled to remote villages of the Northern Urals, conducting anti-religious propaganda.
This was the time when, on the instructions of the then General Secretary Khrushchev, churches were closed everywhere. They, Komsomol members, had to explain to the “ignorant” that there is no God, and therefore His temples are not needed.
In one of the villages, their leader Mikhail learned that before the church was closed, the villagers took the icons from it home and that the main one, the “prayed one,” was taken in by an old woman named Alevtina. And now, if someone in the family is seriously ill, everyone goes to her to pray. Moreover, this supposedly helps better than any medicine.
Naturally, Mikhail could not ignore such “blatant obscurantism.” The Komsomol members went in a crowd to the old woman, where he imperiously demanded that he hand over the “painted board” that was confusing people. Alevtina spent a long time trying to persuade him not to touch the icon, but the Komsomol “leader” was adamant.
In the end, she gave the “prayer”, tearfully begging not to desecrate it so that no trouble would happen, but to transfer it to the local history museum. The old lady turned out to be literate. To reassure her, Mikhail promised to fulfill the request.
However, when they lit the stove in the evening, and the Komsomol members spent the night in one of the classrooms of the small school there, their leader brought an icon and declared that he would personally send it into the fire, so as not to bother with old junk.
Mikhail opened the oven door, took the icon in both hands and was already making a movement to throw it, when he suddenly froze, Yakov Ivanovich said. At first we didn't understand anything. Someone said: “Give it up, what are you waiting for?” But he didn’t answer, continuing to stand in a strange position, as if in a children’s game when given the command: “Freeze!”
They closed the oven door and began to bother Mikhail. And something incomprehensible was happening to him: his eyes were bulging, a half-smile, half-grimace was frozen on his face. And most importantly, he could not move his arm or leg, neither bend nor straighten. All our efforts came to nothing. Someone suggested taking Mikhail to a freshly heated bathhouse and thoroughly steaming him.
They carried me away and somehow undressed me, although they couldn’t take off my shirt and T-shirt because of the icon. So they put it on the shelves along with the icon. They splashed a couple of ladles of water into the heater and began to groom Mikhail with brooms, massage him, and knead his muscles. There's no point. But the icon slipped out of his hands. But no one paid attention to this. So as not to get in the way, they pushed her under the bench.
No one slept that night. And just before dawn they wrapped our Mikhail in a sheepskin coat, loaded him into a semi-truck and took him to the regional hospital. I don’t know what happened to him afterwards. The winter holidays are short and I went to the city. Later I heard from someone that Mikhail was sent to some kind of prison a few months later. medical school, since local doctors were powerless to help him.
According to my interlocutor, this was a typical case of remote energy-informational influence. Today it has allegedly been experimentally established that psychics are capable of mentally influencing a person’s state. The effects of such therapeutic interventions are recorded and studied. It is logical to assume that, in principle, a negative impact is possible. What has been called “sending damage” since ancient times.
Unfortunately, orthodox science does not consider this to be real and does not study such cases. Therefore, there is no reliable data. And those who can “send damage”, of course, keep their gift secret and do not offer to take part in experiments.
Apparently, old lady Alevtina was a strong psychic and put Mikhail into a trance when she felt that her icon was going to be burned. We have seen hypnotists do this more than once: a person’s body becomes as hard as a log. It is placed with its neck and ankles on the backs of chairs, and it is held in this position for quite a long time.
It was then that I remembered the Samara story. But there was no one there who could play the role of a psychic. This means that the remote energy-informational influence was exerted from somewhere outside, from another dimension.
- Do you want to say that God himself acted? But then why didn’t he come to the fore every time when icons, including miraculous ones, were destroyed? - Yakov Ivanovich doubted. - After all, there are countless such cases during the existence of Christianity. Whatever you want, I believe that we are talking specifically about remote extrasensory influence.
And yet, the more I later thought about this phenomenon, the more clearly I realized that the matter is not so simple.
Let's start with mythology. It features heroines such as the sisters Stheno, Euryale and Medusa, known by the nickname Gorgon. Winged, with a body covered with scales, and snakes instead of hair on the head. The youngest, Medusa, died at the hands of Perseus. Moreover, since the gaze of any of the sisters turned all living things into stone, the brave Perseus beheaded Medusa, without looking at her, but using his copper shield as a mirror.
The Bible tells the story of Lot's disobedient wife, who violated the prohibition - not to look back at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by heavenly fire - and turned into a pillar of salt.
In later legends and traditions different nations There are often references to people whom the gods turned into stones and rocks as punishment for specific offenses. Such “attractions” are found in many countries. Moreover, these stones and rocks do not always resemble people in outline and especially in size.
Apparently, they were given the names of the victims of observed cases of “petrification” for the edification of descendants. Something else is important here: now we are increasingly convinced that no matter how fantastic myths, legends, stories may seem, they are based on real facts, only fancifully processed into an artistic form.
Is it even possible to turn a person into stone?
In the full sense of the word - no, if we mean such rocks as, for example, granite. But there are other minerals, the same limestone or silicon, which are contained in the body. It's all about their concentration. If it turns out to be extremely high, then the person will really seem like stone.
On the other hand, countless biochemical reactions occur in our body every second, during which some substances are constantly transformed into others. Many people know this from their own sad experience, when salt deposition begins and the joints bend with difficulty, that is, in fact, they petrify. If this happens to skin and muscle cells, a person will turn into a pillar of salt, like Lot’s wife.
Of course, in life, salt deposition proceeds slowly and is the result of problems with metabolism, elimination of toxins and other malfunctions various systems body. However, immediate noticeable consequences of biochemical reactions are also possible.
Perhaps the most common case is when a person suddenly turns gray after severe stress. But a change in hair pigmentation is, in principle, the same biochemical process of replacing some substances with others! Meanwhile, medicine also knows cases of the instantaneous appearance of cataracts - the transformation of liquid protein in the lens of the eye into solid, although the reasons for this are not clear.
So, let's summarize. The body is capable of instant tissue restructuring. The command for this can be given using an energy information signal from the outside. Although no such examples have been recorded with psychics, it cannot be argued that there cannot be a subject in the Universe who is capable of this.
Who he is - God or the Supreme Mind, we do not know. But the fact that it is present in our world is undeniable. As Academician Sakharov once noted, “there is something outside of matter and its laws.” And the anger of this supreme being can be terrible.
Pavel Gross
In the town of Falun, there is an old mine. She is more than a thousand years old. The roofs of half of Europe are covered with copper, and during the time of Charles XII, cannons were cast from this copper. There are many stories and legends associated with this mine, which has been under UNESCO protection for several years. I will tell you about one of them. (Unfortunately, little has been written about this on the Internet; all this is told by guides in the mine).
One day, in 1719, a dead miner was discovered in one of the adits. The body was brought to the surface and many onlookers gathered to look at it. Death was not something unique in the mine, but this time it was a little different. The problem was that no one could identify the miner. The matter was complicated by the fact that no one had been reported missing in recent days. A few hours later, an old woman joined the gathering and it was then that she said with bitterness in her voice that the deceased miner was none other than her fiancé, who had disappeared 42 years ago. His name was Mats Israelsson, or Fat Mats, and he worked in the mine in 1677. The miner's body was so well preserved in water saturated with mineral salts that he looked exactly the same as the day he disappeared. Even the tobacco in his pocket looked fresh.
The event was amazing, and when a few days later the body turned to stone due to exposure to fresh air, no one knew what to do next. The main question was: was Mats a mineral that should have been thrown into a dump or a person who should have been buried according to all the rules. 
The mine manager wrote a letter to Stockholm and asked for advice. “Perhaps you need him in the mineral cabinet? You can’t bury such an absurdity...” The answer was not long in coming; the PR pioneers advised putting Mats on display to the public. This is how Mats became known as the “Petrified Man” and stood as an exhibit for 30 years.
After some time, the body began to collapse. They tried to repair it with the help of threads, fabric and wire, but soon its appearance became completely unpresentable. In 1749, with pomp and ceremony, it was buried in a local church. By various reasons The coffin was moved many times and eventually ended up in the attic. In 1900, it became a tourist attraction again, housed in a red wooden box with a glass lid. Many schoolchildren came to see the wonder, and they say that people are still alive, with my own eyes who saw Fat Mats, who died in 1677. Only in 1930 was he truly buried at church cemetery. His gravestone is made in the form of a copper sign.
Mats is the world's most famous resident of Falun. A sort of local "Lenin".
In the legends of different peoples, you can find many examples with the motive of turning into stone - as a divine punishment, the result of a spell, or simply a magical transformation. There are many similar colorful legends about the petrification of a living creature, a mythological character, or even an inanimate object, both in Belarus, Lithuania, and in the lands of the Prussians. Stones related to this topic can also be found in Latvia. The author of this article has already touched upon this topic in a work devoted to the mythological stones of Latvia. The purpose of the publication is to provide the reader with more detailed material about these stones. The publication uses both legends that were collected in the 20s and 30s of the last century, as well as folklore collections of our days. Legends drawn from the Repository of Latvian Folklore of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia are marked in the text with the corresponding registration number in the repository file.
Unfortunately, many stones have disappeared from the Latvian landscape as a result of destruction or neglect. But if the legend indicated where the stone was located, we note this in our retelling, even knowing that this no longer corresponds to current realities. We believe that such information is important so that the reader understands that in all legends we are talking about specific, once really existing objects of the mythological landscape.
Transformed people and animals. In Latvia, the most popular legend about a petrified girl is associated not with a free-standing stone, but with a limestone rock (Fig. 1). The Staburags rock, now flooded by the waters of the reservoir on the Daugava River during the construction of the Plavinas hydroelectric power station, stood on the left bank of the Daugava in the Staburags parish of the Jaunelgava region. According to the main plot of the legend (HLF 584,710), the girl Staburadze was in love with a fisherman. One day, when the guy was fishing, she looked at him, standing on the shore. A storm arose and flooded the boat with the fisherman, and the girl standing on the shore and crying was petrified. According to another story (HLF 1955, 14811), the parents wanted to marry a girl in love with a fisherman to a rich but unloved groom. She prayed to God (Dievs) and the Latvian deity Laima to turn her into a rock rather than marry someone she didn’t love. Her prayer was answered. Within the framework of our topic, the following legend is also important (HLF 1955, 14313), which notes that the rock in its shape resembles a woman who continues to cry, since the rock is pierced by many small springs.
In the legend (HLF 17.25755), recorded in the Vilkensky volost of the Limbazh region, a girl from grief and melancholy turns not into a rock, but into a stone. The bride, abandoned by the groom, threw herself into the Svetupe River and turned into a large stone. The two subsequent legends also tell about girls of marriageable age, but the reason for their petrification was not longing, but a meeting with a mythical character of chthonic origin. Thus, in the Ratnieki manor of the Strazden parish of the Talsen region, a legend was recorded (HLF 194.736) about a stone whose shape resembles the silhouette of a leaning man. A girl was picking berries in the forest at noon, when a gallant gentleman approached her and began to pester her. The girl rushed to run away, and the devil, angry at the refusal (and it was he), chased after her and, having caught up, kicked her in the ass. Then the girl turned into a stone, on which you can see the indentation from the devil’s foot. According to legend (1600, 27730), in the Taurene parish of the Vecpiebalga region there is a large stone in the courtyard of the Jurkani estate. Once upon a time, a toad crawled into the yard and demanded that the owner’s daughter be given to her as a wife. But the girl refused matchmaking. A stone appeared in the place where the girl stood and the toad sat. The mentioned stones have not yet been discovered by researchers today.
Legends (HLF 1400,15645 and 17,23277) from the Kekava region tell about the priestesses of the sacred grove, which was located near the Garakmeni estate in the place where the Berze river flows into the Daugava. During the war with the Lithuanians, two priestesses, pursued by enemies, prayed for help to the thunder god Perkons (analogous to the Slavic god Perun). The help was unique: he turned one of them into a stone, in the shape of which the silhouette of a woman could be discerned, and the other into a spring.
In other legends, petrification acts as a punishment for various sins: theft, talkativeness, malice. In the city of Talsi a legend was recorded (HLF 1472,3099) about Belted stone(Jostakmens). One day, an old woman near the gate of the settlement saw dirty dishes and washed them, and the next day the dishes were left here again, but along with money. This went on every day until the old woman stole one ladle. As punishment for this, the gnome, who, as it turned out, belonged to this dish, tied the old woman to a stone with a belt. A similar legend about the ancient settlement exists in the city of Tukums (HLF 1108,938). A certain woman was cleaning rooms in an underground castle. She was ordered not to tell anyone about this, but the woman once told her husband and at the same moment both turned into stones.
The priestess's stone was split during the construction of the road; there is no information about the whereabouts of the rest. And we will not know whether some of them could really resemble a person in their shape.
In the cultural and historical region of Kurzeme, in the Mersrags region, called Stone of the Holy Virgins(Svētmeitu akmens) we know of the only surviving stone - an allegedly petrified woman. According to legend (HLF 924.1), this stone is like the silhouette of a woman. An evil hag, sitting on a stone, asked God to do something bad to her neighbor, but God turned the woman herself into stone. It should be noted that contrary to legend, it is impossible to discern at least some similarity between the stone and the silhouette of a woman (Fig. 2). This stone is associated with a wider range of legends. Most of them tell about the spinning holy virgin, but within the framework of our topic, another legend is most interesting (HLF 622.208). Sea robbers brought a girl to a stone and stabbed her to death. That is why one end of the stone is chipped off in the form of a thin plate - these are the doors through which the girl or her soul entered it. On New Year's Eve, the stone turns red with blood, and the buzzing of a spinning wheel can be heard inside the stone. Let us note that in the legends of Belarusians and Lithuanians, stones—petrified people and animals—also bleed. Also, in legends, it is sometimes difficult to draw a line between a petrified person and his soul, which has found refuge in a stone. Finally, in Lithuania and Belarus, both the motifs of petrification and the motifs of making clothes and shoes are associated with the same stones.
Gertrudes Stone (Fig. 3)- the only stone-petrified child known to the author of the article. According to legend (HLF 1722,3428), the sorceress Gertrude gave birth to a child, brought it and laid it on the border of the Ance and Pope parishes of the Ventspils region. The child cried and turned to stone.
In two cases, teenage boys who were pig herders were petrified. In both cases, this happened after the boys fell into a castle that had fallen into the ground. According to a legend from the Dundaga region (HLF 409,206), the boy managed to guess the name of the failed castle - Dundaga, it rose to the surface of the earth, people and animals came to life, and the boy himself turned into a stone, which was located on the site for many years Puishu Kalns(Guy Mountain). People brought offerings to him as an idol in winter and summer. According to another legend (HLF 981.3) from the already mentioned Ratnieki manor in the Strazden parish, there is a stone in the field that resembles a person in appearance. A shepherd boy, looking for a pig that had climbed into an old well, ended up in an underground castle, ate and drank there, and on the third day, coming to the surface of the earth, he turned into stone. It is possible that in both cases we were talking about the same now lost stone.
The next legend from the Antsen parish of the Ventspils region (HLF 1493.644) is also about a shepherdess. In the Akmenpurvs swamp, a boy grazed cows. The devil appeared and demanded that the boy give them to him, but he refused to comply with the demand. The devil, angry, turned the cows and the shepherdess into stones. It is noted that the stone into which the shepherd boy has turned is growing. In turn, the legend (HLF 1493,6483) tells about a stone in the Yanpurvs swamp, to which a certain peasant approached and turned into stone. You can see a person's face on this stone (Fig. 4). Since we are talking about swamps of insignificant size, it is possible that the corresponding natural objects coincide.
In the following legends, an adult man is turned into stone, either simply bewitched or punished for human weaknesses, such as dishonor, curiosity, and swearing.
According to legend, from the Edole volost of the Kuldiga region (HLF 1010,841), the stone located on the island of the mill lake in the Edole estate park somehow resembles a person. This is a prince who was turned into stone by an evil witch. If a girl kisses him at midnight, he will become human again. Another legend (HLF 1602,212) says that this is the son of the landowner Edole, whom the witch bewitched for seducing and abandoning a maid. At midnight he can supposedly be seen sitting on a stone.
The legend (HLF 955,116) tells about the mountain Kartavu(Kartavu kalns) near the village of Dundaga, Dundaga region, where the gnomes held their meetings. The leader of the Latvian tribe crept up to them to overhear what they were saying, but the dwarves noticed this and turned him into stone. Several curious stones can still be seen on the mentioned mountain today. (Fig. 5). Translated, the name of the mountain means Gallows Mountain.
According to legend (HLF 387,11071), devils and witches feasted in the swamp of the Vecpils volost of the Durbene region. Some guy sneaked up to look at them, but was noticed. The devils turned him into stone. In a legend (HLF 667,2389) from the Gludsky volost of the Jelgava region, it is reported about an evil master who, in addition to everything, constantly swore and spoke of the devil. One night, in rainy weather, he was driving home, and he needed to cross the Kazmeru Bridge to the opposite bank of the Tervete River. The master exclaimed indignantly that it would be better, the devil take him, than to cross in such weather. The devil dragged the master into the river and turned him into stone. This stone lying in the river had a name Master(Muijkungs).
According to legend (HLF 981.1), there was a large stone near the village of Beltes, Virbsky volost, Talsen region. It wasn't there before. The guy dreamed that he had to come to that place at midnight and dig for treasure. He was afraid to go alone, so he took the shepherdess with him. While digging a hole, the guy came across something hard. Then the shepherd boy jumped into the hole to help lift what he had found, but at the same moment the guy fell through the ground, and the shepherd boy turned into stone. The three aforementioned stones are also unknown to researchers today.
The legend (HLF 17.21589) about the Dignaya settlement in the Jekabpils region does not explain how and why the guy was turned into stone. It’s just that there was such a stone at the settlement, and on St. John’s night, when the boys and girls were having fun around it, the heart of the stone could not stand it, and it rolled down to the foot of the mountain.
According to legend (HLF 1493.189 and 1493.6476), near the house of the forester Mellausha of the Antsensky volost there were two oblong stones: one lying, the other standing upright. Once upon a time, the landowners of the Dundaga and Pope estates fought there, wounded each other and were petrified. But the winner of them was still recognized as the landowner from Pope, since in those days the Ance parish was annexed to the Pope parish. Nowadays, of the two stones, one has survived - standing, nicknamed Sharp stone(Spicakmens), but that one also capsized (Fig. 6).
Below we will talk about several more stones that the researchers also failed to detect. Thus, a legend (HLF 637,508) from the Jaunpiebalga region tells of a strongman who was detained by two robbers on the way to Riga. He killed them with one wave of his hand. They were petrified and still for a long time were seen standing by the road. Another legend tells about the appearance of two large stones in the Garsen volost near the Vilyumi estate (HLF 1895, 1774). An old man and his wife turned into these stones because they tasted the fruits of an enchanted apple tree. Similar stories legends (HLF 2012.603; 1602.2989; 929.52478) about Garsen Park. The stones in the park are petrified people who tasted the fruits of the magical apple tree of the Garsen Lady, and it was also claimed that these stones grew over time. The plot of Madame Garcin's apple tree is quite atypical.
According to legends, people mostly turn into stones when palaces and cities fall through the ground, or when the waters of a lake flood estates. About the mountain Pulkyu(Puļķu kalns) in the Kaltsempyu volost of the Aluksne region, one legend (HLF 1552, 7734) tells that the master ordered his servant to beat some old man. Because of this, the master’s palace fell through the ground, he himself turned into a rotten lump, and his servants into stone. According to legend (HLF 474.4) from the Cesvain region, on the mountain Stikla kalns(Glass Mountain) was a palace. The princess who lived there promised to marry the guy who managed to climb the steep slope to her. When a simple swineherd completed this task, she became angry and ordered his head to be cut off. The palace fell through the ground, and the people who lived there turned into stones. A legend about the Bruknas swamp in the Vecsaul parish of the Bauska region (HLF 456.9) says that in ancient times an enchanted city fell through the ground there. If on Easter night someone guesses the name of the city, it will rise from the ground, and people turned into stones will come to life.
According to legend (HLF 94.3976), Lake Durbes traveled by air and looked for a new place. A white horseman galloped ahead of him and shouted for the people to disperse, but they were busy harvesting hay and did not disperse. The lake fell on the disobedient people in the Durben region, and they turned into stones. Lake Babites got its name from the name of the old woman Babites. And although in the legend (HLF 1965, 1482) Babite is the name of a woman, it can also be considered a word with the meaning “old woman, grandmother.” The cloud turned into a lake and fell in the place where Babite was grazing cows. The large stone on the shore of the lake is Babite herself, the smaller stones are cows. It should be noted that Lake Babites, southwest of Riga, is a large and popular lake, but this legend itself refers to another, less well-known lake in the Cietser parish of the Broceni region, now bearing the name Baltezers.
There is a fairly wide range of legends about the emergence of Lake Remtes in the Remtes volost of the Brotsen region. According to legend (HLF 1594,1060), a water column collapsed on the house. A horse that was grazing nearby was thrown ashore and turned to stone. According to another legend (HLF 1965, 11483), there used to be a road where Lake Remtes is now located. A wedding procession was driving along the road. A large cloud appeared in the air, and the groom said: “This must be the lake coming.” As soon as he said this, the lake fell. The big stone is a horse and carriage. Another stone has an inclined surface - this is a bride with a veil. Next to the bride's stone lies an ordinary stone - this is the groom. The remaining stones are wedding participants. It is alarming that this legend, which describes the petrified wedding in such detail, was written down quite late, in 1963. Legends recorded in the twenties and thirties of the last century speak only of the appearance of a lake and a petrified horse. In addition, if in Lithuania and Belarus there are quite a lot of legends about petrified weddings, then in Latvia they are not so typical. Therefore, the question remains open: when was this legend attached to the mythological landscape of the surroundings of Lake Remtes? True, only some 15 kilometers from Remte, along the same Talsi-Saldus road near the Kulkampya estate in the Tsietsersky volost, another case of petrification of a cart with a woman was noted. But in the legend (HLF 1894, 1095) there is no motive for the wedding: a husband and wife were driving home from the city of Talsi, and heard lamentations in the grove. The husband went away to see what was there, and when he returned, there was no longer any wife or horse, only a large stone lay by the road. At lakes Baltezers and Remtes we actually discovered suitable stones, but we do not have reliable evidence that they are mentioned in the legends.
In the cultural and historical region of Vidzeme, according to our information, there are no legends about petrified weddings. Of interest is only one story by the writer Jānis Kalniņš (1922–2000), “Eternity” (Mūžība). The story says that when the wedding party was returning from the wedding, the groom stopped for a moment to visit a friend in the cemetery. A deceased friend invited the groom to his grave for a glass of wine. When the groom returned to this world, he discovered that not minutes, but centuries had passed. Instead of a wedding procession, he saw two stones: one larger, the other smaller. Those stones looked like a horse and carriage. The people he met told him that a groom had once disappeared here, and the bride who was waiting for him had turned to stone. One can only guess where the writer who was born in the Ropaz region borrowed the plot for his work - from the Vidzeme legends he heard in childhood or from some other sources? We will also present two fragmentary pieces of information from the cultural-historical region of Latgale about petrified weddings. According to a legend recorded in the city of Kraslava (HLF 144,1044), a bride turned into a stone mountain when she did not wait for the groom, who went to the spring to quench his thirst. In the card index of Latvian toponyms of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, under number MG 1960 in the village of Januciems, Demen parish, Daugavpils region, the toponym is noted Raganu Kalns(Witch Mountain). Here the witches cast a spell on the wedding, turning it into large stones that were visible on the side of the road. We were unable to detect these objects on the ground. Compared to neighboring countries, material about fossilized weddings is rather scarce in our country. But, as far as we know, only in Latvia is there such a group of stones that are considered to be petrified carriages of the devil. The main reason for the damn carriage turning into stone is the delay after midnight and the rooster crowing.
Concluding the topic of transformed people and animals, we note that in Belarus there are widespread legends about plowmen being petrified along with oxen (bulls) as punishment for working on a holiday. In this context, an interesting legend (HLF 739.7216) tells how in one village near the city of Daugavpils thunder killed a working plowman on a holiday. True, there is no mention of the plowman being turned into stone. Also, in 1920, local historian Zelmars Lancmanis made a note about some stone with a sign in Vidzeme, Jaunlaicene parish, Aluksne region. The stone was called Ox cart(Vēršu pajūgs).
Fossilized mythological characters. The devil is the most popular and colorful character in Latvian folklore, and it is no coincidence that most of the legends that interest us are connected with him. For one reason or another, a devil can turn into stone in both zoomorphic and anthropomorphic guise.
The circle of legends about the swan devil is peculiar. They appear in the names of three lakes, three stones and one plot of legend. So in the Drabezh volost of the Amata region, one person was walking along the shore of Lake Araishi late in the evening, a large black swan attacked him and began to strangle him. When a man called on the Lord, he turned into stone (HLF 1700,2154). The same legend is in the Garsen volost of the Aknist region (HLF 17, 25589) and about Lake Ukry in the Ukr volost of the Autsen region, with the only addition that in this lake in New Year's Eve two lights shine - the eyes of a swan (HLF 553,990). Unfortunately, the fate of the first two stones is unknown today. Only Damn stone Lake Ukry, which is associated with a fairly wide range of legends, is in its former place, but the lake itself has been drained (Fig. 7).
Legendary stories about a domestic animal (a goat, a sheep, a lamb) encountered along the way, which suddenly begins to grow in a cart or in the hands of a person, are widespread. In such a zoomorphic guise the devil himself appears, or perhaps the ghost of the deceased, since “lost” livestock sometimes appears near the cemetery. In fact, here two functions of the devil merge, one of which is associated with cattle breeding, and the second with the kingdom of the dead. Our tradition is unique in that the end result is a stone. In the Birzgali parish of the Kegums region, in a place called the Devil's Field, a white sheep appeared. One person wanted to pick up and take the sheep home. While he was carrying it, the sheep became heavier every minute. Thrown to the ground, she turned into a white stone (HLF 1177,21537). By the way, there is a similar legend about the stone in Lithuania, in the Utena region. Only there, instead of a sheep, there is a goat.
If the horse at Lake Remtes is an ordinary animal petrified as a result of a supernatural event, then the stone in the Daugava, called Horse of the Daugava(Daugavas zirgs), is a petrified mythical character, most likely the devil himself. According to legend (HLF 937.6), workers of the Dole estate, located on the island of Doles in the Salaspils region, returning from work in the evening, sailed by boat across the Daugava. In the water they saw a white horse and began to throw stones at it, but instead of the horse a huge stone appeared, which they began to call the Horse. But long ago this stone was destroyed as it impeded navigation along the river. The stones with which the horse is associated in legends are located either in water or in the immediate vicinity of water bodies. In particular, along the course of the Daugava River in Latvia, several previously destroyed stones were noted, the names of which are associated with a horse or a cart. The most impressive of them was the stone Mare in the Kalniesh parish of the Kraslava region near the border with Belarus.
Two legends about a devil in an anthropomorphic image are associated with the Salaca River, and, most likely, they refer to the same stone in the city of Mazsalaca, near the path that along the river bank leads to a local landmark - the rock Skanjaskalns(Ringing Mountain) (Figure 8). According to one legend (HLF 1086.6), the devil got tired of living, he threw himself into the river and drowned. The soul of the drowned devil turned into stone, which is now called Damn stone. The second legend (HLF 1182.7) is more detailed. It tells about a man who smelted lead in Riga. He explained to the devil that it was an eye medicine and poured it into his eyes. The devil jumped into Salatsu in pain. And after that he turned into stone.
At the beginning of the article there was a legend about a girl from Strazdensky volost, who, after meeting with the devil, turned into stone. The following legend shows that as a result of such a meeting, even the devil can turn into stone. In the Renda volost of the Kuldi region, a legend is recorded about a woman who walked through the Valchi forest. She met young man, who asked her to leave her husband and marry him. The woman, noticing that the young man had a tail and horns, began to pray. Then the young man turned into a large gray stone. This stone used to be in the forest of Valchi, Ivand volost.
There is a peculiar legend (HLF 22.2861), in which the spirit of competition and excitement characteristic of the devil as a chthonic character forces him to join people in the ancient game of guys - beating a wooden disk. In the Skrunden region, on Sundays, the guys who were hitting discs were joined by a stranger, a fairly skillful player. People noticed that he had no nostrils. One sorcerer hit him with a rowan stick, and the stranger turned to stone.
In the following legends, it is no longer man who fights the devil, but the supreme deities of the Latvians - Perkons and Dievs. Near the already mentioned Staburags rock a legend is written about Iodine Stone(Jodakmens), now sunk in a reservoir. Pursued by thunder, Iod (a synonym for the word “devil” as a black creature) turned into stone in the river (HLF 1955, 14834). About the popular trail stone, Devil's stone, near the Gevrani farm in the Rubensky volost of the Ekabpils region (Fig. 9) in the legend (HLF 1800, 1633) it is reported how the devil, together with a foreign robber, fleeing from a thunderstorm, crossed the river, but after a powerful thunderclap, both became a large stone in the river. It should be noted that now this stone is located not far from a very small stream, but legend explains that this large river dried up over time.
According to legend, in the Zosen parish of the Jaunpiebalga region, on Mount Spulgas, grain grew poorly, since the devil was always sitting there, smoking and burning it. God sent a thunderstorm at night. In the morning people found a large stone on the mountain - Spulgu (Fig. 10), which sometimes glows at night (HLF 828,17002).
Another legend relates to the Pauri estate in the Bila volost of the Smiltene region (HLF 1001.13). The devil lived in a castle, God sent a big storm. The devil with a bag of money fell down a hill and became a stone. If any person could break the stone with his bare foot, he would get to the money.
In the Zalva volost of the Neretsky region on the banks of the Suseya River there is a stone called Velna Nags(Devil's Nail) (Fig. 11). Already from the name it is clear that in this case it was not the whole devil that was petrified, but only his nail. According to legend (HLF 861.70), the devil, seeing God in the form of an old man, quickly disappeared underground. In his great haste, one of his nails broke off, which then turned to stone. This peculiar case is an example of the petrification of a part of the body of a mythological character.
A relatively small stone is an attractive and popularly recognized object. Velna papedis(Heel of the Devil), lying in the ravine of the Amula River near the Mazkudras farm in the Matkul volost of the Kandava region (Fig. 12). But there are no legends about the stone. Perhaps they once existed, but have not survived to this day. It is also possible that people who had not completely lost touch with mythical thinking gave the stone such a name because of its unusual shape.
In the Mazzalv volost of the Neretsky region near the Petersoni farm in the Viesite River there is a stone called, according to folk tradition, Velna peda(Stop the devil) (Fig. 13). The stone received this name not because of the presence of a footprint on it, but because its shape resembles the foot of a human foot. But the legends associated with it, recorded in our days, do not relate to the topic of transformations. They say that the devil was beating a calf on it. This legend combines two mythological motifs - the connection of the chthonic character with washing clothes, as well as his connection with animal husbandry.
In the Kalntsempa volost of the Aluksne region on the bank of the Paparze River near the former Bunguleyas farm there is a stone Velna rags(Devil's horn) (Fig. 14). But there are no legends about it, and only the name indicates the possible cult status of the stone.
Huge stone Skroderis(Tailor) was located in the Aiviekste River in the Prauliensky volost of the Madona region, but was destroyed while clearing the river bed. According to legend (HLF 1400,32943), there a certain tailor saw a black man late one evening and heard the splashing of water. The next morning, a stone was discovered at that place, which was named Skroderis.
If you can identify a trait in all previous legends, then say which mythological character is associated with the stone Badakmens(Hunger Stone), not so easy. A wide range of legends is associated with him: (HLF 891.5685; 910.2760; 17.19550; 89.5686). This stone is located in the Yumurda parish of the Erglen region on the territory of the Viesakas deer garden. It resembles this huge stone of a man, only without the head, which is severed. This severed head in the form of a smaller stone lies near a large stone. A red line is visible on the side of the latter - this is the blood that flowed after decapitation. There are several versions regarding the appearance of the stone. The stone rolled from volost to volost, where it stopped, there was hunger. Once he stopped on the border of the volosts of Cirsti and Yumurda, so these volosts were the poorest. According to another version, the stone was brought during times of famine and floods along with water. This stone, in the days when stones spoke, boasted that it would destroy all the houses in the area. Therefore, the people begged the soldiers to cut off his head. They also say about the stone that it was a soldier who went to sleep on the border of the volosts. There they cut off his head, and he turned into stone, and when he died, he cursed both volosts. At the beginning of the article we talked about the petrified girl Staburadze. From the entire array of legends dedicated to the Staburags rock, one story stands out (HLF 1664,378). It is somewhat consonant with the legends about the Badakmens stone. There lived a giant, kind and sympathetic. One day he heard men discussing that it would be nice to build a bridge across the Daugava. The giant decided to help, found a huge boulder and rolled towards the river. But where the stone rolled, nothing grew there. The people no longer wanted the bridge and begged the giant to throw a stone, which he did on the river bank. The spring flowing from Staburag is the tears of people who begged the giant to throw a stone.
The situation is completely different with the next stone, which is associated with well-being. There is a unique circle of legends (HLF 744.42; 744.88-9 and 861.605) from the Lazdukalns volost of the Rugai region about the cow Mara or Laima - the dairy Moshiva, which was heading along the Piestinja River from Vidzeme to Latgale. The witch turned her into a large stone on the Piestinya River. There was a cow's footprint on the stone. Not far from Moshiwe stone there were three smaller stones called Witch's bridges. Since the Moshive cow did not come to Latgale, people there live poorer than in Vidzeme. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of these stones are unknown today.
Stones are petrified objects. Basically, the appearance of stones - petrified objects in the mythical landscape of Latvia is associated with the actions of the devil.
In the Koceni parish of the Koceni region there is a stone Vitolensky Devil's Clock(Vītolēnu Velna pulkstenis) (Fig. 15). It is said that the devil was visiting God. Midnight was approaching, it was time to get ready to go home, and when the rooster crowed in the Vitoleni estate, the devil in a hurry put his pocket watch down his trouser leg instead of a pocket. The clock fell to the ground and still lies in the meadow near the Vitoleni farm.
Near the now defunct Melkitares manor, Aizkraukle parish, Aizkraukle region, there is a popular Muldakmens(Muldakmens), that is, a stone with a trough-shaped notch (Fig. 16). There are many legends associated with the stone. One of them relates to our topic (HLV 861.183). In ancient times, not every home had an oven for baking bread. One day a woman took a trough of dough to take to a neighbor and bake bread. On an autumn night, a woman carried a heavy trough through a swamp, her feet got stuck in the mud, the burden seemed heavier and heavier, and the tired woman said: “Couldn’t the devil himself have taken the trough!” At the same moment the trough fell into the swamp. The woman herself barely got out of there and came to her neighbor. After spending the night, she went home in the morning and at the place where her burden had fallen into the swamp, she saw a large stone, its shape resembling a trough, through the edges of which dough was pouring out. Since then, these swamps began to be called swamps Muldas(Muldapurvs).
Conventionally, the motif of petrification can be associated with the legend recorded in the Vecpiebalga region (HLF 1400,10611) about The devil's hat(Velna cepure). The devil was walking somewhere, but his head began to freeze, and he put a stone on his head instead of a hat. Seeing Jesus Christ, he threw his hat near the Murnieki manor. Another legend from this region (HLF 148,113) tells about the origin Devil's shoes(Velna tupele), located on the northern shore of Lake Alauksts near the Rozneny manor, which has survived to this day. The devil lost his shoe after an unsuccessful attempt to build a bridge with stones across the lake, when he ran away after hearing a rooster crow.
The connection with the chthonic world is indicated by the motives of the legends about enchanted money. The legend (HLF 361.72) from the Jaunelgava region tells about a stone that was located in the forest near the road to Jaunelgava. People driving along the road at night saw a fire in the forest, and near the fire a man in white clothes. The plantains asked for a light, and the man in white gave them hot coal. Later people noticed that these coals turned into money. We returned back, but instead of a fire and a man, we found only a large stone covered with moss. People began to call this stone Stone of money(Naudas akmens). The author of the article managed to obtain information from local resident Krisjanis Sams (b. 1919) about a stone in approximately the same area. He said that in childhood his father showed him that stone and said that the stone was called Stone of the Swedes(Zviedru akmens). His father also told him that the wealth of the Swedes was buried under the stone. An important remark by K. Sams is that as a child he pulled out shards of ceramics from under a stone. True, it is not entirely clear whether it can be said that these stones are one and the same object. But the likelihood that the enchanted money in later legends became the money of the Swedes is quite high.
In the Asit volost of the Priekul region there was Damn stone(Velna akmens) (HLF 1722,3428), shaped like a chest. According to legend, once upon a time the devil, running away from the god of thunder Perkons, left his chest of money, which turned into stone. There is a similar legend (HLF 1010.2080) about Big Stone Meadow(Lielakmens pļava) Edol parish, Kuldiga region (Fig. 17). The devil who stole from God gems, ran away, and the jewelry in his hands began to grow and turned into an ordinary stone, which he threw.
The next two legends are also about the thief devil. True, this time he steals not money, but something edible. About the appearance of a large stone in the Dobele region, a legend (HLF 1400, 11539) says that the devil was stealing peas in the field of the Kuyli farm. The owner of the field chased the devil. The fleeing thief had one bag untied, the peas spilled out and turned into small stones. Then the devil threw another bag, which also turned to stone. This stone, which cannot now be discovered, was popularly called Big Stone(Lielais akmens). In the Antsen parish of the Ventspils region, a legend is recorded (HLF 1722, 3428) about a devil who was carrying a stolen pot of sour cream from the Lonaste estate and slipped, and the sour cream spilled out and turned into crumbly stone.
In the legends about the next two stones, the devil was replaced by historical characters. In the city of Bauska there is Peter's Stone(Pētera akmens). According to legend (HLF 220.189), Peter the Great dined on the stone. Two of his plates were petrified, and now lie next to this stone like small stones. In the city of Varakliani in the park near the Borkhov Palace, in addition to the famous Stone of love(Mīlestības akmens), which is not related to our topic, the guides show a relatively small stone, which is passed off as the petrified saddle of Count Borja (Fig. 18). The legend about Peter's plates was written down in 1926, but only tour guides talk about Count Borja's saddle these days. The last example shows that even in our time stories can arise that are built on the principles of mythological thinking.
Stone instead of a building. Known in Belarus Gomsin stone. According to legend, he appeared something like this: during a thunderstorm, Perun hit Gomsin’s house and it burned down, and a large stone appeared in its place. Only according to this legend, it is generally impossible to say that the house turned into stone. It would be more accurate to say that there was some unusual situation involving supernatural forces, and as evidence of this event a stone appeared. In the cultural-historical region of Latgale, several legends about stones are recorded, where storyline with their origin similar to the appearance Gomsina stone. A legend from the Baltinava region (HLF 1400,581) is about a man who fell asleep in a bathhouse and saw a huge Russian army soldier enter. Frightened, he began to stab the soldier with a pitchfork. The soldier turned into horse droppings, which the man threw into the stove on the coals. By morning, a large stone appeared on the site of the bathhouse. In the Barkavsky volost of the Madonsky region, on the shore of Lake Lubanskoye, there was a tavern named Apinkalta. There, devils and witches danced in the attic at night. One day they burned the tavern, and now there is a large stone there (HLF 878.29). In the city of Karsava, a legend about the Preya stone is recorded. The hay barn of a certain owner of Preya burned down. In its place a large black stone rose. The devil lives under a stone and burns candles at night (HLF 1237.5). Unfortunately, we have not identified the stones mentioned in this section in the indicated areas. It is interesting that in our time, while examining stones in Latgale, in the Stabulnieki parish of the Riebiņi region, we came across a stone called Big stone or Office of the Devil. It can be assumed that the name Office pretty new. But the original legends that related to the stone and could influence the appearance of such a name are not known to us.
From the legends it follows that individual people, couples, groups and even entire settlements could become petrified. According to legend, people of both sexes and different ages were turned into stone. But still, they often feature petrified teenagers, boys and girls. Perhaps this indicates the connection of the plot about petrified people with gender-age initiations and the violation of certain taboos. In rare cases, a person and along with him some mythological character, such as a robber and a devil, a girl and a toad, turned into stone. The last two examples also show that two different characters can turn into one stone. If we are talking about two stones, then both representatives of the same sex (two robbers, two landowners) and different sexes (an old man and an old woman) could be turned into them. Animals and mythological characters in anthropomorphic or zoomorphic form, and even objects and buildings could also be petrified.
The reasons for petrification are stated to be very different, in many ways similar, but different from the corresponding motives in the legends of neighboring countries. In Belarus, Lithuania and the Prussian lands, the most pronounced motive is parental, especially maternal, curse. It is almost absent from the Latvian material. Sometimes the reason for transformation is a violation of a number of universal human norms of behavior (cruelty, greed, theft, laziness, dishonor) and even Christian morality (apostasy). But these motives are much less expressed in Latvian folklore than in neighboring countries. In Latvia, the most ancient layer of mythology, which has least felt the influence of a syncretic worldview, comes to the fore. This may be explained by the fact that in Latvia, with the exception of Latgale, the main religion was Lutheranism, which compromised less with paganism compared to Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
In a significant part of Latvian legends, the metamorphoses in question occurred at the point of convergence of two spaces (real and mythical) and in a time that was more mythical than real. The people who found themselves in this space and in this time are partly mythologized personalities - girls and boys of adolescence, shepherds, thieves, rulers. Shepherdesses and old women were petrified after they visited a palace that had sunk into the ground, took something from it or tasted something there, and then blabbed about what they saw.
This is the mythical time of first creation, when lakes traveled through the air in search of a place where they could stop. In Belarusian folklore, by the way, the same motif can be traced, only in a more modified form under the influence of the Christian faith - a lake appears on the site of a settlement that went underground “for sins.” The reason for the petrification of a person could be a meeting with a mythological character from another world and, conversely, the devil and objects associated with him become petrified after violating the allotted time (after the rooster crows, which announces the onset of day) and spatial boundaries. The devil finds himself in an inopportune place and at an inopportune time when he meets God or Perkons, as a result of which he himself or a part of his body petrifies.
In two cases, the cause of petrification was curiosity: a person spied on a feast of the devil and witches or a meeting of gnomes. Who knows if the background of these stories is not a prohibition against observing what you should not see, for example, the actions of a sorcerer or secret initiations?
In neighboring countries, stones of this category are found both in natural form, and in processed by human hand. In Lithuania this is special set stones, in Belarus - old stone crosses, in the Prussian lands - stone sculptures. In our opinion, the question of such stones in Latvia is open. In the legends about stones from the cultural and historical region of Kurzeme, it was repeatedly emphasized that the stone looked like a person, had the silhouette of a person or the features of a human face. Most of these stones were destroyed, but knowing that human characteristics in legends were often attributed to natural stones, it is impossible to say for sure that they were processed. Even the popular, but now lost (a drawing has been preserved) stone from the Puishu Kalns settlement, according to J. Urtans, is only a natural stone of an unusual shape. It seems that Spitsakmens in the forest of Antsenskaya volost it was once specially placed.
Similar versions were expressed about two stones in Vidzeme - Badakmens(Stone of Hunger) and not mentioned by us Triy Skroder akmens(Stone of the Three Tailors). Were they installed by man or did they take this form thanks to a glacier? Was the smaller stone lying next to Badakmens (his head) on top of the larger stone or not? In our opinion, there are no clear answers.
In Belarus, the worship of such stones has survived to this day. In Latvia, even if the veneration of these objects was once developed, this is not observed today. There is also little information in the literature about their veneration. The exception is the stone from Puishu Kalna. The above legend states that sacrifices were made to him in winter and summer. There are also ethnographic records that at the beginning of the 19th century, girls brought him gifts in order to get married safely. The veneration of the stone near the Dignaya settlement is evidenced by a legend that young people had fun there during the holidays.
According to legend, these stones cry, bleed, have a heart, grow, were once able to move, and if certain conditions are met, they can regain their human form.
According to folklore data, their connection with fortifications (especially in Kurzeme) and sanctuaries can be traced. Also important is their connection to borders, which indicates the role of boundary stones not only as markers of real space, but also their mythological significance. It should be noted that there are certain differences between the east and west of Latvia (eastern and western Balts). In Latgale there are almost no stories with petrified people, with the exception of a couple of notes about petrified weddings in the volosts bordering Belarus. The bulk of stones of this type are found in Kurzeme. But for Latgale, legends about buildings turned to stones, in which some supernatural event took place on the eve of the transformation, are typical. In the central regions of Vidzeme, the most colorful legends about the petrified mythological character are recorded. Also associated with the Vidzeme region, in our opinion, are the most intriguing facts about the connection of stones with poverty, hunger (Badakmens and Staburags) and, conversely, with wealth and fertility (Mari's cow or Laima). This, one way or another, indicates the connection of the stones with the theme of the fertility of livestock and the fertility of the earth.
Water has always been important for farmers and pastoralists. Many of our stones are somehow connected with water. They are located either in the reservoirs themselves, or in close proximity to them. The sources of springs and rivers are associated with these stones. From Staburadze's tears a spring was formed. One priestess turned into stone, the second into a spring. In Belarus, Stepan turned into stone, and a river was formed from Ulyana’s tears. The commonality of motives on a larger scale is also striking. For example, such a mythological character of the Eastern Roman peoples is known as Baba Dokia, who turns into a block of stone and from which a spring flows, which is explained by the fact that “Baba wet herself” or “Baba disgraced herself.” Also, the plot with a petrified woman who did not want to fall into the hands of robbers is present in Georgian mythology. She turned into a stone on the bank of a river, and the women of the village use this stone to control the weather. During a drought, the stone is pushed into the river, and when there is excess rain, it is dragged away from the shore. The latest examples illustrate the striking similarity of the motives of the legends of different peoples. They also show how important the role these stones played in the interaction between nature and man. The more materials are published on different regions and countries, the clearer our worldview will become ancient man. The mythological perception of reality still lives in the subconscious modern man, reflected in works of literature and art. An example of this is the sculptures of sea cows in the park of Ventspils (Fig. 19).
Literature
- Georgian folk tales and legends / comp. E. B. Virsaladze. – Moscow: Nauka, 1973. – 367 p.
- Kultavy and gistarychny boulders of Belarus / A.K. Karabana. – Minsk: Navuka and technology, 2011. – P. 53.
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The report was prepared for the conference “Mysterious Belarus” (Minsk) on January 21, 2017.
a mental state caused by a person’s anxiety about his autonomy, individuality and characterized by a specific form of defense and self-preservation.
The term “petrification” was introduced into the scientific literature by R. Laing (1927–1994) to describe the mental state of a person experiencing anxiety due to his ontological uncertainty - a feeling of being unreal, inanimate, out of touch with the outside world.
The concept of “petrification” has several meanings, which were summarized by R. Laing in his work “The Shattered Self” (1960) to the following: a special form of horror leading to the petrification of a person, turning him into stone; fear of the possibility of transforming or being transformed from a living person into a dead object or thing, devoid of subjectivity, into a kind of robot or automaton that does not have personal autonomy of action; a "magical" act by which one can resort to attempting to turn another person into stone.
Petrification is associated with the depersonalization of a person in an ambivalent way. On the one hand, in an attempt to preserve oneself (preserve autonomy and individuality) from possible suppression by other people, a person, as it were, turns into stone, thereby protecting himself from external pressure. On the other hand, he begins to treat the people around him not as individuals, but as things that do not have free will, denies their autonomy and ignores their feelings. In both cases, depersonalization occurs. A person is afraid of being depersonalized by other people and in turn depersonalizes them, which leads to a state of petrification.
Petrification does not mean a person loses contact with reality and withdraws into himself. However, as R. Laing noted, with such a mental state, the elements of the world acquire a different hierarchy of significance for a person than for a healthy person. The world of his own experiences does not disappear, but becomes one that he cannot share with other people.
Thus, the patient can enter into seemingly live communication with the analyst. He reacts to his interpretation of dreams and the designs he proposes. Enters into an argument with the analyst or, on the contrary, agrees with him in everything. Expresses such judgments that seem to indicate his autonomy, independence, and alertness of mind. However, the ability to behave in an analytical situation as an autonomous person may actually hide the fact that the patient perceives the analyst not as a living person, but as a kind of computer device that receives information from him, processes it according to a pre-entered program and produces a certain result in verbal form. Treating the analyst as a computer device, the patient secretly observes the soulless automaton and, unlike him, considers himself a living person, although in reality he turns out to be extremely constrained, closed, and petrified. Such a patient cannot maintain an analytic relationship in which two people communicate with each other as individuals. His own experiences do not manifest themselves as personal relationships with the analyst, but appear in the form of impersonal automatic reactions to the silence or questioning of the analyst, perceived as a computer device.
