Zagovory

Their slight difference in sense can be seen in constructions like "zagovory from maleficium"/"from bullets" (defensive, apotropaic aspect) and nagovory onto water (to make it "healing").

[3] Originally part of the art of a volkhv (Cyrillic: волхв; Polish: wołchw), who disappeared during the prosecution of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the zagovory tradition survived until the 20th century in popular folk culture, often under the guise of a noncanonical Christian prayer.

However within Byzantine written tradition (which embraced the Southern Slavs cultural intermediation) both Christian orthodoxy and some heterodox manuscripts circulated, which might echo back local heathen concepts.

As for other Slavic traditions, the formula occurs in Poland and, even more commonly, in Polish texts recorded in Lithuania; it is also found in Czech charms, though intended against disorders other than bleeding.

But the most famous plots, motifs and formulas which are considered an authentic feature of Russian (and all East Slavic) zagovory (such as the motive of the sacred center, Alatyr stone on Buyan island amid holy sea) seem to come from there.

In Eastern Slavic folk religion the concept of Navel of the World is embodied by a sacred stone Alatyr (frequently referred as white and hot), located somewhere in the East (either in a pristine ("clear") field or Buyan island amid a holy sea/ocean).

Appeals to such natural phenomena as dawn with red sun (and Eastern side of the world as such), young (new) moon, stars, winds are also very frequent.

For instance, in different versions of the same zagovory, the supreme power that a practitioner applies to is either Maria (Mother of God) or "Dawn the Red[f] Maiden" (Zorya).

Nevertheless, the absolute majority of zagovory texts focused on good deeds, such as healing people and livestock, attracting luck, love affairs, wedding protection, birth support and public relations.

[14] The most usual beginning of a Russian North zagovor was "blessed I rise, setting forth through doors and gates opening to the East, to the Eastern side, to the pristine field, to the sea-ocean, onward to the holy island of God... where lies the stone Alatyr..." In the middle of zagovory the body part the practitioner was seeking to influence was patterned in assimilation with natural or sacred phenomena, as in this haemostatic example: "... just as the stone Alatyr yields no water, may I yield no blood ... neither a hen yields any milk, a cock any egg, nor would so-and-so bleed... neither blood from a bone, nor water from a stone..."[15] The typical ending of zagovory (accompanied by symbolism of both key and lock) often included the statement "May my words be (both) firm and plasteringly adherent".