Miejsca wypędzenia choroby w zamówieniach litewskich. Ziemia, kamień, ogień, woda .......... 291

DISEASE REFERRAL IN LITHUANIAN HEALING INCANTATIONS: EARTH, STONE, FIRE, WATER

In Lithuanian healing incantations, as well as in all others, we can designate a system of disease control strategies, which presents ways of influencing the disease in order to combat it. These models of behavior are perfectly reflected in the texts of Lithuanian incantations. By using the correct strategies, the disease is expelled. In this case, the thread of determining the location of the expulsion becomes an important element of the incantation. The main principle in this issue is to refer the disease to a place from which there is no return or to the place of its origin. That is why it is supposed to be a distant, foreign, untamed, closed or dead space, which belongs to a dimension other than that of a human being. In Lithuanian healing incantations we can indicate several “directions” of disease referral, which are related to the basic spaces of the world – earth, water and air spheres. EARTH – a binary space combining the world of life and fertility as well as the chthonic world, the sphere of dying and death. The disease is assigned to this dimension and sent during treatment. STONE – similarly to earth the space denoted by stone can have differing meanings: it can appear as the cosmological center of the world, or as an element of inanimate nature, by its very concept devoid of life and dynamics, a chthonic space. FIRE – first and foremost, the element that removes disease, containing superb healing and cleansing powers; in Lithuanian folklore it appears as the goddess Gabija; a recurring theme is the search of where fire resides in stones; roosters and blood (often: the blood of a rooster) are another important aspect related to the metaphorical meaning of fire, as they serve as a peculiar personification and incarnation of fire. WATER – mythological and media space; the surface of the water is a natural border between the human world and another dimension – the underworld or a parallel world, which is inaccessible to humans. This means that it is a suitable place for expelled disease. What’s more, it acts as a substance that cleanses the body physically and mentally, soaks up the disease and overcomes it (immersion, melting the disease).