GÓRALSKIE CZARY | HIGHLAND SPELLS
"Leksykon Magii Podtatrza i Beskidów Zachodnich"
" A Lexicon of Magic from the Podhale and Western Beskids"
The book is a guide to the magical traditions of the Górale, the people who live in the Podhale (region of southern Poland) and the Western Beskids mountain range. It includes over 230 entries on a wide range of topics such as rituals, beliefs, spells, customs, wichcraft, sorcecery.
I was comissioned to create 20 illustration to the newest re-edition of this book.
All illustrations were made by hand, using ink and paint. Since woodcuts are big part of Górale culture I wanted to resemble this technique in my works. Also folk and medieval art were a big inspiration for me. This Lexicon is filled with demons, magical creatures and animals. So it was such a pleasure to work with.
Book Authors: Katarzyna Ceklarz and Urszula Janicka-Krzywda
Book design, layout: Bartłomiej Witkowski
Art Direction and Editor: Paulina Kołodziejska
Published by Tatrzański Park Narodowy
book avaible to buy here
book photos by Paweł Ponichtera
Book design, layout: Bartłomiej Witkowski
Art Direction and Editor: Paulina Kołodziejska
Published by Tatrzański Park Narodowy
book avaible to buy here
book photos by Paweł Ponichtera
"On Holy Saturday, housewives run around their houses and jingle their keys three times to keep snakes, mice, and rats out of the house."
"As they say, bears have souls, and their spirit takes a revenge on it's killer, for example, leading it astray or into the precipice."
"The bear was also a demonic animal, a symbol of fertility, harvest, vegetative forces, and due to its lifestyle (hibernation) - the eternal struggle of winter-death with life-giving spring."
"The bear was also a demonic animal, a symbol of fertility, harvest, vegetative forces, and due to its lifestyle (hibernation) - the eternal struggle of winter-death with life-giving spring."
"Children's hair was not cut (especially boys'), children's heads looked like they were covered with a shaggy sheep's hat. Swarms of insects nested in their hair."
"Another good result occured this way: a shepherd took a louse into the one hand, and a flea into another. He ran naked to the end of the village, where he released instects to the two sides of the border. After that, the cattle pastured calmly."
"Before sunrise, they would catch three identical little frogs (magic numbers), and then put them alive into an anthill for six weeks. After this time, they would collect the remaining little bones, crush them into powder, sprinkle them into a drink, and give it to the chosen person, who of course did not know what they were drinking. The effect was immediate: the victim of the spell would only think about the person who had prepared the drink, they would yearn for them, and eventually fall in love."
"In order to cure the infant, it was bathed in water with herbs and earth collected from nine shepherd's paths, along with a black cat, to which the infant's illness was to be transferred."
"A nail taken from an old coffin board can cause illness or death of the cattle. A witch who wanted to harm her neighbor's herd would drive a nail into the manger of the stable where the cows stood, and say the words: 'May these cows dry up as the dead one dried up.'"
"When the devil transforms into animal, he most often chooses the form of the black dog with red (burning) eyes or flames coming out of its mouth"
"A bat was found to be particularly helpful in love spells. Throughout the Polish Carpathian Mountains, lovers used one of its bones - shaped like a rake - to win each other's affection. The captured creature had to be buried alive in an anthill, preferably when the moon was new. After a some time, the bone was taken out and used discreetly to attract the partner."
A Turoń
