The dog, man's most faithful and reliable friend, appears to us in superstitions in a completely unexpected light. She is both a resident of the other world, and a messenger of death, misfortune, and a demon of pestilence. According to Philostratus, during the plague in Ephesus, Apollonius of Pianaeus ordered the crowd to stone one poor old man. When, after the execution, they dug up the pile of stones that covered the unfortunate man, the corpse of a dog was found underneath it. The epidemic stopped after that.

The sinister significance of dogs was recognized by many peoples. In some cases, the night howling of dogs or their sudden appearance in the house caused superstitious fear in people: this was considered a harbinger of death or misfortune. Meeting a dog on the road, especially at night, was also considered a bad omen. The fear is quite understandable if we remember that in some countries it was said that before a person dies, a mysterious black dog runs around the house three times or lies down at its gate.

According to popular beliefs, black dogs have a particularly close connection with the world of the dead.

They said that they see the angel of death when he approaches a person. The same properties were attributed to the “four-eyed” dog, which has light spots above the eyes, and to the “yarchuk” dog, the first dog (the dog of the first litter). Allegedly, not a single ghost can hide from her gaze. But it is very difficult to grow it, since sorcerers try in every possible way to destroy it.

The prophetic character of the dog is eloquently evidenced by a belief that attributes to it the ability to see not only spirits, demons, but in general many things that are hidden from the eyes of a mere mortal. The prophetic abilities of dogs, according to the ancients, could be transferred from them to humans. To do this, all you had to do was eat the tongue of this animal...

Plutarch wrote that the dog was involved in aversion and cleansing rituals. To cleanse, a person had to walk between the parts of a dog cut in half. Sometimes a puppy was drawn around the body of the person being cleaned.

Both folk medicine and agricultural ritual also testified to a deep belief in the aversive power of the dog. Pliny (with reference to the magicians) said that the bile of a black dog protects a house that is fumigated and cleansed of all spells. According to the same writer, a dog's claw was part of a magic drug that made a person invincible. And the ashes of a burned dog's skull were considered a cure for many diseases. “...blood from a dog also helps against the bite of poisonous reptiles, no worse than known antidotes.”

According to the testimony of ancient authors who wrote about agronomy, dog droppings mixed with rotten cheese protect seeds and plants from livestock, and the barking of a dog, like the crowing of a rooster, puts spirits and ghosts to flight.

Ancient ideas about a dog as a human soul wandering the earth are very stable. The inhabitants of Siam believed in special demonic people who had no pupil in their eyes (the iris was so dark that it merged with the pupil). They believed that at night, when they were sleeping, their souls seemed to turn into dogs or wild cats, scour the world and only return back at dawn. They say similar things about witches. While the witch's body is immersed in sleep, her soul in the form of a black dog, cat or bat wanders around the world. Many peoples had a belief that a witch especially willingly turns into a dog. And quite often one could hear a story about a man who, having mutilated a dog he came across at night, was convinced the next day that he had mutilated his neighbor, a healer.

On the other hand, many folk tales talk about the appearance of the souls of the dead in the form of dogs. Here is one of them: “Several people standing guard at the grave saw a terrible black dog come out of it at night and, having committed all the evil that it was capable of, then hid again in the grave.” And here’s another: “Once two Christians killed a Turk, he became a dog and appeared not only at night, but also at noon, attacking the herds and the soul of the sheep.” The jump of a dog over the body of the deceased was considered as the return of the soul, after which the dead man allegedly found no more peace in the grave and returned to the world of the living as a ghoul.

Some peoples firmly held the belief in the possibility of transferring a prophetic gift and, in general, high wisdom from a dog to a person. So, on the Hawaiian Islands already in our century, a priest-sorcerer, invited to a sick person, sacrificed a dog and a rooster, ate part of their meat and went to bed. After a short sleep, he named the person who caused the illness. Among the blacks of Jamaica, those who wanted to gain the ability to see spirits smeared their eyes with liquid from the eyes of a dog.

The cult of the dog was characteristic of Ancient Mesopotamia.

According to popular beliefs, miraculous properties are equally inherent in both living and dead dogs. A black dog and a black cat living in the yard protect him from the spell. According to German belief, neither thieves nor demons can enter a yard guarded by a “four-eyed” dog. And according to Russian, lightning does not strike a house where a black dog lives. Echoes of such beliefs have partially reached us, living at the end of the 20th century. To this day, you sometimes hear: “A dog howls is not good.” Or something like that. And yet, despite the fact that in folk legends the dog was presented as something frightening, demonic, man’s attachment to it has always been very great.

Dogs and the Orthodox Church

Commentary by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on the question of whether a dog is really an unclean animal:
“I treat animals well and love dogs very much. I have three dogs in Moscow and two in Smolensk. The Church has never considered dogs unclean animals and has never forbidden them to enter the premises. Many people are against allowing dogs to enter the church , but not for theological reasons, but for reasons of a purely traditional, historical nature, rooted, as it seems to me, in ideas about hygiene.

I want to say that the ban on dogs entering the temple is not recorded in canon law. This is simply part of the tradition, and the same tradition probably extends to horses, piglets, chickens, geese and other animals. But does not apply to cats. Why? Yes, because they always caught mice. And cats were allowed into the temple precisely for this purpose. Moreover, a cat is a very clean, almost sterile creature, domestic in the full sense of the word. It does not create hygiene problems for the space in which it is located. I think that the problem lies only in this, and there is no mysticism associated with dogs, and even more so there is no “anti-dog” theology. We must love animals, because by showing love to animals, we train our human emotions and become more humane."

Archpriest Maxim KOZLOV, rector of the Church of St. mts. Tatiana at Moscow State University:
“Dogs are very good animals, and they, like all animals, were created by God, so every person can keep any number of dogs at home, unless it becomes a passion for him. But there are cases when priests refuse to bless apartments because of dogs. And sometimes you can come across the opinion that a dog is a “bad” animal, and it can be possessed by a demon. It must be said that such statements are of a personal nature, that is, they have never been dogmatized by the Church.

No creature can drive God out either from our apartment or from the temple. But how many times have dogs saved people? Take, for example, the memoirs of Metropolitan Nestor - “My Kamchatka”. He describes many cases when these animals helped by warming them up, pulling them out of the water, and leading them out of the tundra. Many northern peoples live with dogs in yurts, but at the same time they do not cease to be people. They treat dogs like family members. It’s simply not possible there otherwise. Surely Bishop Nestor consecrated these dwellings and prayed with these people. "

Moiseev Dimitri, priest:
“Does a dog interfere with grace?
Every Orthodox Christian knows about the existence of Sacred Tradition in our Church. Church tradition also occupies its due place in it. But, unfortunately, almost each of us has had to deal with the so-called “near-church” tradition, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Orthodox Church, but, nevertheless, lives near it. Alas, not all believers have enough knowledge to distinguish real church teaching from pseudo-church teaching, and, instead of decisively rejecting the latter, they unwittingly become its spreaders.

Among such “near-church” legends is the opinion that it is inadmissible to have dogs in apartments and other premises where there are icons and other shrines. They say that it is supposedly impossible to consecrate those apartments where dogs live, and if a dog enters a consecrated room, then it must be re-consecrated. A completely reasonable question arises: what is the dog’s fault, and how can it interfere with the grace of God? The usual answer is that since in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament a dog is called an unclean animal, then, therefore, it defiles a shrine with its presence.

If for people who hold this opinion, the Lord’s words spoken to the Apostle Peter are not enough, namely: “What God has cleansed, do not consider unclean” (Acts 10:9-15), the resolution of the Apostolic Council, which abolished the need for Christians to observe the Old Testament law ( Acts 15:24-29) and other testimonies of the New Testament, then it would be useful for them to know what the Holy Fathers say about the reason for the division in the Old Testament of animals into clean and unclean, and also what exactly this uncleanness consists of. The great Byzantine theologian of the 9th century, Saint Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (February 6, Old Style) writes the following about this: “Many things are very good by nature, but for those who take advantage they become great evil, not because of their own nature, but because of depravity using... The pure began to be separated from the unclean not from the beginning of the universe, but received this distinction due to certain circumstances. For since the Egyptians, who had the Israelite tribe in their service, gave divine honors to many animals and used them badly, which were very good, Moses. , so that the people of Israel would not be carried away into this nasty use and would not attribute divine veneration to the dumb, in the legislation they rightly called them unclean - not because uncleanness was inherent in them from creation, in no case, or uncleanness was in their nature, but since the Egyptian tribe did not use them purely, but very badly and wickedly. And if Moses attributed something of the deified by the Egyptians to the rank of the pure, like the bull and the goat, then by this he did not do anything inconsistent with this reasoning or with his own goals. Having called some of the things they idolized an abomination, and consigned others to slaughter, bloodshed, and murder, he equally protected the Israelites from serving them and the harm arising from this - after all, neither vile, nor slaughtered and subject to slaughter could be considered a god by those who treated him that way.

So, God's peacemaking has made all creatures very good and the nature of everything is the best. The unreasonable and lawless human use, having desecrated much of what was created, forced something to be considered and called unclean, and something, although it escaped the name of unclean, gave the God-seer a reason to provide another way to stop their desecration, in order to remove them from thoughts in one way or another Israelites polytheism and achieve impeccability. After all, both the name of the Unclean and the use that gives the sacrificial [meat] to the belly does not allow one to think or even simply imagine something divine or honorable in them.

If someone says: “Then why was Noah, when the law of Moses had not yet been given, commanded in Scripture to separate the clean from the unclean and bring them into the ark (cf. Gen. 7:2)?”, let him know that there is no contradiction . For... if animals are named not by the characteristics by which they were recognized then, but by those that became known later, then nothing refutes the above reasoning. After all, the book of Genesis was written not by Noah, who lived before the law, but by Moses, who laid down the law about the clean and the unclean. If what was later included in the law was foreshadowed by Noah, nothing surprising, because even when the general collapse had not yet occurred, he, having received knowledge about it, did not doubt. Then how did he, having heard about the distinction between clean and unclean, decide to separate them? What has just been said also answers this: the one who learned about the universal collapse before it came, and received the grace from God to preserve the seed of the human race, did not in any way delay in receiving from above the recognition of pure and unclean, although the use of these names had not yet occurred in custom" (St. Photius. Amphilochia. Alpha and Omega, No. 3 (14), 1997, pp. 81-82).

Thus, the Holy Father’s view on the problem of unclean animals is quite obvious: it is not a matter of the nature of the creature, by nature, by nature, all animals are very good. Moses called some animals unclean, trying to protect his people from worshiping them. In our time (and even during the earthly life of Christ) such a threat does not exist. Therefore, “discrimination” against dogs by Orthodox Christians has no basis. It must be said that in the canonical rules of the Russian Church there is a decree prohibiting the introduction of dogs into the temple, since the presence of a dog in it is not appropriate due to its inherent characteristics (smell, restless behavior that violates the reverent order and silence of the temple, etc.) . However, this prohibition applies only to the temple and is not at all motivated by the fact that the dog defiles the shrine and prevents the grace of God from being in the temple. Accordingly, the presence of a dog in the house cannot in any way interfere with grace. It is not the dog that drives this grace away from us, but our sinful life, from which it is much more difficult to free ourselves than from a dog. Therefore, the presence of a dog in it does not pose any obstacle to the consecration of the apartment [...].

And let us turn more often to the patristic heritage, to this truly inexhaustible treasury of spiritual wisdom, because only there can we find the correct answer to certain questions that life poses to us. "

v It is a sin to call a dog by a human name.

v A dog is only kissed on the face - otherwise it will get fleas, a cat - vice versa.

v A dog's howling is a sure sign of death. It is believed that in which direction the dog howls, there will be a dead person or a fire in that direction or house; if it howls in front of the house, it means that someone’s death is expected in the house.

v A dog howls with its face up - towards a fire, with its face down - towards a dead person, holding its head straight - towards war or famine, sitting or lying down - towards its death.

v A dog that howls, shakes its head in different directions or from bottom to top, portends a number of misfortunes. If there is a sick person in the house, he will not have to wait for recovery. Death will come for him soon.
To avert trouble in these cases, you should do this.
When you go out the gate (or from the entrance), say three times, preferably out loud: Trouble does not come through these gates, the dog barks, but the wind blows. Amen.

v If a dog howls all the time at night, turn the pillow under you and say: “On your head!” - the howling must stop. To stop a dog's howling, our ancestors advised taking off your shoes from your left foot and, turning them upside down with the sole, stand with the same foot on it and look in the direction from which the sound is heard. This will stop the dog howling.

v If a dog howls at night and digs a hole in the yard of a house, there will be a funeral. (Gypsy belief).

v If your beloved dog howls incessantly for no apparent reason, some misfortune will soon befall the family.

v In Lancashire they said that if the life of a dog is closely connected with the life of its owner, then when the latter dies, it will also die. This belief may well have been fueled by well-known cases of a dog wasting away and dying after the death of its beloved owner or mistress.

v If a rabid dog bites, apply a raw herring cut lengthwise to the bite, it will draw out all the poison.

v A dog’s tooth protects against the evil eye.

v Lightning does not strike houses where a black dog lives.

v Black dogs are sometimes considered to bring bad luck, especially if one crosses your path.

v Meeting a spotted or black and white dog on the way to a business meeting in England is considered a good omen, but in India it promises disappointment.

v In Lincolnshire, after meeting a white dog, you must remain silent until you meet a white horse, otherwise bad luck will follow.

v In some places, it is a good omen to meet three white dogs at once.

v In Lancashire, a strange dog running after a person, which cannot be driven away, portends death for that person.

v It is considered a bad omen for a strange dog to enter the house or meet it on the road, especially at night.

v In the Highlands of Scotland, a strange dog wandering into a house portends a new friend.

v If someone else's dog follows you, this is a good sign.

v The dog crosses the road, there will be no trouble, but there will be no great success either.

v If a dog runs between the newlyweds when they are going to get married, trouble will certainly happen to them. (Highlanders).

v Meeting a barking dog early in the morning is unlucky. (Ireland).

v A cat makes a horse dry, a dog makes it healthier, so it’s good to take a dog with you on the road.

v If a dog has white spots above its eyes, like second eyes, it sees evil spirits - the devil is passionately afraid of such dogs!

v Dogs and cats see spirits, the first litter female is especially predisposed to this.

v The barking of a dog, like the crowing of a rooster, causes spirits and ghosts to flee.

v Dogs on the street bark for no reason - an evil spirit passed by.

v If you don’t give a dog (or a puppy), it won’t live. If you gave it as a gift, give at least a copper penny for it.

v In order for the dog to settle safely at home, small pieces of hair are cut from its head, back and tail, which are cut into the threshold, saying: “As this wool stays in the threshold, so would the dog stay in the house.”

v When you see a ferociously barking dog, you should say three times: “The blind one was whelping, now be dumb!” - and every time you spit to the left.

v The dog curls up and lies in a ball - in the cold; stretches out on the ground, legs spread, in the warmth.

v Eating little and sleeping a lot - to changes in the weather or bad weather.

v A dog rolls on the grass - to the wind and rain, on the snow - to a snowstorm or thaw.

v If a dog rolls on its back, it will be frosty.

v Rides in the yard - towards the wind, and in which direction with his head, the wind comes from there.

v The dog climbed into the water - it meant rain.

v If a dog eats snow in winter, it means bad weather.

v Eating grass means rain.

v The dogs chase one after another and play in the snow - in a blizzard.

v In Lithuania, when building a house, having dug a hole for a corner post, they do not lower the post into it until the dog barks or the rooster crows.

v Driving sign: if you hit a dog, prepare for the worst, a person could be next.

v A hunting sign: if before a hunt a dog sits down to do big things with its back to its owner, the joy of a superstitious hunter knows no bounds! He will approach the dog, take off his hat in front of it and thank him. Because this sign means: the dog will bring game into the bag. And if the dog, God forbid, sits down with his face towards the owner, he will spit and say “What an infection!” walk all day darker than a cloud.

v Among fishermen, the word “dog” is one of those words that cannot be uttered while at sea, and in some coastal areas this taboo extends to the animal itself - it cannot be taken on board.

v One of the methods of treatment, the essence of which is the transfer of the disease to something else, was to take a few hairs of the patient, place them between slices of sandwich and give them to the dog. The animal acquired the disease with food, and the patient recovered. This remedy was often used by old-fashioned nurses to treat childhood illnesses such as whooping cough, measles and the like.

v A dog bite should not be shown to anyone / especially a doctor! /, otherwise the wound will not heal for a long time.

v The baby does not eat after being sick - he will soon die;

v Whoever eats after a dog will have a swollen throat;

v Don't kick the dog - it will cause convulsions;

v Dogs playing - for the wedding;

v A dog rubs against people walking down the street - for a gift;

v Standing on its paws sways - good road.

v The death of a dog (especially a red one) on New Year's Eve brings disaster.

v If a dog barks to the east during Easter Matins - to the fire, to the west - to misfortune.

v If on Epiphany (January 19) dogs bark a lot, there will be a lot of animals and game. On Epiphany, animals are fed bread with a cross on the top.

v A dog barks (barks) in a dream - towards guests.

v Where the dog barked, the guests come from there.

v The dog clings to the owner - unfortunately.

SPELLS FOR TREATING DOGS:
Pre-conspiracy prayers:
† “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal Heavenly Father, You said with Your most pure lips that nothing can be done without You. I ask Your help! To begin every business with You, for Your glory and the salvation of my soul. And now, and ever, and forever and ever."
† “Nicholas, saint of God, helper of God. You are in the field, you are in the house, on the way, and on the road, in heaven and on earth: intercede and save from all evil.”
Reading the Lord's Prayer
† "Our Father, who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtor; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

SPEAK THE PLAGUE
Read on water for dogs:
† "Oh, holy Joseph, you, who had a dog, the one whom she saved from the Chaldeans in your dream. You, who acquired holy rank and a holy crown.
Save my dog ​​from death. One tear will resurrect him. Amen".

CHARM A DOG'S WOUND
If your dog is bleeding from a wound, speak to (stop) the bleeding. Then read the plot to heal the wound quickly.
After the second time, the wound closes and heals. Read for three evenings in total.
So, first stop the bleeding:
† "Two brothers are cutting a stone,
two sisters looking out the window,
two mothers-in-law are standing at the gate.
You, sister, turn away.
and you, blood, calm down.
You, brother, humble yourself,
and you, blood, lock yourself up.
The brother runs, the sister screams, the mother-in-law grumbles.
And be my word strong to subside the blood,
to this hour, to this very minute.
To close the wound
edge with edge,
skin on skin,
wool on wool,
everything should be overgrown.
Amen".

IF A DOG'S EYES PUSH
Look your dog (or other animal) straight in the eye and say this:
† "Clean water, clean eyes, wash away the disease, tear. Amen."
Do this three times.

SO THAT THE PAIN COME OUT
Find the edge of the splinter and say three times:
† "God, heal this pain, as Saints Kuzma and Demyan healed five wounds. Amen."
If you have tar (preferably birch), lubricate the area with the splinter with it and tie it up. The splinter will come out on its own.

IF YOU ARE CALLED TO A BIRTH OF AN ANIMALS
A cow is calving, a dog is whelping, a mare is foaling; Everyone has a different name for the genera. But everyone has the same torment. You can give them relief with a special curse:
† “Opening the golden gates, I relieve heavy labors, birth cramps, drive away torments - both original and all-born. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

IF A PUPPY BITCH'S MILK IS MISSING
If a woman or a cow or a dog is spoiled so that there is not a drop of milk, it is probably someone out of malice who read the Lord’s Prayer backwards. Read the prayer correctly forty times, and do the same for everyone from the family where the milk was lost.

FOR A GOOD LIVING
Many Christmas carols were supposed to use the magic of words to ensure a good birth of livestock and its health. On Christmastide they go around the house with the words:
† "Happy New Year,
With cattle - belly,
With wheat and oats.
So that the cattle can be found,
So that the cow calves,
There were piglets
The chickens were breeding."

TO RAISE AN ANIMAL THAT FALLS FROM YOUR FEET
If the owners of fallen livestock (horses, cows, etc.) come to you for help, before you leave the house and go for treatment, light a lamp in the house and open at least one window. Stand at the feet of the sick animal and say in a low voice:
† "Rejoice and be well. The Lord has given you to us as food, but it is not time for you to die, get up."
Say this 12 times without stopping.

PLAGUE CONSPIRACY FOR ANY PET
Stand near the house of a sick animal and read the plot three times, with the setting sun:
† "As the sun-father came and went, so the plague will leave this house. On the grass, on the twig, on the forest snag, on the empty barrel. I speak, I speak. I take it away and pronounce it. The word is strong to (animal name) tenaciously. Amen."
In addition, you can brew a special potion against the plague. It is prepared like this:
A fairly thick decoction of garlic, onion, hoofed grass and tar (about the size of a five-kopeck coin) is added to a bucket of sour kvass. Drink this more often.

CONSPIRACY WHEN TREATING A PET
† “I, servant of God (name), will stand up, blessing myself and crossing myself, I will go out into the open field,
under the red sun on the Okiyan Sea. There is a Church of God on the Okiyan Sea.
In God's church there is a golden throne. Behind the golden throne is the Lord Himself,
Jesus Christ sits and reprimands 74 nails, 74 claws, 74 sorrows, 74 diseases.
And the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ Himself, takes three iron rods and beats... (name the animal, gender and color of wool), and kills 74 sorrows, 74 diseases, 74 nails: bone, brain, harness, harness, tirucal, nucal.
What I didn’t say, I said, then there will be a word ahead. The ring finger does not have a name, there was no name and there will not be forever, forever, from now until forever. Amen!"

"TO TAME" A DOG TO YOURSELF
You got a dog or a cat and, of course, you want your friend to be obedient and loyal and not run away from you. Give him the water you washed your hands in. Then you need to cut small pieces of wool from the head, back and tail of the animal and cut them into the threshold with the words:
“The way this fur will stay in the threshold is how the dog would stay in the house.”
This method is old and simple, but quite reliable.

FOR "HOUSE TRAINING" A DOG
In order for a dog to “take root” in the house there is a very simple and very ancient ritual:
you need to transfer the animal through a belt or strap placed across the entrance, removed from the clothes you often wear. This is done once when the dog is first brought into your home.
And also drive her around the pole so that she comes home well.

REMOVE DAMAGE FROM ANIMALS
Take a cup of salt water. Walk around the spoiled animal three times and say, spraying on the animal:
† “I cut and salt and don’t give. I won’t let anyone spoil my own, or someone else’s, or a stupid person. Neither out of stupidity, nor out of greed, nor out of envy, nor out of self-interest, nor out of anger. My foot will stand forward, my hand will overturn, and the corruption will disappear. Amen."

CONSPIRACY FROM DAMAGE
The spell must be cast on molten wax, which should be stuck to a red silk ribbon. Tie a ribbon to the animal.
† “I will stand, blessing myself, and go, crossing myself. Save and preserve (the name of the animal). You, Most Holy Theotokos, let through pedestrians and horsemen, and birds in flight. Let through with (the name of the animal) both sorrow and pain. Sister, sister, came from the wind - go to the wind. From the forest - go to the forest. From the Lord God - come from the water - go to the water forever and ever.”

BARLEY ON THE EYE
† "On a fig! Buy yourself what you want. Buy yourself an axe! Chop yourself across!" (Read three times, spitting three times over your left shoulder after each reading of the plot).

EYESORE
† “Our Father...” (1 time) “Saint Yegoriy rode on a horse, three dogs ran after him. One dog licks the dawn, the second - the moon, and the third - an eyesore. Saint Yegoriy is with them with his spear, an eyesore. born blessed (name the color and/or type), (Name). (3 times).
Read everything three times, circling the eyesore and crossing yourself. This spell can also be used to treat a person, but instead of a name, say: the servant of God (his), baptized (oh), praying (gosya).

ANCIENT RITES FOR PEOPLE:
According to pagan beliefs, dogs are protected by good deities and through them help people protect themselves from evil forces. God Semargl was depicted as a winged dog, personifying “armed goods.” The idol of Semaragla was installed by Prince. Vladimir in Kyiv.

v FROM FEVER, TUBERCULOSIS.
In Oldenburg, a fever patient put a bowl of milk in front of a dog and said: “Dog, little dog, if you are sick, I will be healthy.” If the dog began to lap up the milk, the patient also drank from the bowl. If this procedure could be repeated three times, the dog became ill and the person recovered.
Following the same theory, the Hindus in the old days sent tuberculosis away along with the jay.

v FUNERAL RITUAL OF "VIEWING".
With their gaze, dogs drive away the demons of death and cadaveric decomposition, which is the basis for the use of these animals in a number of rituals of purification and the funeral-memorial cycle, for example, in the rite of “examination by a dog.” During the funeral process, the dog is allowed to look at the face of the deceased several times, so that it drives away the demon of cadaveric decomposition, which attacks the corpse immediately after the death of a person. A dog can take part in such rituals from the age of four months.

v CONSPIRACY TO REMOVE TROUBLES FROM THE HOME.
If a dog howls all the time at night, in order to ward off trouble in these cases, you should do this.
When you leave the gate (or the entrance), say three times, preferably out loud:
† "Trouble should not come through these gates, the dog barks, but the wind blows. Amen."

v CONSPIRACY TO Pacify a DOG.
If you are afraid of dogs, as you walk in the evening, put your thumb and ring fingers together and say three times: “You, dog, are blind and dumb.”

v CONSPIRACY AGAINST DOG BITES.
† “Tsar Gleb, I’m not telling you, they’re dissuading you from every reptile, from nasty uncleanness, from a stray dog ​​(some kind of wool); I’m telling you, I’m dissuading (name of rivers) from bones, from relics, from veins, from veins, from composition , from a half-compound, from a violent head, from a rib bone, from flammable blood, from a lean belly, from fractional intestines. On the Okiyan sea, on the field of the seeds, on a high mound stands an iron house, copper ropes, silver gates, golden castles, no castles. open your hands, don’t burp your shawls.”

v CONSPIRACY FOR A WOUND.
Cover the wound with both hands and say:
† "They tore with my teeth, I speak with my lips. I cover with my hands, I reprimand with skill. One - no pain, two - heal, three - heal. Amen."
If you are bitten by your dog (this often happens when you, for example, pull him out of a fight), cut off some hair from his withers, burn it and cover the wound with ashes. Then brush a cloth with egg yolk and place it on top. The wound will heal very soon.

v SPELL FOR WOUNDS FROM DOGS.
† “On the sea, on Okiyan, on an island on Buyan, there is a house, and in that house sits an old woman,
and she holds the sting. You, old woman, take your sting and come to the slave (name);
take the mortal thorn out of the slave (name). I speak to the painful wounds on the arms, legs, head, forehead and back of the head, eyebrows and chin.
Be forever and ever on a dog, black, gray, red, gray, red, white, sit and never leave."

v CONSPIRACY AGAINST RABIES IN CASE OF A DOG BITE.
† “On the sea, on Okiyan, on the island of Buyan, stands Mount Ararat, on that mountain, on Ararat, lies a sacred stone, on that stone sits a gray-bearded, white-bearded grandfather. I bow to you, I pray, save me from the dog, from the bite , from motley, white-haired."
The spell is pronounced over water.

v CONSPIRACY AGAINST RABIES.
† “On the sea-ocean there is a white birch tree, under this white birch tree lies a cast-iron board, on this cast-iron board sit two clerks: the queen-hunter and the king-hunter. A slave (the name of the rivers) comes to you, asks and begs you: collect all the rabid ones - and huskies, and pottery dogs, and greyhounds, and order them to take their rabies out of the slave (name of the rivers), from his body, from his bones, from his blood. If you take out your rabies, you will receive salvation from the Savior, and. If you don’t take it out, I will tell the Savior and the Mother of God. The Savior will come to you with a holy spear, and the Mother of God will punish you with an iron rod, and will order you to take out the rage.”

v DIVINATION.
Girls make wishes for Christmastide when they go out to the fence at night or just stand at the gate.
They say: “Bark, bark, little dog! Bark, little gray top! Where the little dog barks, there my betrothed lives!” From where the dog's barking is heard, the girl will be given in marriage to the other side, and the louder the barking is heard, the farther she will go. A hoarse bark means marriage with an old man, a ringing and thin bark promises a young groom.

Myths, legends, beliefs

The dog is one of the most common animals living with humans both in rural areas and in city apartments. It is probably already impossible to find a courtyard, even in the city, where dogs are not walked at dawn.

This popularity of the dog, of course, is not accidental. Many people subconsciously feel that a dog contains very powerful magical properties. It is not for nothing that the Avesta, the oldest religious and cultural monument of the East, says: “The world is held together by the mind of a dog.”

By the way, it also says the following: “A dog is a guardian and a friend given to you... She does not ask you for clothes or shoes. She helps you catch prey, she guards your property, she amuses you during your leisure time. Woe to him who offends her or spares her healthy food. The soul of such a person after death will wander forever in solitude: not even a dog will come out to meet it.”

Unlike other animals, the magical properties of a dog are closest to humans. Even a cat and a cow cannot compare with them in this regard. That is why, perhaps, it is impossible to find another animal that would be so strongly devoted to man.

An excellent confirmation of such a dog’s attachment to people is the New Assyrian parable:
“One man had a dog that guarded his house and garden for many years. But time passed, the dog grew old, and then the man decided not to keep the dog anymore, but to drown him. He put a dog in the boat, tied a stone around its neck and swam to the middle of the river. There he threw the dog into the water. But from a sharp push the boat swayed, the man could not resist, fell into the river and began to drown. The noose with the stone slipped from the dog's wet neck, and she was free. But instead of fleeing from the man who wanted to drown her, she rushed with all her might to save him, grabbed him with her teeth and pulled him to the shore. The man survived and returned home with the dog. He began to care and look after her while she was alive. And since then no one else in the village has tried to kill the dog.”

Dogs were so revered by people that sometimes they even erected marble monuments to them, such as to a dog named Soter. It is believed that she and forty-nine other dogs saved the ancient Greek city of Corinth from enemies.

Legend has it that one night, when the internal garrison was sleeping, an enemy flotilla sailed and a battle ensued on the outskirts of the city with dogs, the faithful guards. People's help arrived when only one dog named Soter remained alive. The enemy was defeated, and the citadel was saved, and Soter received a silver collar with the inscription “Soter - defender and savior of Corinth” as a reward for his bravery.

The dog was a sacred animal of many gods. For example, Anubis appeared to the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt as a man with the head of a jackal or a dog (sometimes simply in the form of a jackal or a dog). He accompanied the souls of the deceased to the judgment hall, where their hearts (the symbol of the soul) were weighed on special scales balanced by truth. The center of the cult of Anubis was considered to be Kinopolis (in its original name - Kasa) - “the city of dogs”. And if any of the residents of other cities killed a dog from Kinopol, then this was considered a sufficient reason to declare war.

In the kingdom of Hades, on the banks of the sacred river Styx, monstrous dogs accompanied the retinue of the goddess Hecate (in Greek mythology, the goddess of darkness, night visions and sorcery), who was considered an assistant in witchcraft. In addition, she sent nightmares and difficult dreams to sleeping people.

There was a belief that of all living creatures, including humans, only dogs could see this goddess.

The dog also accompanied other gods - Artemis (in Greek mythology - goddess of the hunt, daughter of Zeus and Leto, sister of Apollo), Diana (in Roman mythology - goddess of vegetation, obstetrician, personification of the moon), Hermes (in Greek mythology - messenger of the gods, patron of travelers, guide of the souls of the dead and patron of esoteric knowledge), Mercury (in Roman mythology - the god of trade), Ares (in Greek mythology - the god of war), Mars (in Roman mythology - the god of war) and many others.

There are many beliefs and legends about the origin of the dog. So, according to the legend of the Californian Indians of the Cato tribe. God Nagai-ho created the world from nothing, created all things, natural phenomena and living beings. But he didn’t have to create the dog, because it was always there.

And here is one of the eastern legends about the origin of the greyhound.
One day, King Solomon, according to the command of God, ordered all the animals to gather together so that each of them could express their needs and wishes and in return listen to the Creator’s order on how to treat each other. At the king’s call, all the animals gathered except the hedgehog. Angry at such disobedience, the king turned to them with a question:
—Will someone volunteer to go in search of the disobedient person?
There were only two hunters - a horse and a dog.
The horse said:
“I will find the rebellious one, I will drive him out of the den, but I will not be able to take him - my height is too large for this and, besides, my nostrils are not protected from the pricks of hedgehog needles.”
The dog said:
“I’m not afraid of barbed needles, but my muzzle is too thick, and I won’t be able to stick it into the hedgehog’s lair if he disappears there before I grab him.”
After listening to this, Solomon said:
-Yes, you are right. But I don't want to disgrace the horse by reducing its height; that would be a very poor reward for its diligence and obedience. It would be better if I add beauty to the dog in order to reward it for its expressed zeal.

Having said this, the king took the animal’s muzzle with both hands and stroked it until it became completely thin and pointed. Then everyone present saw that the dog had turned into a slender, graceful greyhound. Both volunteers immediately set out on a search and soon presented the stubborn animal to the king. King Solomon was very pleased, he strictly punished the hedgehog, and expressed special mercy to the horse and dog:
“From now on, you will be man’s companions and the first after him in the face of God.”

But the Chow Chow dog breed, according to legend, comes from the union of a wolf and a panda bear.

In Tibet, they believed that the Chow Chow had pronounced, strong telepathic abilities. Therefore, dogs of this breed were bred by Tibetan monks.

It was believed that the dog became a “guardian of the body” for meditating monks, which was temporarily left by the soul of the monk engaged in spiritual practice. As the Tibetan texts said: “So that no one’s evil spirit or other entity moves into the abandoned shell, and so that the owner’s soul has a place to return.”

The process of achieving enlightenment sometimes lasted three to five days, and all this time the chow chow remained persistently in place and maintained telepathic contact with the meditator.

Among many peoples, the motive of the origin of people, leaders, and ancestors of an entire family from a connection with a dog is widespread. For example, in the mythology of the Lepcha people (Tibetan-Burmese group), from the ice of the sacred mountain Kanchenjunga, the god Tasheting created the first man Furongthing and the first woman Nazongnyi. Furong Thing had intercourse with the dog at night. Nazongnyi's children were born animals. When God learned about Farong Thing's connection with the dog, he ordered it to be honored. Then the first people gave birth to a generation of children in human form. But these children killed the youngest, the most beautiful boy. For this, their father and mother expelled them from Kanchenjunga, and from the children humanity came into being.

The Kirghiz have preserved a legend about their origin from a red dog. They say that after the enemy raid, only the khan’s daughter remained from all the Kyrgyz tribes. She had a red dog, from which she had children. They became the ancestors of the Kyrgyz.

The Ainu also have a legend that tells about the origin of the Ainu from the first woman on earth and a dog.

The peoples of the Miao-Yao group, who live in large areas of Southern and Southwestern China and Northern Indochina, also trace their origins to the dog. The two main peoples of this group - Miao and Yao - are called so in China; in the countries of Indochina they are known as Meo and Zao.

The myth of the dog is most represented among the Yao. It tells that once the ruler of a large country (sometimes called the ancient Chinese Emperor Gaoxing) fought a difficult war. No longer hoping for victory, he announced that he would give his princess daughter to the winner of the enemy leader. Soon the five-colored dog Pan-hu, who lived in the yard, came with the head of the enemy. The emperor had to give his daughter for her. The dog took his wife south to the mountains, where this couple had descendants - Yao.

In honor of the ancestor Panhu, celebrations began to be held, and women began to wear a headdress, which in some Miao and Yao looked like dog ears, and in others - like the headdress of a princess. For men, a bandage in the form of a tail hangs from the back.

Among the Yao, the dog Panhu also serves as the main guardian spirit and protector, helping the Yao in their ancient wanderings across the sea. In Yao houses, an altar dedicated to Panhu is installed.

Sometimes the Yao dog acts as a cultural hero. Thus, among the Liannan (China) Yao, it is believed that a dog first brought them grains of rice in its fur.

In some traditions, the dog also acts as the Bread Spirit. This idea of ​​her is widespread in France, Germany and Slavic countries. For example, when waves of grain sway in the wind, peasants often say: “There is a mad dog in the field,” “There is a big dog there.”

In some areas of Silesia, the Wheat Dog or Pea Dog is the name given to the person who has grasped or tied the last sheaf. But the idea of ​​the Bread Dog is especially clear in the harvest customs of northeastern France. If one of the reapers, whether due to illness, fatigue or laziness, cannot or does not want to keep up with a comrade who has gone ahead, local peasants say: “A white dog ran next to him,” “He got a white bitch.” ", "He was bitten by a white bitch."

In some countries the dog was especially revered. For example, various tribes of Ethiopia believed in the existence of God in the form of a dog. They saw approval for a cause by the wagging of a dog's tail. The more active the wobbling, the more godly the deed. If a dog licked a person, then this was perceived as the great mercy of the Almighty, and the angry barking of a dog in their understanding meant his obvious displeasure.

In some tales of African peoples, the dog is a fire-bringer. The ancient beliefs of the Himba tribe say that the Creator sent a dog with a flaming branch to people. Since then, dogs have been allowed to sleep by the fire.

The Nyanga tribe believes that the talking dog Rukuba stole fire from the god Nyamurairi for the people. For this, people gave her their friendship forever.

Nowadays we perceive a dog as “man’s best friend,” but not always and not all nations thought so. In many superstitions, it appears before us in a completely unexpected light: the dog is both an inhabitant of the other world, and a messenger of death, misfortune, and a demon of pestilence.

The dog was often associated with the dark side of life, and in particular, demons of hell and evil spirits sometimes appeared in the guise of dogs. For example, the 25th spirit of the treatise “Lemegeton”, the powerful governor of the underworld Glasia Labolas, when called by a magician, appears in the form of a dog with griffin wings. He instantly teaches all the arts, talks about all the phenomena of the past and future, arouses the love of friends and opponents, and can also make a person invisible. But he is also the culprit of bloodshed and the leader of murderers.

And according to Philostratus, during the plague in Ephesus, Apollonius of Pianaeus ordered the crowd to stone one beggar old man. When, after the execution, they dug up the pile of stones that covered the unfortunate man, the corpse of a dog was found under it, and after that the epidemic stopped.

In general, it must be said that the sinister significance of dogs was recognized by many peoples. In some cases, the night howling of dogs or their sudden appearance in the house caused superstitious fear in people: this was considered a harbinger of death or misfortune.

The dog was often associated with the world of the dead; it was believed that black dogs had a special connection with the afterlife. They believed that they saw the angel of death when he approached a person.

The same properties were attributed to a dog with light spots above its eyes and to a dog of the first litter. It was believed that not a single ghost could hide from her gaze. But it is very difficult to grow it, since sorcerers try in every possible way to destroy it.

In some countries it was said that before a person dies, a mysterious black dog runs around the house three times or lies down at its gate.

Some peoples had the idea of ​​a dog as a human soul wandering the earth. For example, the people of Siam believed in special demonic people who had no pupils in their eyes. They believed that at night, when they were sleeping, their souls seemed to turn into dogs or wild cats, scour the world and only return back at dawn.

By the way, they say the same about witches: while the witch’s body is immersed in sleep, her soul in the form of a black dog, cat or bat wanders around the world.

Many peoples had a belief that a witch especially willingly turns into a dog. And quite often one could hear a story about a man who, having mutilated a dog he came across at night, was convinced the next day that he had mutilated his neighbor, a witch. Similar motifs are very often found in world literature, for example, in N.V. Gogol or in Chinese fairy tales.

And here is one of the folk tales about the appearance of the soul of a dead man in the form of a dog: “Once two Christians killed a Turk, he became a dog and appeared not only at night, but also at noon, attacking the herds and the soul of the sheep.”

According to German belief, the souls of suicides, treacherously killed people and great sinners - corrupt priests and unjust judges - wander at night in the form of black dogs with red eyes.

According to Polish belief, the souls of drowned people emerge from the water in the form of dogs, and the souls of witches and suicides return to the light.

Over time, the image of a dog-soul gradually turns into dog-demons, which in the Christian world are identified with the devil. They usually wander around graves and cemeteries, and are often also transported to the land of the dead or to hell.

Even more often, dogs are guides to the next world or guardians of the underworld, for example, the famous Cerberus - a three-headed dog with snakes moving around his neck. According to Greek mythology, he guarded the exit from the underworld of Hades so that the souls of the dead could not return back to earth. This is where the belief came from putting honey gingerbread in coffins. This was done to prevent Cerberus from devouring the bodies of the dead.

For a long time in Persia there was a custom of showing the body of the deceased to a dog. It is very typical that in the event of the death of a pregnant woman, two dogs were brought into the room.

The Hurons believed that the soul of the deceased on its way to the afterlife had to cross a bridge where it would be attacked by a dog.

The Eskimos had a custom of placing dog skulls in children's graves so that they could protect the souls of children in the afterlife.

In some traditions, the dog was also used as a kind of “scapegoat”. For example, residents of the western Himalayas once a year feed the dog alcohol or hashish and, after feeding it with sweets, lead it around the village and let it off the leash. They chase the animal and kill it with sticks and stones, believing that they are now insured against disease and other misfortunes for a year.

And in other places there was a custom on New Year's Day to bring the dog to the door, give it a piece of bread, and then drive it away with the words: “Get out, dog! If before the end of the year there should be a pestilence or loss of livestock in this house, let it all fall on your head.”

Practical Application

As mentioned above, of all the animals, the dog is closest to man in terms of its magical properties, since its aura is in best harmony with his energy field. Most of all, she harmonizes with children's energy. Therefore, modern magicians recommend that children communicate more with dogs, since they, with their powerful energy potential, will support the intensive growth of the child, who constantly needs new strength, new energy recharge.

The presence of a dog near a child will contribute to his healthy development, both physical and spiritual. The fact is that dogs, unlike other animals, have a very highly developed chakra, which is responsible for manifestations of selfless love.

A child who constantly plays with a dog will fall under its influence and thereby open his heart to a world of beautiful feelings, his heart will learn to selflessly give love, as a dog does.

In addition, a dog frees the child from focusing on himself and relieves him of the feeling of loneliness and abandonment.

It is also important that if a child gets his own dog, then he becomes not only the object of education, speaking in the language of psychology, but also its subject, that is, he not only accepts the care, care and attention of others, but also gives it to his ward. The dog will teach the child to understand the world of another creature.

Of the magical properties of a dog, the most often used is its ability to guard and protect the house from evil spirits. It was believed that the protective abilities of dogs are so strong that even witches avoid yards where there is a dog. This was especially true for those dogs that were puppies of a female who had given birth for the first time. Therefore, according to Slavic beliefs, having learned that a dog somewhere has given birth to puppies for the first time, witches always try to steal or kill the first one.

Dogs are very sensitive to various astral entities. When they appear in the house, they begin to rush around or bark loudly, either at the place where the dog noticed something unusual, or at the owner, trying to attract his attention.

Dogs were used by many traveling sorcerers, who often had to spend the night in other people's houses or in the forest. Their dogs warned their owner about the presence of astral entities, which could very well turn out to be malicious spirits.

This protective ability was so remarkable that it was reflected in many myths about watchdogs. Therefore, magicians working with the occult properties of animals argued that in the presence of a dog, especially a white one, no witchcraft was effective. The dog's aura is so strong that it can neutralize any type of black magic. And dogs of red color are able to ward off the evil eye and damage from their owner.

To protect the house, some village sorcerers sprinkled the blood of a dog on the walls or buried it under the threshold. It was believed that after such an operation no evil would enter the house.

Parts of the dog were very actively used to prepare various magical potions. For example, a dog's claw was part of a magic drug that made a person invincible, and the ashes of a burned dog's skull were considered a cure for many diseases. In one medieval treatise on witchcraft we read: “Blood from a dog, no worse than known antidotes, helps against the bite of poisonous reptiles.”

The dog's predictive abilities have also gained great popularity. Due to the fact that a dog is very close in its energy properties to a person, and its mental body is more developed than that of other domestic animals, it is best able to predict a person’s future. Even a cat can’t compare with her in this.

The prophetic ability of dogs was used by priests at temples, and village sorcerers and witches, who predicted many different events, and in some cases the weather, by the behavior of animals.

Here are some examples of interpreting animal behavior from the point of view of predictive magic.
Someone will die soon if the dog:

1. howls with its face down;
2. does not eat crumbs after being sick;
3. digs a hole.

There will be bad weather or rain if the dog:

1. lying around;
2. howls and holds his muzzle straight;
3. eats a lot of grass;
4. clings to the owner;
5. eats little and sleeps a lot.

There will be luck if the dog:

1. barks in a dream;
2. rolls on the ground in front of the house;
3. reached out towards the person;
4. rubs against someone walking down the street.

In some magical traditions of pagan Europe, the dog was used to achieve courage and bravery. To do this, it was necessary to eat her heart, as, for example, the sorcerers of North America did.

The same applied to the prophetic abilities of dogs, which, according to the ancients, could be transferred to humans. To do this, all you had to do was eat the animal's tongue.

And on the Hawaiian Islands, already in our century, a priest-sorcerer, invited to a sick person, sacrificed a dog and a rooster, ate part of their meat and went to bed. After a short sleep, he named the person who caused the illness.

In healing, dogs were used to relieve nervous and mental stress. To do this, it was enough to pet the dog for a while. But unlike a cat, which takes on your negative energy, a dog, on the contrary, gives you its positive energy, which helps you get rid of stress.

To get rid of rheumatism and back pain, traditional healers often used belts made of dog hair.

From a healing point of view, Chinese crested dogs that have no hair have unique properties. Their body temperature is 40-42 degrees. These four-legged healers help relieve pain from renal colic, rheumatism, gout, and radiculitis.

In magic, dogs were often used for ritual purification. For example, the famous ancient historian Plutarch wrote that some priests, for ritual purification, offered a person to walk between the parts of a dog cut in half. But modern magicians simply circle the puppy around the body of the person being cleansed to do this.

Dogs were also used in agricultural magic. For example, dog droppings mixed with rotten cheese were believed to protect seeds and plants from livestock.

Rules for the use of dogs

But with all the good nature of dogs, you need to follow several very important rules, since a dog in magical terms is not an independent creature - it will serve faithfully any owner, be it a good or evil person.

From the point of view of magic, a dog is a kind of accumulator of a powerful energy charge, so you need to deal with them very carefully. It is not for nothing that there is a popular belief that you cannot buy a dog if a person has died in the house and another 40 days have not passed, since the spirit of the deceased can move into the animal. If this happens, then the soul that has not been sent to the higher layers of existence may become embittered, and your beloved dog has every chance of turning into an evil, vengeful dog. Therefore, if someone died in the house, then under no circumstances should you bring a dog into the room where the deceased is.

Choosing a dog from a magical point of view

For both cats and dogs, choosing the right one is very important, especially if you want to take full advantage of the magical abilities of these animals. After all, the wrong selection of this or that animal for magical purposes can lead to unpredictable consequences; you may end up getting something completely different from what you expect. That is why sorcerers and magicians of all times and peoples paid such close attention to the choice of magical animals. So, in any task, the master first of all selects a tool with which he can perform the task set for himself with the greatest efficiency.

Here are some tips that will help you choose the right dog for yourself based on the goals you set for yourself.

Pure black dogs are conductors of the most powerful energy flows, but if you have even one negative thought, a dog of this color will strengthen it many times over. Therefore, it is recommended to own such dogs only for those who always have peace and joy in their family. Then the black dog will only generate more such energy.

In some folk beliefs, it was believed that a black dog protects the house from thunderstorms, lightning and thieves.

Those who wish to actively engage in spiritualistic seances (summoning spirits) are advised to own such dogs, since it is believed that black dogs contribute to a strong and reliable contact with the other world, in particular, with astral entities.

And, naturally, dogs of this color are good for those who are professionally involved in occult sciences.

Chow chows are more suitable for those who are seriously involved in spiritual practices - yoga, meditation, and so on. This dog will help them keep their different energies in balance.

Dogs with a white spot above each eye are very good for protecting the house from evil spirits and identifying astral entities, as well as for making predictions. It is believed that these spots, which are sometimes called “other eyes,” are endowed with magical powers, that is, the dog sees objects of our physical world with ordinary eyes, and with these eye spots - things and entities of the astral world.

Almost all people can get a pure white dog, because even if the situation in your family is not very calm, if some tension is felt all the time, then a white breed dog will still transform negative energy into positive energy.

It is best to have dogs of red color where there is a high probability of the evil eye and damage - they are endowed with powerful protective abilities.

Magicians and sorcerers recommend dogs of dark colors to those people who are overly excitable, extremely impressionable and emotionally unbalanced. Dogs of this suit will help balance any energies, especially diametrically opposed ones. We can say that such dogs help a person find a “golden mean”, since you cannot simply remove the emotional aspect from your life, there will only be the other extreme, which still will not lead to good. And these representatives of the animal world, thanks to their magical properties, will help balance any vibrations.

Resume
The dog is used for:

• identifying astral entities and malicious spirits;
• instilling in a child the ability to care for another being;
• protecting the home from evil spirits;
• protecting your home from thunderstorms and lightning;
• protection from the spell of evil sorcerers;
• getting rid of loneliness and psychological feelings of abandonment in children;
• getting rid of radiculitis and rheumatism;
• relief from back pain;
• getting rid of stress;
• gout treatment;
• neutralizing black magic;
• protecting your home from thieves and robbers;
• acquiring prophetic (predictive) abilities;
• gaining invincibility;
• gaining courage and boldness;
• removing the evil eye and damage;
• maintaining and feeding the energy of a growing child’s body;
• developing in children a sense of selfless love;
• developing a child’s understanding of another being;
• ritual cleansing;
• relieving pain from renal colic;
• relieving nervous and mental tension;
• spiritualistic seances (summoning spirits);
• promoting the physical and spiritual growth of the child;
• transforming negative energy into positive;
• balancing different energies;
• establishing contact with the other world.

In Russian folklore, which is unusually rich and intense, there are many stories related to beliefs in evil spirits. These are fairy tales, apocryphal tales, byvalshchina and, especially, bylichki - a very specific genre of oral creativity, dedicated to stories exclusively about evil spirits. Evil spirits are the common name for all Slavic peoples for lower demonic entities, spirits belonging to the other world, the “other” world, and initially carrying within themselves an evil demonic principle.

In popular belief, dogs, as creatures with an ambivalent (that is, dual) nature, have a direct connection with evil spirits. This fact gave rise to an ambivalent attitude towards these pets and endowed them with both positive and negative qualities. On the one hand, the dog is a guardian of people from the creatures of evil, a fighter against evil spirits, its original enemy - this is its “pure” hypostasis. On the other hand, the dog itself could be an unclean force, its container, attribute or tool - this is its “unclean” hypostasis. There were widespread beliefs that the souls of people who did not die a natural death, suicides, drowned and strangled people, children who did not have time to be baptized or children cursed by their parents - that is, the souls of the so-called pawned dead, as well as the souls of witches and sorcerers often return into this world in the form of a dog.

As for sorcerers, traditionally very controversial characters, not only could they themselves turn into a dog, but they also preferred to have a real dog at hand. These animals usually accompanied sorcerers while wandering through cities and villages, since their owners, who often had to while away the nights in unfamiliar places, in someone else’s house, generally in the open air or in the forest, needed dogs sensitive to evil spirits to inform them about the presence of malicious spirits nearby. Ghouls, emerging from their graves at night to drink blood and torment the flesh of the living, taking away their life force, could also turn into a dog (although many ethnographic researchers believe that, after all, not a dog, but a wolf) and in this form walk around yards. Real dogs smell them perfectly and drive them away with loud and furious barking.

Cholera or another terrible scourge known as Cow Death appeared among the Slavs in the form of a black dog. Cow Death is a black dog that lurks among the animals in the herd. It sends a plague to cows and other livestock suffering from lack of food and the bitter cold that usually occurs at the end of winter. They drove her out with fire, smoke, and ashes. The carcass of a plague-stricken animal, separated from the herd, was burned, its place in the barn was fumigated, and very often a security furrow was plowed over the entire village. They prayed to the patron saint of flocks, St. They sacrificed milk and butter to Blasius (and earlier to the cattle god Veles, whose functions Blasius took over with the introduction of Christianity in Rus'), and sang ancient ritual songs to drive out the Cow Death.

The appearance of a dog can be taken by such entities as water, field, bannik and, especially often, brownie. It was believed that this fact was especially well known to thieves, to whom the brownie appeared in the form of a large and vicious-looking dog. The brownie, as a rule, treats real dogs well (he always favors dogs and horses). However, if he is not in the mood, or something is wrong in the household, he may push the dog rashly. So, they noticed that when a dog barks for no reason at all, it means that it got it from the brownie. In general, dogs were considered the brownie's confidantes. It happened that during the move, unfamiliar dogs ran into the yard of the new house where he was invited to move. Then they said that the brownie sent dogs in his place to say that there would be no good in the new house, and that he did not want to settle there, but wanted to stay in the old place.

The last puppy in the litter was usually associated with the brownie. It was customary for one of the women in the family to carry such a last thing in their bosom for a year. In this case, the puppy will grow up angry, and therefore capable of protecting the house from the witch. A brownie in the guise of a dog could be seen at Easter - in the corner of the yard or in the attic of the house. The color of this dog usually matches the color of the cattle. And if there are no livestock yet, then the color of the fur of the brownie dog, which is seen while walking around the farm on Maundy Thursday, will tell you what color the livestock should be.

Witches also, and quite willingly, turn into dogs, usually black. In this case, dogs personify witches as senders of rain, thunderstorms or hail that destroys the harvest. This hypostasis of witches was especially hated by the people, whose entire essence was concentrated in agriculture. Destroying witches are especially fierce on holidays - on Kupala, on the pre-Christmas holidays, on St. George’s Day. This was a dangerous time for free-roaming dogs. Whether they were ordinary animals or witches in dog form, anyone who came across them on their way tried to cut off their paws. The next day they usually found out in whose house a woman with a crippled hand was found, whom they considered a witch and tried to destroy. By the way, this motif is one of the most popular in fairy tales (a man cripples a dog - and in the morning a woman suspected of witchcraft lies injured, missing a limb, sick, etc.), and at one time it served as the basis for the creativity of many famous writers (for example, Gogol). According to another version, which apparently has a “book” basis, the witch herself does not turn into a black dog, but, while her body is sleeping, sends only her soul into the world in the guise of this animal.

Witches fear real dogs like fire. The thing is that dogs have a keen sense of smell for evil spirits and all sorts of incorporeal entities, and an amazing ability to protect the house from it and warn their owner about it. It is believed that the dog is not afraid of any evil spirits at all, but is only terrified of snakes. Witches will probably bypass the house where they keep the dog, especially if it is from the first litter of puppies, that is, born from a bitch who gave birth for the first time. According to Slavic beliefs, witches always try to find out where the dog first gave birth to puppies, and, while they are still weak and defenseless, steal and kill the firstborns. A dog’s ability to see and scare away evil spirits is higher, the more unusual it is. The best guards are marked with special characteristics - the first-born dog we have already mentioned, or the one that was born on Saturday, or black, or four-eyed (with spots under the eyes). Such animals were protected. Ordinary dogs were often buried alive under the threshold so that no evil could enter the house, and in some western regions they even sprinkled the walls with dog blood.

Dogs with an exceptional color are certainly a special item. The villagers tried very, very hard to get such an animal. For example, our ancestors believed that witchcraft does not work in the presence of a dog. Especially if the dog has white fur, it neutralizes any witchcraft at all. Since a white dog turns everything bad into good, they preferred to have it in those families where there was constant discord. In the presence of a red dog, no damage or evil eye is scary, and besides, he wards off witchcraft spells. If everything is fine in the family, love, respect, peace and joy reign between spouses, children and household members, then it was permissible to have a black dog. It was believed that it would further enhance family happiness. But as soon as there is a slight conflict, trouble, or quarrel in the family, he will intensify this too. But a black dog will protect the house from lightning, thunderstorms, and also from thieves. The heroine of many Slavic fairy tales, a two-eyed (or four-eyed) dog with white spots under the eyes, not only fights evil spirits excellently, but also has another wonderful gift - to sense the future.

The owners constantly watched their pet dogs and noticed when they were restless, whining, wandering around the yard, not finding a place for themselves, feeling sad, not eating anything and losing weight - it means that not everything is good in the house, something is wrong. If the dog rushes about, gets angry, gets scared, it means that evil spirits have finally entered the house, and he warns the owners of the serious danger that threatens them. If a dog growls at bread, especially someone else’s, brought by someone, it means that through this bread they are trying to damage the person. They kept a vigilant eye on places where dogs or cats and dogs fought. Witches often caused damage using dog hair collected from such places. This was called damage to a falling out or damage to separation (if this wool was set on fire with certain words), which was especially feared by people who were happy in marriage.

Slavic tradition associates a thunderstorm, with its downpours, thunder and lightning, with a black dog. It was believed that a black dog (and a black cat as well), as an animal dedicated to the thunder god, protected the house from lightning strikes and the consequences of a thunderstorm. All this is an echo of ancient pagan ideas about the so-called “wild hunt”. Our ancestors believed that the Slavic supreme god Perun went out on his wild hunt in a thunderstorm, during which his watchful dogs, seeing evil spirits, chased away the cloud wives. These are witches who bring bad weather, hail or blizzards, stealing stars and the month from the sky. Perun inflicts wounds on these witches with lightning. He is especially fierce on August 2 - his own day, Perunov. Modern Christians call it Elijah's Day and with special reverence celebrate the memory of Elijah the Prophet, who, with the introduction of Christianity in Rus', completely took upon himself all the functions of the ancient formidable deity. August 2 is the day of the thunder god, who strikes evil spirits with fiery lightning arrows, and in order to save themselves from imminent death, they seek refuge in domestic animals. As a result, on Perunov’s day neither cats nor dogs were allowed into houses, so as not to attract a thunderstorm. Their presence was considered deadly. On all other days, black dogs and cats, on the contrary, protected houses from violent manifestations of bad weather, for which they received great respect.

Many people wonder why the creatures of the “other” world most often choose domestic animals, in particular a dog, for their appearance or temporary shelter? The fact is that a dog is one of the creatures closest to a person, on which he relies as a reliable and often irreplaceable helper. The dog is always nearby, serves faithfully, and is invested with human trust. In the midst of everyday worries, the owner might not suspect deception, substitution, and might not recognize the evil spirits in the guise of his own pet. However, it was here that evil was defeated, for a real dog quickly brought it to light. The keen sense of smell, vigilance and special flair of these animals, courage and fearlessness - talents given to the dog by nature itself, helped it protect our ancestors from all manifestations of evil.

We must remember that there is no smarter animal than a dog. She has a keen sense of smell and a devoted heart. But we must not forget that this is a predator and a meat eater. The dog, man's most faithful and reliable friend, appears to us in superstitions in a completely unexpected light. She is both a resident of the other world, and a messenger of death, misfortune, and a demon of pestilence.

According to Philostratus, during the plague in Ephesus, Apollonius of Pianaeus ordered the crowd to stone one poor old man. When, after the execution, they dug up the pile of stones that covered the unfortunate man, the corpse of a dog was found underneath it. The epidemic stopped after that. In the writings of Artemidorus, who interprets dreams, the image of a dog occupies a very important place: “Dogs that bite promise insults, dogs that caress mean the cunning and intrigues of enemies.” The sinister significance of dogs was recognized by many peoples. In some cases, the night howling of dogs or their sudden appearance in the house caused superstitious fear in people: this was considered a harbinger of death or misfortune. In the Miracle from Longfellow's "Golden Legend", when the Rabbi asks Judas Iscariot why the dog howls, he replies: "The Talmud says about this: the howling of dogs is all around when the Angel of Death flies over the city and blows cold air." The Odyssey (canto XV) describes how Eumaeus' dogs were frightened at the appearance of Minerva, although she remained invisible to Telemachus. Capitoli claims that the howling of the dog was an omen of Maximus' death.

In Ancient Greece, when Hecate stood guard at crossroads, predicting someone's death, dogs saw her and, barking wildly, warned people about her. In Wales, the deadly hounds of Annwn were visible to earthly dogs, although invisible to people, just like Hel, the pagan Scandinavian goddess of death. Meeting a dog on the road, especially at night, was also considered a bad omen. The fear is quite understandable if we remember that in some countries it was said that before a person dies, a mysterious black dog runs around the house three times or lies down at its gate. According to popular beliefs, black dogs have a particularly close connection with the world of the dead. They said that they see the angel of death when he approaches a person. The same properties were attributed to the “four-eyed” dog, which has light spots above the eyes, and to the “yarchuk” dog - the first dog (the dog of the first litter). Allegedly, not a single ghost can hide from her gaze. But it is very difficult to grow it, since sorcerers try in every possible way to destroy it. Such a puppy was taken into the house and raised in comfort and bliss until six months, because at this time he is still vulnerable and has not reached his full strength. And after six months, a young dog poses a real threat to evil spirits - he can cause them serious wounds and even kill them, no matter what guise the demon appears in.

Even more often, dogs are guides to the next world or guardians of the underworld. For a long time there was a custom in Persia to show the body of the deceased to a dog. It is very typical that in the event of the death of a pregnant woman, two dogs were brought into the room. The jump of a dog over the body of the deceased was considered as the return of the soul, after which the dead man allegedly found no more peace in the grave and returned to the world of the living as a ghoul. Ancient ideas about a dog as a human soul wandering the earth are very stable.

Norman peasants argue that every dog ​​should be treated well, for who knows what it really is? Sometimes the dead appeared in the guise of a dog, and sometimes they were assistants and companions of witches and sorcerers. The inhabitants of Siam believed in special demonic people who had no pupil in their eyes (the iris was so dark that it merged with the pupil). They believed that at night, when they were sleeping, their souls seemed to turn into dogs or wild cats, scour the world and only return back at dawn. They say similar things about witches. While the witch's body is immersed in sleep, her soul in the form of a black dog, cat or bat wanders around the world.

Many peoples had a belief that a witch especially willingly turns into a dog. And quite often one could hear a story about a man who, having mutilated a dog he came across at night, was convinced the next day that he had mutilated his neighbor, a healer. When young Thomas Darling of Burton-on-Trent was foolish enough to insult Ole Goodridge in 1596, she, being a witch, sent her assistant in the guise of a mixed red and white dog to give him fits. Elizabeth Device, one of the Lancastrian witches tried in 1612, also had a companion dog named Ball, with whose help she killed John Robinson of Barley and his brother James. This was stated in court by her daughter Jennette.

On the other hand, many folk tales talk about the appearance of the souls of the dead in the form of dogs. Here is one of them: “Several people standing guard at the grave saw a terrible black dog come out of it at night and, having committed all the evil that it was capable of, then hid again in the grave.” And here’s another: “Once two Christians killed a Turk, he became a dog and appeared not only at night, but also at noon, attacking the herds and the soul of the sheep.” According to German belief, the souls of suicides, treacherously killed people and great sinners - corrupt priests and unjust judges - wander at night in the form of black dogs (usually with fiery eyes). According to Polish belief, the souls of drowned people emerge from the water in the form of dogs, and the souls of witches and suicides return to the light.

In popular belief, soul dogs gradually turn into demon dogs, which in the Christian world are identified with the devil. Soul dogs and demons, which usually roam around graves and cemeteries, are often also transported to the land of the dead, to hell. Dogs have the ability to see not only spirits, demons, but in general many things that are hidden from the eyes of a mere mortal.

And yet, despite the fact that in folk legends the dog was presented as something frightening, demonic, man’s attachment to it has always been very great. According to popular beliefs, miraculous properties are equally inherent in both living and dead dogs. One by one, a black puppy buried in a pot in the stable protects horses from damage. In another way, a black dog and a black cat living in the yard protect him from spells.

According to German belief, neither thieves nor demons can enter a yard guarded by a “four-eyed” dog. And according to Russian, lightning does not strike a house where a black dog lives. According to the testimony of ancient authors who wrote about agronomy, dog droppings mixed with rotten cheese protect seeds and plants from livestock, and the barking of a dog, like the crowing of a rooster, puts spirits and ghosts to flight.

Sometimes dogs can protect their owners from ghosts, says physiologist Igor Vinokurov: One of these cases happened last fall in the family of a friend of mine. His five-year-old daughter was playing with a spaniel in the room. My grandmother was sitting nearby. Mom was in the kitchen. Suddenly, a viscous, thick sound was heard in the apartment, as if the string of a giant double bass had broken. The mother rushed into the room and saw some shadow flying out of a dark corner, resembling a shaggy, headless bird. Slowly flapping her wings, she began to approach her daughter. Both mother and grandmother were petrified. The spaniel was the first to come to his senses. He rushed between the bird and the girl, barking. For a moment, the creature hovered in the air, then smoothly flew into the corner, pressed itself against the wallpaper and merged with the wall.

In English folklore, black spirit dogs are often found, sometimes scary in appearance and of enormous size. They are sometimes difficult to distinguish from real live dogs. They lived on deserted stretches of roads, on bridges, forts, border areas, and sometimes in church cemeteries, ancient mounds and gallows. Sometimes they were associated with specific houses or families. Their appearance usually heralded death or disaster, although in Lincolnshire, where they were not so feared as in other places, they were sometimes considered benevolent creatures and even guarded women traveling alone. In different regions there were various creatures that appeared sometimes in the form of dogs and sometimes in the form of other animals. In the north of England, such a creature called a "bar-gest" could at will become a calf, a pig, a goat or a dog, but no one would ever confuse it with a real animal due to its enormous size, saucer-sized eyes, non-marking paws and terrifying howls. If these harbingers of death were ever real dogs, then in the spirit world they must have undergone terrible changes and retained only a distant connection with dogs on Earth.

There are a number of poltergeist cases recorded by the police, when frightened residents called the local inspector or police squads. Quite often, dogs became unwitting participants in such trips to the “scene of the incident.” “In one of the Moscow apartments, since the poltergeist began there, a dog tried to run away from the house, did not lie down in its favorite place, and ran around the room in circles with its fur raised. The search dog Mukhtar behaved just as strangely when the police task force brought her to the site of the poltergeist at the Kommunarka state farm. According to the investigator, the dog “calmly walked through the large room, but refused to enter the small room. She stopped on the threshold, tucked her tail and flattened her ears, not obeying the command. Then she rushed into the bathroom and lay down there on the floor with the same signs of intense fear. Two police officers had difficulty getting her out of there. In the hallway the dog stopped resisting, but only stopped being afraid when taken outside.”

The behavior of the dogs in these examples really indicates that they perceive “someone” or “something” that is not perceived by humans. However, they behave in a completely different way from how they should behave in the presence of just a stranger. Especially a trained detection dog.” Who hasn't read "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov? Today it is extremely difficult to find such a person, except perhaps to find an illiterate one. But not all readers will be able to remember a small episode related to a dog. Meanwhile, this episode is very remarkable and interesting. So, let's remember. After an amazing magic session at the Variety Show, conducted by Professor Woland and his “assistants”, it turned out that: “... the administration of the Variety Show, in the person of the director, financial director and administrator, disappeared and is unknown where, that the entertainer was taken to a psychiatric hospital after yesterday’s session and that, in short, this session yesterday was a downright scandalous session. ...The employees were asked to go to their places and get down to business, and after a short time the investigation appeared in the Variety building, accompanied by a pointy-eared, muscular, cigarette-ash-colored (remember: what color is typical for German shepherds of working lines?) dog with extremely intelligent eyes. Among the employees there was a whisper that the dog was none other than the famous Tuzbuben. And sure enough, it was him. His behavior amazed everyone. As soon as Tuzbuben ran into the findidrector’s office, he growled, baring his monstrous yellowish fangs, then lay down on his belly and, with some expression of melancholy and at the same time rage in his eyes, crawled towards the broken window. Having overcome his fear, he suddenly jumped onto the windowsill and, raising his gray muzzle upward, howled wildly and angrily. He didn’t want to leave the window, he growled and shuddered, and tried to jump down.”

They also warn of trouble and have the talent of clairvoyance. : Doctor of Psychology Pavel Krasnov spoke about his dog. For the whole summer he was left at home alone with St. Bernard Silver. Once a week they went to a friend’s dacha. The dog, who suffered from stuffy Moscow, rejoiced immensely at this. In order to get into the waiting car, they had to go through an underground passage under Pushkin Square. On that day, Tuesday, August 8, 2000, at six o’clock in the evening, a friend, as always, was waiting on Tverskaya. Pavel Pavlovich, already dressed, was standing at the door, when suddenly Silver threw himself at his feet and began to whine. And then he lay down at the threshold, not allowing him to leave. The professor did not understand the reason for the dog’s “strike,” but was forced to linger because he could not be left alone in the apartment. And then he found out that at that time there was an explosion in the passage on Pushkinskaya, which claimed the lives of dozens of people.

The ability of dogs to anticipate disasters is well known. It has been observed that dogs' anxiety increases sharply 2-3 hours before a disaster and reaches its peak minutes before the ground shakes. Here is what researcher Alexander Gorbovsky writes about this: “The fact that the animals did not just show vague anxiety, but had a presentiment of a very specific danger is evidenced by the behavior of the dogs literally a few minutes before the terrible first tremors (earthquakes - ed.).”

Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences A. Nikonov in one of his publications cites several cases of “not just restless behavior of dogs before an earthquake, but their directed actions to save their owners.” Here's one of them. “An Ashgabat officer, the owner of a shepherd dog, was awakened by his dog on the night of September 5-6, 1948. A few minutes before the tragic shock, the shepherd opened the door to the room and pulled the blanket off the sleeping man. The owner did not react. Then the dog jumped onto the bed, began to howl and bite the owner’s legs, then rushed to the door. The owner came out after him, and behind him the house began to fall apart.”

But here is a story from Ashgabat too. “At night the whole family was awakened by the frantic barking of a pinscher. With a squeal and growl, he pulled the blanket off the son of the owner of the house, then rushed to the door and scratched at it with both paws, squealed pitifully and angrily grabbed the threshold with his teeth. Suddenly he howled loudly, raising his muzzle to the ceiling. The boy jumped out of bed and opened the door. The dog rushed into the darkness of the night. But as soon as the child lay down, the pinscher scratched and barked again, asking to be returned with no less energy. When the father opened the door to the street, the pinscher rushed straight to the boy’s bed, grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled him out of bed. The father threw the dog away; it grabbed his leg. In one leap, the dog flew onto the bed, grabbed the hem of the boy's shirt with its teeth and, backing away, jerked him towards the door. At the moment when, squealing and barking, the pinscher dragged the boy out the door, the lights went out and the floor began to shake.”

Eyewitnesses recall that in 1960, on the eve of the earthquake in Agadir (Morocco), all stray dogs fled from the city (not only rats flee from danger!). Three years later, the same thing happened again in the city of Skopje (Yugoslavia): dogs running and earthquakes of destructive force. Observations by employees of seismological institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences confirm the ability of dogs for this kind of foreknowledge.

History knows many other similar examples (in ancient China, dogs were specially kept to predict natural disasters). The prophetic abilities of dogs and their high wisdom, according to the ancients, could be transferred to humans. To do this, all you had to do was eat the tongue of this animal...

So, on the Hawaiian Islands already in our century, a priest-sorcerer, invited to a sick person, sacrificed a dog and a rooster, ate part of their meat and went to bed. After a short sleep, he named the person who caused the illness. Among the blacks of Jamaica, those who wanted to gain the ability to see spirits smeared their eyes with liquid from the eyes of a dog. Dogs were of great importance in folk medicine.

Plutarch considered the dog to be an aggressive and dangerous creature. He wrote that the dog “... is involved in a disgusting and cleansing ritual.” To cleanse, a person had to walk between the parts of a dog cut in half. Sometimes a puppy was drawn around the body of the person being cleaned. Both folk medicine and agricultural ritual also testified to a deep belief in the aversive power of the dog. Pliny (with reference to the magicians) said that the bile of a black dog protects a house that is fumigated and cleansed of all spells. For the same purpose, they sprinkle the walls with the blood of a dog and bury it under the threshold. According to the same writer, a dog's claw was part of a magic drug that made a person invincible. And the ashes of a burned dog's skull were considered a cure for many diseases. Against the bite of poisonous reptiles, “... blood from a dog also helps, no worse than known antidotes,” and for fractures, it was recommended “... then apply the brain of a friendly dog ​​to the fractures.”

Before Pasteur's time, many curious remedies were recommended against dog bites. One of them, purely magical, but nevertheless very famous, consisted of forcing the bitten person to swallow a little of the hair of this dog or a piece of its boiled liver. In 1866, an inquest in northern England recorded that after a dog had bitten a child, it was killed and thrown into a river, but was later caught to remove the child's liver and eat it. Despite this treatment, which was considered by many to be infallible, the girl died.

And dogs are also capable of showing miracles of devotion from the other world. Sochi resident Alexey Serov was driving at night along a narrow mountain road. Suddenly a dog appeared in the headlights. This, to Alexei’s surprise, was his Friend, who died six months ago. Alexey got out of the car and began to call the dog, but he ran forward. Alexey followed him and around the bend he saw a boulder lying across the road. I definitely wouldn't have time to slow down. Serov looked back: the dog had disappeared.

The spirit of the dog saved him from the fire: ghosts of animals are capable of exhibiting more appropriate forms of behavior. One day, Oleg Bronin, a resident of the Samara region, was awakened at night by a growl under his door. A thunderstorm was raging outside the windows. Oleg opened the door and saw a red setter with a white spot on his chest. The dog did not respond to the invitation to enter, but began to slowly move away, as if inviting him to follow him, which Oleg did. When they moved a few tens of meters away from the house, lightning flashed and the house caught fire. Stunned, Oleg ran to his neighbor. And when he told him about what had happened, the neighbor was surprised: “According to the description, the dog is very similar to my Sandy.” - Where is he? I owe him my life! “He died two months ago,” the neighbor whispered.

Mysticism in space: Cosmonaut Vladislav Volkov spoke very poetically about the mysterious sounds in space (he died while returning from orbit in 1971 along with G. Dobrovolsky and V. Patsayev. - Ed.): “The earthly night was flying below. And suddenly from that night came the barking of a dog. It seemed to me that this was the voice of our Laika (who died in orbit). And then the baby’s crying became clearly audible! And some voices. It is impossible to explain all this. Feel it - yes!”