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Paper short abstract:

We are looking at the dynamics of traditional and new practices in relation to places of worship and especially to springs. Since the summer of 2016, we have conducted 50 interviews, the data was collected by social media group sources and by site surveys, a Data Corpus of 1,800 texts was created.

Paper long abstract:

Over the past century, the share of magical practices has changed in the European context due to political and economic factors. On the example of Estonia, we are looking at the dynamics of traditional and new practices in relation to places of worship and especially to springs. Various circumstances have been considered as reasons for the preservation of the tradition, such as the return to beliefs of ancestors on practical, economic or religious grounds. The influence of new religious movements, but also of national movement and associated media, is noticeable. But there are also worldview reasons, family tradition and tourism. Since it is obvious that natural shrines are associated with different magical and ritual practices, the aim of our study was to document and compare current and past magical practices and to identify the trajectory of magical knowledge in the modern Estonian neo-pagan, animistic and neoshamanistic movement, using data concerning 20th century on vernacular practices and mediums for comparison.

Since the summer of 2016, we have conducted 50 interviews, the data was collected by social media group sources and by site surveys, a Data Corpus of 1,800 texts was created. Special cases of spring water use and other practices in different regions of Estonia were fixed. As the springs are often appear in one landscape complex with a sacrificial stone or a tree, the observation was to track the transfer of diseases to trees and stones and send them away with water, as well as the use of charms. A separate study was conducted on the behaviour pattern during the COVID pandemic, the beginning of which was marked by objects left at the springs, including masks, wristbands, casual items, souvenirs, items of significance in religious practice, etc., but the behaviour pattern changed during the pandemic.

The share of spring water was the most often mentioned in treatment and prevention practices in all study areas, as was the link with family tradition, also the spread of practices and knowledge through different groups and training courses. Further studies should look at efficiency and the persistence of magical practices, and more specifically study the complex networks of sources from which their knowledge is acquired.