The fact that in the Karelian taiga there are some strange wooden idols, experts have heard. In folk memory still fragments of ancient legends and traditions about sculptures are preserved, staged by unknown in such remote places as local the inhabitants navigated there with great difficulty.
But the researchers had no doubt that the sculptures had decayed long ago. Therefore, going on an expedition to Belomorsky and Kemsky in 2003 areas, employees of the International Academy of Mega-Science (Petrozavodsk) and did not hope to find anything special.
Photo from open sources However, the findings exceeded all expectations. Wooden statues of pagan idols located apart about half an hour walk, all completely different, were a kind of museum of wooden sculpture under open air.
Lost in the remote Karelian taiga, accessible by their incomprehensibility, surrounded by a halo of one led by holiness, silently and menacingly they looked at the aliens who dared to break their age-old peace. When and by whom were they erected? Whose carry a divine image? What magical power guards them from destruction?
– At first glance it seemed that wooden sculptures are located without a visible system, – said Vice-President of the International Academy of megascience Alexey Popov. – We immediately hesitated. After all, the labor for their manufacture was considerable, and hardly anyone from doing nothing tossing and turning heavy logs in Karelian backwoods just like that, especially since before embarking on work, the log was soaked for a long time so that it acquired a special strength and would not undergo rapid destruction.
Or, behind the apparent unsystematic nature, there is a certain sense in their location, and the chosen place for any reason is not accidental? And if so, what determined the choice of place? Questions arose abound.
The figures differ sharply from each other and in size (from one up to 2.5 m tall), and externally I stood out especially alone, with all my appearance resembling images of famous and mysterious stone a statue from Easter Island. Whether it’s an accident, or echoes some ancient knowledge that we will never hear of. Images of other idols do not lend themselves to any interpretation, because information about the wooden pagan gods of our ancestors even in special literature are very scarce, not to mention images.
Judging by the structure of the tree, the finds are more than a hundred years old (more on that legends also testify), that is, figures were erected at the end XIX century At that time, despite Christianity already entrenched, elements of paganism (witchcraft) were still quite common in Karelia. But the most amazing thing is that next to the idols found their former half-rotten “remains” were found, which confirmed reports of their periodic recoverability (for some according to the idols are “restored” every 150 years).
Photo from open source expedition members decided to check the places first the location of idols by biolocation method (so called ancient dowsing technique). From ancient times, with the help of vines they searched underground water sources, metal deposits. Dowsing technique in early times was widely used by residents of Karelia. Not by chance therefore, the branches of the vine – a symbol of ore miners – adorned the first coat of arms Karelia. It is possible that the ancient builders of idols could use dowsing techniques.
Using two L-shaped metal frames, specialists studied the location of the sculptures, approaching them from various parties, and invariably the framework reacted by deviation to the sides, not reaching an idol of 1-1.5 m. This indicated that the idols were set in the centers of the so-called geoactive zones having a diameter of the order of three meters.
And here Alexei Popov came to an amazing discovery. Having made marks on the map, he was surprised to find that the chain idols oriented strictly in one direction, located almost in a straight line towards at least mysterious and bewitching one place with its name – the lake Karma.
(Karma is one of the basic concepts of ancient Indian philosophy, related to the law of spiritual and physical rebirth of a person.) Surrounded by multi-kilometer impassable swamps, the lake practically not investigated and not described in local history literature, although some legends associate with him a kind of “repository of ancient information “, opening the veil of secrets over the” Hyperborean ” the past of Karelia.
The legend of the sacred “world tree” is also associated with Lake Karma, supposedly growing in the territory of the republic, which was planted northern magicians in the XIV century. In the middle of the XVI century. reverend Kassian Muezersky, who arrived in this area from Solovetsky of the monastery, the monastery was founded, and in 1602 the temple of Nicholas was erected Miracle worker. The adjoining “tree” and the temple are still the place pilgrimages to the few guardians of the ancient faith. Sami and Karelian legends, it is the “tree” that is a kind of beginning a “dedicatory journey” through milestone idols to Lake Karma.
– A heretical thought suggested itself: was it really in the deep of antiquity, someone deliberately set idiosyncratic idols to mark a way? By the way, even the name itself flowing in a few kilometers of the Okhta river translates from ancient Sami as “a guiding river,” says Alexey Popov. – All this reminds rite of initiation, “initiatory journey.”
After all, echoes of the ancient Sami tradition and Karelians who considered similar images made from wood or stone, a kind of “tool” of direct instructions of budding youths for their introduction into the “state shamans. “Perhaps due to the fact that the effects of magical the structures were different depending on their location and other features, full dedication required “dedication travels “from one sacred place to another.
Karma Sculptures
