Res Humanitariae

Theophany is the manifestation of a deity, an act of revelation to the world. Traces of theophany (a visit or activity of the gods) are left in stone and dendromorphic features. Therefore, theophany is possible at any time, or at least at some point, for example, in the event of an accident or illness. Sites of theophany are visited in the hope of recovering or preserving health, to carry out therapeutic procedures, or perform ritual actions. This paper analyses data on stone and dendromorphic theophany in 15th to 18th-century written sources, and identifies reflections of it in 19th to 21st-century therapeutic methods of folk medicine, on the basis of archival records and the author’s records of healing beliefs.

The article searches for manifestations of the trickster phenomenon in Lithuanian folklore and folk customs, trying to investigate whether Lithuanian trickster traits are observed in folk culture, and what names they could be given. The search for an image that is well known to cultural researchers in the West in ‘one’s own’ Lithuanian culture opens up opportunities for a broader analysis and understanding of traditional culture. The study reveals a wide variety of destructive, mischievous, joking or even harmful figures in folk tales and stories, calendar feasts and work customs, which do not allow for naming a single one as a trickster, and thus the multifaceted nature of the trickster phenomenon is established. Future research into manifestations of the trickster in our culture could include a deeper reflection on the Lithuanian national identity behind the masks of the dressers, or the text of the folk tale and the story.

According to 15th to 18th-century written sources, priests-vaidiluciai, successors to the servants of the cult of the pre-Christian religion, performed various duties, including therapeutic activities. Descriptions in sources indicate that the nature of the therapeutic assistance they provided varied according to the magic activity they performed. The healing activities of vaidiluciai have not been systematically studied. This article extends the analysis of data on the therapeutic activities of different groups of vaidiluciai in 15th to 18th-century written folk sources, and identifies the reflection of these activities in 15th to 18th-century folk medicine based on archive records and healing faith records. The research helps to trace the meaning and origin of some therapeutic methods of folk medicine, and the possible development of traditions.

The present article treats the manuscript sources as a sort of archive for researches into mentality. It offers an insight into the intellectual heritage of the culture Polish-Lithuanian nobility. Diaries, manuscript books – silva rerum collected news, own notes, excerpts of letters, newspapers etc. At present this kind of private sources can describe a Lost Word of average noblemen. They describe his mental horizons preserving and internalizing system of traditional values and beliefs. Author presented this kind of sources for mentality’s researches at the background of similar notes and manuscript sources in Europe, showing dynamic progress of the European culture of manuscripts.