Everything non-spiritual is demonic - not like in the west. The church saw it as demonic.
Orthodoxy is an attempt to make the impure pure.
Whether or not magic exists as real is not important. It is real for the believer and has real world consequences for them.
For the peasant - Dvoyoveria doesn't really exist. They are Orthodox and just retained a few things from paganism as if it is from Orthodoxy.
Magic was all pervasive on all fronts in society. Not actually evil, but not exactly good.
Magic is used to protect and gain.
Spells are not created for an audience of one God. They are created for the purpose of changing the user's reality - as it changes in real-time in the lives of Moscovy people - like the life of Jesus is lived in real-time for believers of Orthodoxy and for the new Jerusalem as Moscow under Ivan IV.
Spells use the traits of physical items, then the item is compared to a person and the person is meant to be affected from the inside. For example: "This root is bitter, may this person also be bitter."
Witchcraft in the west is from Satan, witchcraft in Moscovy is related to harm done to someone. The question then becomes who harms whom?
Like maps, Moscovy magic used metaphors. For example: Use a heart shaped flower to cure a heart.
Magic is used most effectively in the home - in the liminal areas: threshold, stove, sleeping alcove; clothing is used in magic often.
3 Feb 2012, 2:30pm, 090 Science and Engineering Library
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