#synnyt

One of the shaman’s most important tasks was to act as a healer for those who had been struck with disease or pain. Not always necessarily a shaman had to act as a healer, village communities might’ve also had their own addressed healers who knew the ways of healing. There are more records of these designated healers having been female than male, but this remains debatable.

During the days past, Finns recognised two causes for disease. There were the godly diseases, jumalantaudit,believed to be of godly origin and therefore incurable or at least so difficult to heal that it would’ve been almost impossible. Jumalantaudit included ailments such as epidemics and sickness that came naturally with old age. The second disease category, so called panentataudit,included ailments like muscle pain, burning sensations, colic and spasms.

Panentataudit were believed to have been caused by kateet, jealousy. Back all those years ago it was common belief, no, not only belief but common knowledge, that the amount of happiness and luck was constant. This might be a hard concept to gasp, for now we know that that isn’t true. But back then it was clear that there was a certain given amount of good fortune and if one desired it, they had to steal it for themselves (if they didn’t otherwise have it.) And what this means is that people were jealous of others and their happiness, and this jealousy made them befall disease on others. Sickness could fall on someone if they had been given the “bad eye”, paha silmä, or if they had been cursed by witches. A witch’s curse was called pusku, it was a curse spat to the air with teeth gritting. In both cases the cause itself was born out of jealousy, kateet. Jealousy in a small village community had the framework for growing to a collective level and this way jealousy was able to inflict sickness and disease on anyone. Look at it like mass hysteria in a way.

The view that people had about the amount of good fortune being constant can also be clearly seen from and old phrase: “Ei köyhä rikastu ellei rikas köyhdy”, the poor doesn’t become rich if the rich doesn’t become poor. Another point worth wondering is one that we can find from the Kalevala, specifically the stealing of Sampo. Why did Väinämöinen set to steal the Sampo from Pohjola? Why didn’t Ilmarinen just forge another Sampo for the people of Kaleva? So that both of the realms could prosper and be wealthy without the other being robbed of their good fortune? I’ll just leave that out there for you to chew on, but it’s a fascinating question, isn’t it?

Now then, as I already mentioned in my post Sauna as a place of healing, the most important part of healing was to find out the origin and cause of the disease. If the patient had burn wounds, it was necessary to know how the fire that caused those wounds had started. If the patient had been cut with a blade, where was the blade from and who did it belong to. If the patient had been in an accident, where did the accident occur and what natural object had caused the injuries. On top of gaining this knowledge of the origin of the injuries, the healer would also use synnyt, birth words, for most healing.

Thesynnyt existed for almost all things know to people, they were the words of origin to elements, animals, plants and objects. For example if a patient had been struck with a steel blade by their neighbour in a fight, the healer would most likely use the synnyt, birth words, of steel along with verenseisautus, blood stanching words. The birth words were believed to hold immense power in them and were among the most important ones to know and remember.

People believed that diseases such as tooth aches, colic and goitre then again were actual living beings that existed inside the patient in a way. These diseases the healer would tell to go home to their mothers and fathers, they were chastened and upbraided. The act of talking to the causer of disease was manaus, exorcism. This included the birth words, synnyt, being recited to the causer. Afterwards would come the healing spell itself, which usually included little embedded tips for further self-care and/or blessings to grant the effectiveness of the cure provided by the healer (ointment, potion..)

For some diseases the healer would ask help from certain healing spirits, and the diseases (considered to be living beings, but without homes and parents, and also seen as worse than those with homes) were ushered to nasty places, most often to the cold Lapland, where it was believed that only bad things existed. Such diseases were for example constipation, scabies and frostbite.

If we take a look at characters like Loviatar, who according to folklore gave birth to plagues, it makes sense that diseases were talked to as living beings and were told to go back to their parents. Loviatar was a parent in that sense. It is also to be noted that many characters get mixed up in folklore, therefore Loviatartoo was known as MammotarandSyöjätär as well and it’s very hard to go and prove whether the three were actually just one being or if they were indeed three separate beings. Go and tell.

Bonus: words of the presser/nightmare, Painajan sanat, from the Häme region

Pane maate mantereelle
pyhän pellon piantareelle
Säkki alla, säkki päällä
puntari peräsi päällä
jolla painan painajata
ja hirtän hiirikkahevosta

(Go lay on ground / on the holy field / Sack under, sack on top / steelyard on your behind / with which I press the presser / suffocate the blue dun horse)