Effatha, to znaczy: Otwórz się! Ludowe rytuały lecznicze na Pomorzu

The permanent exhibition Effatha, or Open Up! Folk Healing Rituals in Pomerania in the Museum of Pomeranian Folk Culture tells the story of how the former inhabitants of Pomerania imagined illnesses, how they fell ill, what healing and curing techniques they used. It takes up the topics of folk diseases, folk medicine, as well as life, death and the Absolute.

The exhibition scenario is based on written sources, mainly literary and ethnographic, from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition is not a precise reconstruction of folk healing, nor is it an exhaustive presentation of all the remedies and local healing techniques formerly used by Pomeranians. It is in fact a proposal to read the meaning of various forms of healing and religious-magical practices, emphasising their symbolic aspect. The search for an understanding of the phenomenon of folk healing takes place in the perspective of myth and ritual. The exhibition leads sequentially through four areas (corresponding to the following rooms): 1. folk diseases; 2. healing; 3. healers; 4. healing magic. The exhibition presents exhibits from the collection of the Middle Pomerania Museum in Słupsk. On the way through the exhibition, the exhibits, their accompanying descriptions as well as the illustrations speak with equal intensity. A special place in the exhibition space is occupied by short animated films devoted to folklore ills (koltun, róża, zaraza, urok, ochwat), prepared in cooperation with artists from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

In folk healing, elements of a magical, religious and psychological nature played an important role. It was commonly believed that illnesses were the result of sin, contamination, contact with demons, impurity, breaking taboos, rules of social life, sacred time, etc. All illnesses aroused fear. In order to counteract this, attempts were made to personify illness - in the rural imagination, illness acquired the status not of a thing, but of a person with certain human characteristics: it could be capricious, unmerciful, hostile to humans, malicious, cunning, merciless, implacable, insidious. Disease was treated as an entity in its own right, a hostile being from outside, visible or not, possessing a powerful force that destroyed man from within. Folk medicine is rife with magical and mysterious activities, seemingly devoid of meaning. Folk medicine accommodates bizarre ways of healing, ordering diseases, magical methods of producing medicines. Folk medicine is based on the power drawn from the sacred—it is a syncretic mixture of pagan beliefs, especially those related to nature worship with elements of Christian rituals, as well as distorted scientific knowledge. Until the end of the nineteenth century, and even into the twentieth century, the healthcare needs of the countryside could be met almost exclusively through forms of folk healing. Healing rituals were carried out by people especially predestined for this purpose, called "wise men" or sorcerers/witch doctors, who were regarded as initiates, "God's chosen ones", predestined to practise healing—they healed "in God's name". The aim of the healing rituals was to bring the sick person out of illness and, in the symbolic sphere, to bring them out of a state of apparent death and restore the individual to the community. Both the words (incantations, formulas for relief) and the props used (everyday objects that acquired special power during the ritual), as well as herbs and other remedies of mineral or animal origin, played an important role in them. The Pomeranians generally treated medicines of plant origin as slow-acting remedies, but their properties could be freely modified with the appropriate spells and orders. Plants from further afield were considered better than those from the immediate area. This was because it was believed that the farther away from home, the village—i.e. the centres—and the closer to the afterlife, the more powerful and healing power flourished in them.

Among the most interesting exhibits on show are the order cards. It is known from ethnographic accounts that witches and wizards in Pomerania formerly used handwritten spell books (German: Zauberbuch), also known as whispering books (Flüsterbok). The secret books contained sorcerer's knowledge, formulas for orders and curses and recipes for herbal specifics. They also served as textbooks for students of the sorcerer's trade. With the spread of writing among the villagers, knowledge was sometimes written down. German folklore scholars report that manuscript books for medicinal use were still in circulation in Pomerania in the early 20th century. None of these have survived to the present day. Probably the only remnants of these secret books are the two cards with manuscript orders from Żychlin from the 17th century presented at the exhibition. A special place in the exhibition has been given to a magic wand dating from the 19th century, which was used in magic in the Sławno district. The wand takes the form of a spontaneous pine branch with cones and is a natural curiosity (hence its use in magic). The magic wand (Zauberstaub, Wunschenruthe) was used in magic rituals to symbolically demarcate boundaries by drawing a magic circle in a circular motion, to direct energy and finally to evoke supernatural phenomena. When used by a sorcerer/witch, it can be a source of good or evil. The wand must be guarded as it is charged with power—a powerful strange force.

exhibition design: Mikołaj Radomski
translations: Robert Kupisiński (Lingua Lab, Kraków)
exhibition construction: Grzegorz Jarzembiński, Krzysztof Kilanowski, Roman Płatek
illustrations: Ewa Grzesiak, Alicja Kot, Edyta Mąsior, Wojciech Sobczyk, Robert Sowa
film directors: Julia Piwowarczyk, Oliwia Barczyk, Katarzyna Grząka, Julia Furdyna, Karolina Walas
film etnographic consultant: Mikołaj Radomski
**film artistic consultant: Wojciech Sobczyk*film consultant:**Ewa Grzesiak*film executive producers:Żaneta Kominiak, Anna Waszczuk*film producers:**Aneta Zagórska, Robert Sowa*film production: Kraków Film Klaster – Krakow Animation Centre, Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow