Today we talk about magic, Russian style. Magic and not the card trick in Las Vegas

David Copperfield style illusion kind, but spells and curses, believed in by many today in Russia,

where nearly a million people actually make their living right now is some kind of wizard or witch.

Magic is alive and well in Russia, or at least a bunch of grifting

bullshitters are alive and well and bilking the desperate. Ah, but maybe there's some good ones too.

The kind of magic being performed goes back to even before Christianity showed up in Mother Russia.

Our Cold War foe has a long-unstoried history with wizards, sorcerers, witches, and warlocks.

As written in the encyclopedia

of religion and ethics, in no other quarter of Europe has magic, and all its various forms

assumed by it from the dawn of history to the present day, exercise so great a sway as in the

Baltoslavic countries. From wizards practicing occult rituals and rural village bathhouses to modern-day witches

publicly advertising their services and newspapers and online, magic is intertwined with the nation's

history. And since the 10th century, magic and Orthodox Christianity have coexisted in Russia

in a system called dual belief. There was even a time when Orthodox priests

incorporated pagan magical rituals into Russia's Christian holidays. Witches and wizards were and

still are seen by many in Russia and elsewhere in Eastern and Southern Europe as practitioners

possessing vast hidden knowledge, a deep connection to nature and powers that can both heal and destroy.

It is thought they can cure any and all health problems, help one find love, financially ruin

one's enemies, or help one achieve wealth beyond your wildest dreams.

Belief in folk magic has, of course, shifted and evolved over the centuries with the

introduction of Western texts and beliefs. There's been a divide. Now there is so-called high magic,

a.k.a. Western magic and low Russian peasant folk magic. For centuries, the Tsars hired court

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