Mystical and Magical Traditions in Russian Culture
Voprosy filosofii January 1, 2023 N. Zhirtueva, M. Kozlov
In Russian culture, magical consciousness—the belief that rituals can influence the material world—dominated from Ancient Rus' onward. Orthodox hesychasm, a mystical doctrine of 'deification,' entered with Christianity and became the moral core through ascetics who emphasized love and national unity. Mysticism, requiring conscious effort, was later supplanted in the 19th and 20th centuries by Western European occultism and magic, which is practical and utilitarian. The article argues that modern consciousness remains fundamentally magical.