Táltos is Hungarian for shaman/wizard, sometimes translated as "magus," "magician," or even "physician," and today used to refer to any fairy-tale figure with magical abilities, whether human or animal, akin to "witch doctor."
In fairy tales, the táltos is always a man, although documents from Hungarian witch trials show that women were sometimes accused of being táltos.
Following the country's conversion to Christianity in the eleventh century, Hungary's strong shamanic traditions were repressed.
- A shaman who specialized in finding lost or missing objects, divination, healing, and weather magic was known as a táltos.
- One does not choose to become a táltos; one is born with the ability to do so. At birth, a táltos is recognized by the presence of a caul or at least one tooth.
The removal of the tooth does not rule out the possibility of the kid becoming a táltos; nevertheless, the shamanic path is hampered, and abilities may be more difficult to get.
- Future táltos are usually quiet, sad, and glum children with extraordinary physical power and vitality. They have a strong desire for dairy and eggs.
- Around the age of seven, the aspiring táltos is blessed with a vision. An elder táltos comes to them in the form of a bull or stallion and challenges the kid to a fight.
- The younger must defeat the older in order to become a full-fledged táltos. Climbing the World Tree or a staircase to the sky with rungs made of iron hooks are two more ancient initiatory challenges.
- Others describe traditional shamanic initiations, in which they are cut into pieces, boiled in a cauldron, and then resurrected.
Táltos, like the Benandanti, fight other táltos at predetermined intervals, typically involving the mystical numbers 3 and 7. (three times a year, for instance, or once every seven years).
- They fight as bulls, flames, and stallion-like creatures.
- The táltos differs from the Benandanti in that there is no notion of fighting outsiders: each táltos is a self-contained practitioner who engages in mental combat with one another.
According to mythology, the first táltos was fathered by a wolf (reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood), with the mother being a young lady who was lost in the forest; among the tribes who created the Hungarian people are the Huns, who are accused of being the children of witches and desert spirits.
- This may connect the táltos tradition to that of wolf-shamans and wolf-warriors, or even to forest-based rituals in which one person is possessed by a wolf-spirit.
Related to - Haljoruna.
ANIMALS: Wolves and Werewolves
MAGICAL ARTS: Ritual Possession.
- There are also táltos horses and bulls, which may be familiars or duplicates of human táltos.
- They may, however, be separate entities.
- The human táltos may have been taught and initiated by the táltos animal.
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