Abstract
This article will analyze some Estonian examples of increasingly popular contemporary rituals for creating spiritually meaningful ecocultural bonds. As one example, it offers a case analysis on contemporary beliefs and spiritual approaches related to the fly mushroom, providing an overview of shifts in its meaning compared to older folklore. The author will exemplify how the interest in using the fly mushroom for spiritual purposes has triggered a contested public image: practices related to the fly mushroom tend to be called “dangerous” in public discourse but are viewed by the practitioners themselves as a means to achieve a more holistic, spiritual, and healthy self. Thus, negotiated vernacular representations and media rhetoric that involve elements and keywords like ancient wisdom, divinity, intimate embodied connections with nature and self-development on the one hand, and stupidity, alienation from nature, addiction and danger on the other hand will be discussed. As another case analysis, the article scrutinizes the practice of attributing supernatural characteristics to real-life animals or pets and ways of communicating with them for spiritual guidance and wellbeing. The author concludes that rituals for creating or keeping such ecocultural bonds are in line with contemporary trends for experimenting with ritualized life and supernatural meaning-making but also with pursuits for coping better with insecurities and traumas and escaping boredom in the complicated liquid and technologized modern world.
Introduction: Changes in the spiritual and environmentalist milieu and the pursuit of new, adapted ecocultural bonds
Due to the general and steady urbanization but also other societal-political processes (see more in Beery et al. 2023:471; Büscher 2022), alienation from nature is on the rise in the western world, especially amongst the younger generation. One study that conducted a survey about negative emotions associated with nature among teenagers in Estonia concluded that for this population, urban space is the most favored habitat whereby the majority of negative emotions (fear, disgust, discomfort) related to nature were caused by getting lost in the forest, seeing snakes, coming into contact with various insects, but also experiencing an unpleasant landscape (e.g., wet or dirty places) (Saar 2015). The material from a huge Estonian school-lore collecting campaign (with 3,717 respondents) from 2018 similarly indicated that many respondents have fears related to the environment—most often fear of insects, spiders, and snakes but also of forests and swamps in general; additionally, global anxieties such as fear of climate change and environmental catastrophes resulting from weather conditions or the loss of biodiversity were listed (Hiiemäe 2020:82). Thus, fears related to both, normal nature/environment as well as anomalous environment (e.g., cataclysms) were perceived (cf. about fears and attitudes of contemporary youth towards nature elsewhere in Aaron – Witt 2011). Among adults, discrepancies between “ideal” natural landscapes and reality leap to the eye; for example, people may “love” nature but perceive the regulations for protecting certain habitats or species as disturbing or inconvenient (Reimann 2015:27–28).
Several authors (e.g., Beery et al. 2023; Soga – Gaston 2022) have pointed out that there is more attention and research needed on the notion of disconnection from nature, for example, on natural or societal factors that cause it. Some authors (e.g., Fischer – Riechers 2019) have also emphasized the importance of fostering connections with nature via public mainstream means, for example through the official school curriculum. But there is also the need for investigating the unconventional, vernacular modes of reconnecting with nature or adaptations that serve as a perceived intimate connection with both the sacred and nature. Such research can help to understand the reasons why such ecocultural bonds as described in this article develop in a sociocultural context but also raise awareness on where there may be connecting points or discrepancies between intimate individual ecocultural perceptions and public environmental interventions. My empirical material indicates that the attitudes and beliefs related to nature contain besides environmental fears also pursuits of creating intimate environmental bonds adjusted to contemporary needs, for example a trend towards mythologizing pets while viewing them as supernatural spirit-animals in the function of a protector and spiritual guide. For instance, the above-mentioned school-lore material from 2018 also includes around 30 descriptions about animals in the role of a spirit-animal (e.g., wolf, eagle, dog). Moreover, the topic of spirit-animals has a wide visibility in Estonian society not only in esoteric circles but also in mainstream culture (Hiiemäe 2019a).
Besides perceived bonds with animals as supernatural protectors, there are several other layers of specific modes of communicating with and experiencing nature. What is important from the folkloristic viewpoint is the fact that the connections with nature triggering fears or awe and the perception of its supernaturality are shared in the form of narratives that obtain a certain time- and culture-bound structure. For example, Moezzi et al. (2017:1) analyze stories related to the climate crisis and green transition, characterizing “such stories as data sources, as modes of inquiry, and as creative paths toward social engagement.” For instance, in narratives that are told from a spiritual angle, nature becomes a romanticized and agentic space where a person finds refuge from the evils of civilisation, so the natural environment acts as a resource that can facilitate certain spiritual or religion-like feelings and experiences (Ferguson – Tamburello 2015:297; Thurfjell – Remmel 2024) that may have a transcendental and mystical character (e.g., Davis – Gatersleben 2013), or even find expression as a radical ecocentric devotion (Taylor 2009:13). Some authors show that engagement with nature and environmental activism that are otherwise viewed as a secular activity relate to the pursuits of transcendence and the spiritual impulse (Schellenberg 2020) or trigger awe experiences (Davis 2016).
Additionally, several spiritual practices (e.g., with Native American roots and animistic cosmologies) that regard nature as alive and sacred have become known in Estonia in the wind of the globalized information flow, contributing to the trends of certain spiritual ecocultural bonds (Hiiemäe 2019a:33–34). Although fragments from Native American and other shamanistic teachings along with their emphasis on sustainable worldviews reached Estonia already in the Soviet era (around the 1960s–1970s; see more in Hiiemäe 2019b), such teachings have gained a broader popularity since the 1990s after Estonia regained independence. Simultaneously, there has been an increased interest in folk religions considered traditional or pagan (e.g., Celtic, Germanic, Finno-Ugric), and those involved usually also emphasize the importance of a close spiritual relationship with all natural beings, including animals (for a similar trend elsewhere, see Harris 2013; Dansac 2024), whereby sometimes psychedelic natural substances may be viewed as an integral part of such spiritual communication (e.g., Kaasik 2022).
Because of such a multifaceted exposure to the trends of meaning-making, nature cannot be considered as merely a neutral natural habitat but as a time- and space-specific multisensory ecoculture—at times reaching the dimensions of a cultural Other with supernatural and sacral qualities. Some ecocultural bonds can be even regarded as a spiritual substitute for traditional conventional religiosity and related connections (Ferguson – Tamburello 2015:297). At least in Estonia, representative polls showing a very modest attachment to traditional religiosity indicate that the outputs of canonical religion are viewed as not satisfactory by many but the desire to participate in ritual life nevertheless exists (see more about spiritual pluralism in Estonia in Hiiemäe 2021).
Thus, this article has two foci: first, to exemplify based on two case studies how intimate ecocultural bonds are created and perceived while adapting to contemporary needs and trends, and second, to delineate how such bonds are situated in the general public discourse. The article also hopes to increase understanding of the multiple ways people in the contemporary world may experience supernaturality and sacredness in relation to nature, and how the pursuits of respective modes of communication interact with the general spiritual but also the environmentalist milieu with their ideas and practices drawn from diverse cultural contexts and political ideologies (see more on the term “environmentalist milieu” in Taylor 2009:13).
Empirical source material and methods
Beliefs and rituals for communicating with pets or real-life animals in the function of spirit-animals were obtained from School-lore 2018 materials (KP, collected during the school folklore collecting campaign of the Estonian Literary Museum conducted in 2018), interviews made by Estonian students who collected their own or their friends' or relatives' beliefs and practices in the framework of the course “Traditional culture in contemporary society” (VPK, collected 2017–2023), from respective media and internet forum materials collected in 2014–2024 (e.g., social media threads and mainstream internet forums, as well as more specific esoteric forums along with topical articles and their comments in the mainstream media). For attitudes and rituals related to the fly mushroom,1 interviews with 7 persons were made in 2023, and related material from social media discussions and internet forums and newspaper articles and their comments were collected in 2023. The material in social media, forums and other media was found through keyword searches, but in September 2023, respective discussions actually popped up literally everywhere in the Estonian public sphere. Exploratory analysis, narrative and motif analysis and discourse analysis (Tukey 1977; Braun – Clarke 2021) were used to make sense of the topical material. For example, tonality of discussions but also repetitive clusters of certain keywords (e.g., connections with supernaturality or danger) and motifs were comparatively observed in various channels.
Case 1: Bonds with the fly mushroom as a supernatural entity
In contemporary vernacular reasoning, various beliefs related to the importance of fly mushroom as a psychoactive species are circulating in Estonia (but also elsewhere, e.g., Fatur 2021; Schöningh 2020; Feeney 2020:51ff); for example, in internet forums, references are made to its (allegedly) historical use in Viking warrior culture, in witches' ointments from the Middle Ages and later on, or in obtaining shamanic trances in Latin American or Siberian cultures up to the recent times. The visibility of the fly mushroom as a spiritual personality and agent in the subcultural as well as mainstream information flow has increased in the recent decade; however, recently, respective information along with debates between opposing viewpoints has reached a peak in the Estonian public media space.
“When a body part becomes paralyzed or lifeless: you should take fly mushrooms, put them in a bowl into a warm place, then yellow juice or oil comes out, and you should add the same amount of vodka and massage and anoint the body part with this liquid heavily.” (ERA II 150, 431 (25) < Räpina, 1937)2
To a lesser extent, manuscript texts from the same era describe internal use against cancer (mainly in areas with Slavic cultural influences) (see more in Jürgenson 2022). As for the older Estonian folklore about psychedelic natural substances in general, the descriptions are usually limited to specific practical purposes (e.g., solving health or other problems, getting certain information) and don't reflect an intention of pure self-development or enhancement of one's inner self.
“You should squeeze the fly mushroom on your painful spot – it takes away most of the pain. Swelling and everything. In old times the landlord sent peasant women into the forest to seek fly mushrooms. My father was sick. Knorring, the landlord from Luhe, gave an infusion of fly mushrooms in a bottle. Some strong alcohol was also added there. He said: what’s left, you can bring back. Father was cured.” (RKM II 439, 477 (6) < Kambja, 1990)
As stated, contemporary narratives include new specific ritual and spiritual motifs. Even in cases where discussions are about using medicines made from the fly mushroom for pragmatic health purposes (e.g., curing a specific pain), respective narratives often combine fly mushroom and special wisdom that is presented as local (or “shamanistic”) secret knowledge of the forefathers—although such ritualistic use is not documented in Estonian traditional folklore material; only some hints about its ability to make people drunk can be found in the accounts from the first half of the 20th century, but these don't describe intoxication obtained from the fly mushroom in a ritualistic context (cf. Jürgenson 2022:168). In contemporary narratives, however, the building of intimate and embodied ritual connections with the fly mushroom mainly serves for spiritual purposes and is described with keywords like spiritual self-development, cleansing one's body, or obtaining spiritual information to prevent physical or mental problems. Such spiritual outputs must be viewed as embedded in the general spiritual milieu where the therapeutic and spiritual aspect plays an important role and multisensory experiences are often described as a door for the shifts in one's mind. Yael Dansac who has analyzed neo-pagan practices has generally concluded that such practitioners use first and foremost their body and their senses to interact with the divine and elaborate a spiritual experience, thus learning to co-construct their somatic experiences culturally (e.g., Dansac 2024:240). Respective translated literature offers an additional avenue for embracing such spiritual nuances. For example, Merlin Sheldrake's book “Entangled life. How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures” was translated into Estonian in 2022, describing also the mind-altering and healing abilities of certain mushrooms.
Such spiritual understandings do not suit all worldviews and polarized public views are strongly expressed. As in the case of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in general (see more Hiiemäe – Utriainen 2021), the proponents try to convince the broader public of their knowledge and harmlessness of their activities, yet the opponents use the rhetoric of danger and alienation from nature, titling the proponents as stupid and blindly believing. Of course, the idea of dangerousness doesn't appear without reason: in Estonia (as elsewhere), fly mushroom poisonings and even cases of death have been documented, where the number of poisonings has increased in the recent decade when the information about the use of the mushroom's psychoactive effects for spiritual or therapeutic purposes has spread more widely; thus, it can be concluded that in many cases the fly mushrooms must have been consumed not mistakenly but intentionally (cf. Jürgenson 2022:136, 138). However, there are certain interactions observable between various discourses.
Interactions despite polarization
One of the earlier complex contemporary cases that reached the media was in 2012 when a peasant farm published an advertisement, wishing to buy fly mushrooms for using them in an anti-rheumatic ointment. Although the proportion of the fly mushroom was rather symbolic in the ingredients of the ointment, the public position of medical professionals, the official of the Agency of the Medicines, and the journalists remained condemning (cf. Jürgenson 2022:306–307). At the same time, exactly through this very polemic, the visibility and awareness of the uses of the fly mushroom as a treatment method increased rapidly, and positive curing experience stories also made it to television. Later the same farm continued to experiment with improving their ointments but formulated their announcements more cautiously, although officially only the sale of the fly mushroom for culinary purposes is forbidden in Estonia.
Interestingly, the same mainstream newspapers that publish condemning articles at times also publish interviews with fly mushroom users that depict the “journey” with the mushroom as fun and adventure “with cool visuals” and mediate detailed instructions for communicating with the “spirit” of the mushroom, as seen in the following excerpts from an interview published in Ypsilon (a culture and opinion magazine of the daily newspaper Postimees): “Before you go picking them [i.e., fly mushrooms], you should already make contact with them. Everything begins already from the moment when you meet them in the forest. (…) The ritual makes me feel connected with everything.” The interview describes detailed tips for preparing the mushroom for ingestion, but also various types of bonds, for example: “Fly mushroom mainly heals your body and brain. However, spiritual journeys are a separate field” (Ruitlane 2023).
There are several other modes of societal visibility of approaches involving the use of the fly mushroom observable, for example in the form of an advertisement of spiritual-practical courses of a known Estonian herbalist, using an ambivalent teaser with ritual connotations: “Who dances with the fly mushroom? Register here (…)” on Facebook (August 2023, stored in the author's archive). For preventively warding off critics, the main text of the same advertisement starts in line with messages in the public discourse: “For a long time, fly mushrooms have been considered poisonous and dangerous mushrooms. However, vernacular healing practice is also aware of the healing abilities of the fly mushroom. As we know, animals are also interested in the fly mushroom. Let's talk about the cures and dangers of the fly mushroom!”
“User 1 (initiator of the discussion): In the last Amanita workshop, a small report was also made by the newspaper Maaleht. If you take into account the general temperature in the media, it’s quite an ok story. In a positive way and without putting down.
User2: In the contemporary times, Panx [i.e., fly mushroom] needs to be given a sacred awareness in the society, so that its mission will not be ruined. If everyone starts picking it and showing off, I think Amanita, as a great consciousness, doesn’t like it. A master plant-animal like this attaches to and stays in cooperation with mature and conscious people. With those whom it chooses by its own choice. Preferably appearing in a person’s life through power sites in nature.
User 3: A real annual witch hunt has been launched again everywhere in the media. It is always easier to condemn than to understand. It’s good that there are journalists who are able to have a different picture. I wish everyone a strong “peasant wisdom” and the support of ancestors!” (Facebook, September 2023, stored in the author’s archive)
“! We remind you that fly mushroom is dangerous to your health !
Do not buy or consume it, because the only thing that comes with red fly mushroom is health damage.” (Facebook, 21. September 2023)
However, some mainstream newspapers and social media postings still take over the ritual vocabulary: while talking, for example, of related dangers as “mushroom madness” (e.g., newspaper Maaleht, 27 October 2022), they nevertheless use epithets like “Baltic power-mushroom.” Even an online commentator of the same article in Maaleht mentions that in his opinion such warning stories function rather as advertisement.
“Fashion news from the field of fake medicine!
Red fly mushrooms are particularly fashionable this season! It’s no wonder, because now you can get everything from the forest, just be a man (or woman) and pick. Of course, it is claimed that fly mushroom can cure absolutely everything, even cancer.
NB! Red fly mushrooms don’t cure absolutely anything! You lie to people and use the desperation of seriously ill people to get rich, you vultures!
Some fake doctors offer a “tincture” for sale: they pour vodka on the mushroom, soak it and resell it, recommending that you halve it with vodka and apply it or make a compress.
Others dry red fly mushrooms collected in the forest, make powder from them (…). And there is no disease against which they do not help! (…)
The red fly mushroom is poisonous in large quantities, including fatally poisonous. For thousands of years, shamans have eaten the mushroom to gain “contact with the other side” – today it’s called narcotic intoxication.” (Facebook, September 2023).
As a counter reaction, those feeling bonded with the spiritual qualities of the fly mushroom sometimes use certain self-representation techniques to hint to themselves as rebels with special secret wisdom. Some authors (e.g., Piela 2010:80) use the term “narrative identity” referring to the self-representation of the narrating self in certain social situations through specific narrative motifs. However, in the given case, such identity may be additionally mediated through pictures or objects, such as wearing fly mushroom-shaped earrings. One woman posted on Facebook on international Grandparents' Day (which is on the second Sunday in September): “Today, on Grandparents' Day, I finally found also my fern flowers!” and added a photo of fly mushrooms. Thus, her identity as a grandmother was combined with a spiritual identity through associating fly mushrooms and fern flowers–the latter being yet another mythical plant symbolizing luck and special wisdom in Estonian folklore.
Case analysis 2: Real animals and pets as spirit-animals
“I believe that I have two animals as protectors: butterfly and tortoise. They are, so-to-speak, passive protective animals, it means that it is generally not possible to communicate with them, but they guard you all your life. I have also a kind of imaginary friend, a protective animal who is active—it means that I can communicate with it, and it appears in situations when you need it, or when you just want to communicate.” (KP, ID1610, girl, born 2001, 2018)
Besides imaginary spirit-animals (see more about beliefs and sample texts related to spirit-animals in Hiiemäe 2019a), real-life wild animals encountered in nature and pets can be described in the function of spirit-animals who can mediate important messages, thus obtaining a new cultural meaning through such imagined, lived, and narrated interaction. Respective narratives seem to be influenced by the simultaneously occurring shift of the status of pet animals in Western societies where the importance of caring for their needs is constantly stressed. Additionally, the media devotes excessive space to the positive relationship between humans and pets and to the benefits of animal-assisted therapy (see more on the topic in Fine 2000).
“I have my cat whose name is Diesel Motor, I believe that he is my protective angel.” (KP, ID332, girl, age 13, 2018)
“I know that my deceased relatives and pets are watching over me in heaven.” (KP, ID717, girl, age 14, 2018)
But there are also longer narratives, mostly narrated by adults with a more extensive life experience, that are used for making meaning of traumas or life occurrences that are otherwise difficult to explain. For example, several personal experience stories about the death of a pet shortly after a serious illness of a family member started and concluded that the pet (mostly a cat, but in one case also an aquarium fish), who was considered a supernatural protector, took upon itself the fatal fate of this family member. One interviewee (VPK, woman, 51, 2021) perceived her dead dog as her protective spirit-animal, noting that in moments when there have been narrow escapes from accidents or other similar difficult situations in her life, she always thanked her dog for that.
Supernatural elements in narratives about real-life encounters with wild birds or animals
In narratives about contacts with real-life wild animals, seeing an animal or bird in nature is increasingly interpreted as symbolic or supernatural, for example the circumstance when a wild animal looks a person directly in the eye. Narratives depicting contact with spirit animals may include active two-way dialogue but may also be limited to the non-verbal appearance of the spirit-animal that is interpreted as the willingness to protect and support.
“Already long ago, I read about spirit-animals—it was said that it will come to you itself! After some time, I went to the cottage, took off my shoes to walk on the grass. And then a frog literally bumped into my bare leg! So, I took him as my spirit-animal. Contact with this spirit-animal is regular in the summer. I always feel happy when I see it. I have also several frog figurines at home and in the cottage—I pet them regularly. I also know an acquaintance who has a figure of a money toad in the corner of her house, there is a certain cardinal point where it should be located.” (VPK, woman, age 63, 2021)
“I have an experience related to this topic that really warms my soul. I read a thread about spirit-animals last week and started pondering about the topic. I didn’t have a very urgent desire to find out which animal is my spirit-animal… I rather wished to read and explore more. Next day we and the children were by a lake close to home, where we went on a longer hike, and then we got some rest on a more remote part of the sandy lakeshore. And there it came – directly across the lake – a majestic male swan, so unbelievably beautiful. Directly towards us. Then it stopped a meter away from us and for a long while it looked me in the eye with its one eye, then it turned its head and looked with the other eye. I have never before had the honor of watching this bird so closely; it was a soul-warming feeling. Well, is it really so simple that you just ask and get the information immediately!?” (woman, 2013)
“I had a bird as my spirit-animal when I was little. I called him Harr-Varr because I didn’t know at the time whether it was a magpie or a crow. Now I know it was a crow. I was sure that wherever I went, the same crow was often with me. It protected me, brought good luck, and answered my questions. Our dialogue took place telepathically. Our communication started when we were playing hide and seek with our friends, and at first it was difficult for me to find someone on the large territory. But then I saw a crow and I believed that it came to help me to find my friends, and wherever it flew, there I indeed found someone. After that, Harr-Varr was one of my best friends for many years—my soulmate. And probably because my spirit-animal has always been a bird, I have also developed a belief that something bad will happen when I see a dead bird.” (VPK, young woman, 2022)
“The person whom I asked feels that she has a spiritual connection and relationship with living nature, and thus with all animals and living beings whom she meets. Be it a raven who flies over your head or a deer who comes and walks in your home yard. The contact takes place through discerning this connection. There have been cases when an animal or a bird kind of mediates some message but there are also cases when simply a bond is felt. (…) This person has experienced situations when an animal kind of brings a soul that has become lost back to the right track.” (VPK, woman, age 33, 2022)
The encounters with animals and birds in nature are often spontaneously described by cultural stereotypes and symbols (e.g., wisdom, power), leaving the information about their actual natural habits in the background. However, there are also multidimensional descriptions; for example, in one narrative, the lynx is depicted on a perceptual level as a spiritual protector, whose eye gaze in a dream is regarded as proof of support, but also on a physical level—the narrator takes seeing lynxes in nature as a sign of the existence of a corresponding spiritual connection. Thus, spirit-animal experiences are mediated in a narrative form, but for the experiencer the core of the described symbolic communication is predominantly the immediate experience of the imaginal, affective, sensory, and kinaesthetic aspects of this contact.
If we compare the representations of rituals related to spirit-animals and the fly mushroom in the mainstream media, there is an important difference. Although both cases deal with creating a supernatural ecocultural bond, beliefs in spirit-animals are usually not treated with ridicule or contempt—the topic has gone through a longer process of societal normalization. The main difference is that in case of spirit-animals, there is no discussion about the aspect of toxicity and therefore dangerousness and addictive behaviour. At the same time, transcendence and sacrality and experiencing nature as superior to humans are associated with both types of the described bonds. What is common to both communication types is the circumstance that there are no complex theological questions associated with spirit-animals or the fly mushroom, and respective rituals do not presuppose consistent devotion or meeting any criteria of being a “good person” for deserving support, which can always be sought when needed. In this aspect, such bonds seem to suit well the needs of modern lifestyles.
Conclusions
There are obviously several co-existing reasons why certain ecocultural bonds and modes of communication are coming to the fore in a certain sociocultural context; therefore, such phenomena need to be scrutinized against the backdrop of the general trends in the spiritual as well as the environmentalist milieu. As was exemplified above, environmental worries and at the same time alienation from nature that at times puts nature into the role of the mystified Other seems to be one of the triggers for such outputs. Besides the need to fill the vacuum left by institutional religions in the post-secular era (cf. Soldevilla et al. 2014), many people seem to feel the need for filling a broader emotional vacuum caused by challenges and insecurities but also boredom that goes along with everyday life, trying to find relief in supernatural meaning-making. This is in line with general contemporary trends for experimenting with ritualized life in the quest for discovering new dimensions of the self.
In terms of the spiritual meaning of the fly mushroom, besides curiosity and feelings of power while flirting with danger, there seem to be also attempts to create intimateness and identity while trying to re-connect with the roots. Paradoxically, the warning media coverage seems to rather add to the cumulative effect of the ever-growing visibility of the spiritual dimension of the fly mushroom. Pets and real-life animals in the role of a supernatural protector can function as elements in life history narrating, personal identity-building, and situational self-help. The societal trend of caring for animal rights and viewing them as equal to humans fits well with the logic of the beliefs that attribute respect and higher power to living but also dead pets.
The ways in which animals or mushrooms are depicted in vernacular ritual understanding may not always be congruent with science-based environmental knowledge, but it is nevertheless necessary to know which vernacular ecocultural bonds exist to be able to adapt public communication respectively. A more nuanced knowledge of vernacular ecocultural bonds could also help to estimate their value in predisposing further environmentally respectful behaviour—at least some research (e.g., Fischer – Riechers 2019; Davis 2016) has shown that connectedness to nature and perceiving its spiritual dimensions triggers sustainable behaviour.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by research projects 8-2/22/4 (Global and Local Elements in Contemporary Folklore in Hungary and Estonia), EKM 8-2/20/3 (Narrative and belief aspects of folklore studies), and TK215 (Estonian Roots: Centre of Excellence for transdisciplinary studies on ethnogenesis and cultural diversity).
Source materials
VPK 2017–2023 Interviews on supernatural beliefs from students of the university course “Folk culture in contemporary society” given by Reet Hiiemäe (stored in the author's archive).
KP 2018 materials from the school-lore collecting campaign of 2018, organized by the Estonian Literary Museum (stored in EFITA – the archive of the Department of Folkloristics of the Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu, Estonia).
ERA, E, RKM – folklore collections in the Estonian Folklore Archives in the Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu, Estonia.
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Reet Hiiemäe is senior researcher of folklore and religious studies at the Department of Folkloristics, Estonian Literary Museum. She has written numerous academic and popular articles and books on folklore as mental self-defense, analyzing the psychological aspects of vernacular beliefs and belief narratives in older as well as contemporary tradition. She has also edited collections of research articles and special issues of academic journals (e.g., issue 74 of the journal Mäetagused on children and youth culture). Hiiemäe's main topics of research are vernacular beliefs and rituals and their impact on people's lives.
