Shamans may heal but they can also kill. Therefore, there is a potential for danger in dealing with them. You don't want to get on their bad side.
They may not just control the weather, causing rain or making it stop, they can actually turn themselves into clouds or take on other disguises in the world of nature, for instance becoming a wild animal and acting as if they were possessed by it or possessing it.
You've seen those dramatic Hollywood films with special effects magic, where a man slowly turns into a wolf, hair growing, eyes glowing, teeth extending. Is it through great imagination that the taltos acts as if, or is there an actual transformation?
This is where the Magyar taltos' very existence becomes mystical.
A taltos does not need to exist in the material world and die. When he or she is ready to leave the earth, he can just disappear, go poof!
Why would he or she kill? A shaman can fight another shaman, say because their tribes are in a serious conflict, and so protect his or her own tribe. He can get into a personal conflict with another taltos as well. He or she can encounter an energy or a being while traveling the World Tree or while walking down the road in Budapest that must be warded off or destroyed as part of that journey. And they aren't going to say, "I warn you, these hands are registered weapons," before they strike.
While all these things may be possible, the taltos' power, ability and reputation are individual. One might be known for one attribute more so than another. Herbal medicine and hands on healing or knowing where the hunting will be good were probably more useful and appreciated. Today your friendly neighborhood taltos would probably at the library - a bookworm as we used to say back in the day of paper - truly wise .
As previously mentioned, the Magyar taltos and the character Don Juan Matus, the Indian said to be a shaman, of Carlos Castaneda's series of books have a lot in common. Castaneda became a controversial author when, after being a best seller, he was accused of creating fictions through library research. But I do wonder, because Don Juan Matus, might have been Mattyosovszky Janos...😉... Or someone else descended from one of the tribes.
I hope you've enjoyed this short series of posts about Magyar Paganism.
C 2021
