AT OVERGIVE SIG TIL, ELLER MANIPULERE, MED SKÆBNEN? Drømmevarsler og hverdagsmagi i Kirgistan

Abstract

In Kyrgyzstan dreams are of great significance as sources of omens and divine

revelations. In the practice of dream interpretation a complex relationship between

belief in fate and belief in the free will is expressed: Through magical practices

which manipulate dream omens people sometimes seek to effect what is about

to happen, changing the fate that they, in other situations, claim not to have any

control of. It is argued that dream omens embody peoples hopes for, and fears

about, how their lives may develop. Through their interpretation of the omens

and through the magical acts with which they often handle them, they enter a

virtual realm where they and people who are close to them can imagine and

orient themselves toward possible future scenarios and test their social resonance.

With the interpretation of, and magical manipulation with, omens, a person’s fate

becomes a social riddle which concerns not only the directions her life might, or

ought to, take, but also the question of what she can do herself in order to bring

a desired future about herself, and what she should leave in the hands of fate.

Keywords: Kyrgyzstan, dreams, magic, omens, transition, Islam