Comorile îngropate și căutătorii lor: istorii, practici magice și mituri
Buried Treasures and their Seekers: histories, magical practices and myths

Summary/Abstract: Analyzing the historical, juridical and ethnographical information about treasures, the author points out at the links between the treasure legends and the mythologies of the Otherworld. The treasures, in their most archaic identifiable aspects, are a part of the Otherworld reality. The access to it is regulated by a system of rules governed by forgotten divinities of the underworld and, also, is a result of a form of initiation. One of the basic rules of treasure finding is that of non-intentionality, of the complete absence of any desire for enrichment. Also, there can be found interesting forms of the coincidence of the opposite, and in this respect, we can quote quite frequent situations in which Vâlva (spirit/deity protecting the treasure) appears to women in the form of a man and to men in the form of a woman. Treasure legends reveal a set of ethical rules and another set of archaic magic practices, all of which representing disparate survivals of ancient belief systems. The magical treasure-seeking rituals are recorded in both the occult / scholar literature and the folk traditions, and the burning of treasures at important dates associated with the great Christian feasts also refer to a belief system in which the treasure mythology plays an important place. The connection between the treasure and the religious holidays is also an indication of the relationship between the opening of treasures and a belief system that has as its central point the communication with the Otherworld.

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