As a child of 6 or 7 I did not belief in Aufhochers.
My dad and his 10 year older sister E’lena used to reminisce about their mom, my granny Aniani having to deal with Aufhockers a lot.
I however thought these tales were just tooooo weird and maybe they wanted to “pull my leg” with them. I did not belief them. I did not belief the bollox about that baby jesus either….
Rumpelstiltskin – and Rübezahl, yes, I could see them existing, as Spirits in the wild mountains where we lived – but Aufhockers????
The weird thing about them was, according to aunt Jelena, that they jump onto people’s backs, especially, when they, after a looooong and tiring shift were walking home, from the mines or the woodlots.
Then, in the dark forest, the Aufhocker would jump them and poke their nedle-sharp left knee into their shoulder or back and ride them. The weight of this Nasty would get heavier and heavier until the poor person collapse. Many died of Aufhockers, who then crawled away to find another victim, Jelena professed. She was annoyed with her mom, my gran, that for the people that survived an Aufhocker, she had to go to the meadows and collect Stinging Nettles for her mom to brew a tea.
She hated stinging nettles. She often had to take my dad, her little brother along and Fjodor would get Stinging Nettles all over his arms and knees and cry and howl like a sick Wolf…..
My father well remembered these outings…..
To get rid of an Aufhocker, I was told, Aniani would mix Stinging Nettle tea and ad Horsetail and Parsley, made a paste out of either half a blueish purple Flower – for a woman or one whole Flower for a man and dissolve that paste into warm water. The patient would then have to drink the brew.
But often that only scarred the Aufhocker into the wood shed and eventually he would come back and jump on his victim again and – kill him with his weight……
Today, I in my shamanic practice usually do not deal with “Aufhockers”
See, if you get one, you would not come to me, you would go to your doctor.
He- or she would do some blood work, do an EKG and prescribe some diuretics like Lasix and most likely some Digitalis and talk to you about diet and exercise and taking it easy for a while.
If a very bad Aufhocker is detected, you would soon get a double or triple bypass…..
By the way; that purple flower, that Aniani used was “Fingerhut”= Digitalis!
Well, today, after you recovered from surgery, you might come out to see me, to talk about the very strange dreams you had during the procedure and while in the ICU: Dreams of a strange little figure that sat on your chest and back at the same time and that had a needle-sharp knee to poke you with – in the heart or on your left arm…….
Sooo:
Ifffff You EVER have a dream like this – Go see your doctor right away!
An iskemic attack or a full blown heart attack sucks the life out of you – Aufhocker style!
Shamanic Drum 