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Unveiling the occult

Trade fair indicates booming market in world of alternative

Former president of the Czech Astrological Society Pavel Turnovsky says the stars currently favor Prime Minister Stanislav Gross.
By Peter Kononczuk
 Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 7, 2005


They're here, they're soothsaying and they've got booths. Prague's historic association with the occult and esoteric beliefs dates at least to the court of Rudolf II, the arguably mad Habsburg emperor who hired retainers to write dictionaries of angels' languages and find the philosophers' stone for turning base metal to gold.

These days, it's Verna Smrckova who's trying to earn a little gold with her nontraditional gifts.

Working from her stand at Prague's Vystaviste exhibition grounds, which hosted the first-ever mass alternative culture trade fair April 1-3 — dubbed Esoterika 2005 — Smrckova offered to provide something any reporter would trade their right arm for: a glimpse of the future.

Holding up a card bearing a picture of a red demon, she said, "You are going to sell your soul to the devil and get what you want."

The devil, she added, "could be you ... the part of you that has to deal with the world, your work."

Smrckova, an American who is married to a Czech and has lived here for three and a half years, tells fortunes by reading Czech marias cards, a traditional deck that has existed in this part of the world for hundreds of years.

She was one of 140 exhibitors who took part in Esoterika 2005, where visitors had the chance to initiate themselves into the mysteries of alternative therapies, sample services ranging from acupuncture to palm reading, or learn about subjects from alchemy to mysticism.

Many seemed fascinated with astrology in particular.

Not far from Smrckova, Pavel Turnovsky, a key figure in what he describes as the renaissance of astrology in this country, was setting up his stand.

Turnovsky, also interested in politics, said the art of astrology has seen a resurgence since the fall of communism.

Asked what he reads in the stars for Stanislav Gross, Turnovsky's answer was twofold: As a citizen, he said, he believes Gross should resign as prime minister. As an astrologist, he forecasts that Gross will stay in power for the near future.

"The moon is moving into Jupiter in his astrological chart. Nothing very tragic or dramatic will happen to Gross."

According to Hana Ruzickova, Czechs are becoming increasingly interested in the esoteric.

The Holesovice trade fair is Ruzickova's brainchild, and organizing the event was a personal landmark for her.

"We are beginning a period when people are more and more open to this sphere," Ruzickova said.

At a difficult period of her life three years ago she found help in the realm of alternative beliefs and now she says she wants to open up this world to others.

"I had a moment when I was very ill and the doctors didn't know what to do with me," explained Ruzickova, 35.

"I had a serious case of cystitis. I used as many pills as an old man."

Then, she says, she read a book by Louise L. Hay, a popular American author and metaphysical teacher who advocates the use of positive affirmations as a way of treating physical and psychological problems.

"We are beginning a period when people are more and more open to this esoteric sphere."

Hana Ruzickova, organizer of Esoterika 2005 trade fair
"I did all the exercises in the book. I eliminated all blocks in my body and in my energy," Ruzickova said. "In one month I was completely healthy. No doctors, no medicine. Only me and my own efforts."

Ruzickova, who works for Agentura Triumf, part of Incheba Praha, a major organizer of trade fairs, then began looking for organized events in the field of alternative beliefs.

"But there was nothing in the Czech Republic, only small activities."

She believes the time is now right for a fair on the scale of Esoterika 2005, adding that interest from the public has been high and the exhibition space was booked to capacity for the fair.

"It's typical for the tenth year of a trade fair, not the first," she added.

So how does the orthodox world of academia explain Czechs' thirst for the arcane?

Sociologist Petr Mateju, who works at the Academy of Sciences in Prague, said a key factor is, essentially, diminished expectations. After the fall of communism in 1989, said Mateju, many people had unrealistically optimistic hopes that have not been fulfilled.

"They feel not only disappointed, but I would say even alienated from the society around them. At the beginning of the transformation, people were eager to go for consumption and materialistic values. ... Now we are on a shift towards post-materialist values. People go for something that is esoteric, trying to explain things in a supra-rational way."

The trend is less evident in neighboring Slovakia and Poland, Mateju added.

"They had these strong Catholic roots, and nations that have strong Catholic roots also had stronger values. ... We are a secularized country and values here are more fragile."

One thing sure to be sturdier, at least if Esoterika 2005 is any indication, is the future financial health of the alternative trade.

— Kristina Mikulova contributed to this report.



Peter Kononczuk can be reached at pkononczuk@praguepost.com




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