Kormos- Mongolian SpiritSpirit"Wandering Spirits"

Between Worlds

The dead were supposed to leave. Proper rites sent them to join the ongod, the ancestor spirits who watched over their descendants and could be called upon for guidance. But some dead did not go. Potanin recorded that Mongolian herders distinguished sharply between an ongod, who had crossed over and could be honored at the hearth, and a Kormos, who had not crossed and brought only trouble.

What held them varied. A man murdered on the steppe with no one to find his body might wander as a Kormos for years, his bones unburied and his soul unguided. A woman who died in childbirth, her grief for the infant still raw, might refuse to leave the ger. Sorcery could trap a spirit deliberately, binding it to a place or an object. Whatever the cause, the result was the same: a presence that did not belong among the living and could not reach the dead.

A household knew when a Kormos had settled in. Milk curdled too fast. Animals shied from corners of the ger for no visible reason. At night, sleepers felt pressure on their chests and woke gasping. In Heissig's accounts, some Kormos appeared as shadows at the edge of firelight or as cold drafts that moved against the wind. Others came only in dreams, speaking to the living with urgent, fractured messages. The most dangerous ones brought wasting illness, draining a person's strength over weeks until the family called for help.

The Shaman's Work

When a Kormos would not leave on its own, the family sent for a shaman. Diószegi documented the process among Mongolian and Buryat practitioners: the shaman entered trance through drumming and chanting, crossed into the spirit's space, and confronted it directly. The first task was diagnosis. The shaman had to learn who the spirit had been in life and what kept it from passing on.

Some Kormos wanted simple things. A father needed to know his sons had survived the winter. A herder wanted his horse sacrificed so it could carry him in the next world. For these, the shaman relayed the spirit's demands and oversaw their fulfillment. The family performed belated rites, burned offerings, or spoke the words the dead needed to hear. Once satisfied, the Kormos released its hold and the shaman guided it toward the ancestor realm.

Others fought. Spirits bound by sorcery or consumed by rage resisted every attempt at passage. The shaman then shifted from guide to combatant, wrestling the Kormos through chant and ritual force, compelling it into the afterlife or sealing it in a place where it could reach no one. These exorcisms were dangerous work. The spirit struck back, and a shaman who lost control risked carrying the Kormos's contamination home.

Prevention shaped daily practice. The hearth fire burned continuously, its warmth a barrier spirits could not easily cross. The dying were prepared with specific rites so their souls would know the way. Herders avoided lonely places on death anniversaries, when the boundary between worlds wore thin and the Kormos walked closest to the living.