Abstract
The article describes the earliest forms of healing practices, typical for primitive peoples and ancient cultures: Celtic, Scythian, and Proto-Slavic. It justifies the thesis of the omnipresence of magic and sacredness in these practices, illustrating this fact with selected examples. It describes the phenomenon of shamanism (the institution of a shaman) as common and characteristic of these cultural formations. It also presents selected figures from the pantheon of deities belonging to their mythologies, who patronized the art of healing and recovery, as well as those who inflicted diseases. It describes examples of the medical practices in the tribal socjety of Praslav and presents the treatment roles were performer most likely by clan’s leaders. The article also describes the earliest forms of healing practices, characteristic of the people of ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. It presents examples of the use of magic, divination, superstitions and healing techniques that were embedded in the religious beliefs of communities from different cultures. It justifies the thesis about the omnipresence of magic and the sacred in the healing practices of the oldest civilizations. It indicates the factors influencing the process of freeing medicine from religious influences and shaping it as knowledge and science based on the power of reason.