Punishing the spirit which causes fear

Besides lead melting and „odsjecanje skrate“ stravarke also know other methods of curing fear, such as "uvarivanje strahe“ or knife cutting. This last method is very rare and it is difficult to find a stravarka which practices it. Now deceased Fatima Dizdarević, was known for this method during the end of the previous century, she had learned it from her mother in law.

Stravarka takes a knife with a black handle (sheath) and as she touches the frightened, which is lying on the floor or the bed facing the ceiling, she follows the text of the esoteric basma. As in all other variations of curing with the help of magical formulas in this one too, the stravarka starts by nami body parts, starting from the head:

I’m not cutting you N nor your body,
but I’m cutting the head of the black fear,
I’m cutting its throat,
shoulders left and right hand,
fingers from the smallest to the largest,
I’m opening its chest,
cutting the heart and taking out the intestines,
cutting its stomach and breaking its spine,
cutting both legs,
feet and all ten fingers.
Be gone you dirty heathen,
you will not eat nor sleep here,
be gone black fear,
far away from N;
where the dog doesn’t bark,
where the cat doesn’t meow,
the rooster doesn’t crow,
with my formula and god’s will, huuu!

After blowing into the knife, stravarka repeats the movements with the knife from head to toe citing the text of the formula and repeats it nine times in total. After the last time she repeats it the stravarka throws the knife behind her back.



It is evident from the text that fear is seen as a supernatural parasitical being without sexual characteristics i.e. a “black spirit” which has possessed the diseased. At the end of the formula the stravarka calls it contemptuously “dirty heathen” – dirty mater – alluding that she has uncovered him and beaten him. With imitative movements and words, the stravarka touches the diseased gently with the blade of the knife, and she ritually punishes the spirit because he dared to enter the human body and he dared to torture it (1).

Personification of fear through the form of a dark spirit is no coincidence, it is based on the belief of all stravarke about the existence of a dark spirit (terror) which enters a human’s head and it is difficult to get it out. Similarly, there is “daily fear” and “nightly fear” – if someone gets scared during the day will be cured of the fear much more easily than the one frightened during the night “since it is the dark terror and it enters the human’s head!”.

Punishing fear is not a rare occurrence in the folk medicine of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In anthological works of Antun Hangi about the life and customs of Bosnian people, the author describes the method of lead melting and mentions that at the end of the ritual the stravarka uses scissors to “cut” the surface of the water in all directions, alluding with such movements that she is cutting the fear. Another data clearly points to the folk representation of fear as a spirit, namely, all stravarke have some rules which they or the diseased perform as a precaution that the fear doesn’t come back, whether it is putting on new clothes, hanging the scissors and knife above the entrance door, not looking back, etc.


Power of saliva

It is noticeable in shorter or longer exorcist formulas that fear is always chased away from the bones (among the folk it is said when one person scares another “he struck fear into his bones!”), like this one from Sandžak where the Bosnian stravarka says:

Be gone, fear,
from the bones under the skin,
from the skin onto the hair,
from the hair into the black sea!

Among the Bosnian folk there are some prophylactic processes which serve for annulling the influence of fear. Most frequently it is spitting lightly into one’s own chest. When we’re talking about negative particulars, especially about disease, or if a person is scared of something, there was a custom of lightly loosening the collar of the shirt, in order to separate it from the body, this would enable the saliva to reach the chest, close to the heart.

Traditional custom of spitting to the side or in front of oneself, when one wants to chase away evil, is a segment of an identical practice. Namely, in such a case if one notices thrown lead pieces and coal pieces on an intersection, remnants of a lead melting ritual intended for a random passerby to walk over, one should spit towards these objects and say: "On whom you have dwelt, on him you should stay, fear!", with the goal of saving oneself from such a supernatural transmission.

Fear like magic, according to folk belief, can be directed from one person onto another but only during that most recent moment, while it hasn’t overtaken completely the mind of the person. As soon as the first shock has passed, the frightened person, and if he sees another person at a fair distance can repeat three times the following formula, focusing on his target:

On a worm a worm,
on an ant an ant,
on a horse a horse,
on a cow a cow,
and on you my fear, huuu,
from God help and from me magical words!

Then he spits on his finger (index finger) and wipes it off of a tree or earth, in order to chase the fear and cleanse the body with such a ritual procedure.



(1) In folk medicine in BiH the practice of using metal, as a useful means of scaring spirits of disease, is traditional and its origin should be sought in the earliest human history. This skill is based on the belief that anything that can hurt or kill a man, such as lead (bullet) or iron (knife), can also have an identically destructive effect on the demon’s of disease. Ultimately such a notion is understandable if we take into consideration that spirits which attack and possess humans, exist in a similar manner as human’s themselves and are thereby vulnerable.

Soul and death in Bosnian tradition

Death which represents the end of life, is probably the main "culprit" why the belief in supernatural appeared among the human civilizations. Inexplicable fear from that strange condition and generally panic from disappearing  caused among the people on the entire globe frustrations and eternal questions from the earliest times - why are we born and why do we die? Though we don't know the answer to this question even today, yet we as a civilization tried to fill the world with things in order to introduce some order and thereby give a certain sense to everything we do.
This is why humans invent religion, its unrestrained imagination creates a large number of imaginary beings which surround him, and despite numerous human characteristics, still they have some exaltation which separates them from the world of humans. Throughout centuries religion experiences its constant trend, upgrades, adjusts to human advancement and finally in ancient Iran it receives its present nature through dualism of Persians Manesa and the prophet Zarathustra, on whose principles monotheism is born - direction which tries to convince us in the absurd i.e. how it is possible that in the universe there are two principles - good and evil, but that only one principle is important and the second one is less important?!
Because of such an erroneous religious idea in Bosnia and Herzegovina around the tenth century, and probably even sooner, a revolutionary religious direction started to spread fast which seriously impairs the rigid Christian doctrine, it propagates that through the world, but also the universe, two equally important deities rule between which exists man and his primary spiritual mission to clean his soul from sins, and after death to return it to heaven. Such a claim is pretty rational, if we take into consideration the definition that according to the principles of quant physics all matter is actually condensed energy and that this is the reason why all of us are beings of energy or beings of light, what leads us into traditional belied in the spirit and soul, which every human possesses.
But, in order to die we must be born, feel life for at least a moment, in order for our spirit and soul to achieve a balance, since without this alignment with two universal principles, or with two deities of our forefathers Bogomils, we cannot enter the adventure called death. Folk wisdom claims that the spirit is the representative of the god of evil and the soul, pure and holly, it represents the god of good inside of us. While the spirit has the possibility to, usually at night while the man is sleeping, go out of the body and travel the world and also perform some weird, often bad things and bring us into various temptations, the soul is firmly fixed for the human body and there is no possibility of exiting it until death.

Celtic dragon and goddess of moon

In order to get a more detailed understanding of the beginnings of the religious idea of reincarnation in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is necessary to follow the snake (dragon) trail on the unique symbol of ancient past of this country - tombstone. Even though the representation of a dragon on a Bosnian tombstone such as the one in Boljuni or on the famous tombstone from Donje Zgošće accidentally or on purpose didn't stimulate interest for serious observations, but was interpreted in a simpler way, as heraldic motifs without any deeper background meaning, it can be a road sign to any serious researcher when it comes to discovering religious and cultural heritage of the Bosnian people. Luckily today we know that depictions of dragons are not accidental nor in the form of an ornament without meaning, but they represent, among others, proof of deep symbiosis of Celts and Illyrians, through cultural and religious practice. Namely, on some tombstones there are depictions of two-headed dragons which is the same as the Celtic symbol of the two-headed dragon. The similarity of the Celtic and Bosnian (Illyrian) tradition doesn't end there, but it gets its full meaning through depictions of the Celtic moon goddess Arianhrod on one of the tombstones which brings us to recent evidence about the dominant influence of the cult of the Grand Mother and dragon as symbol of fertility - new life.

Arianhod is known under several names: "High Fruitful Mother", "Silver Wheel", "Silver Circle", "Sky Goddess", etc. In etymology it is considered that her name comes from the Welsh word "silver" or "ariawyn" - "silver woman". The origin of the name is also brought into connection with Ariadne or Aradia, Greek lunar goddess, which is connected to the cult of the growing moon. Ariana, whose meaning is "one very holly", is a familiar Illyrian name and is very present today on the territory of Albania, Kosovo and BiH. Other variations of this name are also in use such as Ilirijana or Ilirija.

Celtic goddess of moon Arianrhod. Celtic goddess of moon Arianrhos on a Bosnian tombstone.   

 

Celtic religious influence on Illyrian tribes left a relatively deep mark especially on the cult of the Grand Mother. Namely, according to Celtic legend, Arianhrod takes care of warriors and their souls which perfectly fits into the legend about Mujo Hrnjica and the Mountain faery. In the same manner, Arianhrod is the goddess of reincarnation, new life, with which she represents unrivalled mother of life. Notion of reincarnation i.e. resurrection and new life was not foreign to the Illyrians, on the contrary, all that symbology was represented by the snake, their totem, which personified the unbroken circle of life by shedding its skin.

In accordance with everything said so far, we can conclude that reincarnation notion was inseparable part of the cult of fertility and the Grand Mother and that as such it was part of the tradition of our people throughout all centuries, in a smaller or larger extent. That's why we can find it in the Bogomil tradition but also during middle Ages in folk religion.   

From Illyrian's and Bogomil's to the Bosnian holocaust

The Bogomil movement is without a doubt one of the phenomena of Middle Age Bosnia and Herzegovina since it testifies about the strength and unity that characterised the Bosnian people of that time. Aware of their uniqueness, especially Illyrian descent, the Bosnian's of that time had the hardest time during the violent transition from paganism to Christianity since the new religion was foreign and completely absurd to them. This is the reason why Bosnian people never gave up their old cults, especially the cult of the snake, which were perfectly in line with coexistence with nature, its gods, especially the Grand Mother and astral deities. In line with that there had to be a resistance, the same one that almost militarily ruined the Roman Empire, which found the Bosnian people in Bogomilism. We can assume that the Bosnian people recognised some similarities between Bogomilism and Illyrian cults, but more important is the fact that through Bogomilism they achieved certain autonomy from the Christian church, in order to continue their ancient practices of worshiping their old cults, with such convenience. Assemblies on high localities where the Illyrians glorified the heavenly deities was one of the practices of the Bogomils.

The wish for preserving tradition and cultural identity resulted in the fact that the Bogomil faith completely affirmed itself in Bosnia and Herzegovina becoming the main religious but also political movement based on the revolutionary idea of resistance towards dictatorship and hegemony which came from two directions - Vatican and Byzantium. Mass conversions in the next period of Bogomils to Islam, without force or threats, are the best proof  of the claims that support that Bogomil's saw in the new faith the best protection and solution to their existence.

From all of the above we can find the root of animosity that the Bosnian people were subject to from Serbs and to some extent Croats. Even though Bosnian people were third in number when it comes to people in the former Yugoslav republic, cultural genocide was practiced over them not just in that Republic but decades earlier, which all culminated in the period from 1992 to 1995 when it assumes an ever harsher shape expressed through ethnical cleansing. At that time of the Bosnian holocaust the most ruthless crimes were undertaken since WWII, when Bosniaks, faced with the possibility of complete annihilation, were killed in numerous Serbian concentration camps, which resulted in mass graves whose number up until today has only been partially discovered.

This all was preceded by a well thought out strategy of destroying the identity of Bosniaks, appropriation of everything that made a people a nation, where Serbian ethnologists and anthropologists played a major role. Namely, all folk beliefs of the Bosniaks were appropriated as being Serbian along with the thesis without valid evidence that Bosniaks themselves were actually Serbs?! But, this is not only the case with Bosnia, but also other neighbouring countries, and through their ethnological literature we can find entire chapters of folk tradition of Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria or Romania under the joint name "Serbian beliefs". A special part is made up of traditional beliefs of Turkey, their customs, cuisine, numerous words, even music, which Serbs today regard as authentic works of their cultural history?!

 

Stećci

 

Nenad M. Đorđević an independent researcher of ancient cultures and mythology on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, believes that tombstones historically don't belong to the church of Bosnia, as the most dominant religious institution during the middle ages in Bosnia, nor to the catholic or orthodox church. He claims that the origin of the tombstones is much older than Middle Ages and that it spans into the period from Neolith and the beginning of the bronze era, between 7000 and 3500 years BCE.

According to Mr. Đorđević today's hypothesis about medieval origins of the tombstones is based solely on partial historical and archaeological data which were available to the academic stipend during the first few centuries after WWII. With regard to the theory about Bogomil and Patarene origin of the tombstones, it is not based on historical or scientific facts, since the followers of Bogomil religion generally rejected wealth and feudal exploitation of state government.
Bogomils also categorically refused the Orthodox Church and its hierarchy, its temples, sacraments and holiness performed by priests. Numerous reports sent to the pope spoke of this; like the one written by one of the four grand inquisitors, which were declared to be saints by the Roman church, Capistran (Giovanni de Capistrano), also known as an expert in heresy. In his letter to pope Callixtus III 04.07.1455 he wrote: "Bosnian Bogomil's (krstjani, Bošnjani) are not members of the Eastern Church, on the contrary, they would much rather die in their unbelief than accept the faith of Rašan (Serbs)."
In a similar sense they rejected all material objects which were used by the orthodox during their prayers and they condemned the use of icons, especially the cross, and the worship of relics or saints. Bogomils and Patarens were mostly religious preachers, indifferent to worldly affairs. Mass production of tens of thousands of monolith tombstones with rich decorative motifs is in total contradiction with the modest religious doctrine of the Bogomils and Patarens.
Bogomils had a similar aversion towards the Catholic Church. Pope John XXII writes on July 18th 1319 to Mladen Šubić ".that the land of Bošnjani is so tainted by the lack of faith, that the churches are neglected, priesthood is uprooted, Christ's sacred objects are scornfully trampled, there is no respect towards the cross, the sacrament of communion life is not upheld, on the contrary christening is to some only known as a noun, even though it is the basis of the Christian religion."
As an interesting fact we should mention that the Bogomil movement appeared in Bosnia before the 12th century, as some historians have postulated, and it spread from this land further west. Dominican Anselmo from Alessandria in Italy, who lived and worked during the 13th century, in one of his writings mentions that "the heretics were first located in Bosnia from where they spread their doctrine towards Lombardi, then further towards France, where it arrived in Orleans in 1022 and Arras in 1025 (A.Dondaine, Le Tractatus de hereticis d`Alexandrie, Arch. Fr. Praedic, XX, Rome 1950., p. 308-324.)

 

Because of the aforementioned facts we can conclude that tombstones are not a privilege of the church of Bosnia, or even less of orthodox or catholic Christianity, but that they had their ancient origin as a sacral motif of the cult of fertility and cult of the dead. Namely, from 70 000 registered tombstones, only 5000 have decorative motifs. From those 5000 decorated tombstones only 438 have as their main decorative element different types of crosses. This means that the most important religious symbol which is potentially subject to various churches, together with other variants of tombstones in the form of a cross, doesn't represent even 20% of decorated tombstones. The question that spontaneously rises from these facts is: how is it possible that the most representative symbol of both, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church only encompasses such a small number of tombstones? If with previous facts we add that most of the crosses on the tombstones are of pagan origin in a form of a swastika or anthropomorphic shape, then there can only be one logical conclusion - tombstones are not an exclusive privilege of medieval churches and cultures. Even though there are numerous proofs that tombstones were used as gravestones for catholic and orthodox Christians, and there are even some indications that a discrete number of tombstones were manufactured during the middle ages, reuse of numerous tombstones during the middle ages cannot be excluded in advance.

 

 

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Ancient symbols of Illyrian cults

When we analyse the motifs on numerous tombstones we notice that the most dominant symbols are depictions of crosses, swords, axes, hands, crescent moon, circles, etc. which in essence represent the symbols of the astral cult and the cult of fertility. As we all know the crescent moon and the cross are not original Christian symbol but symbols of Islam. Namely, the cross originated from a swastika, ancient symbol of sun and fertility, while the crescent moon belongs to the cult of the goddess Mother or goddess of moon. The circle motif comes from the cult of sun which is analogous to the Illyrian practice of carrying staffs which had a disc or circle on top of it. A raised hand is a classic ancient symbol of supreme gods along the Mediterranean belt and it symbolises demonstration of divine power and strength. Sword and axe as weapons also have their origin in ancient times and they represent weapons which symbolised courage, strength and power. Among the Illyrian tribes numerous axes were known to have two blades which can visually represent the symbol of a moon i.e. the phase of rising and the phase of falling moon which again fully forms a circle which can symbolise a full moon.

Among the ancient Bosniaks (Illyrians) the axe was without a doubt a symbol of the goddess of moon. In support of this claim the legend about the punished son can serve the purpose, namely the son raised his axe on his mother and god punished him immediately by killing him and carrying his body, with the hand still raised holding an axe, onto the moon's surface in order to warn people during a full moon that they need to respect the woman i.e. mother. Illyrian warriors were especially known by wearing their war axe with which they caused mortal fear in their enemies. Probably because of the above mentioned the axe became a symbol of divine protection of the house and family among the Bosnian people, precisely the characteristic which was traditionally prescribed to the goddess Mother or the goddess of the moon. Images of ancient axes on the facades of Bosnian houses could be seen until the Second World War along eastern Bosnia and around Sarajevo. Among the Bosnian Christians a cross regularly replaced an axe.