Rue – plant which one nurtures better than a child

Sedefil, sedef or sedefat, also known as rue, Latin name Ruta graveolens, is the most famous plant in magical tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its purpose is manifold, it is used to cleanse living space, repel parasites, and is used to clean the human body and spirit from negative thoughts and energy. Rue is a plant whose origins are from the Mediterranean region and it grows well in dry conditions. It naturally has an inclination towards sunlight. In BiH it is used for its peculiar fragrance as well as a fly and mosquito repellent and traditionally one stem is left inside a wardrobe.

Among the Illyrians, Greeks and Romans rue was used for the expulsion of negative energy and for curing various health issues. Remnants of these ancient beliefs are present in folk medicine where, for example, it is claimed that rue successfully cures all heart ailments, etc.

Even Shakespeare uses a peculiar name for sedefil “holly plant of the Sunday” because of the ritual practice that its stem is dipped in water and is used to spray people with water who were believed to be possessed by evil spirits. Curiously, when it comes to this plant, certain Mediterranean cultures it is profusely used in cooking because its leaves are rich in vitamin C. In Bosnia and Croatia, sedefil is added to schnapps, in order to get a cure for better digestion.


Plant against disease and evil

Sedefil is from the family Rutaceae, it is rich in silicic acid, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenol and numerous other substances which are used in pharmacy. With all of these benefits, sedefil is used when one gets poisoned by henbane, it is also a great remedy for bad breath. In natural healing sedefil is used to help the kidneys, bladder, intestines and inside of the ear. It can also be used for eye infections, constipation, sciatica, asthma, headaches, dermatitis and stroke. However, one needs to be careful when using rue and use it in appropriate doses, since if one overdoses a completely opposite effect is achieved. Pregnant women and those women which want to get pregnant should avoid consuming any part of this plant.

Besides its healing properties, rue possesses amazing power against evil, mostly because of its fragrance but also unusual appearance of the leaves which remind us of a human hand, i.e. five fingers. It was reason enough for it to receive a reputation as a plant against evil along the entire Mediterranean coast. That’s why in BiH rue is traditionally grown alongside a house, close to the entrance door, because of the old belief that in such a way, with its vicinity, it protects the home from spells, spirits and magic. A few leaves of this plant were usually placed under the pillow of children as a protection against spellbound eyes. Still today old women before autumn would gather the hard seed of rue and make so called “tespih” (beads) out of 33 beads, by using a needle and a string, they would tie it and place on a wall of a house, so that the beads would bring good luck into the house.


A faery fell asleep on a leaf of rue


In Bosnian mythology rue is a plant dedicated to good faeries. According to folk belief faeries love to sleep on the leaf of this plant because of its specific fragrance. It is probably corroborated by certain women’s love formulas, which are uttered while holding a stem of rue. In one of them, a girl which wants to be noticed wherever she shows up and with that have more suitors, would first bathe in order to wash away all the dirt from herself and then naked and wet, with her hair down, she takes a pre prepared stem of rue and a dish with warm water. First she pours some water in her mouth and holding it in her mouth, in her mind, she repeats the prayer Ihlas nine times. After that she spits the water out of her mouth back into the dish with warm water. Then she places the stem of rue and utters this magical formula:

On the leaf of a rue a fairy fell asleep,
from her it spilt over onto me
gold, silver and silk.
Gold, gilded me,
silver cleansed me
silk wrapped and a fairy blessed me;
to be healthy and happy,
to everyone in the world the best and prettiest,
veledalin amin from God amin!

Bosnian:

Na listu sedefila zaspala vila,
sa nje se na me prosulo
zlato, srebro i svila.
Zlato me pozlatilo,
srebro očistilo,
svila obavila a vila blagosila
da budem zdrava i čila,
najbolja i najljepša svakom ja bila!
Veledalin amin od Boga amin!

After repeating this formula three times the girl blows into the water and washes herself from head to toe with it and lets the water pour down her. With that the ritual would be completed. From the bottom of the bathtub she picks up the stem of rue and after she is dressed she throws it out, somewhere where no human foot goes. Stravarke claim that with this spell cleanses the girl from spellbound eyes, hate and envy, and her kismet or fortune can open up, if it was closed. If she is completely unlucky in love, then it is believed that her “kismet is closed”, and then this ritual must be repeated three Tuesdays in a row and her luck will be opened any time soon and she will find her future husband.


Rue doesn’t just help girls to find luck in love but also to married women, especially ones whose husbands are unfaithful. From the old days in the north-western part of Bosnia there was a custom that a wife whose husband is unfaithful, whenever she washes her bra or panties, she would dry them on a rue bush, and then she would wear them. Allegedly, the plant will put a spell on the underwear with its fragrance which will make the woman attractive and desirable to her husband and he will be dedicated only to her.




Substitute for incense


Another unusual characteristic of rue is that it can be a substitute for incense. Namely, in talisman magic it is advised that instead of incense one should burn a few dry leaves of rue, together with the amulet, and with that smoke the diseased is to be fumigated, a person which is suffering from attacks of spirits or black magic. Along with that, the constructors of amulets after they have finished writing and start folding the amulet in its characteristic triangular or square form, they place a few leaves of dry rue in order to increase the power of their text and in order to ensure immunity from evil to the owner of the amulet. Because of all of the enumerated specifics of this plant it is important to mention the frequent statement of Bosnian stravarke that “rue should be nurtured better than a child because of its usefulness!”.

With dry leaves of rue one should fumigate the entire house or apartment at least once a year, in order to chase away all negativity and spells that the space has “absorbed” over time with visits of guests and family members. Namely, every time we go out into the streets we risk when coming into contact with other people or simply by stepping into unwanted negative elements whose span is varied, from various impurities such as urine, blood, trash all the way to purposefully spilt dirty water on the street, which one used to ritually wash away black magic from himself, and spilt the water for a random passer-by to cross the place and pick up all the evil. When a home is filled with negative energy then one can experience unreasonable friction, unrest, nervousness, there is no peace and money is lost and in the end discord and quarrel appear in a family.
Fumigation is performed in such a manner when a fistful of dried leaves of this plant are thrown on a few hot embers and with the smoke created from combustion goes through the entire house. While the smoke is spread throughout the rooms one needs to utter this spell three times:


Whatever the enemy brought,
rue brought it back to him,
the house goes up the hill,
all evil with this smoke flies away from the house,
the house stayed clean, all evil fell away,
with my formula and god’s will, amin!

Bosnian:

Šta god da je dušman donio,
sedefil mu je nazad odnio,
kuća uz brdo kreće,
svako zlo sa ovim dimom od kuće odlijeće,
kuća čista ostade, svako zlo otpade,
sa mojom basmom a božijim emerom, amin!


After the house has been fumigated the windows and doors can be open so that negative energy can go outside and stay there. Residue from coal and dust, after they have cooled down, are brought to a crossroad and thrown there. with that the ritual of fumigation is done.

Azrail

According to traditional belief the soul and body during a human's lifetime create a whole. If the soul leaves the body forever - death occurs. The body will decompose over time and disappear, it is believed that the soul is eternal and immortal. The soul cannot disappear, but over time it changes its habitat and goes to an unknown world which is called Ahiret or another world.

The soul doesn't leave the body on its own, Azrail intervenes, who in Bosnian mythology described as a skinny man with long arms and wings. Instead of nails he has claws, like a bird, which he uses to rip the soul or take it out of the body.
General belief is that the soul leaves the body slowly, since it is wrapped around every joint 99 times, it exits through the nose and mouth. Only with a man who has been hanged the soul does not exit in this manner, instead it exits through the rectum and this is why it gets dirty which makes it difficult for it to go to the next world.

The soul leaves the body from the legs towards the head. This belief has a rational interpretation since the feet and hands go blue to the deceased. On its way from the body the soul can be disturbed and confused if there is a noise and weeping inside the house that's why a general rule is that there should be peace and quiet around the deceased. Otherwise the dying shall die painfully and for a long time. It is believed that sinful people die with difficulty and suffer mightily before death. To ease the final moments the person is descended from the bed onto the ground, on a strewn carpet, while his shoes and socks should be taken off so he doesn't die with his socks on, in that case he would lose his religion. Rings are mandatorily taken off from a female in order to ease the passing of the soul.
When Azrail rips the soul from the human he carries it to the seventh heavenly floor and gives it to Allah, where it stays until judgement day. According to another belief, angel Azrail takes the soul from the body and there his job end. Separated from the soul, the soul stays there, close, for a certain period. It can follow what is going on with its body, but without any emotions since exiting the body it became free of any feelings, in the house, on the way to the cemetery and in the grave itself.

Podijeli sadaku, produži nafaku!

In Bosnian tradition since the old days there existed an interesting practice of sharing alms with which one wanted to gain god's blessing with this humane gesture and also summon positive energy. That traditional segment was deeply involved in Bosnian magic and serves as the ending ritual of invoking spiritual forces. According to the belief of stravarka's, otherwise one of the authorities on the field of folk medicine, showing mercy is the most effective method of accumulating positive energy which is in itself healing.

 

Sadaka or alms is often given to people in the form of money per system of how much an individual can give while it is distributed to animals in the form of food, especially fish and birds. The origin of such a practice is easily found in certain mythological legends among which the one on the large celestial bird is especially emphasised, the bird cursed by god, which fed only on the smoke of burnt fruit shells. That's why in the past it was seen as a good dead if people burnt fruit shells. Also, throwing bread crumbs to fish in the river stems from the mythological belief about the gigantic fish on whose back stands the bull Tur and holds earth. The basic idea of the practice is that by feeding the fish in the water one is actually feeding or giving energy to the gigantic fish and that one helps keep earth living.

Besides that the Bogomil tradition, whose beliefs are still present among the Bosnian folk, nurtured the idea of migration of the human soul from humans into animals and vice versa. In accordance with that principle the folk sensitized themselves in relation to animals, especially domestic animals, towards which any bad behaviour was seen as a large sin. Out of fear that an animal has a human soul each form of torturing was tabooed. - "An animal doesn't know how to forgive!" is one of the common sayings among the people which confirms the old rule that one should not physically torture animals.

Good deeds towards humans and animals were always welcome and desirable with God since one would redeem himself in front of the higher power, would stimulate his luck and would prolong his life and would collect points which were a guarantee that he will avoid large trouble and bad luck. A saying which can often be heard "Podijeli sadaku - produži nafaku!" or "Distribute alms - prolong good fortune" i.e. "Give alms - ensure your luck" is actually the best example of what it is used for. An interesting practice is the practice of blessing with which Bosnian women invoke God's protection: "Let God help everyone; fish in the water, worm in the ground, ant under a leaf, bird on a branch and even me". A more interesting fact is the identification of animal and human and their connection in the legend which was created in the spirit of Bogomil tradition and was recorded by Antun Hangi in the book "Life and customs of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina".

One morning on his way to town a merchant passed by a graveyard. The next time he went pass he heard a mysterious voice: -"Ja ehli kabur" someone said. Confused and surprised the merchant stopped wondering if someone was talking to him or to someone else. But, he didn't see anyone around. Soon he heard the same voice: "Today we will have a new inhabitant here!". -"And which one?" a second voice asked. -"Today a woman will wash her clothes, she will pour hot water on herself and will die from it".

Then the merchant realised that the dead people in the grave were talking and remembered that his wife told him at breakfast that she will be washing clothes the entire day and that he should send two loafs of bread from town by a courier since she want have time to make them herself. After the voices stopped the merchant calmed down and went towards town with some dread in his heart. Arriving in the city he bought two loafs of bread and sent them to his wife by a boy. However, that day doubt and fear did not give him peace and he closed his store sooner and went home. Passing by the same graveyard he again heard the same voices:

-"Ja ehli kabur, that woman will not come to the grave!" - "And why is that?" asked another voice. -"A bitch gave birth to puppies near her house, the woman fed her. That's why Allah forgave her sins and prolonged her life!". Those words calmed the merchant and he hurried home. In front of his house he saw his wife sitting and resting.

-"Did you wash the clothes today?" he asked, and after she confirmed he asked her if she has had lunch. The woman replied that she didn't because she had a lot of work. The last answer completely confused the merchant. -"And where are the loafs of bread?". Surprised by the question the woman answered: "One loaf is in the house and the second one I gave to a bitch that gave birth to puppies near our house". Then the merchant realised that the dead were speaking about his wife. 
 

Giving alms in the Bosnian tradition besides its human nature hides in it various motives from wish to recovery from an illness, for happiness, god's protection, etc. Alms is often given when one is preparing for a journey in order for it to pass successfully and securely. These are only a few of many examples.

Alms towards birds and fish

Common practice of stravarke is that after a finished ritual she crushes a piece of bread into the bowl she used during the ritual, she stirs them three times clockwise and throws them outside for the birds to eat.

On Tuesday or Friday the one that doubts that he is under a negative magical influence takes an entire bread loaf, breaks it into smaller pieces in a bag and then goes to a bridge with it. Standing on the bridge he spins the bag three times clockwise around his body and in the end throws the crumbs into the river for the fish to eat. 
 

Alms towards the poor

If someone has a headache or has trouble sleeping, then that person takes some money, spins it three times around his head clockwise and then gives to a poor person.

If a woman can't stay pregnant for long, then during nine months she gives alms to the poor in order to gain god's grace and become a mother.

Alms for the souls of a deceased

At the spot where the deceased stayed overnight inside a house, the moment he is taken outside a bowl full of wheat is placed there overnight. Tomorrow that wheat is gifted to a poor family or person. In such a way, according to belief, one is helping the deceased find his peace quickly.