Witchcraft in Bosnia

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Thanks to Bogumils who at one period of the BiH history used to be dominant religion and, in the same time, worshipers of Nature, the old cults managed to survive. By their credit we can, today, follow the leads of old days witchcraft performance, which, after so many centuries still exist through various beliefs and practical performance.

Witches and their religion of Nature; worshiping of God and Goddess through the Sun and the Moon, have their deep roots in the beliefs of many nations across the Balkans and the rest of the Europe. These days, analysing ethnological data, as well as traditional beliefs from Bosnia; dozens of extremely interesting details can be disclosed showing us that old religion of Nature managed to survive both time and monotheism. However, in order to present data on witches’ performance it is necessary to write so many pages with so many data enclosed. Since, every single journey begins with a single step we’ll commence the story on witchcraft along with this very text and end it sometimes/somewhere in the future.

Time of the ritual

In Bosnia, the most powerful and the most dangerous days are considered to be those between 30^th of April and the 13^th of May in which, accidentally or not, the witches holiday Beltane (1^st of May) happens to be. In this very period the regeneration of Nature is at its peak, as well as farming works. In the middle of this period there is a Hidirllez (6^th of May) Christian-Moslem holiday of Pagan origin that is traditionally put in the context of Nature and water which is under the influence of the Moon. The worshiping of water as one of the manifestation of the Goddess is well reflected in two customs that are practised even these days in some parts of Bosnia.  This is about the celebration of the first Tuesday that precedes Hidirlez Holiday called Boni Tuesday  (Boni utorak) entirely devoted to the water treatment (of the sick). During Boni Tuesday, healing springs in the Nature are being visited; the sick drink the water and wash their bodies with it. The first Tuesday after the 6^th of May is called Dovni Tuesday  (Dovni utorak) and on this day prayers are to be chanted for the wellbeing of individuals and the community as a whole. Clearly speaking; the believers used to pray or, better to say, thank to the ruler of the water (the Moon) for its support, aiming to get its protection throughout the year. Of course, by the appearance of Islam all that referring to the old Cult had to be suppressed and assimilated into the new religion. The Goddess had been changed to the prayer to Allah, although it is clear at the very first glance that those rituals have nothing to do with the Islam.

Light and the darkness

Even today in the 21st century the Bosnian witches follow the ancient guidelines in their magic performance. The part of the day when the Sun is setting and the night falls down between Aksham and Jaci ( „između akšama i jacije“ ) is still considered to be the best period for the magic performance, especially for the love magic.

Analysing in detail the information why the sunset period is the most important period of the day to the Bosnian witches for performance of the magic ritual, is to be sought in the very roots of European witchcraft history. Two of the most important holidays Beltane and Samhain celebrates the beginning of the shiny & dark part of the year. Both holidays are the moments of the most celebrated celebrations and most powerful rituals related to the divinity of the Nature. Similar to that, the end of the day and the beginning of the night represents the miniature alteration of light and the darkness, Beltan and Samhain. According to Bosnian believes , immediately after the sunset Jinny get the power, they wake up and go active, what is coincided with the belief that in the night of Beltan and Samhain the door of the spiritual world open from which various spirits and demons come to he world of human beings.