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SALIVANJE STRAHE
Bosnian ritual with four elements and a
pentagram
Author: Raif Esmerovi
e-mail: esmerovicr @gmail.com
Keywords: folk medicine, salivanje strahe, olovo, Bosnia, stravarka, stravarua, Illyrians, basma,
magic, healing, lead melting, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, elements, four, pentagram, ritual, fire, earth,
air, water, herbs.
Stravarka Aia from Sarajevo practices a form of ethno-medicine characteristic for
Middle East and the Balkans, a method called salivanje strahe or salivanje zrna melting
the fear in Bosnia. This method consists of ritual behaviour and a special text known as a
basma (or magic poetry), used together with the aim of healing the patient.
Another part of the technique is the melting of lead (or 'melting the fear'), which consists
of the ritual melting of a small piece of lead, by means of which stravarka Aia ' sees' the
cause of the illness. This piece of lead represents the condensed illness and its cause as
well. The shape the melted metal assumes is interpreted by the conjurer (stravarka). At
the end of the interpretation, the conjurer gives this piece of lead to the patient and he
must liberate himself from it by throwing it ritually back over his shoulder without turning
back his head, while pronouncing a charm.
That ritual can be performed by man or woman, but women perform it more often, as they
used to, traditionally, care about their family's health. Women who does that ritual in
Bosnia is called stravarka or "stravarua", and she is usually older lady who has been
passed through menopause. The illness which stravarka Aia heals and from which the term
'melting the fear' originates are defined in the folk speech as straha or strava - a terror,
a fear, a spell, or evil eyes. These are different psychic crises, neurosis, states of stress
and nervousness.
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Stravarka, in the process, uses a few props; metal spoon, bowl for water, 3 or 4 pieces of
lead and red towel or scarf. Ritual follows the strict religious pattern and therefore
Stravarka, before she starts performs abdest (muslim religious washing). Stravarka, over
the lead and bowl filled with water, pronounces some individual Quranic prayers, with Al-
Fatiha first Quranic chapter and Ihlas 112. chapter dominating.
When treating a frightened child, Aia first put little pieces of led through the gun barrel
and then puts them in a spoon and melt in the fire. However, when treating her adult
patients she holds a larger or several small pieces of lead in her hand and rotates them 3
times clockwise round around the patients head saying:
Euzubilahi mine ejtanir radim bismillahir rahmanir rahim.
While the lead is melting in fire, Stravarka, over the bowl with water, quietly speaks
prayers and basma (magic words) that seek the salvation of God and the health for a
patient.
Between the prayers she repeats the following words:
"Dear Hazrat Fatima,
my dear mother,
tell your father Mohammed
that the patient needs help day and night"
(Draga moja hazreti Fatime,
draga moja majko,
reci svom ocu Muhamedu pejgamberu
da bude u pomoi i u danu i u noi)
When she pronounces all the words and prayers due to which she normally experiences
some harmless sensations like uncontrolled yawning or tearing eyes stravarka covers
patients head with a cloth or red scarf (patient sits on a chair). Then, while holding the
bowl of water in her left hand over the patients head she takes a right handed spoon with
melted lead and quickly pours it into the water. On this occasion stravarka says;
lead to break and all evil to bounce from (name of patient)
Amen!, Amen!, Amen!
(olovo puca i sve zlo razbija sa N.
Amin! Amin! Amin!)
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When pronouncing the magic words she looks out into a high mountain intending, in such a
way, to positively affect the recovery of a patient.
Namely, in BIH high landscapes such as mountains, are considers as symbols of happiness
and good health; this is originating from the old Bosnian Sun-worshiping Cult. During this
ritual, several times encounter the segments of those beliefs when stravarka 3 times
moves in clockwise direction; following the path of the sun, when circling lead around the
patients head or during her prayers chanting over the bowl of water that she, after every
prayer, rotates in clockwise circle.
After she throws dissolved lead in cold water, on which occasion leads form various
shapes, Stravarka Aia commences analyses of the obtained shapes what leads her to the
cause of problem/disorder. If lead forms in a shape of a needle or number of them
Stravarka is convinced that the patient was a victim of an enormous shock of fright. Lead
formed in a circle is a sign of a direct patients contact with the spiritual world of Jinns,
on which occasion spirits harmed the patient.
After Stravarka Aia performed the analyses of the obtained forms of lead, she collects
all the lead by the spoon and brings it back to fire in order to re-melt it. Then, she repeats
the same ritual that has already been described above, with a difference in lead being
melted in water this time over the patients stomach not head. When stage two is
completed the last time Stravarka melts lead over the patients feet, what is the
final/ending stage of the ritual.
The sign of successful treatment is sought in the lead itself. Namely, so-called heart
(srce) appears in the very lead (shape of tear), what is a sign of all the evil being
neutralized in the patient. The patient washes his face 3 times with the water lead was
melted in 3 times, drinks a bit of it too, washes his/her hands up to his/her elbows and
washes his/her legs up to his/her knees. The rest of the water is spilled under bush of
rose.
Heart or tears of lead is kept for a month time under the patients pillow and then thrown
down the river stream.
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When pronouncing the magic words she looks out into a high mountain intending, in such a
way, to positively affect the recovery of a patient.
Namely, in BIH high landscapes such as mountains, are considers as symbols of happiness
and good health; this is originating from the old Bosnian Sun-worshiping Cult. During this
ritual, several times encounter the segments of those beliefs when stravarka 3 times
moves in clockwise direction; following the path of the sun, when circling lead around the
patients head or during her prayers chanting over the bowl of water that she, after every
prayer, rotates in clockwise circle.
After she throws dissolved lead in cold water, on which occasion leads form various
shapes, Stravarka Aia commences analyses of the obtained shapes what leads her to the
cause of problem/disorder. If lead forms in a shape of a needle or number of them
Stravarka is convinced that the patient was a victim of an enormous shock of fright. Lead
formed in a circle is a sign of a direct patients contact with the spiritual world of Jinns,
on which occasion spirits harmed the patient.
After Stravarka Aia performed the analyses of the obtained forms of lead, she collects
all the lead by the spoon and brings it back to fire in order to re-melt it. Then, she repeats
the same ritual that has already been described above, with a difference in lead being
melted in water this time over the patients stomach not head. When stage two is
completed the last time Stravarka melts lead over the patients feet, what is the
final/ending stage of the ritual.
The sign of successful treatment is sought in the lead itself. Namely, so-called heart
(srce) appears in the very lead (shape of tear), what is a sign of all the evil being
neutralized in the patient. The patient washes his face 3 times with the water lead was
melted in 3 times, drinks a bit of it too, washes his/her hands up to his/her elbows and
washes his/her legs up to his/her knees. The rest of the water is spilled under bush of
rose.
Heart or tears of lead is kept for a month time under the patients pillow and then thrown
down the river stream.
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When pronouncing the magic words she looks out into a high mountain intending, in such a
way, to positively affect the recovery of a patient.
Namely, in BIH high landscapes such as mountains, are considers as symbols of happiness
and good health; this is originating from the old Bosnian Sun-worshiping Cult. During this
ritual, several times encounter the segments of those beliefs when stravarka 3 times
moves in clockwise direction; following the path of the sun, when circling lead around the
patients head or during her prayers chanting over the bowl of water that she, after every
prayer, rotates in clockwise circle.
After she throws dissolved lead in cold water, on which occasion leads form various
shapes, Stravarka Aia commences analyses of the obtained shapes what leads her to the
cause of problem/disorder. If lead forms in a shape of a needle or number of them
Stravarka is convinced that the patient was a victim of an enormous shock of fright. Lead
formed in a circle is a sign of a direct patients contact with the spiritual world of Jinns,
on which occasion spirits harmed the patient.
After Stravarka Aia performed the analyses of the obtained forms of lead, she collects
all the lead by the spoon and brings it back to fire in order to re-melt it. Then, she repeats
the same ritual that has already been described above, with a difference in lead being
melted in water this time over the patients stomach not head. When stage two is
completed the last time Stravarka melts lead over the patients feet, what is the
final/ending stage of the ritual.
The sign of successful treatment is sought in the lead itself. Namely, so-called heart
(srce) appears in the very lead (shape of tear), what is a sign of all the evil being
neutralized in the patient. The patient washes his face 3 times with the water lead was
melted in 3 times, drinks a bit of it too, washes his/her hands up to his/her elbows and
washes his/her legs up to his/her knees. The rest of the water is spilled under bush of
rose.
Heart or tears of lead is kept for a month time under the patients pillow and then thrown
down the river stream.
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Lead melting is an old ritual of neutralising negative energy known from Bosnia and
Herzegovina all the way to Palestine. But, while in Turkey and throughout the Middle East
the ritual was exclusively practiced to nullify spellbound eyes, or, in Romanian and Bulgaria
for removing effects of fear, in Bosnia this ritual cures the consequences of spellbound
eyes, fear, black magic, influence of demons, certain skin diseases and different blockages
such as the inability for someone to get married or a pupil to achieve success in school.
Also, only in Bosnia and Herzegovina stravarke and stravari know how to use this ritual to
help people which are far away from them, without physical contact, even on another
continent. That's why it is known that Bosnian stravari are the best ones in this area.
In support of all the above the claim that the lead melting ritual originated in Bosnia is
very popular, namely the Ottomans spread it across the lands they conquered in their
campaigns i.e. from the Balkans to Palestine and Syria. In support of the originality of the
ritual the data that lead melting was familiar in Bosnia since the old days and that there is
no data in any ethnographic chapter which would disprove these claims. According to
individual anthropologists lead melting is an ancient ritual of the Iillyrians which knew how
to use metals and how to shape them but also to use them for purposes of magic.
As I have written before on the ritual practice this time I will pay more attention to the
theory and detailed explanation of the magical background of this ritual. To begin with we
should stress that the ritual of lead melting itself is actually a combination of four
elements, since a human is also made out of them. Namely, the human body is divided in the
following way; from the foot to the waist rules the element of earth, from the waist to
the chest is the element water, around the lungs, rules the element of air, while the head
belongs to the element of fire.
In what way are the 4 elements present in the ritual? In the bowl with water, in which you
melt lead, you place a hollow rock which is considered to be hardened earth. It's function
is that all negative energy passes through it and goes into the ground. The water in the
bowl is the second element which is combined with the element of air i.e. the stravarka
blows into the water while chanting various formulas. The lead is melted with fire, with
which we come to the last of the four elements. Namely, lead melting is an ancient ritual
which is used to bring all four elements inside a human into balance and harmony and in
such a way it enables a normal flow of energy and healing.
Another symbol, which is very important in the ritual of lead melting is what I would call
"unification of the elements" and that is the pentagram or star with five points, which
represents the human. Each point represents a part of the body: head, arms and legs.
According to the procedure after the ritual the diseased washes his face with water
which was used for lead melting and chanting of prayers and in such a way as to follow the
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pentagram; first wash the face, then the right arm and left leg and then the left arm and
right leg. In such a manner one symbolically forms a star since according to ancient Bosnian
tradition, successors of Illyrian cults, each man has his own star in the sky with which he
is connected over his forehead, i.e. the place between the eyebrows. For that reason the
stravar or stravarka every time after the last lead pouring dips his/her fingers into the
bowl with the water and passes the fingers over the forehead of the diseased. With that
ritual she "cleans" the star of that man or better yet neutralises all blockages which
disrupted the connection of the man and his star.
It is interesting to mention that there are a few versions of this ritual only in Bosnia,
which are absolutely unknown in other countries where the practice of lead melting is
present. Namely, besides the use of lead the ritual is performed with certain herbs such
as stravna herb (glechoma hederecea) or kukurijeka (Helleborus niger L.var.macranthus
Freyn). From the root of kukurijeka one would boil a tea and in it lead would be poured.
After that the diseased would drink the tea.
The second way is even more interesting. The ritual is performed with the help of hot
water which is poured from the vessel into a saucer, then the vessel is turned upside down
and placed in the middle of the saucer with the water and one would utter prayers over it.
When, because of the heat, the vacuum sucks the air from the upturned vessel, the water
would also be sucked into the vessel. After that has occurred the vessel is raised and the
diseased washes his face with the water and drinks some of it.