Black Magic

In the practice of black magic in Bosnia a dominant spot is held by props that are connected to dead people i.e. the one's used during religious washing of the dead person such as soaps or dirty water. Many witches use this dirty water to concoct spells which can be used to destroy a person or to turn that person into a zombie, in a Bosnian way. Namely, the witch (sihirbaza) secretly collects the drops of water from a dead person and uses them for various religious rituals, among them the most famous one is love obsession. When a witch wants to make one person fall in love with another, the witch will put a few drops of the dirty water gathered from a dead man into that persons drink (water or some other type of drink). According to the testimony of witches a black Jinn enters the humans body with that water which possesses the human and makes him/her obedient to the witches wishes. The spell is very powerful and can only be neutralised by the caster of the spell.




Besides stealing water from the dead body, many witches will try anything to get hold of the soap that was used for the washing. In the past such a soap was paid in gold because it was believed that it possessed tremendous magical power. The soap was especially potent in driving away unwanted marriage proposals. A mother that didn't get along with her daughters marriage partner would try and get her daughter to wash her face with such a soap which would literally cause all of the love emotions that her daughter has for the fiance to die instantly. Beside love spells the soap was also used to treat various skin diseases.




In forging spells the hair and nails of the dead person were also utilised. It is believed that a lock of hair from a dead boy or girl that is placed under the pillow of a married couple who are having marital problems will bring peace and unity in that home. The hair of a dead person was sometimes ground and placed inside the food of the person that the witch wanted to destroy.

In the Bosnian rituals of black magic another powerful way of destroying your enemies is known using živa or mercury (quicksilver or hydrargyrum) which can be found in Romania and Bulgaria. The belief in the magical power of mercury stretches all the way to Iran where mercury was prepared in a special way. The word mercury comes from the Persian verb "Ji" which means to live and it is also used by the Arabs and South Slavs.

When someone wants to get revenge on his enemy and place the burden of disease or some other evil onto him, he needs to get a hold of some mercury that he then carries to the Imam who will utter specific prayers and curses onto it. When the mercury is processed in such a way, it is then ready for usage. At midnight the person that will send the mercury (živa) will suddenly tale off his or her clothes and walk outside into the yard, and take some dirt or dung and places it into his/her mouth. Then the one needs to stand on one leg and utter: "I am a Jinn, I am standing on one leg..." Then the drop of mercury is placed on the ground and apparently the drop will head in the direction of the person whose name was uttered.
According to the beliefs, živa moves only during the night while it stands still during the day. While it may take several days for the mercury to reach its victim, it will not be stopped in its intent. If the victim spots the mercury shining in the dark of his/her room the person can save himself/herself by peeing on the mercury, that way the mercury loses all of its power. However if the person swallows the mercury it will suddenly fall ill and in a very short period die if he is not helped.