Send the charm back (Bosnian version)

Traditionally in Bosnia and Herzegovina the spiritual healers, stravarke, bule and hodžas, annul all those psychological and physical problems that can be caused by negative energy (black magic) by writing zapise (notes), hamajlije (amulets), by spirituality (da'ira) or salivanje strahe (melting lead). However, the effects of black magic can be neutralised by certain exorcist rituals that are specific to Bosnian magic. In the ritual all the power of the spiritual healer comes to the forefront, where the healer, without coming into contact with the patient, annuls the negative energy and sends it back to the one who created it by simply using the patients name and surname.




Since the old days in Bosnia there was a rule that when a patient's medical results claim that he is healthy but he still feels ill, that then it is time to visit a spiritual healer. Today the belief in the power of magic is similar to that one of the old days. The only thing that has changed are the names for the occult processes, and instead of the term sihr or black magic, evil eyes the terms negative energy is used, and instead of ograma, nagaza the term astral attack is used, etc. When a spell is cast at someone, then that person changes its behaviour quickly, all of a sudden it loves or hates a certain person, falls ill, divorces or experiences a series of accidents both business or family related.




Stravarka Nisveta B. from Zenica is one of the people who has a lot of experience when it comes to Bosnian magic, its disadvantages and its benefits if it isn't misused. Besides being known for the ritual of salivanje strahe (melting lead) she is very successful in falanje u grah or throwing beans. Her specialty is neutralising black magic and returning it to the sender.




-Black magic can be returned to the sender in a few ways. In my work I use the ritual with chicken egg and lime (Calcium oxide). The ritual is best performed during sunset, between 17h and 22h.

Nisveta places a half of kilo of lime in a metal dish and places an egg in the middle. Before she continues with the more aggressive part of the ritual she finishes her religious washing (ablution) and reads a couple of verses from the Qur'an such as Fatiha, Ikhlas, Falaq, Nass, Jinn, Mohammed and Ya'sin. After reading the mentioned verses, Nisveta blows towards three corners of her room, the fourth corner is left intact to serve as an astral portal through which the negative energy will go back to its sender.

After she has finished with the part consisting of prayers stravarka Nisveta pours a glass of water on the lime then takes a wooden stick which she uses to stir the mixture in a circle, around the egg, the mixture is stirred until the egg bursts because of the heat of the lime. While she stirs the lime Nisveta repeats the exorcist formula:

"Dear Allah, as the egg cooks in the lime so also the enemy of XX (here the name of the patient and his parents needs to be said) cooks in pain and agony. Let the magic be returned to the one who made it and who sent it!"

The moment when the egg bursts, the ritual is finished. The black magic has left the spellbound patient and has returned to the sender.




Sometimes the egg bursts in the first ten minutes of the ritual but more often it happens after half an hour to an hour. The success of the ritual is usually dependent on the person that is performing it. It is necessary to achieve a perfect focus, calmness and complete emersion into the ritual. The ritual is done with God's help and belief that only with His will the evil can be banished. For that reason it is necessary to achieve a mind and body state that resembles the one of an actor. If that is achieved often tears come to one's eyes. In the end it is a reliable sign that the ritual will be successful.

The witch or wizard immediately feel the effects of the ritual on themselves. It is manifested in smaller or bigger reactions depending on the strength of the black magic that they just created. If it's a weaker form of magical effect then the witch will usually have uncontrollable fits of laughter or crying, insomnia, bloated stomach while in the case of stronger spells she can experience serious health issues or even delirium.

In the past of Bosnia and Herzegovina there was an exorcist ritual named daira; used for treating mentally ill persons by releasing them from ghost possession.
Daira is the Arabic word, and it means circle. In this case, it is a magic circle which mullah (hodža) droves with knife around himself and a child before the ritual start. In his book "Zapisi i Hamajlije" from 1940yr. Muhamed Garcevic mentioned unusual manuscript from year 1303yr.written in Arabic language, in which the world of demons, number, places where they dwell and ways and modes of attacking human beings, is described. As a result of their attacks people get following symptoms/diseases; epilepsy, partial or complete paralysis, headache, nigh mares, hallucinations and so on…
In Bosnia, demon attack is called “ograma”. Mullas with amutets through the ritual of daira treats the patient.
Daira represents dangerous ritual that requires a vegetarian nutrition,
great devotion, purity of the body and spirit, and a blue-eyed medium boy or girl, under 12 years of age. Ritual is performed in clean and isolated room. Mullah draws circle on the floor with a knife around himself and medium, then burn tamjan (incense), place a cup filled with black ink to what the child will gaze constantly during the ritual.
Then mullah begins with chanting prayers from the Koran’s selected citations.
When the child reports seeing small figures/silhouettes of dwarfs appearing in a long line on the surface of the ink, that’s a sign of ritual on its way in right direction.
The moment when a child sees the monarch of dwarfs’; usually demon that is dressed differently from other dwarfs, child will let mullah know about that so that he could stand up and show respect to the king.
When the monarch of the demons sits down, hodza sits down too. Then is the time for conversation to begin with hodza intending to convince the master of the demons to order his servants to leave the body of the victim/patient.
If the ritual succeeds patient faints for a moment and wake up well and healthy.
Daira is, as already mentioned, very dangerous ritual that can be performed only by spiritually strong individuals.
In some ethnological records, there are cases with no happy ending; when some hodzas became obsessed by the demon remaining paralyzed or mentally sick. Ethnological records say that during the ritual of daira strong winds used to blow, sometimes uprooting trees from the ground and blowing away roofs from the houses.
There are over 10 ways/techniques daira is performed, as follows; using cup of coffee, palm, mirror, water, nail, and other...

Among the Bosnian folk there is a belief that alongside the material world there is a spiritual world called Mračne Havaje. This belief is especially present in folk magic where it is often mentioned in rituals of annulling negative energy through the use of basmi (spells) i.e. oral magic. By analysing a few basme we come across precise names of locations which give us a clear picture that the Dark Havaje is a world covered by a lifeless desert called Kavdag in whose middle there is a gigantic mountain Jaban, which is full of cracks and holes. Kavdag is very similar to the name of the Jinn mountain Qaf which is mentioned in Islamic legends. According to mythology, mountain Qaf is the home of the Jinn because a large number of them live there.

Mračne Havaje are basically a folk representation of hell, a distant place where the world of humans ends and the spirit world begins in which there is no fertility nor life. The word Havaj or Havaje come from the Arabic language and symbolise air, sky, height; and we can find that word in several songs about heroes. In accordance to that it would be easy to conclude that the negative energy is being carried into the heights, into the lifeless mountain where eternal silence and darkness rule.

Bosnian spiritual healers believe that evil cannot be destroyed but transferred from one person onto another location and that's why it is sent to Dark Havaje, a place capable of absorbing all of the negative energy. The transfer is done in such a way that evil and sickness are channelled in the direction of Dark havaje with a precise chant: "over a hundred fields, over a hundred forests, behind the nine hills, into the barren land, where there is no dog bark nor a cat meow, where the prayer isn't heard..."