When a person doesn't have luck in love matters for a prolonged period, cannot find a permanent partner or get married then it is considered that she is of a "closed destiny" or "locked luck". Though ethnologists and anthropologists think that belief in a closed destiny came into Bosnia during the Ottoman occupation in the middle ages it is difficult to escape from the feeling that it always existed among the Bosnian people, especially because throughout the epochs the girls were raised to marry young and become mothers. That's why all inabilities to fulfil that life goal were considered to be a negative influence of supernatural forces on the human destiny. On the basis of this assumption solutions through various rituals were sought whose primary purpose was to stimulate a positive flow of energy in order to remove the blockade and enable luck in love.
Allegedly, human destiny can be opened in a few ways - because of sin, curse, with the help of a spell, effect of spellbound eyes or randomly i.e. carelessly. The Bosnian people are prone to believing the power of curse which according to a legend can be active for nine generations in a family. From the committed sin a curse is born, an especially dangerous curse can be that of the abandoned girlfriend, which can close destiny of her boyfriend.
When one girl hates another or wants to prevent her from marrying a man towards which she harbours special feelings she will secretly take a part of her clothes and wash it in a bowl of water in which she placed 40 needles. According to belief, when a girl puts on the washed clothes her love luck will be blocked and her destiny will be closed. That's why girls still today avoid loaning clothes to each other.
An individual can close his destiny or luck by his own fault and that according to stravarke happens when someone has a habit to cross over their clothes with their legs. That's why the old rule that the clothes one takes off shouldn't be left on the ground but always moved to a bin for dirty laundry or stored in a closet.
Girls and boys often turn to local stravarke for help o they can eliminate their love blockade with the ritual that includes lead. When she would go to see a stravarka a girl would bring a bottle of water in which she mixed water from three different springs. That water would be poured in a vessel by a stravarka leaving only a bit of water at the bottom of the bottle which she uses to sprinkle the vessel while uttering verses of a formula. During that time on the fire, in a metal spoon, a small piece of lead would be melting which the stravraka would put inside the vessel with the water once she finished chanting the formula, and based on the formed shape of the hardened lead she would interpret its meaning.
Large Sanela's water from dear god,
god's destiny and black earth.
How many droplets,
so much strength and freedom to Sanela.
Drops of water call god,
they destroy every evil,
fire and earth save the slaves
and the live water quenches everything.
Sanela is calling the mountains and valleys
which have blocked her name and body,
the fire said to the water that she has put her out,
that the water saved Sanela.
The earth said to the slave that she opened the door,
all disease and evil she removed from Sanela.
God's power banished evil from her,
saved gods slave on earth.
The valleys and hills were broken,
they deflected all evil from Sanela,
they are not created by god's will
and that's why they didn't stay on Sanela,
the hands of all enemies nor the evil eyes of this world.
The hands of the enemies she chased away
and the evil eyes of the world were extinguished.
Sanela stayed light like a bird's feather and clear as silver.
Sanela accepts this formula onto her body the water from her body removes the disease,
opens paths for Sanela,
chases away all evil from her body.
Water and fire are fighting to chase away all evil.
Water and fire stayed with Sanela and nervousness and hatred disappeared.
Every god's slave called for an angel,
the angel chased away the evil from the slave,
Sanela is calling for her star,
the star walks above her,
asking for Sanela's name,
to chase away all fear,
hatred and nervousness from her body.
The star is calling the water,
the water flowed and three times she said that she saved Sanela,
the water is calling fire and the fire answered
- "You water have flown and three times told to god that you saved Sanela
and that you have extinguished the fire.
Sanela stayed light as a feather and clear as the silver!"
Sanela washes her body,
water from the body the fear and nervousness takes,
water and fire stayed with Sanela and nervousness and hatred left.
The fire she extinguished and saved her bones and nerves.
By bathing she opened the closed paths and rests her body.
She called an angel,
the angel rested Sanela and restored her strength,
extinguished evil winds,
saved her blood and body,
Sanela rested her blood and body and received an angel.
The angel and the water saved her and locked the hands of the enemy.
Whoever tried to put a spell on her,
the angel would destroy her.
The water flowed from the spring and three times she told god that she gave Sanela rest,
every evil, pain, nervousness, hatred, fear, weariness
and hands of the enemy that she removed,
opened all paths for her and removed distress from her.
Full moon - new moon passes,
water brings her lead,
the elad develops her body shields her body from evil.
Sanela saved her nerves, returned sleep to herself.
Sanela gets sleep lead - new moon,
lead - full moon brings,
with Sanela lead,
water and fire stayed and all evil went away!
Though this strange problem is often solved with the ritual of melting lead there are other ways to free an unlucky soul from its burden. In village areas that problem was solved with the help of a chicken's egg, namely, according to stravarka Fatima from Todorovo, one would watch which chicken would lay an egg on Friday. That egg would be taken by a person of a "closed destiny" and would bring it to a spring which was located east and she would throw it into the streem uttering "I give you an egg and you give me new luck in love!". Then she would return home without looking back.
