FALANJE or FORTUNE TELLING

OTVARANJE ZVIJEZDE

It is a tradition in Bosnia to seek a solution to certain life problems such as illnesses or love issues, from a famous Imam who is known for treating many such problems. The Imam is often visited when a person is often ill, but the medical examination shows no problems, or when a husband or wife, want to save their marriage.


To help such a person the Imam practices a divination method known as "otvaranje zvijezde (opening the stars)" whose analysis often results in a talisman construction (zapis) or an hamajlije construction (amulet). If the diseased is under the influence of black magic the Imam constructs a few talismans which are then submerged in water, so they can be used for consumption or bathing, or burning so that the diseased can fumigate himself, or that it can be buried near a place with running water, burning fire, etc. In the end, when the patient is healed and the negative manifestations of the problem disappear, the Imam constructs an amulet which should protect him from all evil in the future.
When it comes to love issues the humane desire for help is often mixed with greed. Namely, in Bosnia it is believed that all magic is a sin except love magic which are used to save a marriage and save a family from disintegrating. However, often the Imam's which posses certain psychological and spiritual powers break that rule and connect partners that are not bound by fate, or their marriage is not preordained by God. To find out if the partners are suitable for marriage the Imam uses the "otvaranje zvijezda" method, and if he sees that the partners don't have common stars, that they are not harmonious or suitable to each other then he must inform them of this. In most cases, the Imam emphasizes that even if the talismans were used the relationship wouldn't last long because it is not preordained by God. But if the interested person persists the Imam constructs love talismans whose effects are short lived and they can't have a serious effect.
To gain insight into someone's fate the Imam needs only two things - the name of that person and its mother's name. Once the Imam writes those names on paper, he converts certain letters which have a numerical value into numbers, then he sums them up and divides that number with the number 12. The number that he gets reveals the star (astrological sign) under which the person is born. In a special book, which is called Yildizname in Turkey, the Imam reads the chapter dedicated to that sign. If for example the Imam received the number 2 by the mathematical operation, then the interpretation for a man would be as follows:
-A man born under the influence of this planet values education and educated people, he is wise and dedicated to his work. His home is prosperous and good natured people come to his home. Materially this person is well situated. He has brothers with which he shares his understanding and help. This person is a father and a mother; he is of a caring nature. He will have both male and female children. He will be married twice. His wife is noble, she has a good heart. Of health problems he will suffer the disease of the legs, especially the knees, but that will only last for a period of his life. In a later stage of his life heart problems will threaten him and they could be the cause of his death.
Business wise all will be well, even though this person earns a lot of money he also spends it very quickly. He has many enemies but he is stronger than all of them. Wednesday and the month Zilhad are lucky for him. When he sees a new moon he should look at the money in his wallet and pray to God. He is advised to wear green coloured clothes as often as he can. When he travels to highly positioned people he should wear such clothes in order to have his demands and pleas met.
On the right side of his body this person has a sign of sihira (magic), and he feels pain at that place. He has a birth mark near one eye, and on his leg a scar from a dog bite or a burn.
Throughout his life 7th, 14th and 43rd years of his life are critical. If he survives those years he will then live to be 80 years old seven months and seven days. And about the rest Allah knows best.

DIVINATION WITH PLAYING CARDS




The use of playing cards in their esoteric form is called cartomancy and it has its beginnings in the 16-17th century. It is not known in which European country were they used as a fortune telling tool for the first time, however it is well known that they enjoyed huge popularity especially amongst the wealthy classes. As the playing cards first appeared in Bosnia and Herzegowina long before Tarot cards or Gypsy cards, which were usually the tools of roaming gypsy fortune tellers, it is only natural to assume that these cards sparked the imagination of various Bosnian fortune tellers and that's how they started being used for esoteric purposes. In the previous sentence I used imagination because it describes perfectly the creative mind of the fortune teller and his or her idea to construct the whole system of divinity by dividing the cards into four basic signs.

The system for fortunetelling with cards consists of four stages:
Speculative part: a wish to foretell the future formulated in a certain question
Physical part: touching, shuffling, dealing and arrangement of the cards
Oral part: presentation of the obtained meaning following a set pattern
Intuitive part: reading from the cards based on the visual and inner feeling or intuition.

As one can see with the help of an analysis, in the practical part of the fortunetelling we come across two segments that reciprocally follow each other. In the first one the fortune teller follows instructions moulded with already predicted symbols and meaning through singular or joined combinations. There we come across a classic example of mechanical fortunetelling. The second part is much more proficient and transparent for the fortune teller when elated by intuition the strictly defined meanings lose their weight and serve only as a spring board. Therefore it is not wrong to call this stage the stage of intuitive fortunetelling. During that stage the true strength of clairvoyance free of any restraint can be observed.




Nizama M. from Bosanski Brod is a married woman in her forties and she is a mom of two teenagers. A very eloquent woman who is cheerful and she has a penetrating glance.

My husband doesn't know that I predict fortunes by reading cards, he doesn't like it and its all black magic for him. That's why I never did it publicly and I probably never will. It is enough for me to do it for my friends over coffee. I learned to foretell the future with cards during high school from my friend. As young women it was very interesting for us and we would constantly predict the future to one another when it comes to boys that we liked. We would often over do it, but it was OK, those were nice times, remembers Nizama with a smile.

After she got married and had children, Nizama abstinated from any form of fortunetelling. When the children have grown and left for school, the vacuum created by household chores and motherhood made her turn to her favourite activity from childhood, the cards.

Certain fortunetelling techniques were forgotten over time, but I have replaced them with new ones, my own, that came to me. The moment I delve deep into the position of the cards, I get a clear picture in my head of what the cards represent and how I should interpret them to the person sitting across from me. There, let's say, club is not a complete symbol in a picturesque sense, as we can see it dissipates into smaller leaves or circles. That's why the cards with its symbol have a negative connotation. On the other hand spade is a complete symbol, a full card, its tip goes upwards and that's why it has a completely positive meaning, and so forth. For me the black cards are bad and the red ones good, however in some circumstances where the cards create a bad luck combination, a certain number of red cards can foretell danger, say from fire or conflagration.

Analysing the cards a skilled fortune teller can uncover a lot of interesting details and even describe a person's appearance in general, its mentality, material or family situation and the like. King check represents a father figure or a brother, Queen check represents a woman of light or brown hair... When an ace card appears above the king or queen card then that combination speaks of an educated and intelligent person. In short, there are hundreds of combinations, individual ones or those created through association, which requires a lot of effort and concentration from the Faladžija.