Bosnian love charms

Spell for the arrival of a partner

A girl places some dirt in the lock which she took from the footstep of her boyfriend and at night, next to a hearth she locks and unlocks the lock nine times and each time she repeats this formula:

I turn the key in the lock for my benefit and for the harm of NN,
for the others he is locked, for me, unlocked.
He should die, go mad until he comes to me to see me!
With my words and god's will!

She then locks the lock and places it into the hearth, close to the fire, in order for it to gradually get warmer. The girl repeats the following formula nine times throwing each time some salt and sugar into the fire. As soon as she blows into the fire, she utters:

Huuu, fire by god a sister!
I feed you with salt and sugar
and you should in my honour
bring the best and fastest iron horse from the dark Hawaii.
Chase him with 99 whips, wroth him with 99 flames,
send him to my NN to throw him on his back,
right into the saddle, and bring him before me!
Let his heart crack like this salt,
let his body sweat like this sugar until he sees me!
If you serve me fire, by god a sister,
I will give you honey for supper!

After this ritual the girl lets the fire burn out and let it extinguish by itself. This ritual is considered to be dangerous since it is believed that if the girl keeps the fire going for too long and keeps the temperature high the lock might explode. Allegedly, if that would happen, the heart of the boy would burst as well and he would die.

Spell with the burial of the lock

On the eve before the first Friday after a new moon the girl takes the lock and the key, locks it, and buries it in an unknown grave (without markings). Tomorrow, before the sun comes up, she goes to the grave and unearths the lock, unlocks it and stands on one side of the road or entrance to the house and places the key on the opposite side. When the desired boy passes along that road or through that door, the girl quickly takes the lock and key and locks it again. That or another night the lock with the key is taken and buried in another unknown grave, close to the deceased's head and she utters:

When this deceased speaks then will my NN have another girl!
Dear Allah hear my prayer, so it can be fulfilled.

Then she uses her both wrists to strike the grave uttering:

O black earth, by God the mother,
this formula won't stick to me nor to you,
but to my dear NN and his 77 nerves, 88 wrists, 99 bones,
his brain and wit and his heart and heart veins,
on which his heart depends,
wherever he goes he should think about me!
Ya gelsun, ya gebersun, ya betersun, ya divani deli olsun!

Finally the girl takes some dirt from that grave and when she gets an opportunity pours some on the boy's shoulder. The spellbound boy will have to marry the girl in the end or otherwise lose his mind because of love.

Magic with the lock

A lot of blocking power is ascribed to the lock of certain physical functions but also the ability to influence destiny. That's why it is a valued prop in Bosnian magic, especially love magic. For an unknown reason earth is an element which is always connected to the lock, whether earth from an unknown grave or earth taken from someone's footstep. Witches believe that an unmarked grave, where an unknown carcass lies, has an immense power and therefore we can conclude that it is a cult place of many practitioners of Bosnian magic. A handful of dirt from such a grave is often used in love spells, namely, it is sufficient to throw the dirt and have the person you like walk over it and she will feel love towards you. Also when it comes to appeasing passions, especially jealousy, an unmarked grave can accumulate all the unwanted emotions if one buries the panties of a possessive person.

When one wants a couple to have bad luck in a marriage then on the day of their marriage one stands on one side of the road which the couple will use, and a key needs to be placed on one side and a lock on the other. As soon as the couple passes one takes the key and locks the lock uttering:

When this lock is unlocked with this key,
then the two of them shall receive a child!

The folk song called "Nine locks" mentions that even after nine years of marriage the young spouse of Adem bey is still a virgin. He doesn't make love to her since the girl Fata cast a spell on him with nine locks and made him impotent with his wife. Such a situation is burdensome to his mother and losing all her patience she harshly criticised her son to leave his wife and marry Fata. Adem bey initially tried to bribe Fata with elaborate jewels to goad her into annulling the spell, to which she quietly replied:

I will never remove the spell!
I locked nine locks,
Allowed you to walk through every one of them
and I threw them into ice cold water!

Realising that he is left without a choice Adem bey married Fata and wedded his wife to another man.

The most powerful lock is considered to be the one that locks the house whose inhabitants have died. Besides love spells it can be used equally successful to influence judges, lawyers and all other superiors which bring about solutions and decisions. In love magic a lock is used to eliminate competition. According to Nurija Omerbegović from Banja Luka in her youth she was a victim of a spell created with a lock. Namely, Nurija had a boyfriend which she wanted to marry but another girl liked him. In order to prevent Nurija and her boyfriend to get married, the girl secretly stole a handkerchief from Nurija brought to a witch together with a lock. The witch stuffed into the lock and locked it uttering:

As this lock is closed,
so too her mouth shall be closed!
When this lock and this handkerchief emerge from the river Vrbas, let her tongue then be freed as well!.

Then she took the lock to the place where the river is at its deepest and threw the lock. When the boy arrived at Nurija's place that night she was quiet the whole time because an unexplainable force didn't allow her to utter any words, after some time he turned around and went home. They never saw each other again.

Spell for impotency

The most famous way of gaining control over the sexual urges of men in Bosnian magic is called "bending the needle" which is famous in all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We're talking about a simple ritual which has a few variants which is used by the wife usually during a marital crisis caused by the husband's infidelity. The goal of the ritual is to cause temporary impotence in the husband which will lead to a break up with the lover.

The use of the bent needle became a part of the folklore and marriage ritual, especially in eastern Bosnia, where it is customary for the bride to place a bent needle the first night in order to postpone, for a while, defloration. That made the groom have difficulties getting an erection and making love to his wife. Though we could presume that the goal of this ritual was to enable a virgin enough time to prepare for the stressful act of losing her virginity, in this ritual there are archaic remnants of the matriarch from our forefathers the Illyrians and the cult of the Grand Mother in which the woman was without a doubt the ruler of male strength.

Magical process is conditioned by certain rules the most important of which is that it is performed after sunset, a few days after the appearance of the new moon. The ritual requires isolation from other people so that a woman can be fully concentrated on the thing she wishes to achieve. For the creation of the spell she will need a sowing needle and pliers. The ritual is performed next to a hearth. The needle is first heated until glowing, then it is carefully bent with the pliers into a circle, i.e. it is bent on both sides in order to be able to place the tip of the needle through the bottom at some time. While bending the needle the woman utters this formula throughout which, just like throughout the entire ritual, she is calling for god's help:

Dear god, help during the day and night!
NN what I'm thinking about, so shall you,
NN where I'm looking so shall you veledalin amin!
With my eyes NN should watch,
With my ears NN should listen,
With my mouth NN should speak,
With my hands NN should work,
With my legs NN should walk,
My mind shall be your mind
With god's help and my labour
Veledalin amin!

Dear god, help during the day and night!
I'm bending this needle against all witches,
Sorceress's, evil hand, evil from other women,
From all types of eyes, so NN won't see them,
Nor green, nor black, nor yellow, nor blue eyes,
You will only see my eyes, veledalin amin!

Dear god, help during the day and night!

When the moment of placing the tip of the needle through the bottom hoop nears, she utters the second part of the formula:

NN will have no strength to make love nor with a married woman,
Nor with a girl nor a widow,
Only with me may you be full of desire and strength.
With god's help and my labour amin veledalin amin!

Once she places the tip through the hoop, the ritual is over. The bent needle will be carried in the woman's bra for three weeks and then she will hang her on the curtains in the bedroom, possibly above the marital bed.

The other type of bending the needle differs in the text of the magical formula but also type of application. Namely, while she bends the needle, the woman would utter:

As I bend the tip into the hoop
So I close and lock the penis of my NN
With god's help and my labour veledalin amin!

Since she bent the needle in a circle the woman holds onto it and carefully monitors when her husband will go to see his lover. Her task is to throw the bent needle after him and remembers where it has hit the ground, in order not to lose it. The bent needle stays on the ground until the husband returns home. Then she picks it up and saves it for another occasion. After a few needle throws the husband will have impotency with his lover which usually culminates with the break-up of the extramarital affair. While turning the key in the door the woman utters:

I'm locking the door
But I haven't locked the door
Instead I locked the voice and tongue of my NN
And placed a lock on his mouth!

From this last spell the unfaithful husband would become quiet and grumpy in the presence of his lover and would return home quickly.
If for some reason the bent needle is placed in tar and buried in an unmarked grave (for which it is unknown who the deceased is), then the man will be impotent for the rest of his time towards all other women except his wife.

In cases when a woman wants to free the man from the spell she will repeat nine times "Kulhuvelahu backwards" and cut the bent needle with the pliers. However, if the spell has been done by the lover and made the husband impotent with his wife then the wife will place her panties onto the husbands and pierce them with a knife and tear them apart with her hands. With that she will break the spell and bring back her husband's potency.

 If this way doesn't prove to be efficient the woman will seek water form three streams, a four leaf clover, nine different plants from a meadow and the plant cleavers (Galium aparine). When she places the herbs in the water she will repeat the prayer Ihlas three times over it, three times "Kulhuvelahu backwards" and three times prayer Fatiha. The impotent husband will wash his face and drink some of that water. With the rest of the water he will first moisten first his left hand then right foot, then the right hand and left foot. In this way he symbolically washed five pieces of his body which constitute "star" ancient Bosnian symbol of life and health.

Pronounced libido of the husband and his tendency towards extramarital adventures the wife will control with the use of the water used for bathing a deceased. Allegedly, after he drinks it for the first time the man loses desire and passion towards sex. If one cannot get the water used for bathing a deceased the woman will look for remnants of rain on the graveyard on a concaved headstone. She will collect that water and used it when cooking or for coffee or juice and then offer it to the husband. Every time she does this the woman will repeat the same formula three times:

As the deceased doesn't see,
doesn't think and has no desires so too NN can't see,
doesn't thin and doesn't want any other woman besides me.

People always tried to influence destiny with magic so we shouldn't be surprised by the large number of love spells with which one wants to ensure and quicken the marriage process. In order to stimulate her destiny and see a man in her sleep which will be her husband, the girl would take three walnuts and would daub them in tar. At night she would go out with the walnuts and look at the stars of Vlaščići (Big Dipper) and she would repeat this love formula over each walnut:

I'm seeking infatuated to madness N.N. son of parents NN
I took his peace, put a spell on him.
I took his mind, put a spell on him.
I took his patience, put a spell on him.
I took his heart, put a spell on him.
If he lies in bed, let him not lie.
If he sleeps, let him not sleep.
If he is eating, let him not eat.
If he is drinking, let him not drin.
Let him not be calm until he sees me.
Let beads sheets be a snake to him.
Let the pillow be a cobra to him.
I made him my slave.
I imprisoned him for myself!

Then the girl enters her house and throws away the walnuts uttering:

Dear Allah, as these walnuts are burning on the fire,
so too should the heart of NN burn for me!

Immediately after that the girl lays in bed, and if she performed the ritual with no mistakes, in her dream the man whose name she mentioned in the formula shall appear.