Word Spells from the Slavic Folklore Traditions

[YanaKhan]

Hey, everyone. I thought I would introduce you to some folk traditions that use words as a main tool.
In every Slavic folk tradition magick by words is a part of nearly every ritual and sometimes even considered magick by itself. These traditions are ancient and are around even now, assimilated by the Christianity. Mostly performed by old women, they are believed to help everyone or if they can't help, the popular belief is "they can't hurt". These include the "wax pouring", which Holdasown made a thread about, the "bullet pouring" and other practices. There is power within words and I have seen one of these work almost instantly.
So here we go:

To soothe a baby

Put 3 morsels of bread next to the baby's head. Take one, drive it from the baby's head to it's toes while saying:
"Inhabitant of the darkness, get out of the darkness, get out to see the light, how did it happen so his mother cries, in heaven tears from the Goddess drop. Who is the one who growls from the earth, if it's a dog, they mus give it bread, if it's a bird, they must give it crumbs, and if it's human's child that's stubborn, they must give it Goddesses words, the Mother of god's words that it's father sleeps well and it's mother sleeps well. These are not my words, these are Goddesses and Gods words, came from them, I only repeat."
This is done with the other two morsels and then they are given to a dog to eat (the morsels, not the baby ).
The above words are not a chant. They should not be said loud and clear. The more you mumble, the more it works. The other people in the room shouldn't understand everything. This is why the chant itself doesn't make much sense. But it does work - maybe because people believe in it.

So, if anyone is interested I can put several other wordy spells here, just let me know.

[Shub Niggurath]

Slavic folk magick is interesting.
I know of one spell that's supposed to cure warts and other skin problems.
You take a thread, make a knot on it and then rub it on the surface of the wart. Then bury the thread under a rainwater pipe. It sounds silly but I heard from many people that it actually worked when their grandmas did it for them

Share more spells Yana, I'm interested!

[YanaKhan]

Well, as funny as those sound, they sometimes do really help. So I say if it can't hurt, try it.
As for the word spells you asked for, I'll put one for a husband to treat his wife better It's also one of the so called "feeding spells" where you chant on food and feed it to the object. I don't usually like those spells, but this is not supposed to be a bad thing


After midnight, boil goat's milk. After it starts to boil, the сontainer is to be put lip high and you are to say:

"Horns on the spirit
Horns on a cow, horns on the bull.
Steam from the milk, go to (the name of the husband).
As you, milk, won't have steam when the morning comes,
so you release (wife's name) from evil.
Not to drink on Sunday, not to beat on Monday.
Not to shout on Tuesday,
keep quiet on Wednesday.
Mouth shut on Friday,
No noise on Saturday,
Take my words onto your soul.
Horns on the spirit
Horns on a cow, horns on the bull.
Steam from the milk, go to (the name of the husband).

This has to be said three times. After each time blow on the milk. The milk is to be fed to the husband.

I have no idea if this works, but it's a very very common practice in some villages here and in Macedonia.

[Vesca]

I love seeing folk traditions from other Slavic regions, if you have more I'd love to look them over!

[YanaKhan]

Hey, Vesca (I always though your name sounded Slavic, I guess I was right ).
Here's another word spell to remove fear:
Fist, I would like to say this is an old spell. My country, along with many other countries was under Ottoman dominion for 500 years. I don't mean to offend anybody, this is a folk spell, I haven't created it.
The spell-caster is to take 3 pinches of flour from different houses and put it into a bowl of water that is gathered from 3 different springs along with five live coals while saying:

"Here came the frightful Turk
from a frightful forest.
His frightful head
His frightful legs,
His frightful shoes
Everything frightful about him.
He gave .... (the name of the person who has been frightened) fear
He/she cannot seat
He/she cannot lay
He/she cannot see
He/she cannot sleep.
He/she cannot walk
He/she cannot eat
Sat ..... and cried
And here comes Mother of God
Mother of God, who gave Him birth
And She asked ...... (everywhere on the dots, you put the name)
Why you cry ......
......... answered
Mother of God,
who gave Him birth
Here came the frightful Turk
from a frightful forest.
His frightful head
His frightful legs,
His frightful shoes
Everything frightful about him.
And gave me fright.
Mother of God told .....
Say word spell for fright
In a green bowl
with a cold water
from three places poured
with white flour
from three houses gathered
As the coals die,
so the fear dies.
It breaks, it crashes
like a cattle by the cattle herder.
Like sheep by the sheep herder
Like pigs by the pig herder.
Like calves by the calf herder.
Like people by work
Like people by bazaar
Like people by gathering
Like dust by kettle - drum
Like people by wedding.
Like it's said.

The water is to be thrown into a river and while walking home, the spell - caster is not to say a word or turn around.

This spell originally had nothing to do with Mary, mother of Christ. It's believed that the spell mentioned Morana - Goddess of harvest, witchcraft, winter and death.

[YanaKhan]

I find this one particularly funny
Against devils and witches. The spell is supposedly helping a person, whose house has been hexed by a witch.

Stand facing East and say:
Sissin is standing in front of (name)'s gates, leaning on a spear, belted on a sword, glazing ahead towards pestilence, witches, devils and samovilas. With him I called all the angels, with them Archangel Michael and Christ's apostles Peter and Paul. Something invisible came from the sky and chased away pestilence, witches, devils and samovilas: midnigh, when the sea is resting, when the water doesn't run, when the roosters don't sing, when the dogs don't bark - then I chased away pestilence, witches, devils and samovilas from here, from this temple, from these four walls. Here lives God's man (the name) and there is no place for you. Here are the four baptists, here are the sixteen prophets, they will guard God's man (the name) in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy ghost.

This one is more like a prayer, not really a spell, but again it's not supposed to be understood by everybody, so the more you mumble, the more it works.

[YanaKhan]

There are some word spells to remove sickness. I'll only post the ones that are not creepy (in folk magick some of the spells can be really nasty or somewhat disturbing, so I'll pick the "normal" ones).

A spell with ash
If there is pain, smear some ash on the spot and say: " Bismillyahi rahman i rahim! Timryo, timryo, karanzha, birrinzhi saranzha! To give him dinner, to hear us have breakfast. As the sun sets, he sets, he won't be coming here, he has no work here".

A spell with elder branches.
Take three elder branches and a knife. On a night of a waning moon, take the knife and put it on the spot where it hurts 3 times. Then make a cut on the elder branch. Every time you put the knife on the hurting spot say the following:
"Bismillyahi rahman i rahim!
Let me give it breakfast
To hear me at lunch
As the moon is short
it will shorten.
As the sun is lifting
it will lift."
After you do that 3 times, you need to tie the branches somewhere where the sun will dry them and say while doing so: "As the branches dry, the sickness will dry".

I find these 2 to be a fantastic example of mixing Muslim and Slavic traditions.

[Vesca]

Yep, you were right.

This is very interesting, thank you for sharing! Are these out of a book somewhere or have you been lucky enough to inherit traditions?

I'm nosy, sorry.

[YanaKhan]

No, I haven't inherited these - I found them. Some of them in a book, some from listening to practitioners, some from a witch I know. The book is called "Word spells and magick" (Bayaniya i magii) by Iveta Pirgova. I have no idea if it has ever been translated in other languages. The word spells to remove fear are very common, even these days. And the witch I know (well, know from Internet only) has given me some - she is actually gathering them from the practitioners. It's a good thing there are people like her, because the young people are not interested in becoming practitioners anymore and these ladies are trying to give their knowledge even if it's not to their families.
Nosy people are cool sometimes

[Kassandra]

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These are precious Yanakhan, thanks for sharing them.



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[Vesca]

Wow, that's very cool! ^^

[YanaKhan]

Here's another one I like
To remove fear
Take a knife with black handle and stand in front of the person who has been scared. Take the knife in your right hand and "cut" the fear - head, right arm, left arm, body, right leg, left leg and say:

Run, rabid bitch
Here comes the rabid wolf.
Here comes the rabid wolf,
run, rabid bitch!
Run, rabid bitch
Here comes the rabid wolf.
The fear to run in deserted forest
Where the axe won't cut
Where the rooster won't sing
Where the dog won't bark,
where the shepherd won't bring the sheep
where birds won't sing.
The fear will go out
all the bones
all the nails
and will become light
and you will fall asleep
Like a chicken with it's mother
like a lamb with it's mother
like a kid with it's mother
like a child on it's mothers right breast."

You need to say this 9 times and then make the person take a step back and do the whole ritual again and then make him/her take another step backwards and do it again. All in all 27 times. Then throw the knife over his/her right shoulder and he/she must go home and not speak to anyone and not turn around.

I'm glad you are liking the thread I find these fascinating, but for what I've heard if one wants to perform, they need to be given the spells by a practitioner before the first period (or before the age of 12 for the boys) or he/she needs to "steal" he spells - to remember them while listening to practitioner. The spells are given to family members, usually from a grandmother to granddaughter. Not mother to daughter. And while the young practitioner receives her spells at a very young age, she is not allowed to practice until she can't have any more children or until the person who gave her the spells dies. In a village there are several women who practice - one practices for fear, one to remove curses, one to cure fever and so on. You don't get to receive many spells. Maybe two - three at most.
So this is actually something I haven't tried to perform, although I do have 2 spells to remove fear I "stole". Maybe I should try

[Vesca]

I had actually heard about the skipping a generation thing somewhere before, which on some subconscious level makes sense to me. I've no idea why, but I'm not knocking it.

The repetition of spells 3 or 9 times is a pretty common theme, it's nice to see it reciprocated in collected spells too. Nothing better than finding similarities of certain things across several sources. It is neat to see how different regions in the same area actually have a lot of similarities still.

[Firebird]

These are facinating Yana! Thank you so much for sharing
Firebird

[.]

Here's another one I like
To remove fear
Take a knife with black handle and stand in front of the person who has been scared. Take the knife in your right hand and "cut" the fear - head, right arm, left arm, body, right leg, left leg and say

In my region witchy folk-lore is a bit forgotten.
Are you Bulgarians by any chance drawing from Greeks' well too?
Black handled knives and such.