Do You Know Anything About Romanian Witchcraft And Folklore? Im Looking To Find As Many Resources On

Do you know anything about Romanian witchcraft and folklore? I’m looking to find as many resources on it as I can.

Ok let’s start!

.:: Romanian Witchcraft and Folklore ::.

In Romania an important character is the zîna (zîne), meaning “fairy”, which according to Mircea Eliade comes from the Goddess Diana. “It is safer not to pronounce their name. One refers to them as “The Holy Ones”, “The Magnificent Ones”, “The Rosalia”, or simply “They” (iele).”

- Source: Mircea Eliade’s “Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions: Essays in Comparative Religion”

Thereare many names for the fairies in Romania, for example: Iele, Dânse, Dăgaie, Vâlve, Iezme, Izme, Iodiţe (connected to Herodias), Rusalii, Nagode, Vântoase, Doiţe, Măieste, Frumoase, Muşate, Fetele Codrului, Îpăătesele Văzduhului, Zânioare, Sfinte de noapte, Şoiae, Mândre, Fecioare, Albe, Hale, and many others. For proper names of single famous Fairies, instead, there are: Ana, Bugiana, Dumernica, Foiofia, Lacargia, Magdalina, Ruxanda, Tiranda, Trandafira, Rudeana, Ruja, Păscuţa, Orgisceana, Lemnica, Roşia, Todosia, Sandalina, Margalina, Savatina, Rujalina, and manyothers .Thesenames should not be used randomly, they are often in fact the basis ofdangerous spells: it is believed that every witch knows nine of thesepseudonyms, which creates combinations, which are the basis of spells thatlaunches.

- Source: Vito Keah’s “Dicţionar de mitologie generală"

The offerings made to treat Fairies’ diseasesin countries with an Orthodox majority (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) areusually carried out at crossroads, under trees, near sources, orin places linked to the Fairies, often in specific moments likemidday, and are composed of bread; milk, bread and salt; or honey, other typesof desserts and milk, while sometimes only bread and water. In Romania the specific offerings to the iele are put on a white tablecloth laid on the ground and they are composed of some white meals (and therefore linked to death): eggs, milk, cheese, a whitehen killed (please don’t kill hens if you want to replicate this ritual, choose non-animal offerings! Thank you!).These offerings were shared with anyone who walked through the surroundings. These white and cleansacrifices (eggs, white hen, flour, salt) can be offered to fairies even at the home of sick people, but in this case they are done on wednesday or friday after sunset by ninewomen, who have to walk nine times around the house and cast a spell nine timeson the patient.

- Source: Éva Pócs’s “Fairies and Witches at the Boundary of South-Eastern and Central Europe”

A female Winter Goddess in the Romania is Brezaia, a femaleChristmas mask, played by a man wearing a long cloak and covered withmulticolored rags, whose head is covered by a zoomorphic mask: goat, wolf,rooster, stork or peacock and whose beak or jaw is moved by a man at the rhythmof a violin.

- Source: Claudia & Luigi Manciocco’s “L'incanto e l'arcano”

InRomania there are women who regularly fall into ecstasy at Pentecost,asserting, once they have resumed, that they have spoken with the saints, thedead and the Christian god, and that sometimes they prescribe medicationswithout being paid. Theseladies are called Rusalii, a name that also indicates the spirits of the deadand some Slavic female deities in the Slavic area, therefore it’s possible that it’s a christianization of a previous pagan character.

- Source: Carlo Ginzburg’s “Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath”

In Romania semi-ecstatic rituals arepracticed (dances, pantomimes, healings, swords and flags parades) by the “căluşari”under the protection of a mythical empress, Doamna Zînelor (“the Queen ofthe Fairies”), also called Irodeasa, Irodiada or Arada, i.e. Herodias. The căluşariare ecstatic dancers specialized in caring for those who have been “affected”or possessed by the fairies (the “iele”). Differentmelodies are used to diagnose the type of possession, and the victim is healedduring a ritual dance. The patrons of both the ieleand the căluşari are the same, or the aforementioned Arada, Irodeasa and DoamnaZînelor, which are confused with each other.

- Source: Carlo Ginzburg’s “Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath”

Similarly to the Mazzeri of Corsica and other Night Battlers in Europe,but in physical life and not in an altered state of consciousness, if a groupof Căluşari meets another group on the road, they must fight each other. While, in the world of dreams and not in the physicalrealm, the Strigoi in particular nights (especially those of the feasts of St.George and St. Andrew) astrally ride horses, brooms or barrels to arrive incertain clearings to fight against another group of Strigoi for the fertility.They use for the combat sticks, axes, scythes and other tools: the battles startwhen one of them pronounces a certain formula (such as “red garlic!”)and end when another strigoi shouts another one (“white garlic!”), orwhen the roosters sing at midnight. It is believed that the Strigoirepresent the various villages, and that the victorious group will bringabundance and wellbeing to their village to the detriment of neighboring villages. Accordingto folklore the battles last for the entire night, at the end of which thecombatants reconcile themselves, grieving for having attacked each other. Thislast detail reconnects them again to the Căluşari, since they too, following theclash with their fellow men, restore peace according to the customs.Similarly, still in Romania, some members of the groupof girls who accompany the girl who personifies the Drăgaică (female spiritassociated to Diana and Herodias) in the homonymous ritual performed on the st.John’s day, they collide at the crossroads (even with a certain violence,beating energetically and sometimes injuring the opponents) with other equallyarmed groups coming from neighboring villages. It isbelieved that thanks to such battles, and thanks too tothe dances that precede them, the fruits ripen first and their ripening is freefrom damage. This aspect links the maidensof Drăgaică to the Căluşari, of which they would constitute a female equivalent.

- Source: Sonia Maura Barillari’s “Acqua, Fuoco, Terra, Sale. Pratiche curative della tradizione romena”

Drăgaică is probably Herodias, who is remained in Romanian folklore also with the name of the Jerodiecele or Iroditele: they are the nine daughters of Herod emperor and Irodeasa empress, who is also called Irodia, Irodita or Irodiada, “the great one”.

- Source: Alessandro Wesselofsky’s “Alichino e Aredodesa”

Romanians also offered corn and oats to sântoaderi, horses or centaurs connected to the procession of unbaptized spirits (i.e. the local version of the Wild Hunt) which have taboos linked to the spinning. They can be considered the male version of the fairies because, according to the Romanian beliefs, on the day of Todorusale, the sântoaderi dance with the zîne.

- Source: Éva Pócs’s “Fairies and Witches at the Boundary of South-Eastern and Central Europe”

InRomanian stories, Ileana Cosânzeana (also called Ileana Sânziana, Ileana Simziana, Chira Chiralina and Inia Dinia) is both a Fairy and the Moon and the sister of the Sun,while Făt-Frumos is the Sun himself, which saves her from the monster Zmeu tolive happily with him. According to Adela Ileana Drăucean, in fact, Făt-Frumos and Ileana Cosânzeana, are “two mythical characters welled from the Romanian people’s conceptions and grafted on the archaic elements of the cult dedicated to the Sun and the Moon”.

- Source: Adela Ileana Drăucean’s “The Names of Romanian Fairy-Tale Characters in the Works of the Junimist Classics"

Sânziana gives her name to the Midsummer Festival, Sânzienelor, where the fairies, the sânzienele, come together to dance in the forest.

A fairy character connected to the World Treein the Romanian beliefs is Zîna Magdalina, who, together with Ileana Cosîzeana - who in the tradition wakes up at night and brings the new day -and at the Fairy of the Dawn, appears once a year in period of the Summer Solstice. The anthropologistHans Peter Duerr associates Zîna Magdalina who sits on the tree with Artemisworshiped in the trees.

- Source: Hans Peter Duerr’s “Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary between Wilderness and Civilization”

Baba Dochia is a famous character from an old pagan myth (probably an old Goddess of spring) related to the arrival of spring and the end of winter. She is honored during a celebration called “martisor” on March 1.

- Source: Sonia Maura Barillari’s “Acqua, Fuoco, Terra, Sale. Pratiche curative della tradizione romena”

In Romania the belief in the Moirai hassurvived in the characters of Ursitoare, Ursitele, Ursoiare or Ursaie. They are known as determining real characters in the life of the newborn, whose favorable decisions can be obtained throughofferings. Theyalso play a role in marriages, and the third of the Moirai is often seen as the guideof souls or the angel of death. In many places they areidentified with the fairies, given their resemblance to them in featuresand in bringing blessings or diseases to people.

- Source: Gábor Klaniczay & Éva Pócs’s “Demons, Spirits, Witches: Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology”

The Slavic Goddess Mokosh remained in Romanian folklore under the names of Marţi Seară (literally, Tuesday Evening) and of VineriNoapte (literally, Friday Night). Manytimes there were offerings of flour products in honor of these Entities.

- Sources: Éva Pócs’ “Between the Living and the Dead. A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age” & “Fairies and Witches at the Boundary of South-Eastern and Central Europe”

A remnant of the cult of the pre-Christian fire Goddess inRomania, Oparlia, is held in the celebration of the feast of San Foca, which has increasingly assimilated her attributes, beingassociated with fires. It isthought that those who do not celebrate his festival, July 23, are punished withbodily burns, fires, scorching heat or hail. This character has returned in being female joining with the character of Saint Anna,celebrated on July 25th, being called “Ana-Foca”, whose feast fallson the first of July.

- Source: Sonia Maura Barillari’s “Acqua, Fuoco, Terra, Sale. Pratiche curative della tradizione romena”

Let’s talk now about the Plant Familiar: the “Dictamnus albus” (or “frăsinel”), inRomania assumes the role of a Familiar Spirit, since in the popular traditionit is invoked to oppose the evil spirits and in Oltenia, during s. George’s evefestival, the sick people make offerings of bread, salt (although it should beavoided, in the resumption of this custom, since the salt is herbicide), aplate of vegetables and a bowl full of water to obtain the healing. Anotherritual involves preparing a table with offerings - donuts, liqueurs, clay pots,incense - and with it the healer invokes the “frăsinel” to ask him tochange the fate of the patient decided by his fairy godmother at the time ofbirth. Similarly, the Romaniantradition also applies to other plants, considering them as individuals: forexample, before collecting the “tătăneasa” or “Tatin’sgrass” (ie the “Symphytum officinale”), whose research must happenin Tuesday in spite of the eradication - to be performed with empty stomach andin body and soul purity - on Friday, you have to do 15 reverences in front ofthe plant, and say: “Lady, Tatin’s herb, I do not collect you to throw youaway, but to treat the meat with the meat and the bone with the bone, and tofix them”. In the Romanian tradition, infact, before taking a plant out of the ground, it is necessary to inform themof what you want to do, the uses to which they is destined and the reason why theymust be eradicated. The “Valerianaofficinalis”, called in Romanian “odolean”, was in the pastinvoked almost as a deity, and received the prayers of unmarried girls whowished to meet their future fiancé and of married women who wished luck and domestic prosperity.

- Source: Sonia Maura Barillari’s “Acqua, Fuoco, Terra, Sale. Pratiche curative della tradizione romena”