WHEN FEAR ATTACKS THE STOMACH (Part 4.)

In folk medicine in BiH women often heal issues with the stomach, they’re called želudarice, and as with fear, like stravarke, they claim that one can „die due to dislocated stomach!“.

Most of them resonate that the stomach should be positioned inside the body in line with the belly button. Due to some unfavorable occurrences, such as lifting a heavy load, falling from heights, undertaking long dietary trends, sleeping on one’s hands or holding the hands above the head, in women after birth or similar things, there can be some negative implications on the work and position of the stomach. Sometimes the cause can be a stronger cold when due to aggressive coughing, the stomach “jumps out” of its place. Symptoms are heartburn, vomiting, and loss of body mass.

The influence of shock, stress and general fear is also a frequent cause of stomach dislocation. When one confirms, through observation, that “fear has attacked the stomach”, one should have a mellow and soft approach towards the diseased. It contains three or more stages which could be divided into the following categories:

Prophylactic approach
Natural healing
Exercising magic
Massage

Prophylactic approach

It is believed among the folk that the psyche influences the stomach, i.e. tendency towards nervousness, worrying, especially panic. Actually, as we could have concluded by now, any form of mental tension or fear has a direct influence on human health. For a person which loses their appetite suddenly, eats less, or is “yellow in the face” it is believed that it has issues with fear. It is known, also, that irascible and frightened people –“someone who gets scared (strunjiva) easily” – have the most issues with the stomach. It is discretely suggested to such persons to search for a stone “ustavljak” and to place the stone in a glass which they use for drinking water.

Namely, as Antun Hangi writes, Bosnian mothers are prone to calming down hysterical children, which cry a lot and refuse to go to sleep, by using the stone ustavljak. They would obtain it easily: they would throw small stones onto a tree outside until one of them, or more, would get stuck on a branch. Such a stone would be taken and placed under the child’s pillow. Stone ustavljak in folk medicine in BiH has calming and relaxing properties, thereby curing (1). For issues with fear, which affect the stomach, the hawthorn tree would be chosen.

Natural healing

All stomach diseases created by constant exposure to stress and shock were treated by folk healers (stravarke/želudarice) during the first phase with traditional medicine such as the one when nine nacre leaves are crushed and mixed with one kilogram of honey; the medicine is taken for 40 days (2). Tea out of quince branches was shown to be effective, it has a very pleasant taste and nice red color, which according to homeopathic beliefs “stimulates the psyche” just like chamomile tea, whose yellow color ideally affects those which are “yellow in the face due to stomach aches”.

Exercising magic

In the collective consciousness of Bosnian folk, fear is inseparable from heart and stomach issues, which are presented through an identical way of healing. Namely, the ritual under the name “uvarivanje strahe” based on the use of boiled water and upturning the empty pot, so that the vacuum sucks in the hot water inside the pot, was used to cure both the stomach and fear. The only difference in rituals is that in the case of curing a dislocated stomach the water, in the end, is spilled and doesn’t come into contact with the diseased, while during neutralization of fear the diseased uses it to wash his face and wash his hands and legs.

Massage

A light massage with oiled-up hands, starting from the left hand going towards the shoulders and descending down the back, between lower ribs and the pelvis, from the backside, a massage of the entire body is performed with the goal of putting the stomach back in its place. We should note that the massage is performed in the worst cases when neither of the previous techniques had any effect. Some folk healers use stronger pressure to massage only the lower part of the hand up to the elbow, and then they tie it with a rag and leave it for half an hour.

(1) Magical role of stones in various segments of magical activity is known to us from the Neolithic period and is based on the cult of the Grand Mother, the oldest deity in human history. From that period date, the first stone statues and sculptures of all forms of the Grand Mother were “one which gives life and protects it”. Even most of the rituals and solemnity which were performed in her honor were held in caves, in order to have closer contact with this ancient deity, without whom the beginning of human civilization would be unimaginable, in the womb of the earth.

(2) According to stravarke the dirty water in which lead was molten and then used for washing, should be thrown into a stream or river, and “as soon as it crosses nine rocks the evil and disease should break!”. A verse of an exorcist curse is known to us “on nine rocks it should fall and break”. Nine is also, along with the number 40, symbol of the Grand Mother (nine months of pregnancy/40 weeks), and its influence is literally omnipresent in Bosnian, but also in all other magical practices in the world.