“God kills you! God saves me!”: Attack and Defense Sorcery in Balkan Folk Magic

The use of curses and their removal, protection from the Eye and its deployment—these two interrelated fields comprise the most sought services from healers, sorcerers, witches, and trance-mediums in the Balkans. Drawing on extensive oral lore and personal ethnographic experience, as well as a medley of eye-witness accounts and recorded charms, this lecture will explore the ways in which various powers are solicited to prevent and to inflict harm upon others. From removing the demons of fear and madness using molten lead, to bargaining with witching trees and the dead to haunt and destroy a hated enemy, we will consider not only the techniques but the ritual landscapes of these actions, delving into what they tell us about the contents and assumptions of myth, history, and the sociological and folkloric settings of revenge. Additionally, we will take note of the prevalence of house spirits in these rites, from the protection…