Vilarka (Serbia and the Western Balkans)

Vilarka 🇷🇸
Location: Serbia and the Western Balkans
Definition: Woman able to see and communicate with fairies and the deceased when induced in a trance
Keywords: Serbia – Europe – Balkans – Yugoslavia – Occult – Religion – Healthcare – Divination – Gender – Women
Author: Maria Vivod
Affiliation: Research Unit ‘Dynamics of Europe’, University of Strasbourg, France and Novi Sad, Serbia
Website: Profile page on Academia

By Maria Vivod, Research Unit ‘Dynamics of Europe’, University of Strasbourg, France and Novi Sad, Serbia

Vilarka refers to a woman who is able to see and communicate with fairies, female magical creatures called vile (singular vila), and reach out to the deceased. The trance is a necessary condition for vilarka to successfully communicate with fairies. Through it, the initiated vilarka transmits ‘messages’ from fairies she has been ‘family-bounded’ with and refers to them as her sisters. The sisters can ‘punish’ her for the failure to transmit their messages. The punishment comes in a form of an accident, illness, or temporal incapacity to move or speak. Vilarka's clients reward her with gifts and, more commonly recently, money. Community members visit seers for treatment of illnesses believed to be fairy-induced and evil spells (see also bajanje), to consult on personal matters and divination, and to communicate with the deceased loved ones. Visiting vilarka serves to alleviate grief or reducing a sense of uncertainty. The practice of seeing and communicating with fairies is similar to shamanism in Eurasia and Latin America (see also marmotagem).

There are two broad theoretical perspectives on the belief in vile and practices of communicating with them. First one is that they are rooted in pre-Christian systems of beliefs and witch-hunt trials (see Ginzburg 1966 for Italy, Klaniczay 1983, 1984, 2006 for Hungary, Henningsen 1993 and Čiča 2002 for Croatia). Second one is that they are remnants of folk customs and beliefs about beings with malevolent or benevolent powers exceeding human ones (see Pòcs 1986 and Zentai 1976 for Central Europe, Bošković-Štulli 1953, 1960 for Croatia, Đorđević 1952 for Serbia).

The fairy-seer Ivanka (Šojmanka Ivanka’), in Kulma Topolnica, Eastern Serbia, April 2015. Source: photo by the author. © Maria Vivod.

Healing and divination are in high demand in contemporary societies in the Balkans. Vilarka's services are sought by people unable to solve their problems in other ways. The Vlach seers are particularly known in Serbia for their psychic powers and ability of lifting evil charms and enjoy special status. People from outside the Vlach region travel to seek out their help. Vilarke also serve as informal advisors and mediators in conflicts in communities. Their social roles as self-taught psychologists, social workers, counsellors are essential tools for the well-being of the communities and individuals, even if performed informally. In a practical sense, vilarke bring economic advantages to the remote and poor regions where they live (Durlić 1999). In a symbolic sense, as these women develop national and even international reputations (see this documentary by Vice), they become cultural icons of their region and ethnicity. Their practices generate media attention, which bring further benefits to the region.

In the vernacular, there are multiple names for individuals with such powers across the Balkan peninsula. Although male roles are less common, they do exist. In Croatia male practicioners are called krešnik, krsnik, vilar and vilenjak. Female practitioners are called vilenica and padalica, that means ‘the one who falls’, indicating the trance state. In eastern Serbia, where the practice perseveres, the expressions šojmanka or šojmanosa are used (Vivod 2018). In Romanian, Vlach, Russian, Polish and South Slavic languages, there are also terms for women with special powers such as rusalka, rusalia and rusalja.

At certain times in the traditional calendar, vilarka enters trance, individually or collectively, by chanting and dancing, inducing a state of ‘ecstatic experience’ (Eliade 2007). The ability to enter trance develops after an initiation by ‘abduction’ by fairies in childhood or puberty, that later surfaces through illness or paralysis. The trance can be self-induced only on specific days, usually two-three times a year. In Central Serbia this ocurrs on Pentecost (fifty days from Easter Sunday) (Tomic 1950). In the Vlach community of Eastern Serbia, where vilarke are especially well known, they can take place on 44 designated feast days. The trance has to happen in specific time of that special day: either in early morning or in the late afternoon. The healing of illnesses 'sent' by the fairies can take place throughout the year. The healing often entail bajanje practices.

Certain rituals are followed in preparation for the communication: silence, light-colored clothes, good hygiene (vilarka should not be menstruating during the event) and a modus operandi to enable putting oneself into trance, such as chanting and dancing. An example of a chant is a song by a Vlach-speaking vilarka Ivanka, recorded in 2013:

“In a field covered with flowers I climb, climb, with my sisters onto the Krš [mountain], up, up.

In a field covered with flowers I am going down with my sisters to the pear tree; my sisters make me climb the pear tree.

And they are young, my sisters. In a field covered with flowers I climb, I climb with my sisters onto the Krš up, up” (Vivod 2018).

During the trance, the communicator experiences different emotional states: crying, begging, or being ecstatically happy. These states can be read as ‘messages’ and their interpretation depends on the context in which these messages are transmitted to the world of the living. Depending on language and ethnic group, the seers refer to the fairies by names (some common names are Ilona, Helena, Elena, Diana, Sînziana, Maria, Muma or Majka Prečasa) and describe them as beautiful young, longhaired women, dressed in white or black.

References

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