The mystical world of Bosnian people has in itself, besides its uniqueness, a rich religious-magical concept infused with shamanism. When we analyse the majority of registered beliefs we come to a unique entity which reveals a fascinating fact of how much the Bosnian people were linked with nature and its forces throughout their long history. Since the ancient times Bosniaks believed that each man had his own star in the sky, headquarters of the soul, and on Earth a snake, guardian of the house and family, his/her tree and stream and in the underworld a zviždenjak. Some anthropologists tried to classify all of the above mentioned elements into a thesis about human doppelgangers (astral, vegetable and animal), regardless of the fact that their lives and existence are completely independent from that of the human and they have no connection to him except in certain situations, i.e. the ones that deal with death. For that fact this presumption is completely irrelevant and unfounded. However, in the mystical connection of mankind and nature we notice a dominant influence of fatalism, which is common to all Mediterranean people and cultures, in combination with the Illyrian cult of the snake.
Traditional legends about the close connection of certain reptiles with humans can be separated into 4 chapters after an analysis of Bosnian mythology:
-about the snake, guardian of the house and family,
-snake which can enter a human and live inside its body for certain amount of time
-about sexual contacts between dragons and women and the birth of snijet, baby dragon,
-and about zviždenjak and its devouring of a human corpse
All of the above mentioned chapters are actually segments of a single cult of snake, a totem animal of our ancestors. Besides serving as a totem symbol the snake represented to the Illyrians the highest deity whose spirit permeates the entire nature and universe which is especially well reflected in the belief that a large snake stretches around the entire globe, creating a ring with its body. According to ancient belief the snake was created 40 years prior to any other animal and human which is the reason that her role is especially prominent in the cult of the Grand Mother. Namely, a snake, or in its celestial form a dragon, is a classic symbol of fertility. In Bosnian tradition the connection of a snake with a dragon can be connected to the personified idea of vegetative cycles analogous to the ones from Greco-Roman mythology. A dragon actually makes a circular journey, he exits earth from water, flies through to another location where he enters a pit, a hole and reappears after a certain period.
Traditional legends about the close connection of certain reptiles with humans can be separated into 4 chapters after an analysis of Bosnian mythology:
-about the snake, guardian of the house and family,
-snake which can enter a human and live inside its body for certain amount of time
-about sexual contacts between dragons and women and the birth of snijet, baby dragon,
-and about zviždenjak and its devouring of a human corpse
All of the above mentioned chapters are actually segments of a single cult of snake, a totem animal of our ancestors. Besides serving as a totem symbol the snake represented to the Illyrians the highest deity whose spirit permeates the entire nature and universe which is especially well reflected in the belief that a large snake stretches around the entire globe, creating a ring with its body. According to ancient belief the snake was created 40 years prior to any other animal and human which is the reason that her role is especially prominent in the cult of the Grand Mother. Namely, a snake, or in its celestial form a dragon, is a classic symbol of fertility. In Bosnian tradition the connection of a snake with a dragon can be connected to the personified idea of vegetative cycles analogous to the ones from Greco-Roman mythology. A dragon actually makes a circular journey, he exits earth from water, flies through to another location where he enters a pit, a hole and reappears after a certain period.
