Cult of god Tur

In folk religion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is based on Illyrian traditional beliefs, some segments of the Bosnian god Tur were preserved thanks to the cult of spells (magical formulas); in Bosnian mythology it was believed that Tur was a gigantic black bull who held earth on his back. The name Tur itself probably comes from poturiti, onaj koji potura, drži nešto ili pridržava (plant, someone who places under, upholds or holds something) which fully corresponds to the function which is ascribed to this mythological being. Though according to the writings of ethnologists the belief about the gigantic bull who is holding up earth is only found among the Bosnian people, some segments of that cult are present in the magical practice of all three people in our country. We are talking about healing rituals of cattle where women or men who perform these rituals preform a spring ritual of transmission of divine power of Tur in order to gain his blessing or power of healing.
Namely, in folk religion of Bosnia the snail is a miniature representation of the bull Tur since it possesses attributes which symbolise the bull: horns and house on his body which symbolises earth. It is no less interesting to mention that for the ritual of touching, a dark coloured snail is often sought, since the bull Tur was described as being of a black skin or hair, therefore the Bosnian people in the northwest part of Bosnia call him Garonja (black). Significance of touching the snail is the magical connection with earth, in which Tur lives, otherwise in Bosnian mythology is the only culprit for causing earthquakes, and calming Tur, personification of the earth's strength, which is clearly visible in the formula which follows ritual touching of the snails horns: "Ustuk biče, moje biče jače!" (stand down bull, my strength is bigger than the bull's)
 When a woman from the surrounding area of Mostar would gain the power of healing livestock, she would use her index finger of her right hand to touch the horns of a dark snail three times, pulling her finger down his body, backwards, uttering the following spell: "Stu na se! Stu natrag, ne znalo ti se za trag. Stu na se. Od Boga derman a od mog iladž!" (Go back, go back, may your origin be unknown, go back! From God the cure and my labour recovery). As we can see from the examples, touching the horns of the snail is nothing but a magical imitation of touching horns of Tur, whose entire strength rests in them, and using that force to heal, since that is the energy of earth or Grand Mother. It is believed that after such a transfer of power from the snail onto a woman or man, a person can use their acquired powers to cure throughout the entire year.
A diseased animal is brought to a rock which is firmly fixed into the ground, i.e. it never moved from that place, which is alluding to a tombstone, then the woman which is performing the healing ritual uses her index finger to make three circles around the diseased part of the body and utters: "stu natrag!" (an abbreviation of "come, tread, move"). She then spits on her index finger uttering: "Ptuj, u živac, u kamen, stu natrag!" she repeats this three times.
Right index finger in folk medicine is the finger of healing and is brought into connection with the finger of Hazrat Alija, who is always depicted with a raised index finger as a symbol of god's wisdom but also blessing. This is no coincidence since Hazrat Fatima and her husband Hazrat Ali in folk medicine, especially in Iran and Turkey, are regarded as a couple who have ascribed mystic properties to them, among which are healing properties. In north-western part of Bosnia, in Velika Kladuša and Cazin, right index finger is represented in the prayer to the new moon which is pointed towards the moon after uttering five short (smaller) surah, then a spell is uttered with which one aims to renew vitality and beauty of the body.
According to traditional belief for this magical transmission one would chose the period from the beginning of May until the middle of the month which is no coincidence, namely, it was a custom in the past to slaughter a bull (once people used to say: "We'll slaughter a bull for the first of the May!"), which was a symbol in the former Yugoslav republic of labour day, however, that practice of slaughtering animals, i.e. sacrificing a bull on our territory is an ancient practice and stems directly from Illyrians. All of this of course has its roots on the cult of Tur and mother earth or goddess Grand Mother.
Actually, today's holiday St. George's day, which is observed on May 6th among the Bosnian orthodox Christians, is not a Christian holiday at all, nor any other, it has been taken over from paganism. In this data we can find an answer as to why Bosnian people, former members of the Church of Bosnia before the advent of Christianity, were pagans, therefore it is normal and logical to conclude that they, like other people, did not fully renounce their old religion. Instead they continued under the veil of Christianity and later Islam to celebrate the holidays of their pagan forefathers. That's why among the Bosnian folk some so called "Christian" holidays were marked (observed) but not in a religious but magical way i.e. the original pagan way, during which destiny was foretold, spells uttered and livestock protected from evil spirits and diseases.

Stećci

Nenad M. Đorđević an independent researcher of ancient cultures and mythology on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, believes that tombstones historically don't belong to the church of Bosnia, as the most dominant religious institution during the middle ages in Bosnia, nor to the catholic or orthodox church. He claims that the origin of the tombstones is much older than Middle Ages and that it spans into the period from Neolith and the beginning of the bronze era, between 7000 and 3500 years BCE.

According to Mr. Đorđević today's hypothesis about medieval origins of the tombstones is based solely on partial historical and archaeological data which were available to the academic stipend during the first few centuries after WWII. With regard to the theory about Bogomil and Patarene origin of the tombstones, it is not based on historical or scientific facts, since the followers of Bogomil religion generally rejected wealth and feudal exploitation of state government.
Bogomils also categorically refused the Orthodox Church and its hierarchy, its temples, sacraments and holiness performed by priests. Numerous reports sent to the pope spoke of this; like the one written by one of the four grand inquisitors, which were declared to be saints by the Roman church, Capistran (Giovanni de Capistrano), also known as an expert in heresy. In his letter to pope Callixtus III 04.07.1455 he wrote: "Bosnian Bogomil's (krstjani, Bošnjani) are not members of the Eastern Church, on the contrary, they would much rather die in their unbelief than accept the faith of Rašan (Serbs)."
In a similar sense they rejected all material objects which were used by the orthodox during their prayers and they condemned the use of icons, especially the cross, and the worship of relics or saints. Bogomils and Patarens were mostly religious preachers, indifferent to worldly affairs. Mass production of tens of thousands of monolith tombstones with rich decorative motifs is in total contradiction with the modest religious doctrine of the Bogomils and Patarens.
Bogomils had a similar aversion towards the Catholic Church. Pope John XXII writes on July 18th 1319 to Mladen Šubić ".that the land of Bošnjani is so tainted by the lack of faith, that the churches are neglected, priesthood is uprooted, Christ's sacred objects are scornfully trampled, there is no respect towards the cross, the sacrament of communion life is not upheld, on the contrary christening is to some only known as a noun, even though it is the basis of the Christian religion."
As an interesting fact we should mention that the Bogomil movement appeared in Bosnia before the 12th century, as some historians have postulated, and it spread from this land further west. Dominican Anselmo from Alessandria in Italy, who lived and worked during the 13th century, in one of his writings mentions that "the heretics were first located in Bosnia from where they spread their doctrine towards Lombardi, then further towards France, where it arrived in Orleans in 1022 and Arras in 1025 (A.Dondaine, Le Tractatus de hereticis d`Alexandrie, Arch. Fr. Praedic, XX, Rome 1950., p. 308-324.)

 

Because of the aforementioned facts we can conclude that tombstones are not a privilege of the church of Bosnia, or even less of orthodox or catholic Christianity, but that they had their ancient origin as a sacral motif of the cult of fertility and cult of the dead. Namely, from 70 000 registered tombstones, only 5000 have decorative motifs. From those 5000 decorated tombstones only 438 have as their main decorative element different types of crosses. This means that the most important religious symbol which is potentially subject to various churches, together with other variants of tombstones in the form of a cross, doesn't represent even 20% of decorated tombstones. The question that spontaneously rises from these facts is: how is it possible that the most representative symbol of both, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church only encompasses such a small number of tombstones? If with previous facts we add that most of the crosses on the tombstones are of pagan origin in a form of a swastika or anthropomorphic shape, then there can only be one logical conclusion - tombstones are not an exclusive privilege of medieval churches and cultures. Even though there are numerous proofs that tombstones were used as gravestones for catholic and orthodox Christians, and there are even some indications that a discrete number of tombstones were manufactured during the middle ages, reuse of numerous tombstones during the middle ages cannot be excluded in advance.

Ancient symbols of Illyrian cults

When we analyse the motifs on numerous tombstones we notice that the most dominant symbols are depictions of crosses, swords, axes, hands, crescent moon, circles, etc. which in essence represent the symbols of the astral cult and the cult of fertility. As we all know the crescent moon and the cross are not original Christian symbol but symbols of Islam. Namely, the cross originated from a swastika, ancient symbol of sun and fertility, while the crescent moon belongs to the cult of the goddess Mother or goddess of moon. The circle motif comes from the cult of sun which is analogous to the Illyrian practice of carrying staffs which had a disc or circle on top of it. A raised hand is a classic ancient symbol of supreme gods along the Mediterranean belt and it symbolises demonstration of divine power and strength. Sword and axe as weapons also have their origin in ancient times and they represent weapons which symbolised courage, strength and power. Among the Illyrian tribes numerous axes were known to have two blades which can visually represent the symbol of a moon i.e. the phase of rising and the phase of falling moon which again fully forms a circle which can symbolise a full moon.

Among the ancient Bosniaks (Illyrians) the axe was without a doubt a symbol of the goddess of moon. In support of this claim the legend about the punished son can serve the purpose, namely the son raised his axe on his mother and god punished him immediately by killing him and carrying his body, with the hand still raised holding an axe, onto the moon's surface in order to warn people during a full moon that they need to respect the woman i.e. mother. Illyrian warriors were especially known by wearing their war axe with which they caused mortal fear in their enemies. Probably because of the above mentioned the axe became a symbol of divine protection of the house and family among the Bosnian people, precisely the characteristic which was traditionally prescribed to the goddess Mother or the goddess of the moon. Images of ancient axes on the facades of Bosnian houses could be seen until the Second World War along eastern Bosnia and around Sarajevo. Among the Bosnian Christians a cross regularly replaced an axe.