Love Magic: Spells Using Menstrual Blood in Lithuania

Abstract

Among menstrual superstitions circulating in Lithuania a belief that it is possible to put a spell on a man using menstrual blood is the least examined. Our article proposes to describe and analyse this superstition.

Analysis is based on individual interview data collected in between 2000 and 2020. The number of respondents totals 323. All of them are women. Respondents were asked about the use of menstrual blood for love magic. Only 67 replied that they knew nothing about it. Respondents who learned about blood spells in their youth many decades ago stated that rumours of bewitchment are still circulating even now. The attitude to blood spells is strictly negative. Respondents who thought that the spells were absolutely ineffective regarded them as something stupid and dirty; believers in the power of menstrual blood magic thought that the spells were dangerous, immoral or even equivalent to witchcraft. Adding a few drops of blood to a drink or other liquid is a well-known practice in Lithuania. Less often blood is added to food. The consequences can be tragic: a handsome and bright youth becomes addicted to an old hag; a model husband and father leaves his family. Unfavourable physical effects are also common with spells, for example, triggering serious diseases. Relationships with the seductress are unsuccessful. The removal of a love spell based on menstrual blood is intricate; the techniques of doing so that we recorded are scant, filthy and risky.