The Romani Old Faith / O Phuro Pachipen e Romengo
(Jan 2021)
If you want to enslave someone, simply never tell them who their ancestors were...
(Romani proverb)Introduction
Very often it is claimed by the ignorant, or by those who would destroy our history, that the Roma never had a religion of their own and only acquired religion when conversions to Islam or Christianity began. Nothing could be further from the truth: Roma are, and have always been, hugely spiritual people, and it is unbelievable that we could have had no religion. In fact, our original Indian religious and magical beliefs still exist, quietly, in many parts of the diaspora, although often now mixed with other belief systems, and my maternal family is one of those who never lost them.
Because conversion to gàdjikane religions was invariably under pressure – the pressure ranged from financial and social incentives to adopt Islam under the Ottomans, to violence and genocide by a variety of Christian groups – it was normal for Roma to pay lip-service to the new religion while keeping the Phuro Pachipen, or Old Faith, in secret. Even now, many groups who quite sincerely follow Islam or Christianity retain at least vestiges of the old beliefs; for example, even among staunchly Christian tribes in Central Europe, belief in magic and spirits is practically universal, and I have more than once talked to Roma who have been so indoctrinated as to believe that “Roma have always been Christian” (even though that makes no sense for a group that came from India!) and yet believe in dukha (spirits) and shout “Devlale!” as an imprecation – a clear survival from our polytheistic beliefs, since Devlale is a vocative plural case in Romani, “Oh Gods!”, which is clearly at odds with a monotheistic religion.
This article, then, was written to set the record straight – by an actual follower of the Phuro Pachipen, who is also a Chovahàni (worker of magic), Sastimeskri (healer) and Dravengri (herbalist).
Because the Roma migrated to Europe in several waves over a fairly long time span, and originated from a mix of different Indian tribes, there was never one single universal version of the Phuro Pachipen; just like the dialects of Romani, there were various versions with a significant common core that they all shared. And, in common with the beliefs of many of the Indian nomadic tribes from which we sprung, the Phuro Pachipen was a hybrid belief system that combined simplified Hinduism– simplified because our ancestors were illiterate and so had no scriptures – mixed with even older, pre-Hindu, Indian animism.
The Deities and Dukha
The Phuro Pachipen is fundamentally a mixture of Hinduism and pre-Hindu Indian animism. Because of when the Roma left India, the Hindu elements are not modern, so for example Hanuman does not figure in the Roma pantheon. Indeed, some clans regard monkeys as an embodiment of all that is màkhado (unclean) and so the very idea of a monkey deity would be unthinkable – for example, when I was a child, if my phuridai (maternal grandmother) called me maimunori (little monkey) I knew that I was in trouble up to my ears!
Several of our major Deities that are basically identical to the standard Hindu versions:
The Trimurti: Barma [Brahma], the Creator; Bishnu [Vishnu], the Preserver; Shiva, the Destroyer and Lord of the Cosmic Dance. Interestingly, the word Trimurti was used in early Romani to refer to the Christian trinity also, just as the word for the Trident of Shiva and Durga (trushul) became used to refer to the Christian cross. In the Romani belief system, Bishnu holds up the Heavens and so rain is sometimes described as e Devlesko ràt, the Blood of God, that preserves life on Earth.
Yandra [Indra] – God of the Heavens, storms, and rivers; protector and demon-slayer. He was prominent in early (Rigvedic) Hinduism but much less so in later periods – the role of Yandra in the Phuro Pachipen is an important one, consistent with standard Hindu belief at the time we left India.
Kali – Not the same as Kàli Sara but closely related to Her: in standard Hindu teaching, Kali is a demon-slaying avatar of Durga, created from Her forehead; likewise in Romani tradition, She is the Goddess of Time & Death, destroyer of demons and evil. Interestingly, Her name was metathesised to “Laki” by some tribes.
Laxmi – The Goddess of wealth, prosperity and good fortune (not all tribes have her).
Sarasvati – The Goddess of wisdom, music and art; again, not found in all tribes.
Four of our major Deities are based on proto-Hindu forms and differ somewhat in name, function or even gender from the mainstream Hindu counterparts:
Kham [Surya], the Sun God and general “father Deity”; also overlaps somewhat with Barma in function.
Chun [Chandra]. The Moon God, and another highly important Deity. As in mainstream Hinduism, the Moon is masculine in our tradition.
Yàg [Agni]. Goddess of Fire, and arguably our most important purifier and destroyer of evil, reflecting the vital importance of fire to nomadic people. In mainstream Hinduism, Agni is a God, not a Goddess, and is less central than Yàg is to us. The gender change is probably simply a consequence of language changes, since Sanskrit neuter nouns (such as Agni) became feminine in modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Romani.
Bavàl [Pavana]. Goddess of Wind/Air. The Sanskrit word pava(na) became ba(l)vàl in Prakrit and passed unchanged to Romani. Again there is a change of gender (Pavana is a God) due to the loss of neuter nouns, and again the Romani version is of higher importance than the mainstream version, because wind is far more dangerous to nomads than to house-dwellers. Bavàl is, unsurprisingly, not always benevolent, but is powerful and is often invoked in our weather magic.
We also have numerous non-Hindu Deities and Elementals; this list includes the most important ones – but since our tradition is animistic, there are many others. Again, some of these are not always entirely benevolent:
Thanopre or Ravnos, a God of the skies closely associated with Yandra and the Trimurti.
Phuv, a Goddess of the Earth, closely associated with Kàli Sara Devi.
Magla, a Goddess of Fogs and Mists. Magla did not appear in our pantheon until our arrival in Europe, because fog is a major problem for nomads in Europe but much less so in India or the Middle East. Her name is of old Slavic origin, demonstrating this later appearance in the pantheon.
Nivash & Nivashia, collectively known as e Panieske Dukha (the Spirits of Water). The Nivash is a dukh (masculine spirit), the Nivashia are His daughters. They can be helpful, often invoked to carry away evil or sickness or to assist in divining the future, but they can also be capricious and must be treated with great respect.
Phuvushe and other earth spirits, can often (but not always) be malicious or at least mischievous. The Phuvushe are male and usually appear as short, very hairy, humanoid figures; the Phuviake Manushnia are female, corresponding fairly closely to fairies or fae in western traditions; they appear as tiny, bright, beautiful women, often decidedly mischievous but not really evil as such.
Veshne-dukha are forest spirits, who live in trees, much like dryads in western traditions. They are guardians of the forest and are generally well disposed towards humans provided that the humans give proper respect to the forest, for example not cutting living trees for firewood. Their mobile counterparts are the Rukhengre, the squirrels – under the Phuro Pachipen, squirrels are seen as sacred.
Kishmet, known as Sudbina in some tribes, is a demiurge of Fate. Again this seems to have been acquired during our migration since the word Kishmet is of Turkish origin and Sudbina is of Southern Slavic origin.
O Dukeripensko Dukh, the fortune-telling Spirit, is closely associated with Kishmet/Sudbina, and is invoked when performing any kind of prognostic magic – the formula which I learned to recite before doing any kind of dukeripen (fortune-telling, prognostics) is “Dukeripenske-Dukhea, av mange akana, an mange Tire deipena, tacho dikhipen tha jinipen” (O Dukeripensko-Dukh, come to me now, bring me Your gifts of true sight and wisdom). In my family, this Dukh is seen as masculine, as is Kishmet; Sudbina is conversely seen as feminine and some clans invoke Her as a fortune-telling dukhni in her own right.
These last Dukha on the list show clearly the animistic side of the Phuro Pachipen: everything, even the rocks and hills, has some sort of spirit, and this belief informs the traditional Romani attitude to Nature, which is one of respect: for us, the idea that any human can “own” some part of the Earth is incomprehensible. Our belief is that instead, the Earth owns us, we merely borrow a place in it for each incarnation and have a sacred duty to care for it on behalf of our descendants. This has often led to misunderstandings with “landowners” because in our worldview, the fruits of Mother Earth are there for anyone who is in need of them.
Certain other animals also have a sacred, or semi-sacred, status. For example, snakes are seen as sacred and powerful, albeit not always benevolent, and a Rom or Romni who has a special magical connection with snakes and can work with them is denoted Sàpengro/Sàpengri, a highly respected title. Horses have a semi-sacred status because of their central importance during our nomadic history, and almost all tribes would never consider eating a horse, even one that had reached the end of its useful life or died naturally (this applies even to tribes who lost the old beliefs long ago).
We also believe in a wide range of evil or demonic forces and bad spirits: the words Beng (or Bengo) and Bengi refer to demonic spirits, and indeed the term Beng (or o phuro Beng – the Old Beng) has come to refer to the Devil of Christian belief.
Some Other Basic Beliefs
As you would expect for a belief system derived from Hinduism, we believe in reincarnation and Karma (in Romani, kerima). Interestingly, this is another belief that has survived well in Roma who have adopted gàdjikane religions: I know very many Roma who quite sincerely follow Christianity or Islam, but who retain a firm belief in reincarnation and related concepts such as destiny and fate – and who are also firm believers in our traditional magic.
Another important concept is that our lives follow doria (literally, ribbons) of predestined or at least probable events. They can branch, rejoin, tangle and cross other people's doria. These paths of probability make the future knowable, at least in part, to those who have the gift of dukeripen (prognostic magic); the word dukerava (I prognosticate or tell fortunes) is simply a contraction of doria kerava, (I do (read) the doria). Dreams are also seen as potentially very significant, especially the unusually vivid ones that often happen in a semi-waking state.
Ghosts and spirits are also a universal Romani belief, even among those who abandoned the Phuro Pachipen long ago. They come in several different types: normal human ghosts or bavàlengre, who are simply humans that have died but not yet reincarnated and, for whatever reason, do not remain firmly in the Other World. This may be because they can't find the way, feel they have unfinished business (which may be totally benign, for example keeping an eye on a living relative), or maybe haven't even accepted that they're dead. Mostly they're harmless, but not invariably so.
A much more sinister type of revenant is the mulo, the Romani equivalent of a vampire (and in fact the source of a significant part of East European vampire legend). Mulé are unquiet human spirits of an evil disposition, that suck spiritual energy (not blood) from living people causing them to sicken or even die. As a rule, someone returns as a mulo if they have been terribly wronged and wish to wreak revenge, for example if they were murdered, or their honour was unjustly destroyed, or they were dishonoured by the death rites not being followed correctly. If a mulo is destroyed (by magic or by staking it, preferably with iron), it will explode in a cloud of blood (because our culture has some very heavy taboos around blood). Mulé are repelled (and sometimes destroyed) by garlic, garlic being seen as a panacea in our herbalism. Some clans still worry so much about mulé that in certain cases they will pre-emptively spike a corpse through the heart with a long iron needle before burial, or bury it face-down so that in trying to rise from the grave, it will dig itself deeper instead.
The final type of spirits are jungele-dukha, literally “wild/evil spirits”. These are non-human and potentially very dangerous, and can latch onto a vulnerable person, parasitize them for energy and even control their behaviour, typically producing symptoms of mental illness that do not respond to normal medical treatment, and quite likely, physical illness also. There is more about these, and how we deal with them, in the Aura Magic article (link can be found further down in this article).
Related to all this is the belief that human spirits experience a transitional status around the times of birth and death, so that for a period of time (traditionally one lunar month but in some clans, up to six weeks) after birth, the spirit is not considered to be anchored properly in the body, and traditionally during this time, the baby and mother are isolated and attended only by close female relatives and the Sastimeskri (the father does not see the child at this time). Once the dangerous period has passed, the child and mother are put through a ritual cleansing (in Christian tribes this is generally replaced by baptism) and formally presented to the family and clan with a celebration.
Similarly, for the first lunar month (or sometimes a different period) after death, a spirit is considered to be in transition between our world and the Other World, and great care is taken not to disturb them or inadvertently call them back as an unquiet spirit. Part of that practice involves not speaking the name of the deceased, and even after the transitional time, the more traditional groups will avoid speaking the name of the deceased, generally for a time depending upon one's closeness to the deceased; by way of illustration of this, after my own mother died, I totally avoided speaking her name for twenty years and referred to her only by circumlocution. This is, above all, a sign of respect, although one that is baffling to outsiders: our logic is that, each time we have to stop, think, and avoid saying the name of the deceased, we remember our grief for their passing.
As may be guessed from the preceding paragraph, the Moon is of great importance in our beliefs – as indeed it is in mainstream Hinduism. In the Romani tradition, the New Moon plays a greater part than in “standard” Hinduism: when the new Moon is first sighted, it is traditional to call out “dikhava o nevo chun!” so that everyone knows that the magical time has been reached. There is a great deal more that can be said about our Moon Magic, and a future article on this topic is planned.
Magic and Healing
One of the most important and respected roles in clans that still keep the old ways is that of the Healer (Sastimeskri, Dravengri), who usually doubles as Chovahàni, worker of magic, and is usually considered to be an important elder of the clan – traditionally, the only member of the clan who can actually overrule the Kralis or clan-leader on any matter that impacts upon the health or well-being of the clan.
Our dravengripen, herbalism, is derived very strongly from the Ayurvedic tradition brought with us from India, and is concerned with prevention as well as cure. So we choose the spices that we put in our food as much for their health properties as for flavour, and are very fond of warm, spicy food that helps us survive harsh winter conditions. In addition to the spices and plants that we know from our Indian heritage, we also learned about a number of European species which are also useful, giving us a unique heritage of herbalism.
Again, this knowledge often survives even in tribes that adopted gàdjikane religions.
There is also a very considerable magical side to our traditional view of sickness and healing. Many types of sickness and pain were traditionally thought to be caused primarily by harmful spirits, and healing practices were aimed at removing or neutralising them. Fire energy, the element of the Goddess Yàg, is seen as a particularly powerful healing energy and much of our healing magic revolves around fire energy.
We have a very strong tradition of aura magic and healing, and this is the subject of a separate article: Romani Aura Magic Traditions
Fire is also used in a more literal sense for purification – this is why when a Rom/ni dies, by tradition everything that is personal to them is burned, or buried with them if it can’t be burned. Earlier Roma did actually cremate their dead in the Hindu style.
There are many other ‘magical’ healing methods in use in our traditions, particularly invocations and ‘charms’; it’s a basic idea in our belief system that words hold power. Sometimes a simple invocation, often in the form of a rhyme and backed by a symbolic action, is used for the most basic healing. Here is a very old example of such a rhyme for toothache, which aims to transfer the pain into a handful of straw, which is then thrown into the water, where the Nivashia will destroy it:
Oh,
dukh adre mire danda Oh, pain/spirit in my teeth
Mà
phares mande chinger! Don't trouble me so badly!
Akana
jà avre Now be off with you
Sàrkana
ach khere! Forever stay in your home!
Sar
o phus chivav’e panieske As I cast the straw into the water,
Nekana
n’av o dukh pàle! May the pain/spirit never return!
The Nivash/Nivashia and to a large extent also the various Earth spirits are regarded as powerful to remove illness provided that they are approached correctly. And of course Kàli Sara Devi is a powerful protectress who is often invoked for healing. These invocation-based healings are very commonly used to supplement herbal or aura healing methods as well as for problems of a psychological nature.
There are many, many other uses of invocations and indeed sympathetic magic (like using the straw to carry away illness), used for everything from determining whether a woman is pregnant (and the sex of the baby) to finding out where a lost horse has gone. There is also a degree of overlap between overt healing magic and prognostic magic; prognostic magic is used very often to guide us in the correct use of healing as well as for ethical guidance when we consider using magic in a more punitive way.
Dukeripen
Roma do of course have a stereotypical reputation as prognosticators and fortune tellers, and in fact it’s based on truth. Prior to Christianization, and often even after it, a very large proportion of Roma women made a living doing prognostics (dukeripen) and often also healing (magical or herbalism) for gàdje.
Where the magical traditions survive in a corrupted or diluted form, some clans impose a rule that dukeripen can only be used for gàdje, not Roma. This is a total reversal of traditional practice and shows how the magical elements have in some cases been reduced just to a form of theatrical magic or trickery to relieve gullible gàdje of their money. Where the traditions survive fully, the first responsibility of a Chovahàni/Sastimeskri is to her own people, the help being provided at no cost – though it’s fine to charge gàdje, of course!
The higher levels of Romani magic are reserved to women, and healing is generally considered to be entirely a female preserve.
This article will not go into deep detail about techniques of dukeripen; instead, this will be covered more fully in a future article. Techniques can include cartomancy (Tarot or other cards), chiromancy (palmistry), scrying (crystal ball, tea leaves, ink in water, fire etc), dream interpretation and others.
Phandapena
and Koshipena
The Darker Side of Romani Magic
Our magical traditions are not all ‘white light and love’... of course, my primary role as Chovahàni/Sastimeskri is to protect and heal people, but sometimes it is appropriate to use our magic in a more aggressive way to right wrongs, prevent harm, teach transgressors the errors of their ways, and sometimes to give Karma a helping hand by applying punitive curses, if someone sufficiently deserves it.
There are of course many levels and gradations of "hostile" magic, and phandapena (bindings) and koshipena (curses) are tailor-made to suit the situation; for example, a husband who is mistreating his wife can be subjected to an educative koshipen such that, for example, each time he behaves unreasonably he is subjected to what feels like a heart attack or a blinding headache – and yes, I myself have done this more than once and it has worked every time, they soon learn the error of their ways! Or someone who is disrupting the neighbourhood with gratuitous nastiness can be made to lose their home (again, I’ve done this myself).
Another technique, hard to do but very effective, is to destroy the mental barriers erected by people who do bad things so that their own conscience doesn’t feel guilt for what they’ve done; anyone who isn’t an out-and-out sociopath must erect such a mental barrier if they are to do serious bad. By destroying that barrier, the culprit feels, in a second, all of the suppressed guilt for all of their past sins. I have only ever done that once, and it totally destroyed the person in question.
Very often a curse as such is not required, merely a binding to prevent the culprit from repeating the unacceptable behaviour. But at the other extreme, it is entirely possible, when it is morally justified, to use mulikano koshipen, a mortal curse.
Of course, this type of magic has to be used with the greatest care: misuse of magic brings a heavy Karmic price, and therefore any Chovahàni is careful to use her other magical skills, especially dukeripen, to ensure that the proposed course of action is reasonable and proportionate. And, like many of our most powerful magics (such as weather control – another Romani speciality), if it’s not done exactly correctly, it can rebound nastily upon the practitioner. As well as being susceptible to mis-use, of course – so our practice is governed by stringent ethical standards.
It is primarily for these reasons that genuine Chovahània are forbidden by oath to teach the more advanced techniques to anyone but their designated successors – who must, of course, be full-blood Romnia, and Romani speakers. Of course, there is no bar to us teaching basic and harmless techniques such as protection and grounding, aura reading and even some basic healing magic to anyone that we consider suitable, even if they’re gàdje... but don’t expect any Chovahàni to teach openly how to destroy people’s lives with punitive magic or how to manipulate the weather!
Conclusion
The Phuro Pachipen and traditional Romani beliefs is a very large topic, and even with the ancillary articles that are linked from this one, this is really only an overview. As mentioned in the text, my intention is to create some further ancillary articles and indeed to add to this main article if requested.
So, I hope you have enjoyed this article, and if you have any comments about anything that is insufficiently clear, or where you feel more detail would be desirable, please feel welcome to email me or to contact me via my Facebook (addresses in Index Page).