How to Banish A Strigoi

Romania will probably be touched on a lot in this log, because even in present day extreme measures are taken to both deter and evoke demonic or otherwise evil aspects in the everyday life of the Romanian. This particular post is about the strigoi, the beings from whom I adopted my name, and a ritual often performed in an effort to banish them.

The strigoi are in encyclopedia terms the undead, both spirits and physical forms, that rise from the grave to seek vengeance or otherwise haunt the countryside, feasting on either the life force or actual flesh and blood of its victims. The Romanian engage in the following practice to rid the burdened of the strigoi:

There are a few variations on this ritual depending on region and oral tradition, but the basics remain the same: The suspected deceased is exhumed by the victimized with more often than not a holy man present, for protection I suppose, and more often than not without consent from the dead man's family. The victims then cut out the heart and burn it to a crisp, then grind it into a fine powder. The powder is then mixed with a few ingredients including water, maybe oil, and often alcohol. Finally the concoction is heated to a near boil to make sure the powder is soaked and evaporated into the other ingredients, and a cup is passed between the victims who proceed to drink the brew of powdered heart.

Today only rural areas of Romania practice this, and even then it isn't very often the dead rise. Even though modernized parts of Romania no longer practice acts of this nature, urban and rural alike still both believe and fear these beings and take superstitious measures to evade their attention.