Atomic grandmothers and snake medicines

ENThe contemporary practice of verbal healing charmers in rural Lithuania continues to address snakes and use snake medicine. Village women establish their spiritual authority by practicing verbal healing charms passed down by their ancestors. To this day, Catholic women in the Lithuanian countryside continue to practice or seek out indigenous verbal healing charms to protect from snake bites, to heal snake bites, and various conditions. The encounters with snakes remain powerful life experiences, though full of ambiguity as the past connects to the present. The verbal charms reflect the fusion of Baltic, pre-Christian culture and Catholicism, serving as a micro-model of how Baltic culture indigenized Catholicism in Lithuania.