Healing
Folk and spiritual healing, said as tradition and never as medical advice.
Traditional healing joins remedy, ritual and relationship. Healers of many kinds are said to treat the body, the family and the spirit together: the curandero in Mexico and the Andes, the sangoma in southern Africa, the hakim in the Islamic world, the Ayurvedic vaidya, the Korean mudang and the Siberian shaman. This page describes these as traditions, not as medical advice. Illness needs real medical care. Healing is also the intent most often exploited, so the page states its limits plainly.
How tradition frames illness
Many traditions treat illness as a matter of balance, relationship or disturbance, not only of the body. A sickness may be linked to an offended ancestor, a broken taboo, soul loss, envy, or a spirit. Treatment therefore includes consultation, confession, offerings, cleansing and a family gathering. Healers describe the aim as restoring a person's place in the community. Examples include the sweating, singing and plant rites of the Americas, the chanting and massage of Southeast Asia, and the Ayurvedic and Unani systems of South Asia, each with its own theory and texts.
Healers and training
Healers are called, apprenticed or hereditary. A sangoma is described as called by ancestors, often after an illness, and trained under a senior. In many places, healers are women, midwives and elders, whose standing does not come from a licensed degree. Governments have set up registers: South Africa recognised traditional health practitioners by law in 2007, and India supports Ayurveda through its AYUSH ministry. The ritual side is often described as being as important as the remedy, since attention, ceremony and support from family are part of the experience.
Working with medicine
Many people use traditional and clinical care side by side. Some healers refer patients to clinics and some campaigns in Africa have trained them to do so. Problems arise when ritual replaces treatment: delayed care for serious illness, harmful substances, and bans on medicine have cost lives. The World Health Organization supports research on traditional medicine while insisting on evidence for safety and effect. Patients also say the healer sat with them for hours, gave time and attention, and spoke the local language, which busy clinics may not manage.
Fraud and abuse
Fake healers exist everywhere: sellers of miracle cures, practitioners who charge to remove a curse, and exorcists who beat or starve people with mental illness. In several countries the courts have prosecuted deaths during exorcism. Scholars separate what communities value in healing, such as attention and meaning, from claims about cure, which should be tested. None of this removes the need to see a doctor for serious or lasting symptoms, and people should not stop prescribed treatment because of a ritual or a remedy.
Healing on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesDianic Wicca
A female-only pagan tradition honoring the Goddess and women's experienceTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 5 moreSlavic religion
The pre-Christian beliefs of the Slavic peoples before their conversion to Christianity.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Revived
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 2 moreIsis隃t (Egyptian)
Egyptian goddess of magic, mourning and kingship, mother of HorusBeing 路 Protection 路 Healing Historical
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 5 moreVotive offering
Objects left in sacred places to honor a deity or fulfill a vow, never to be recovered.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 5 moreHoly well
A water source revered for healing and ritual across pagan and Christian traditionsTradition 路 Healing 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚞馃嚪 GreeceMedea螠萎未蔚喂伪
A sorceress and princess of Colchis who aids Jason and uses magic for revenge.Figure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Healing Legendary
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 5 moreSpodomancy
Divination by reading omens in ashes, soot, and cindersOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreNeopagan witchcraft
Modern pagan traditions that practice magic and draw on historical witch beliefs.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 1 moreOomancy
Divination by eggs, reading shapes and signs to foresee events or diagnose spiritual statesOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreMagic in Anglo-Saxon Englandgaldorcr忙ft
Healing charms and protective rituals practiced by early English tribesTradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Historical
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesJoy of Satan Ministries
An occult movement combining theistic Satanism with esoteric and extraterrestrial loreTradition 路 Power and authority 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚠馃嚬 ItalyAngitia
A Sabine and Roman goddess of healing and snake magic in central ItalyBeing 路 Healing 路 Power and authority Historical
馃嚞馃嚪 GreeceBranchus螔蟻维纬蠂慰蟼
A mortal lover of Apollo who became a prophet and founded an oracle cult in ancient Greece.Figure 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Legendary
馃嚠馃嚬 Italy艢uri饜寫饜寲饜寷饜墿 (Etruscan)
An ancient Etruscan deity of volcanic fire, the underworld, and healingBeing 路 Protection 路 Healing Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Bald's Leechbook: Unknown, the Internet Archive scan is low quality, and some of the tex, Public domain, source
- 艢uri: Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain, source
- Oomancy: Rollcloud, CC BY 3.0, source
- European witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Medea: Frederick Sandys, Public domain, source
- Spodomancy: Tim1965, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Isis: 脛gyptischer Maler um 1360 v. Chr., Public domain, source
- Angitia: Marica Massaro, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Votive offering: Walter J. Pilsak, Waldsassen ( W.J.Pilsak at de.wikipedia ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Holy well: The Speckled Bird, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dianic Wicca: Jean-Baptiste Tuby I (Italy, active France, Paris and Versailles, 1635, Public domain, source
- Slavic religion: Alphonse Mucha, Public domain, source
- Branchus: Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Joy of Satan Ministries: Unknown author, Public domain, source