All entries
2,660 entries so far, best known first. 2,250 more are on the list to be written. Narrow by region, kind, purpose, practitioner, belief world, occasion or how alive it is.
RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
PurposeProtectionHealingSeeing and foretellingLuck and prosperityLove and attractionCursing and harmCleansing and purificationSpeaking with spirits and the deadChange and initiationBinding and oathsPower and authorityWonder and entertainment
WhoShamansFolk healersPriests and ritual specialistsWitches, sorcerers and cunning folkDiviners and readersMediums and the possessedCeremonial magicians and alchemistsHouseholds and ordinary peopleStage magiciansScholars and sceptics
BeliefHindu and TantricBuddhistJainMuslim and SufiJewishChristianSikhZoroastrianShinto and TaoistIndigenous and shamanicAfrican and Afro-diasporicPagan and NeopaganEsoteric and occultFolk and village customSecular and stageOther traditions
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreUpanayanaउपनयन
A Hindu rite of passage marking a student's initiation into formal education and spiritual discipline.Rite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇮🇳 India and 1 morePitru Pakshaपितृ पक्ष
A sixteen-day Hindu period for honoring ancestors through food offerings and death ritesTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Luck and prosperity Living
🇮🇳 IndiaSanjhi
A festival and art form honoring a mother goddess through clay images and colored designsTradition · Love and attraction · Luck and prosperity Living
🇮🇳 IndiaShamanism in Ayyavazhi
A divination practice within the Hindu denomination of Ayyavazhi in South India.Rite · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Homa: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, source
- Tarpana: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source
- Kadangot Makkam: Shagil Kannur, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bappiriyan Theyyam: Sumalkv, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Yantra: Photo by Daniel Conrad (Chromacon), artwork by Daniel Conrad under dir, Public domain, source
- Śrāddha: Billjones94, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Upanayana: vinodbahal, CC BY 2.0, source
- Ancestor worship: Lyn Gateley, CC BY 2.0, source
- Pitru Paksha: Firoz Shakir, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bhuta Kola: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Kalachakra: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Sanjhi: Veer jindal, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Theyyam: Shagil Kannur, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Shamanism in Ayyavazhi: Vaikunda Raja, CC BY-SA 3.0, source