Illness and misfortune: practices that mark them
What people do when someone falls ill or luck turns: consult, cleanse, ward.
Illness and misfortune are the moments when people most often turn to magic. When someone falls ill, a business fails, a child is lost or luck turns, families ask why, and consult a healer, diviner, priest or mediums. Examples include the Mexican limpia, the African consultation of a diviner, the Islamic ruqyah, the Hindu or Buddhist temple rites, the Korean gut and the Catholic blessing of the sick. This page covers the pattern and its risks. It is not medical advice, and illness needs real medical care.
Why and who
Many traditions ask two questions: how did this happen, and why to me? A medical account answers the first. Traditional systems often address the second, linking misfortune to relationships, envy, taboo or spirits. A consultation then names a cause and a remedy, which may involve cleansing, offerings, protective objects or a ceremony. A diviner may be consulted, a healer called, a priest asked to pray or a shrine visited, and in many households several of these happen at once.
Help and hope
Rites of crisis bring people together, give a role to the family and offer hope when treatment is limited. Researchers have documented comfort and reduced distress after ritual. Many people use medicine and ritual together, and many healers support that. The pattern becomes dangerous only when ritual displaces treatment. Many practitioners also give practical advice about rest, diet and family conflict, and some of this advice is sound and some is not.
Blame and exploitation
Crisis also creates a market for fear. Fraudulent healers tell clients they are cursed and sell expensive cleansing. Accusations of witchcraft often follow illness, with violence against the accused. Exorcism of people with mental illness has caused injuries and deaths, including documented cases in churches in several countries. In some societies, a bad event is the signal for a ritual of the whole community, with confession, reconciliation and shared offerings.
Care and context
Public health programmes now involve community healers in work on issues such as HIV, maternal health and mental health, since many people consult them first. Scholars of medical anthropology call this a plural system of care. The sensible approach is to seek qualified medical help promptly and treat other support as company. Public health bodies urge anyone with a serious illness or injury to seek a clinician at once, and to treat traditional help as complementary to that care and never as a replacement for it.
Illness and misfortune on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
馃嚜馃嚞 EgyptCurse
A spoken wish for misfortune to befall a person or placeBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚥馃嚱 Mexico and 3 moreCurandero
A folk healer in Latin America and the United States who blends indigenous and Catholic traditions.Tradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚡馃嚥 Jamaica and 5 moreObeah
A Caribbean tradition of ritual healing and spell-casting with African rootsTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 5 moreNecromancy
A form of divination that seeks to speak with the dead for hidden knowledge.Tradition 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Power and authority Historical
馃嚚馃嚭 Cuba and 4 moreSanter铆aRegla de Ocha
An Afro-Cuban religion blending Yoruba spirits with Catholic saintsTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚜馃嚬 Ethiopia and 4 moreBuda釅♂嫵
An Ethiopian and Eritrean belief in the evil eye and hyena transformationBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Living
馃嚚馃嚛 Democratic Republic of the CongoKindoki
A belief in spirit possession that leads to abuse and abandonment in the Congo regionBelief 路 Cursing and harm Living
馃嚚馃嚝 Central African Republic and 5 moreWitchcraft in Africa
Beliefs about supernatural harm and the social responses to accusations across the continentBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesRing shout
A sacred circle dance of African American origin using rhythmic movement and call-and-response singingRite 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚝馃嚪 France and 1 moreLaying on of hands住诪讬讻讛
A physical gesture used across religions to convey authority, healing, or spiritual presence.Rite 路 Healing 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United States and 3 moreHoodoo
A spiritual tradition of the African diaspora in the American South using herbs and charms for protection and justice.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesDeliverance ministry
A Christian practice to remove evil spirits believed to cause personal afflictionRite 路 Cursing and harm 路 Cleansing and purification Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomCharmer
English folk healers who used gifts or verses to treat natural ailments without chargeTradition 路 Healing Historical
馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 4 moreCunning folk
European practitioners of folk medicine and helpful magic from the Middle Ages to the twentieth centuryTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Historical
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesBraucherei
A Pennsylvania German folk healing tradition using prayers and gestures to cure illness and remove curses.Tradition 路 Healing 路 Protection Fading
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 5 moreAmulet
A portable object worn or carried to ward off harm and invite protection.Charm 路 Protection 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
馃嚝馃嚠 Finland and 2 moreTiet盲j盲
A traditional Finnic healer and sage whose power came from memorised spells and deep knowledge.Figure 路 Healing 路 Protection Historical
馃嚠馃嚬 ItalySegnature
An Italian folk healing rite using gestures and prayers to cure illness and remove cursesRite 路 Healing 路 Protection Living
馃嚪馃嚧 RomaniaTanacu exorcism
A 2005 Romanian Orthodox ritual that ended in a nun's death and a murder convictionRite 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Cursing and harm Historical
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 5 moreWitchcraft accusations against children in Africa
Violent persecution of children blamed for misfortune across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyondBelief 路 Cursing and harm Living
馃嚝馃嚠 Finland and 1 moreFrog coffin
A Finnish folk magic burial of a frog in a tiny coffin to steal luck or reflect harmRite 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm Historical
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 3 moreExorcist
A religious specialist who performs rites to remove alleged demonic possession from people or places.Tradition 路 Cursing and harm 路 Cleansing and purification Living
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
- Folk healer: calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Amulet: Anonymous ( Egypt ) Unknown author, Public domain, source
- European witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Curse: Katsushika Hokusai, Public domain, source
- Obeah: Various, published by David Nutt, Public domain, source
- Necromancy: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Buda: Aberdeen Bestiary, Public domain, source
- Exorcism: Francisco Goya, Public domain, source
- Ring shout: Attributed to John Rose, Public domain, source
- Segnature: SeAnstapa, CC0, source
- Tiet盲j盲: Robert Wilhelm Ekman, Public domain, source
- Cunning folk: Midnightblueowl at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hoodoo: Hoodoowoman, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Laying on of hands: User:Lipsio, CC BY 3.0, source
- Santer铆a: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source