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.

RegionSouth Asia Southeast Asia East Asia Central Asia and the Caucasus Middle East North Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Europe North America Latin America and the Caribbean Oceania

KindTradition Rite Charm Oracle Substance Being Figure Text Illusion Belief

PurposeProtection Healing Seeing and foretelling Luck and prosperity Love and attraction Cursing and harm Cleansing and purification Speaking with spirits and the dead Change and initiation Binding and oaths Power and authority Wonder and entertainment

WhoShamans Folk healers Priests and ritual specialists Witches, sorcerers and cunning folk Diviners and readers Mediums and the possessed Ceremonial magicians and alchemists Households and ordinary people Stage magicians Scholars and sceptics

BeliefHindu and Tantric Buddhist Jain Muslim and Sufi Jewish Christian Sikh Zoroastrian Shinto and Taoist Indigenous and shamanic African and Afro-diasporic Pagan and Neopagan Esoteric and occult Folk and village custom Secular and stage Other traditions

StandingLiving Revived Fading Historical Legendary Performed

OrderBest known A to Z Newest Living first

🇳🇿 New Zealand and 5 moreFace tattoo Marks inked on the face for spiritual protection, identity, rank, and rite of passageTradition · Protection · Power and authority Living 🇯🇵 JapanKitsunetsuki狐憑き A Japanese folk belief in which a fox spirit enters and controls a human host.Belief · Cursing and harm · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇮🇳 India and 2 moreTrial by ordeal An ancient judicial test where a dangerous physical trial determined guilt or innocenceRite · Cursing and harm Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomTaghairm A Scottish Gaelic divination rite using sensory deprivation and animal skins to summon spirits.Rite · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇺🇸 United States and 5 moreRainmaking rites Ceremonies performed to call rain through prayer, dance, or symbolic actsRite · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living

🇩🇪 Germany and 4 moreNeed-fireNotfeuer A ritual fire lit by friction to protect livestock and people from disease and witchcraftRite · Protection · Cleansing and purification Historical

🇺🇸 United States and 2 moreSéance A gathering to communicate with spirits, ranging from religious services to stage performances.Rite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Healing Living

🇮🇶 Iraq and 5 moreLove magic Rituals and spells used to attract, preserve, or end romantic relationships across many cultures.Tradition · Love and attraction · Cursing and harm Historical

🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreAstragalomancy Divination by casting marked bones, carved rods, or numbered diceOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇨🇱 Chile and 1 moreMachi Mapuche spiritual authorities and healers who bridge herbal knowledge and spirit realmsTradition · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreAncient Egyptian religion Polytheistic worship, divine kingship, and funerary rites along the NileTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇺🇸 United StatesRing shout A sacred circle dance of African American origin using rhythmic movement and call-and-response singingRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living

🇮🇳 IndiaBhuta KolaBhūta Kōla A Tulu folk dance and ritual where spirits are channelled into human performersTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇺🇸 United States and 4 moreFortune-telling A practice of predicting future events or personal details through various methods and tools.Rite · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Living

🇦🇱 Albania and 5 moreDodolaДодoла / Перперуна A Balkan rainmaking rite performed by youths in greenery to invoke summer showersRite · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living

🇨🇳 China and 4 moreFuji扶乩 Chinese planchette writing: gods and ancestors reply through a stylus on sandRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Seeing and foretelling Living

🇱🇦 Laos and 3 moreTai folk religionສາສະໜາຜີ Spirits, ancestor rites, and soul-calling ceremonies of the Tai peoplesTradition · Protection · Healing Living

🇹🇳 TunisiaStambeli A Tunisian music and possession rite practiced by Black communities of slave descentTradition · Healing · Protection Living 🇮🇳 IndiaApeswari sabha An Assamese healing rite where village women invoke a goddess to cure illnessRite · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreHaruspicy Reading animal entrails to discern divine will and omensRite · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical 🇨🇳 ChinaChinese sorcery scares A series of moral panics in Imperial China driven by fears of magical harm and hair cuttingBelief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical 🇹🇭 Thailand and 1 moreHae Nang Maewแห่นางแมว (Thai); ពិធីហែនាងម៉ែវ (Khmer) A rainmaking ritual where a cat is paraded through villages to end droughtRite · Luck and prosperity Living

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka and 1 moreSanni Yakumaසන්නි යකුම A traditional Sinhalese exorcism ritual featuring eighteen masked dances to banish illness-causing demons.Rite · Healing · Cursing and harm Living 🇫🇮 Finland and 1 moreFrog coffin A Finnish folk magic burial of a frog in a tiny coffin to steal luck or reflect harmRite · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical

🇺🇸 United StatesNew England vampire panic A folk response to tuberculosis involving the exhumation and burning of organsBelief · Protection · Healing Historical 🇺🇬 UgandaKilling of disabled children in Uganda The ritual murder of disabled children in parts of Uganda for body parts and perceived benefitsRite · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical

🇷🇴 Romania and 2 moreCaloian A Romanian clay effigy ritual for rain and fertility, featuring a mock funeralRite · Luck and prosperity Fading

🇮🇹 ItalySegnature An Italian folk healing rite using gestures and prayers to cure illness and remove cursesRite · Healing · Protection Living

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Trial by ordeal: James Sibree, Public domain, source
Tai folk religion: ( เทวประภาส มากคล้าย ), Tevaprapas, Public domain, source
Need-fire: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Séance: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Stambeli: Youssefbensaad, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Astragalomancy: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Machi: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Haruspicy: Lokilech, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Ring shout: Attributed to John Rose, Public domain, source
Segnature: SeAnstapa, CC0, source
Face tattoo: Gottfried Lindauer, Public domain, source
Caloian: Costică Acsinte Archive, No restrictions, source
Fortune-telling: Taras Shevchenko, Public domain, source
Bhuta Kola: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Fuji: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
Ancient Egyptian religion: Moh hakem, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Love magic: Kölner Meister [ 1 ] The artist is an unknown lower Rhenish artist. [, Public domain, source
Sanni Yakuma: Michael Gunther, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
New England vampire panic: no credited author, Public domain, source
Rainmaking rites: SJasminum, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Dodola: Andrey Shishkin, CC BY 3.0, source