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

🇷🇺 Russia and 3 moreSiberian shamanism The spirit-journey practices of North Asian peoples and their linguistic relativesTradition · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Fading 🇺🇸 United StatesBraucherei A Pennsylvania German folk healing tradition using prayers and gestures to cure illness and remove curses.Tradition · Healing · Protection Fading

🇺🇸 United StatesFolk healer An unlicensed community member who provides healing care using local plants and traditional knowledge.Tradition · Healing · Protection Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomCharmer English folk healers who used gifts or verses to treat natural ailments without chargeTradition · Healing Historical

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 moreCunning folk European practitioners of folk medicine and helpful magic from the Middle Ages to the twentieth centuryTradition · Protection · Healing Historical

🇨🇬 Republic of the CongoNkisi Spirit containers and power figures from the Congo Basin used for justice and healingCharm · Protection · Healing Living 🇧🇷 Brazil and 1 moreQuimbanda An Afro-Brazilian religion focused on male and female street spirits for worldly mattersTradition · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living 🇵🇪 PeruVegetalismo A mestizo healing tradition in the Peruvian Amazon that draws power from plants and spirits.Tradition · Healing · Protection Living

🇮🇳 India and 1 moreNavagrahaनवग्रह A group of nine celestial deities in Hinduism that govern fate and astrologyTradition · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living

🇲🇽 Mexico and 5 moreWitchcraft in Latin AmericaBrujería A syncretic blend of Indigenous, African, and European magical practices across Latin AmericaTradition · Protection · Healing Living 🇲🇾 Malaysia and 1 moreBomohبوموه A Malay shaman and traditional healer who works with spirits, herbs, and geomancy.Tradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living

🇸🇸 South Sudan and 1 moreAzande witchcraft A Zande belief that certain people harm others by an inherited power, judged by oraclesBelief · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Living 🇵🇭 PhilippinesAlbularyo A Filipino folk healer who uses herbs, massage, and prayer to treat illnessTradition · Healing Living

🇨🇺 Cuba and 2 moreSanteríaRegla de Ocha An Afro-Cuban religion blending Yoruba beliefs with Catholicism and SpiritismTradition · Protection · Healing 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

🇰🇷 South Korea and 1 moreKorean shamanismKorean shamanism (Korean: Korean shamanism) A traditional practice of ritual specialists who mediate between the human and spirit worlds.Tradition · Healing · Protection Living

🇲🇳 Mongolia and 2 moreMongolian shamanismBöö mörgöl The animistic and shamanic ethnic religion of the Mongol peoples, centered on sky worship and ancestral spirits.Tradition · Protection · Healing Living

🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreZārزار A spirit possession tradition and healing ritual in the Horn of Africa and Middle EastTradition · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇿🇦 South Africa and 4 moreWitch doctor A traditional healer who identifies supernatural causes of illness and performs rituals to restore balance.Tradition · Healing · Protection Living

🇳🇿 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

🇳🇬 Nigeria and 5 moreIfá A Yoruba divination system using palm nuts to access spiritual guidanceTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living

🇿🇦 South Africa and 5 moreTraditional healers of Southern Africa Practitioners who blend herbal medicine with ancestral divination in Southern AfricaTradition · Healing · Protection Living

🇳🇬 Nigeria and 1 moreBoriBòòríí A traditional Hausa spirit possession system and healing practice in West AfricaTradition · Healing · Luck and prosperity Living

🇺🇸 United States and 4 moreRainmaking Efforts to induce rain through technology, ritual, or prayer.Tradition · Protection · Healing Living

🇺🇸 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 · Protection · Healing Living

🇲🇽 Mexico and 3 moreCurandero A folk healer in Latin America and the United States who blends indigenous and Catholic traditions.Tradition · Healing · Protection Living

🇺🇸 United StatesNavajo medicine Traditional healing practices of the Navajo people focused on restoring harmonyTradition · Healing · Protection Living

🇮🇸 Iceland and 2 moreSeiðr A Norse magic of fate and spirit, practiced by seers and sorcerers in the Viking Age.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Revived

Photo credits on this page

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

Folk healer: calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Nkisi: MiddleOfAfrica, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Siberian shamanism: Аркадий Зарубин, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Navagraha: Kiran891, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Seiðr: John Bauer, Public domain, source
Witchcraft in Latin America: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
Azande witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
Santería: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Bhuta Kola: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Korean shamanism: Hyewon Shin Yun-bok (申潤福: 1758-early 19th century) (혜원 신윤복 (申潤福: 1758-, Public domain, source
Mongolian shamanism: Enrique Bendicho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Zār: Emad Nemati, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Witch doctor: Lucjan Wędrychowski, Public domain, source
Face tattoo: Gottfried Lindauer, Public domain, source
Ifá: Toluaye, Public domain, source
Traditional healers of Southern Africa: Wizzy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Bori: Tremearne, A. J. N. (Arthur John Newman), 1877-1915, Public domain, source
Rainmaking: George Catlin, Public domain, source
Cunning folk: Midnightblueowl at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Hoodoo: Hoodoowoman, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Navajo medicine: Edward S. Curtis, Public domain, source