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.
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 2 moreDukun
A traditional healer and spirit medium in Indonesian folk practiceTradition · 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
🇮🇸 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
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreDruiddruides
A learned priestly class of the ancient Celts in Gaul and BritainTradition · Cursing and harm · Protection 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
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreNavagrahaनवग्रह
A group of nine celestial deities in Hinduism that govern fate and astrologyTradition · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇲🇾 Malaysia and 1 moreBomohبوموه
A Malay shaman and traditional healer who works with spirits, herbs, and geomancy.Tradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling 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
🇯🇲 Jamaica and 5 moreObeah
A Caribbean tradition of ritual healing and spell-casting with African rootsTradition · Protection · 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
🇦🇺 AustraliaKurdaitchakwertatye
A ritual executioner and feathered shoes of the Arrernte people in Central Australia.Tradition · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreMagic in the Greco-Roman world
Private supernatural practices in ancient Greece and Rome, distinct from public state religion.Tradition · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇸🇪 Sweden and 2 moreGermanic seeressvǫlva
Diviners and sorceresses of early Germanic and Norse societyTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Revived
🇵🇭 PhilippinesWitchcraft in the Philippinespangkukulam
Indigenous beliefs about sorcery and malevolent magic in the PhilippinesTradition · Cursing and harm · Healing Living
🇨🇺 Cuba and 5 morePalo
An Afro-Cuban religion centered on spirit vessels and ancestral powerTradition · Healing · Cursing and harm Living
🇳🇬 Nigeria and 4 moreJuju
A West African spiritual belief system involving charms and ritualsTradition · Healing · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇫 Central African Republic and 5 moreWitchcraft in Africa
Beliefs about supernatural harm and the social responses to accusations across the continentBelief · Cursing and harm · Protection Living
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreMagic in Anglo-Saxon Englandgaldorcræft
Healing charms and protective rituals practiced by early English tribesTradition · Healing · Protection Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceWitchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome
Ancient beliefs and practices of magic, curses, and love charms in the Mediterranean worldTradition · Cursing and harm · Love and attraction Historical
🇭🇹 HaitiBizango
Haitian secret societies linked to Vodou and social controlTradition · Cursing and harm · Binding and oaths Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Dukun: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bald's Leechbook: Unknown, the Internet Archive scan is low quality, and some of the tex, Public domain, source
- Witchcraft in Latin America: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Nkisi: MiddleOfAfrica, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Navagraha: Kiran891, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Philippine mythology: The original uploader was Rodsan18 at English Wikipedia . ( Original t, CC BY 2.5, source
- Hoodoo: Hoodoowoman, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Obeah: Various, published by David Nutt, Public domain, source
- Love magic: Kölner Meister [ 1 ] The artist is an unknown lower Rhenish artist. [, Public domain, source
- Kurdaitcha: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Magic in the Greco-Roman world: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Germanic seeress: Emil Doepler, Public domain, source
- Palo: Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Freyja: John Bauer, Public domain, source
- Juju: ILN Staff, after special artist correspondent Mr Harries F.R.G.S., Public domain, source
- Azande witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Druid: Bernard de Montfaucon, Public domain, source
- Witchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome: Wilhelm Tischbein, Public domain, source