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.
🇿🇦 South Africa and 5 moreTraditional healers of Southern Africa
Practitioners who blend herbal medicine with ancestral divination in Southern AfricaTradition · Healing · Protection Living
🇵🇭 PhilippinesAlbularyo
A Filipino folk healer who uses herbs, massage, and prayer to treat illnessTradition · Healing Living
🇺🇸 United StatesBraucherei
A Pennsylvania German folk healing tradition using prayers and gestures to cure illness and remove curses.Tradition · Healing · Protection Fading
🇺🇸 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
🇸🇸 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
🇿🇦 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
🇬🇷 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
🇺🇸 United StatesGhost DanceNanissaanah
A circular movement seeking spiritual renewal and reunion with ancestorsRite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation 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
🇲🇽 Mexico and 5 moreWitchcraft in Latin AmericaBrujería
A syncretic blend of Indigenous, African, and European magical practices across Latin AmericaTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 2 moreDukun
A traditional healer and spirit medium in Indonesian folk practiceTradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇺🇸 United StatesFolk healer
An unlicensed community member who provides healing care using local plants and traditional knowledge.Tradition · Healing · 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
🇲🇽 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
🇯🇲 Jamaica and 5 moreObeah
A Caribbean tradition of ritual healing and spell-casting with African rootsTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇯🇲 Jamaica and 1 moreMyal
An Afro-Jamaican healing tradition rooted in Arawak and Akan spiritualityTradition · Healing · Protection Living
🇺🇸 United StatesKahuna
A Hawaiian expert or priest, keeper of hidden knowledge in craft and spiritTradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇧🇴 Bolivia and 5 moreKallawaya
An itinerant group of traditional Andean healers known for their medicinal plant knowledge and ritual practicesTradition · Healing · Protection 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
🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreNecromancy
A form of divination that seeks to speak with the dead for hidden knowledge.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical
🇵🇭 PhilippinesWitchcraft in the Philippinespangkukulam
Indigenous beliefs about sorcery and malevolent magic in the PhilippinesTradition · Cursing and harm · Healing 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
🇳🇬 Nigeria and 1 moreBoriBòòríí
A traditional Hausa spirit possession system and healing practice in West AfricaTradition · Healing · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇱 Chile and 1 moreCultrunkultrung
A ceremonial drum central to Mapuche spiritual practice and identity in Chile and ArgentinaTradition · Healing · Protection 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
🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo and 4 moreNganga
A spiritual healer and ritual specialist in Kongo religion and its diaspora traditionsTradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇲🇲 MyanmarBurmese folk religionNat Worship
Animistic worship of nature spirits and ancestors in Myanmar, often practiced alongside Buddhism.Tradition · Protection · Luck and prosperity 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
🇬🇧 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
🇪🇬 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
🇨🇺 Cuba and 2 moreSanteríaRegla de Ocha
An Afro-Cuban religion blending Yoruba beliefs with Catholicism and SpiritismTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇹🇳 TunisiaStambeli
A Tunisian music and possession rite practiced by Black communities of slave descentTradition · Healing · Protection Living
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreRegional forms of shamanism
A global overview of indigenous spirit-interaction practices across Asia and the Americas.Tradition · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreMagic in Anglo-Saxon Englandgaldorcræft
Healing charms and protective rituals practiced by early English tribesTradition · Healing · Protection Historical
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreShamanism in the Qing dynasty
State-managed rituals of the Manchu rulers and their shamansTradition · Protection · Healing Historical
🇲🇿 Mozambique and 1 moreNdau witchcraft and sorcery
A system of spirit belief and traditional healing among the Ndau people of Mozambique and ZimbabweTradition · Healing · Protection Living
🇲🇾 MalaysiaBobohizan
A high priestess and spirit medium in the traditional rituals of the Kadazan-Dusun people of Sabah.Tradition · Healing · Protection Fading
🇮🇹 ItalySegnature
An Italian folk healing rite using gestures and prayers to cure illness and remove cursesRite · Healing · Protection Living
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreAstral projection
An intentional out-of-body experience where consciousness travels through the astral planeTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇮🇷 Iran and 2 moreSuperstitions in Muslim societies
Beliefs in supernatural forces and charms found across the Islamic worldTradition · Protection · Healing 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
- Astral projection: Hereward Carrington, Sylvan Muldoon., Public domain, source
- 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
- Nkisi: MiddleOfAfrica, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- European witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Philippine mythology: The original uploader was Rodsan18 at English Wikipedia . ( Original t, CC BY 2.5, source
- Navajo medicine: Edward S. Curtis, Public domain, source
- Obeah: Various, published by David Nutt, Public domain, source
- Kahuna: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Stambeli: Youssefbensaad, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kallawaya: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Machi: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Necromancy: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Freyja: John Bauer, Public domain, source
- Mongolian shamanism: Enrique Bendicho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bori: Tremearne, A. J. N. (Arthur John Newman), 1877-1915, Public domain, source
- Cultrun: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CC BY 3.0, source
- Burmese folk religion: Wagaung ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Shamanism in the Qing dynasty: A nineteenth-century team of editors., Public domain, source
- Segnature: SeAnstapa, CC0, source
- Bobohizan: Ricardo Unto, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Cunning folk: Midnightblueowl at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Zār: Emad Nemati, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Santería: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hoodoo: Hoodoowoman, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Superstitions in Muslim societies: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Azande witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Regional forms of shamanism: Man Sing, Public domain, source
- Witch doctor: Lucjan Wędrychowski, Public domain, source
- Magic in the Greco-Roman world: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ghost Dance: 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
- Ndau witchcraft and sorcery: Mycelium101, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Traditional healers of Southern Africa: Wizzy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source