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.
🇪🇬 EgyptCurse
A spoken wish for misfortune to befall a person or placeBelief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇯🇵 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
🇭🇹 HaitiBois Caïman
The sacred site where enslaved Africans planned the Haitian Revolution through a Vodou ceremony.Rite · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇲🇾 Malaysia and 1 moreBomohبوموه
A Malay shaman and traditional healer who works with spirits, herbs, and geomancy.Tradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇸🇪 Sweden and 2 moreGermanic seeressvǫlva
Diviners and sorceresses of early Germanic and Norse societyTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Revived
🇳🇬 Nigeria and 4 moreJuju
A West African spiritual belief system involving charms and ritualsTradition · Healing · 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 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
🇬🇷 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
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 2 moreDukun
A traditional healer and spirit medium in Indonesian folk practiceTradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇯🇵 JapanInugami犬神
A Japanese spirit of dog possession and folk sorceryBelief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreScapulimancy
Divination using animal shoulder blades, practiced across Asia and the Americas.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Living
🇦🇺 AustraliaKurdaitchakwertatye
A ritual executioner and feathered shoes of the Arrernte people in Central Australia.Tradition · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇵🇭 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
🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the CongoKindoki
A belief in spirit possession that leads to abuse and abandonment in the Congo regionBelief · Cursing and harm Living
🇯🇵 JapanUkehi誓
A Japanese divination ritual using oaths and sortition to seek the will of the kamiRite · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm 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
🇪🇸 SpainHuman sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula
Ancient ritual killings by Lusitanian and Vetton peoples for divination and warRite · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Historical
🇭🇹 HaitiBizango
Haitian secret societies linked to Vodou and social controlTradition · Cursing and harm · Binding and oaths 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
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
- Human sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula: Manuel Parada López de Corselas User:Manuel de Corselas ARS SUMMUM, Ce, Public domain, source
- Curse: Katsushika Hokusai, Public domain, source
- Philippine mythology: The original uploader was Rodsan18 at English Wikipedia . ( Original t, CC BY 2.5, source
- Inugami: Sawaki Suushi (佐脇嵩之, Japanese, *1707, †1772), Public domain, source
- Scapulimancy: Albert Peter Low, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kurdaitcha: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, 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
- Witchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome: Wilhelm Tischbein, Public domain, source
- Sanni Yakuma: Michael Gunther, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hoodoo: Hoodoowoman, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Magic in the Greco-Roman world: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Germanic seeress: Emil Doepler, Public domain, source