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.
馃嚠馃嚦 India and 3 moreAstral projection
An intentional out-of-body experience where consciousness travels through the astral planeTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 2 moreBesom胁械薪懈泻
A twig broom used for sweeping, folk magic, and fire responseCharm 路 Protection 路 Wonder and entertainment Living
馃嚙馃嚞 Bulgaria and 5 moreApocryphal prayer
A folk prayer text blending church forms with apocrypha and incantations for protection and healingText 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚜馃嚫 SpainHuman sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula
Ancient ritual killings by Lusitanian and Vetton peoples for divination and warRite 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Cursing and harm Historical
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 3 moreExorcist
A religious specialist who performs rites to remove alleged demonic possession from people or places.Tradition 路 Cursing and harm 路 Cleansing and purification Living
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 3 morePalladium
A sacred image or object believed to guarantee the safety of a city or nationCharm 路 Protection Historical
馃嚝馃嚠 Finland and 2 moreTiet盲j盲
A traditional Finnic healer and sage whose power came from memorised spells and deep knowledge.Figure 路 Healing 路 Protection Historical
馃嚫馃嚜 SwedenKnights of 脜lleberg
Swedish ghost story about sleeping warriors in a mountainFigure 路 Power and authority Legendary
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Human sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula: Manuel Parada L贸pez de Corselas User:Manuel de Corselas ARS SUMMUM, Ce, Public domain, source
- Astral projection: Hereward Carrington, Sylvan Muldoon., Public domain, source
- Exorcism: Francisco Goya, Public domain, source
- Knights of 脜lleberg: Photograph: Nasko, Public domain, source
- Palladium: Marie-Lan Nguyen ( Jastrow ), Public domain, source
- Tiet盲j盲: Robert Wilhelm Ekman, Public domain, source
- Besom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cox_(artist), Public domain, source