Priests and ritual specialists
Officiants of a religion who perform rites, blessings and exorcisms within it.
Priests and ritual specialists are the officiants of an organised religion who perform its blessings, protective rites and exorcisms. Many religions keep a place for what looks like magic inside the faith, such as the Hindu pandit's fire offering, the Catholic exorcist, the Tibetan lama's protection rites, the Shinto kannushi's purification, the Jewish ba'al shem and the Muslim imam reciting ruqyah. This page looks at how institutions handle power they regard as legitimate.
Rite and authority
Priestly rites are defined by tradition and lineage. A Hindu priest is born into or trained in a ritual line, a Catholic priest is ordained, a Shinto priest is trained at a recognised school. The authority comes from the institution and not from a personal gift. Priests commonly describe their work as worship and prayer, and not as magic, a distinction scholars say is often contested. The line is not the same everywhere: a rite that one tradition calls a blessing, another may call a spell.
Magic or religion
Scholars once drew a line: religion asks and magic compels. Later writers dropped the line as unworkable, since prayer, sacrifice and compulsion overlap in most traditions. The Catholic Church has a formal rite of exorcism, revised in 1999 and carried out by authorised priests, and a long tradition of blessings. Medieval Christians believed sacramental items such as holy water had power, which Protestants later rejected as superstition. They also keep records, calendars and texts, and in many societies priests were the first literate class.
Gender and exclusion
Priesthood is male in many traditions, including the Catholic and Orthodox churches and most Brahmin ritual. Women lead rites in Shinto, in Vodou and Candomblé, in Korean shaman practice, and in several Buddhist and Protestant settings. Class also shapes access: temple priests may refuse low-caste worshippers, and caste discrimination in temple access has been challenged in Indian courts. Within Christianity, the Catholic Church has had both a line of exorcists and a series of rules against selling blessings for money.
Misuse and reform
Priests have been accused of abuse in the name of deliverance, of exploiting the vulnerable for payment, and of staging miracles. Reform movements, such as the Protestant Reformation and the Arya Samaj in India, attacked priestly ritual. In many countries today, pastors in Pentecostal churches lead deliverance services that some scholars compare with older exorcism, with benefits for some and harm for others. Protestant, Salafi and modernist critics have often opposed ritual specialists as intermediaries who stand between a person and God.
Priests and ritual specialists on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇮🇩 IndonesiaNyepiᬜᬾᬧᬶ
A Balinese day of total silence, fasting, and self-reflection to mark the new year.Rite · Cleansing and purification · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇪🇬 EgyptDjedḏd
An ancient Egyptian pillar symbol representing stability and resurrectionCharm · Protection · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreAugury
A Roman rite of reading bird behavior to learn the will of the godsRite · Power and authority · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreUpanayanaउपनयन
A Hindu rite of passage marking a student's initiation into formal education and spiritual discipline.Rite · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇸🇳 Senegal and 5 moreMaraboutmurābiṭ
A Muslim religious leader and teacher in West Africa, often linked to Sufi brotherhoods.Tradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇮🇶 IraqBabylonian astrology
The first organized system of celestial divination in the ancient Near EastTradition · Protection · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 2 moreIsisꜣst (Egyptian)
Egyptian goddess of magic, mourning and kingship, mother of HorusBeing · Protection · Healing Historical
🇧🇯 BeninMawu-Lisa
A dual creator spirit of the Gbe peoples, uniting sun and moon in one agender beingBeing · Power and authority Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreChinese shamanism巫教 (Wūjiào)
Spirit-mediums of China who dance and trance to carry messages between people and godsTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic and 1 moreDominican VudúVudú Dominicano
A syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion on Hispaniola with its own spirit lineages and titles.Tradition · Protection · Love and attraction Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreUraeusjꜥrt
An ancient Egyptian rearing cobra emblem of royal power and divine protectionCharm · Protection · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇷 Iran and 2 moreYazata𐬫𐬀𐬰𐬀𐬙𐬀
A Zoroastrian term for divine beings worthy of worship and venerationBeing · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇳 IndiaSnow Lionགངས་སེང་གེ་
A celestial mountain guardian of Tibet embodying fearlessness, bliss, and the DharmaBeing · Protection · Power and authority Living
🇬🇧 United KingdomUwaisiأُوَيْس
A Sufi method of spiritual transmission between master and disciple without physical contact.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇹🇷 TurkeyHittite sun disk
An ancient Anatolian bronze symbol used in Hattian and Hittite religious ceremoniesCharm · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomGorsedd stonesCerrig yr Orsedd
Stone circles built for the National Eisteddfod of Wales to host druidic ceremonies.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇬🇷 GreeceSacred mysteriesμυστήριον
Secret ceremonies and divine doctrines held to exceed human reasonBelief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Living
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia and 2 moreBay'ahبيعة
An oath of loyalty and obedience given to a political or spiritual leader in Islamic traditionRite · Binding and oaths · Power and authority Living
🇯🇵 JapanSuzu鈴
A hollow Japanese bell with inner pellets, used in Shinto rites and shrines.Charm · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreWorship of heavenly bodies
Veneration of stars, planets, and the sky as divine forces or deitiesTradition · Protection · Power and authority Historical
🇭🇹 Haiti and 1 morePetwo
A family of hot and volatile spirits in Haitian VodouBeing · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Living
🇭🇹 Haiti and 3 moreNago lwa
A Haitian Vodou nation of masculine spirits rooted in Yoruba traditionsBeing · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇲🇽 MexicoEntheogenics and the Maya
Hallucinogenic substances used by the Maya for spiritual rituals and healingTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Healing Historical
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago and 1 moreTrinidadian Vodunu
A West African Vodun tradition practiced in Trinidad and Tobago with Catholic elementsTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreChurch of Satan
An atheistic religious body founded in 1966 that practices ritual magicTradition · Power and authority · Change and initiation Living
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreMahanam Sampradayaমহানাম সম্প্রদায়
A Bengali Krishnaite monastic order focused on chanting and humanitarian serviceTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreVarahiवाराही (Vārāhī)
A Hindu mother goddess with a sow face, worshipped in Tantric rites for protection and powerBeing · Protection · Power and authority Living
🇮🇶 Iraq and 3 moreUmayyad tradition of cursing Ali
A state policy to denounce Ali during communal prayers under the Umayyad CaliphateRite · Cursing and harm · Binding and oaths Historical
🇪🇸 Spain and 2 moreHoly ChaliceSanto Cáliz
A cup believed to have held the blood of Jesus at the Last SupperCharm · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Augur: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Maya mythology: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Rabisu: editor Austen Henry Layard , drawing by L. Gruner, Public domain, source
- Mahanam Sampradaya: Neehar Haldar, CC0, source
- Louisiana Voodoo: I cropped, original authors are Ridpath, John Clark, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Church of Satan: Palnu ., CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Nyepi: Matt Croxson, Public domain, source
- Djed: Anonymous ( Egypt ) Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Upanayana: vinodbahal, CC BY 2.0, source
- Marabout: Jan Broekhuijse, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Isis: Ägyptischer Maler um 1360 v. Chr., Public domain, source
- Folk Catholicism: Calvin Hennick, for WBUR Boston, CC BY 3.0, source
- Vahana: Unknown Nepali, Public domain, source
- Uraeus: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Chinese shamanism: No machine-readable author provided. +上帝+ assumed (based on copyright, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Gorsedd stones: Robin Drayton, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Sacred mysteries: Johannes Hopffe, Public domain, source
- Suzu: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Umayyad tradition of cursing Ali: Anwar Rizvi, CC BY 2.0, source
- Snow Lion: John Hill, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hittite sun disk: Noumenon, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Worship of heavenly bodies: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0, source
- Holy Chalice: Vitold Muratov, CC BY-SA 3.0, source