Rites

87 rites, charms and ceremonies, each told in outline as a custom: a ring of what goes into it, coloured by role, and a drawn frame for every step. Cleanse, gather, circle, speak, light, offer, bind, bury, cast, read, rest, close.

Presented by ClearTrust Customs described as customs, free to read.

RegionAll South Asia Southeast Asia East Asia Central Asia and the Caucasus Middle East North Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Europe North America Latin America and the Caribbean Oceania

Protective rites

Rites that ward a person, house or journey: thresholds, salt, red thread, blessings against the evil eye.

🇲🇦 🇩🇿 🇹🇳 Protective ritesAmazigh protective tattoosThe dots, lines and crosses once tattooed on the faces and hands of Amazigh women, said to protect and to mark belonging.

Cleansing and purification

Smoke, water, sweeping and fire used to clear a person or place: limpia, smudging customs, lustration.

🇲🇦 🇩🇿 🇹🇳 Cleansing and purificationBkhour, the Moroccan fumigationIncense burned on charcoal at the threshold, after a birth and before a guest, to scent and, it is said, to clear.

Healing rites

Rites of folk and spiritual healing, said as tradition and never as medical advice.

🇪🇬 Healing ritesHeka, Egyptian ritual powerThe Egyptian art of heka, in which spoken spells, acts and amulets work together, shown in the medical and magical papyri.

Luck and love

Rites for fortune, a good match, fertility and a prosperous year.

🇲🇦 🇩🇿 🇹🇳 Luck and loveHenna nightThe women's evening before a wedding when the bride's hands and feet are painted with henna and blessed.

Initiation and passage

Rites by which a person enters a priesthood, a society or a new stage of life.

🇪🇬 Initiation and passageThe Book of the DeadThe scroll of spells made for a dead person to carry them safely to the afterlife, and the Weighing of the Heart.

Spirit work

Mediumship, possession, trance and journeying: rites for meeting the unseen.

🇪🇬 🇸🇩 🇪🇹 Spirit workThe zar possession ceremonyA women-led healing ceremony of drum, incense and dance for people said to be troubled by a zar spirit.🇲🇦 🇩🇿 🇹🇳 Spirit workThe Gnawa lilaThe all-night Gnawa healing ceremony of music, incense and colour, in honour of the spirits called mluk.