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

Cleansing and purification

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

🇳🇿 Cleansing and purificationKarakia and lifting tapuThe Maori chant that opens and closes a task, and the rites that make a tapu place or person safe to approach again.🇦🇺 Cleansing and purificationAboriginal smoking ceremonyA public welcome in which native leaves are burned and the smoke is believed to cleanse a place and its visitors. Other ceremonies are closed.

Healing rites

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

🇺🇸 Healing ritesHooponoponoThe Hawaiian practice of setting things right within a family, led by an elder, through talk, prayer, and forgiveness.

Offerings and feeding the unseen

Food, drink and gifts set out for ancestors, spirits, gods and the land.

🇫🇯 🇹🇴 🇼🇸 Offerings and feeding the unseenPacific kava ceremonyA formal drinking of kava, a mildly sedating root drink, which opens chiefly meetings and welcomes guests.

Counter-magic and uncrossing

Rites against curses, envy and harm: the answer to what people fear.

🇵🇬 Counter-magic and uncrossingSorcery accusation in Papua New GuineaThe belief that a death or illness is caused by sorcery, and the violent accusations of sanguma or witchcraft that follow. A harm, not a rite to copy.