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about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993.
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Singing
the path of
the Spirits
The Navaho ways of healing and sorcery
Nicholas Breeze Wood

Above: Monument The Diné are a Native American dangerous and needs to be
Valley, a sacred tribal group living where Arizona, guarded against by
place in the Diné Utah and New Mexico meet in the performing specific
homelands USA. They are often known as the ceremonies to restore the
Inset ‐ top: Navajo or Navaho, but their real harmony. Danger can come
name is Diné which means ‘The from any disturbance of the moths and butterflies. Dangerous
making a
People.’ The name Navajo is a harmonious order, and the Diné disharmony can occur either by
sandpainting
Spanish adaptation of the Tewa believe that much in the universe coming directly into contact with
Inset ‐ bottom: a Pueblo word navahu’u, which means has a tendency to go out of harmony them, or by touching things such as
Diné singer makes ‘farm fields in a valley,’ and was when not controlled. This is firewood or stones, which have had
an offering of given to the Diné by the Spanish especially true of the many things previous contact with them.
cornflour because they lived in such a place. the Diné feel hold great power, and Cactus plants are also
these are especially watched out for. considered dangerous and must
THE DINÉ UNIVERSE never be burnt, and natural
The Diné see the universe as These ‘loose cannons in phenomena such as lightning and
made up of myriad interrelated creation’ include the dead, and whirlwinds are very dangerous
living elements, from ants to there is much fear in Diné culture indeed and anything touched by
mountains, and hot winds to hail of chindi (ghosts). A person, no such a phenomena should never
and thunderstorms. In their matter how harmoniously ‘good’ be used or approached.
Below: raw
cosmology, all beings have a they have been in life, has a Even dreaming about any of
turquoise stones,
natural place in creation, and when disharmonious ‘evil’ aspect that these things can be potentially life
which the Diné
beings are in harmony and may well become a dangerous threatening. However, the threat
use as offering
balance, the universe is in a place ghost after death, and which is from all these perils is reduced when
to the spirits
of hozho (beauty) - this is a Diné very likely to harm the living if not the correct ceremonies are
term for harmony and has nothing dealt with. performed and strict taboos kept. All
to do with attractiveness. Other parts of creation of this can make Diné culture appear
However, aspects of considered to be especially prone to very superstitious compared to
the universe have a disharmony include certain animals Western culture, although to the
tendency to fall into such as snakes, bears, porcupines, Diné it all makes perfect sense to
disharmony and this is weasels, deer, coyotes, eagles, ants, keep the universe in harmony.

SH
12 ISSUE 73 2011
 THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine
about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993.
You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere.
To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html
wish them well, mostly they are
considered to be indifferent. But
everything of power in the Diné’s
world view is potentially dangerous;
there is the ever-present need to
maintain harmony between oneself
and the Holy People - or ideally
avoid them - to prevent injury or
illness because you came into
contact with their power. Thus an
attack from a Holy Person is not
personal - unlike an attack from a
ghost or a sorcerer

TABOO BREAKING
The breaking of accepted Diné cultural
taboos is seen as a great cause of
disharmony and danger, which can
open flood gates for greater
disharmony to come rushing in. The Holy People do not necessarily
Taboos in Diné culture are many
and varied; they include care about humans or wish them
rules of social contact
between family members, well, mostly they are indifferent.
periods of gambling,
improper sexual activity,
But everything of power in the
breaking cultural laws about Diné’s world view is potentially
the dead, casually
mentioning certain animals dangerous; and there is the ever
(such as owls), incorrectly
maintaining the home, being present need to maintain harmony
untidy or dirty, not caring
correctly for sacred objects,
to prevent injury or illness
leaving a weaving unfinished
with the weaving tools in the balance is seen as a blessing, and Above: Yei spirit
wrong place, or even weaving ceremonies and rituals are often people in a
facing the wrong direction. A full referred to under the collective sandpainting
list of taboos would be almost term ‘blessingways.’
THE HOLY PEOPLE endless, and the breaking of any Blessingways bring good hope Left inset -
To the Diné the universe is alive, taboo could result in illness, and luck, avert misfortune, invoke a Diné weaver
and each aspect of it has spirit accident or at best misfortune, and positive blessings for a long and
power and a soul. Then, in addition may ultimately end in your death. happy life and for the protection
to these, there are the larger However, breaking a taboo is not and increase of possessions. They
ancestral spirit beings, the cultural a ‘sin’ as we might consider it in the may be used to protect livestock,
gods and goddesses. These include West - it is not bad because the aid childbirth, bless a new dwelling,
Changing Woman (Asdzáá ‘crime’ was bad - it is bad because consecrate ritual objects, protect a
Nádleehé), who is deeply it attracts external disharmony; for departing or returning soldier,
connected to their sacred traditions, instance murder is bad not because strengthen an apprentice medicine
and is the Diné’s most beloved of the deed itself, it is bad because person, or consecrate a marriage.
spirit being. Changing Woman has it brings contact with the dead. Ceremonies are generally
twin children, Monster Slayer performed for an individual who
(Naaytt' Neizghlini) and Born for PUTTING THINGS RIGHT requests and sponsors them. This is
Water (Tóbájíshchíní). Their father is The correct performance of different to the other native peoples
the Sun, and the four of them form ceremony brings the disharmony who live near to the Diné, and who
a holy family that is encountered in under control, banishes ghosts and have a set cycle of community
many Diné stories and ceremonies. restores harmony. Ceremonies also ceremonies for the bringing of rain,
There are also many other spirit give protection from the crop fertility and to help smooth the
beings in Diné cosmology, disharmony, should it break out natural procession of the year.
collectively called yei. These again. The Holy People are Ceremonies for rain may be
include beings with such names as attracted to ceremonies, and the performed in times of drought by
‘Growling God,’ ‘Black God,’ and performance of a ceremony has to the Diné, but they will be individual
‘Water Sprinkler.’ Each of the yei be exact, so that they are satisfied affairs rather than large collective
has a specific place in Diné by it, and give their blessing in ceremonies.
ceremonial cosmology, and during order to set things right.
ceremonies they are sometimes This seeking of blessing forms There are many forms of
portrayed by masked dancers. a very major part of Diné blessingway, each with a different
These ‘Holy People’ do not ceremony - the restoring of name such as ‘hand-tremblingway,’
necessarily care about humans or ‘shootingway,’ ‘eagleway,’ ‘red

SH ISSUE 73 2011 13
 THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine
about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993.
You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere.
To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html

and kidney and bladder disturbances. or two, or at most a handfull, of

When a healing is being given blessingways, because each
and the illness is not easy to ceremony is so vast and complex,
diagnose, excerpts of a blessingway, and requires the accurate
lasting only part of a day or a night knowledge of hundreds of songs,
may be performed as a diagnostic long prescribed prayers, the use of
test, and if the sick person seems to sacred plants and ritual objects, the
improve, the whole ceremony may construction of sandpaintings, and
be then given for them. many other rituals. Women rarely
become hataafįį, but there is no
Blessingway ceremonies can rule against them becoming one.
last a long time. They are
measured in nights, from sundown
TURNING TO THE DARK SIDE
to dawn, and some ceremonies
Sometimes hataafįį or other people
can be as many as nine nights are accused, or suspected of
Above: a Diné antway’ and ‘big starway.’ long, although sacred activities becoming sorcerers (ánt’įįhnii) and
‘singer’ holding Each blessingway has a particular such as sandpainting and the using dark practices for personal
a medicine focus, for instance, ‘mountainway’ is holding of sweatlodges are also gain and to spread disharmony.
basket and a a set of ceremonies used to deal done in the days as well. Sorcerers - who are generally called
plume-feathered with disharmony brought about by Diné medicine people are called witches when a Diné is speaking
prayer stick contact with animals that live in the hataafįį (singers) because singing English - are said to be mostly male,
Above right: mountains such as bears, accompanies every blessingway
and are traditionally believed to learn
bright yellow porcupines, weasels, squirrels, and is considered essential to
their practices from a parent or a
pollen collected chipmunks, badgers, skunks, and them. Ceremonies are taught to
grandparent. Initiation into the
from corn pants wild turkeys. People who have new hataafįį by older experts,
witchway traditions (ánt įįhni)
used in Diné come in contact with an animal - often over very long periods of
generally involves murdering a close
ceremonies even by unwittingly touching a tree time, and the apprentice pays his
relative, often a sibling - but other
which the animal had touched - teacher to be taught them. It is
crimes associated with them are
exhibits a set of symptoms, and essential that a hataafįį performs a
necrophilia, grave-robbing, and incest.
these are diagnosed. For instance, ceremony correctly in order for it to
Any Diné suspected of any of
‘bear disease’ is associated with work, and so as to not create more
those major taboo breakages is
arthritis and emotional disturbances, disharmony - so the training of a
generally branded a sorcerer even
Below: a Diné whereas ‘porcupine disease’ hataafįį is very exacting. if they are not one.
healing ceremony manifests as gastro-intestinal trouble A hataafįį will specialise in one
A major method of the witchway
traditions is said to be the use of
Ceremonies are taught by older experts, often powdered corpses, known as ánt i
(corpse poison). According to
over very long periods of time, and the apprentice tradition the best ánt i comes from
the corpses of children, and looks
pays his teacher to be taught them. It is essential like corn pollen which is used in
blessings, however ánt i is used to
to perform a ceremony correctly in order for curse, not to bless.
Other people are the most
it to work, and so as to not create typical targets of sorcerers, but
animals, businesses, crops, cars,
more disharmony and other personal property are
sometimes cursed in this way.
Other Diné cursing practices
involve obtaining someones personal
possession or something containing
DNA (hair, fingernails, blood,
excrement etc) and burying it with
corpse flesh or ánt i, either in a
grave, or under a tree that has been
struck by lightning. Special songs are
 THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine
about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993.
You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere.
To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html
then sung or prayers said - often a who have reached a level of
blessingway prayer said backwards, expertise called clizyati (pure evil)
Skinwalkers are said to be the most
or a special prayer called ‘praying a
person down into the ground.’
Skinwalkers are said to
sometimes try to break into
powerful and most dangerous of all
Harmful sandpaintings are also hogans and houses and attack the Diné sorcerers, who have reached
sometimes created, except curse people inside, although on
paintings use ash, instead of occasion their attacks are almost a level called clizyati (pure evil)
coloured sand, cornflour and pollen in the form of a macabre practical
and the sorcerers then urinate and joke, as they are said to dig up a
defecate on the sandpainting to corpse, sever a finger and hide it
add anti-life power to it. inside a hogan. The Diné then say
On a lesser level, sorcerers are the ghost will rise in search of the
said to apply a powder containing finger and haunt the hogan where
dust from the wings of a moth or a it is hidden.
butterfly to the body of a victim to Other times, skinwalkers are said
cause insanity. This ‘moth sickness’ to bang on the walls of houses,
is also associated with incest, which climb onto roofs and knock on
is considered a form of insanity windows, peering in with strange
sometimes associated with sorcery. animal-like faces. As shape-shifters
they are said to be cunning and
FEAR OF THE SKINWALKER deadly, using many tricks to get
Probably the best known Diné their victim, including mimicking the
sorcerers are the skinwalkers (yee voice of a loved one or the cry of
naaldlooshii). The Diné name means a child to lure people out of the
‘with it he goes on all fours,’ as safety of their homes.
skinwalkers are said to be Because of this, sorcerers
shapeshifters, capable of turning - even with mild powers -
themselves into animals to conceal are deeply hated and feared
themselves. Generally they are said in Diné culture, the fear
to turn into foxes, coyotes, wolves, persisting even among Diné peaceful ways, when
owls, or crows, but can turn into any who have no contact with other dealing with ghosts and sorcerers,
other animal if they desire it. aspects of ceremonial life. another set of ceremonies known
Because skinwalkers are associated as the ‘evilway’ or the ‘enemyway’
with animals, the owning of the pelt are used. The enemyway is also
DEALING WITH THE DARKSIDE
of a bear, coyote, wolf, cougar and When an act of sorcery is
used to protect warriors from the Below left: a
other animals is taboo with the Diné. chindi (ghosts) of enemies they sacred mud
diagnosed, it is considered difficult
They are akin to the vampire of have killed. Ghost sickness is seen ceremony in
to deal with by many hataafįį, and
European folklore, as they can as a result of contact with the part of the
there are special traditions regarding
steal the life essence, draining it spirits of the dead. It occurs in ‘evilway’ for
the treatment of people effected by
out of their victims. They are also many Native American cultures the healing of
it, as well as some hataafįį who
said to be able to enter your body under different names, but it is ‘ghost sickness’
specialise in its treatment.
and take you over if you look into especially common amongst the
Whereas the blessingway is
their eyes. They are said to be the Diné. Its symptoms include Below right: a
used for the restoring of harmony
most powerful and most weakness, a loss of appetite, Diné yei dancer
and the treatment of illness in
dangerous of all Diné sorcerers, feelings of being suffocated, wearing a mask

SH ISSUE 73 2011 15
 THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine
about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993.
You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere.
To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html
recurring nightmares, or through the hoops arrowheads and
other sleep problems. symbolises the spearpoints -
Sufferers generally restoration to normality. used in
report a constant feeling TOOLS OF THE TRADE exorcisms, a
of terror, and often are Diné hataafįį generally have a small stone club,
obsessed with death, or bundle of objects they use in bits of turquoise,
with a deceased person healing and ceremony called a jish. abalone, white shell, and jet, oddly
- in which case it is They gather everything they need for shaped stones or fossils, carved
generally believed that ceremonies over many years, and animal fetishes, quartz crystals,
this person is the source the complete contents of a jish must many small sacks of coloured earth
of the illness. be there even if they are not for paint making, cornmeal, pollens,
In evilway ceremonies required in the ceremony currently herbal medicines, and many, many
ghost offerings are made being performed - showing up with other things as well, depending on
to attract the ghost so it only partial contents of a jish is like what is required for the
can be dealt with. These arriving with half an ambulance - the blessingways in the hataafįį’s
can be prayer sticks of patient is short-changed by not repertoire.
charcoal and often having the full power of the When a hataafįį singer dies, his
include blue glass beads complete jish. jish may be buried with him or it
and ashes. The patient As well as being a hataafįį’s may be passed on to a relative
maybe brushed with an personal ceremonial kit, each jish who knows how to use it.
eagle feather dipped in also represents the bundle of a
ashes, and other particular Diné ancestral figure, so THE SACRED PERFORMANCE
practices with ash are for instance, there is a jish When someone feels that they
often involved such as associated with Changing Woman, need sacred help, either because
having the sick person and another with her children, and of illness, bad dreams, fear of
blow ashes toward the others with other spirit beings. witchcraft, or some other reason, a
hogan’s smoke hole to A full list of objects a jish may family conference is often held to
represent the expulsion contain is too long to list here, but choose a specific blessingway and
and banishment of the to give an example of the the hataafįį to perform it. If the sick
ghost. complexity of a complete jish, I will person does not know what they
Above: a Diné A ceremony called the ‘big describe a bundle found in a need, a special diviner - usually not
yei dancer hoop ceremony’ may be Changing Woman jish called a a hataafįį and quite often a woman
wearing a mask performed, where the sick person ‘mountain earth bundle.’ - is sought out, the ailment
Top inset: a passes through a series of four or This bundle contains earth diagnosed, the remedy blessingway
carved stone five big hoops made of flexible collected from the four sacred chosen and a hataafįį contacted.
Zuni horse fetish branches. The sick person wears a mountains of the Diné homelands A blessingway is a very complex
buckskin or cloth over their head which represent the four directions. set of related smaller ceremonies
Below: Diné and shoulders, which is pulled off Pollen is mixed with each earth, that are enacted in specific order
sacred bundle, gradually by the hataafįį (singer) as and then each earth is wrapped over a number of nights (and
hide pouch they pass through each hoop in separately in buckskin. A precious days). Because complete
holding nine turn - often while following a sand stone is then attached to each of blessingways are so complex, it is
prayer sticks of painted path of mountains and these earth bundles to show which impossible to describe a full
wood, twine, bear tracks on the ground leading of the four directions it represents. sequence of events here, but
feathers, trade between each hoop. Once through Between these earth bundles are below is a description of some of
beads and the last hoop they undertake a placed stick-like rods of ‘mirage the main elements.
turquoise. sweat-lodge purification stone’ (aragonite), agate, and They are performed in a family
Height 42 cm, ceremony. Passing quartz and carved stone animal hogan (traditional dwelling), which
width 8.5 cm
fetishes (often bought from the is emptied and swept clean, but
near by Zuni people, who are sometimes a large hogan is built
famous for their stone fetishes). especially if large sandpaintings
Below ‐ inset: Then everything is covered with and many people are going to be
‘Mirage Stone’ pollen and all of the individual present. Every blessingway begins
Aragonite - an pouches are wrapped in with special hogan songs to bless
important part buckskin to form a larger bundle. and harmonise the space. Song
of Diné bundles A complete hataafįį’s jish will accompanies almost every part of a
contain rattles, a bull-roarer, ceremony, in Diné thought song is
feathered prayer wands, ceremonial indispensable, and without it there
digging sticks, little bundles of fluffy can be no cure. Knowledge of
eagle plumes to tie on patients so several hundred songs is required
the spirits recognise them, eagle for most blessingways.
and turkey feathers, animal skins,
claws and teeth associated with The hataafįį’s ritual objects are
each blessingway the hataafįį laid out in a fixed order upon a skin
knows how to perform, an eagle or calico altar cloth at the west of
bone whistle, a sacred fire making the hogan. Some objects,
kit, medicine cups made such as prayersticks, will
from abalone or turtle be wiped over the body
shell, prehistoric of the patient by the

SH
16 ISSUE 73 2011
 THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine
about Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993.
You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere.
To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html
hataafįį while they piece of yucca
sing. root (to act as
The wiping of soap) are
the body is done placed in a
from the feet watertight
upwards to the top basket and
of the head, and whipped into a
everything applied to stiff mound of soap
the patient - plant suds. Designs of pollen
medicines, cornmeal, pollen, sand and powdered herbs are
from sandpaintings - is applied in sprinkled on the suds, and these
this order. All the movement of are then used to wash the patient.
people and ritual objects in the Following the bath an iikhhh
ceremony is done ‘sunwise’ (sandpainting) is begun. A
(clockwise). sandpainting may be less than
A bull-roarer is whirled outside 30cm across, but the average
the hogan at each of the four painting is about 2 meters across.
directions, and everything and Sometimes very large ones around
everyone is well smudged. 7 meters across are made.
The actual ceremony starts at When the sandpainting is
sundown, beginning with a hogan completed the ceremony begins.
blessing. Following this, after Prayersticks are brought in and set
sundown, and on the next three upright around the painting, and bead for a man), which the
evenings there is an ‘unraveling cornmeal is sprinkled on it by the patient will keep as a
ceremony.’ A number of wool strings hataafįį and the patient. protection from further danger.
(generally between four and fifteen) Sometime during the singing On the final night there is
are made, with bundles of herbs and the patient sits on a yei (spirit) an all-night sing, finishing with
feathers tied on them in such a way figure in the painting, and the special dawn songs, after
as to fall off when the end is pulled. hataafįį puts his moistened palms which the patient leaves the
These are put over the patient's onto parts of the sandpainting hogan, faces the east and
Top: Diné ritual
body and unraveled in ceremonial making the sand stick to them. breathes in the dawn four
‘marrage’ basket
order. This symbolises a release The hataafįį then applies the sand times. The ceremony ends with a
from disharmony, danger, and harm. to the patient's body. final prayer and a song to remove Above: a Diné
Following this, medicine songs are When the sandpainting ceremony any disharmony created by any sweatlodge hogan
sung for an hour or so, the singer is completed the patient goes errors in the ceremony. Inset: Diné
either using a rattle or ‘basket outside and the hataafįį sweeps the During the ceremony and for carved wooden
drumming’ - using an upturned basket painting away, collecting all the four days afterwards, the patient bull-roarer
covered with a blanket as a contaminated sand together which must observe many restrictions on Left: carved
drum with a drumstick of is then disposed of in a sacred their behaviour in case they harm stone Diné family
yucca leaves made for manner outside the other people, this is because they protection bundle
the occasion. hogan. are considered sacred and powerful
Just after Sometimes a ‘shock like the Holy People themselves. Below: painting
dawn on each of ceremony’ is done as a The family of a patient pay for of a sandpainting,
the blessingway - a nine night showing prayer
the first four test to see if the
sticks and a
mornings a treatment being used is ceremony can cost many thousands
masked yei
sweatlodge ceremony is the correct one. For these a of dollars.
dancer (artist
performed, after which special sandpainting is made The component ceremonies of a
unknown)
people rest and eat outside surrounded by a low blessingway will vary depending upon
breakfast. After breakfast bank of earth, and a man its purpose. Some ceremonies, such
Nicholas Breeze Wood
on the first four days an covered with branches, as consecration of the hogan and the is a shamanic practitoner
offering ceremony is impersonating a bear, suds bath appear only once in any and the editor of Sacred
performed to attract the leaps out to terrify the blessingway, but other ceremonies Hoop Magazine. He has
made a life-long study
Holy People. Offerings patient. If the patient maybe performed four times or more of sacred objects
are made of bits of faints or has a fit over the whole series of nights. www.3worlds.co.uk
turquoise, shell and after four such
jet, short lengths of appearances it shows
painted reeds stuffed with that the correct blessingway has
wild tobacco, and prayersticks. been chosen, and he is then
The patient holds these and the resuscitated by a special
hataafįį says a long prayer, the restoration ritual.
patient repeating each sentence On the last day the patient's
after the singer. When this is done body is painted from head to foot
a hataafįį’s assistant puts the with symbolic designs with earth
offerings at special sites a long paints, which identify him with the
way from the hogan where the Holy People. Small sacred prayer
Holy People can find them. objects are tied in their hair, as well
A bath ceremony may take as a personal medicine gift (a shell
place in the morning, water and a bead for a woman or a turquoise