A study of Navajo symbolism - Free History Ebooks

ALLA SHORT DESCRIPTIONOF THE FORM OF NAVAJO CEREMONIESceremonies are for healing, either ofWhen this and thefears or of bodily ailments, and each is acommunal affair paid for by the patient's relatives.A medicine man is consulted as to whatceremony is required and often uses divinationto decide the matter.location are settled, and also whether a completeritual or a short one should be used, thehogahn is selected or built and medicine articlesare collected, such as herbs, rocks to crushinto colored sands, fuel, and persons to helpthe ritual. It begins by the lighting of the firein the hogahn, and for four days in a completeritual the patient and participants take asweat bath and emetic to cleanse themselves,and ceremonial offerings are made for thePowers to be invoked. In the evening whileprayers are sung, a rite of the untying ofknots in woolen cords which are pressed tomade to embody the powers tothe patient's body and limbs, may typify theloosening of tensions in the patient.There are several forms of these rites, suchas passing the patient through a line of hoopsplaced outside the hogahn on four consecutivedays while prayers are said. As he passesthrough, a covering is progressively removed,which typifies a process of recreating him intohealth again.The sand painting rite begins after the purificationand isbe invoked. The painting is made under themedicine man's direction and is produced byeach painter holding a particular colored sandin his hand and pouring it in a delicate streambetween thumb and first finger.When complete, the painting is blessed withpollen and prayer, and the patient sits on itand is treated by the assistant, who first pressesthe figures of the painting himself, thenpresses them to the body of the patient. Thepatient also drinks a decoction of the paintingand afterwards inhales incense. In a completeceremony there are usually four days of sandpainting rites; each day after the treatmentof the patient the painting is destroyed. Sometimesthe body of the patient is painted withthe great symbols, which ends the rite of healing.This ends the ceremony except where thereis a public ritual dance.A more complete account of the ceremoniesand ritual is given in Volume I of the NavajoSeries published by the Museum of NavajoCeremonial Art. There are at least eightmajor ceremonies, and many many others, andat the Museum there are over four hundredsand paintings recorded.Mary C. WheelwrightMuseum of Navajo Ceremonial Art'955