Gray rocks and floodplains, high plateaus and narrow canyons, endless deserts and mirrors of blue lakes - all this is Arizona. The fabulous contrasting nature has made her famous as the most beautiful and mysterious state of America. Anyone who has spent at least a few days on this earth is no longer surprised by the miracles taking place here.
Wakatan agrees to help
But let's start from the very beginning. Previously, these territories were completely owned by the Navajo Indians. Now they prefer to live on reservations, but they have not forgotten either their glorious past, or their customs, or sacred knowledge passed down from generation to generation …
… It happened in 1958. By chance, the old Indian woman ended up in the hospital, although usually the Navajo do not trust white doctors and are rather successfully treated by their shamans. The diagnosis she was given was unexpected and ominous: an advanced form of tuberculosis. On reflection, the Indian woman decided to die not in the cold hospital walls, but in her own wigwam, and persuaded her husband to take her home. The husband fulfilled the will of the dying woman, but, not wanting to put up with what was happening, he turned to the shaman of the tribe with a request to heal his wife.
The shaman, accompanied by the patient's husband, ascended the rock and turned to the father of the spirits, Vakatan, inviting him to send him helpers to heal the woman. When the last words of the prayer died down, a strong gust of wind blew, and the shaman nodded in satisfaction to her husband frozen in anxious anticipation: Vakatan agreed to send spirits to help defeat the disease.
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Peace pipe for helper spirits
The people of the tribe, meanwhile, hastily built a wigwam from the trunks of young trees, covered it with bison skins. Stones hot on the fire were placed inside the wigwam. In this homemade steam room, the shaman had to cleanse himself before starting the uvipi healing ritual. Meanwhile, people of the tribe gathered around the wigwam where the patient lay. While waiting for the shaman, they beat drums and sang special spells known to every Navajo since childhood.
And so the shaman threw back the skin covering the entrance to the steam room, and appeared in front of the audience. A sacred pipe was smoking in his hand with blue smoke. It seemed that he had become taller, his gaze was fixed on the horizon, behind which the sun was hiding for the night. A prayer sounded over the prairie, in which the spirits-helpers were called, released by Wakatan to earth to help the sick woman. Calling the name of the spirit, the shaman held out a sacred pipe to him, offering to take a puff before starting the ritual.
When the spirits visible only to the shaman smoked, thereby expressing their consent to help in the healing work, several Indians threw a veil over him. They tied it with a rope with small leather knots with tobacco attached to it, helped to enter the wigwam to the patient and sit down next to the earthen altar, on which were the knots of tobacco prepared for the spirits. In the center of the wigwam, over the hearth, broth boiled, which were to be treated to the spirits-helpers, in the distance a sick woman lying unconscious moaned.
Miraculous healing
Old Indians sat along the walls. The drums beat, the rattles crackled, the old men sang a feast song, in which the spirits were promised a luxurious treat. Suddenly sparks flickered in the half-darkness of the lodge, there were so many of them that they resembled a cloud of circling midges. The shaman, without getting up from his seat, began to ask the spirits for the healing of the patient, and at the same moment a sparkling cloud enveloped the body of the elderly woman. Very little time passed, the fire in the hearth flared up as if gasoline had been poured into it, and the patient suddenly sat down and asked for food in a weak voice.
In the light of the hearth, it became clear that the shaman was no longer bound, and the bundles of tobacco laid on the altar were now scattered across the floor of the tepee.
Soon the elderly woman recovered and lived for another ten years, although the white doctors signed her death warrant …
It's dangerous to joke with the subtle world
Perhaps someone will only grin skeptically after reading this story. However, there are serious scientific works that describe such rituals and, moreover, the positive results that have been achieved with the help of these rituals.
It is extremely difficult to obtain information about the sacred knowledge of the American Indians - they do not like to talk about supernatural forces with strangers. And yet, some ethnologists managed to win the trust of the Indians and, as a result, not only get the information they were interested in, but even take part in witchcraft rituals. But it is still impossible to understand how Indian shamans predict the future, heal the sick or manage to see events happening hundreds and thousands of kilometers away. They do not reveal shamanic secrets to anyone, because they are afraid of the revenge of the spirits, which can even kill the talker.
Vision Seeking Rite
In order to summon helper spirits, Indian shamans do not always go into a trance. During the ritual, drums, rattles, whistles are used, everyone present prays and sings songs. The shaman plays a leading role in this, but all the people of the tribe also have magical abilities to one degree or another. Perhaps, such abilities are endowed with the patron spirits of each. The Indians believe that if a person does not have such a spirit, then he is defenseless against the hostile other world.
Therefore, every Indian man necessarily performs the rite of seeking visions at least once in his life. During this rite, he fasts, prays, and is engaged in self-torture until one of the spirits agreed to patronize him. If this spirit turns out to be strong, then the Indian, who has received a strong connection with the other world, can even become a shaman, with a weaker patron spirit, he remains an ordinary warrior, but can take part in the witchcraft rituals of the tribe and count on the protection of the invisible, but really existing world …
The Indian shaman does not travel to the land of spirits, he summons them to himself and asks about the causes of the disease and methods of treatment, or asks to answer questions of concern to the people of the tribe.
There are many eyewitness accounts confirming the existence of inexplicable from a material point of view abilities among the red-skinned tribes. The Indians themselves do not see anything special in this. They know that no one person can rely only on himself in this life. Only with supernatural help can he succeed in life.