Navajo ceremonies are conducted, at least primarily, for the purpose of healing disease; and while designated medicine ceremonies, they are, in fact, ritualistic prayers.
Like many ancient people, Navajo Indians understand the mysterious healing power of graphic design and use it in an elaborate healing ritual.
Like many ancient people, Navajo Indians understand the mysterious healing power of graphic design and use it in an elaborate healing ritual.
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| honoring the medicine |
The artist, the medicine man, uses naturally colored grains of sand, and pour them by hand to create "places where the gods come and go" in the Navajo language. The graphic design is used as a visual communication device.
According to anthropologist Trudy Griffin-Pierce in her study of Navajo sand painting, the power of Navajo sand painting is in the merging of time and space into a place where the present and the mythic past coexist, Griffin-Pierce writes. The Navajo consider sand paintings to be:
“sacred, living entities” with the power to“compress time and space.” It is through the power of sand painting and the associated rituals that an individual can be transported to a place where the present and the mythic world are one, a place where supernatural assistance and healing can be found (Griffin-Pierce 1992, 98-99).
This is the final section of a lengthy shamanic prayer about when the spiritual being and the physical human are united. We offer this up for a hopeful Thanksgiving.
To my feet I have returned
To my feet I have returned
To my limbs I have returned
To my body I have returned
To my mind I have returned
To the dust of my feet I have returned
To my saliva I have returned
To my hair I have returned
My feet are restored to me
My feet are restored to me
My limbs are restored to me
My body is restored to me
My mind is restored to me
The dust of my feet is restored to me
My saliva is restored to me
My hair is restored to me
The world before me is restored in beauty
The world before me is restored in beauty
The world behind me is restored in beauty
The world below me is restored in beauty
The world above me is restored in beauty
All things around me are restored in beauty
My voice is restored in beauty
My voice is restored in beauty
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty
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