Mark Chapin
10/10/2011
D2MA61311
Module 6
‘Healing Traditions’ Definitions 1. Faith- is the strong belief in religious or other spiritual philosophy. 2. Healing- the holistic or the three dimensional phenomenon that results in the restoration of the health, and balance or harmony, body, and mind, and spirit or between the person the environment, and the metal physical. 3. Mysticism- an aspect of spiritual healing and beliefs. 4. Evil Eye- the superstition where it is believed that someone can project harm by gazing or staring at someone. 5. Miracle- is the super natural or unexplained events that happen. 6. Exorcism- the ceremonious expulsions of an evil spirit from a person.

Short Answer: 1. Some rituals that where used to protect mothers and there new born were they were separated from the community for forty days. While various people performed different spiritual rituals on the baby such as rubbing oils or garlic, swaddling the baby, and lighting candles. In other communities one ritual sacrifice was cutting off a lock of the child’s hair and then sprinkling his forehead with sheep blood. This ritual was performed on the eighth day of the child’s life. The skin of the sheep could be kept and dried out and made into a blanket that is put in with the baby till they are three or four to rid off the evil spirits. A child could also be rid of taboo by giving silver the weight of which equaled the weight of the hair to the poor. Some also concerned circumcision closely related to the ceremony of cutting the child’s hair like with the sleep blood and offering it as a sacrifice. Other rituals that are also thought to protect them from evil are the ceremony of baptism which symbolically expels the evil spirits and removes the taboo and is redemptive. This is mostly practiced among members of the Christian faith. Some rituals also involved the new mother, for example she had to practice ritual bathing before she could return to her husband, family, community. Although not a universally practiced, these rites are still observed in some communities of the Arab world. 2. The rituals of death, dying, and mourning it was believed that evil spirits surround the families after death. So the family of the dying would care for the person in a specific way with ritual washing, and prepare the grave by storing food, water for the journey after death. Then further rituals were performed to protect the deceased’s survivors from harm. Expressions of death and death rituals are also found in objects like masks which people used as a method to hide from the angels and demons; they were also placed on the face of the deceased. A bride and a groom skeleton convey the message that marriage is forever and there souls are united forever. Candles are used as a way to light a path for the souls of the deceased. A jade stone from china is placed in orifices of the body to block the entrance of evil spirits after death. Ghost money maybe burned to send payment to a deceased person to ensure his or her well being in the afterlife.