What  Southern African and other Indigenous Wisdoms 

have to Offer the West # 6

Diseases or “Dis”-eases unknown to Allopathic Medicine and Psychotherapy

“This is the original truth the original medicine; it will never change – just like the law of gravity.” P.H. Mntshali (my sangoma mentor)

Diseases unknown to Western medicine or psychiatry are and were well known to many indigenous peoples. Those in Southern Africa could be described as follows. 

Disease just happens. We really do not often know why some people get sick and others do not.

""Anyone who isn't confused here really does not understand what is going on." Unknown

Our Guides or Ancestors can create "dis"-ease usually through omission rather than commission. They turn away if we ignore them. They can be our parachute in troubled times when we need to jump out of sticky situations. 

"The problem in the West is that you have forgotten your ancestors. If you pay them no attention they turn away and then you are unsupported in life from the other side - like papers blowing in the wind." P.H. Mntshali

“Thwasa” or the “Calling” Sickness is a malady that can be physical or psychological that occurs in a potential initiate. It happens because of an energetic field around them created by their guides that demands attention. This "dis"-ease can be disruptive and will defy an allopathic diagnosis. It has a spiritual origin and requires a spiritual solution. The person will need to initiate or at least dialogue as to why this is not possible at that time. The initiate is being called to his/her destiny and delay can have karmic implications.

Spiritual intrusions due to hauntings arise from various conditions especially from earth-bound spirits or ancestors seeking forgiveness.  Earth bound spirits usually occur because of a sudden, traumatic or confused death. The soul does not see the light or hear the ancestors calling them home. There is nothing good about being haunted even if the spirit means no harm it can interfere with our energy field. Other non-blood related intrusions can haunt the living because they had wronged the them and are hoping to find forgiveness for their misbehaviors. Forgiveness can release them from the karmic implications of what they had done.  

Energetic or ritual pollution is a negative energetic imprint due to certain situations, places, articles and unskillful exposures to blood or to a dead person. To the Zulus, pollution is something that is spiritually “dirty.”

 

Be careful of what you taste and where you immerse – what you touch and what touches you.

 

One can also find references to many of these same ritual impurities in the Old Testament. In biblical times, anyone who had been in contact with a dead body, or who had eaten an animal that had not been killed in a kosher manner, was not allowed back into the community until he or she had been purified. Religious Jewish women are not allowed to be in contact with their husbands during menstruation. Kosher killing and preparation of meat required exsanguination and then extracting the remaining blood with the help of salt on the raw meat after the exsanguination.

Native Americans have similar beliefs around menstruation and a woman is not allowed to participate in a sweat lodge during this time.

Sangomas also recognize a state of ritual impurity resulting from sex during menses, contact with a corpse, and eating a dead animal found in the bush or road kill. Many will also purify themselves after officiating at funerals before doing any healing work.

Blood carries the life force and is seen to have power  - also in Satanic cults where it is used for demonic purposes.

Pollution can also occur after a toxic journey or an illness. 

In sangoma belief and in the Bible, land or places can be polluted or cursed. Sometimes fire is the only thing that can purify demonic evil and malevolence. 

“You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place.” Deuteronomy

Demonic worship is often practiced with such zealotry, determination and passion that its power has a lasting force for captivating and destroying. 

It is best that one not try to remove the rotten and decaying apples from the pile, but rather move the good apples far away. In some instances, if the stench and rot still present danger, then it may be appropriate for a cleansing, sterilizing and purifying to take place, but only by knowledgeable specialists in such matters.

Places where demonic rituals have been performed especially where there is water (river, lake or even underground) are difficult to purify. Water has consciousness, memory and resonance and can hold on to both profane and sacred vibrations. Objects may also be ritually impure such as war objects that have killed others, totems or masks etc. that have been used for dark purposes.

Witchcraft or sorcery. The commandment,

“Thou shalt not covet your neighbor or anything that belongs to your neighbor…”

 

is an edict against those with an evil eye, an evil tongue and an evil inclination. Witchcraft and sorcery were recognized as arising from someone with a heart of envy. Envy leads to covetousness which can have malignant consequences on others and severe karmic effects on the perpetrators.

The commandment not to covet one’s neighbor or anything that belongs to him or her is a preventative against jealous and malicious intention. Witches have a compulsion to prevent someone from getting things they deserve or to take away the things that they already have. For some it is a lucrative profession when done on behalf of others. A heart of envy arises out of an inherent dark shadow side or evil inclination. Witches and sorcerers with power are aligned with dark spirits who work with them as opposed to medicine men and women and indigenous healers who work with light spirits to do good. 

Witchcraft is more powerful if the victim believes in it and knows they have been bewitched (nocebo effect.) Fear from nocebo is a great ally. A hex is empowered if there is an underlying guilt arising from wrong doing which created the spell. At some, even a subconscious level, the victim knows they deserve to be hexed. Hexing also works non-locally through the Field with the help of tricksters and occult dark forces whether one believes it or not or knows about it or not. Witches and sorcerers have real power and are also able to manipulate the "Field" which is non-denominational, or spiritually neutral. Evil intentions go through the "Field" just as effectively as do healing ones. There is no curse that cannot be neutralized. Illness and misfortune can also occur because of hexes imposed by other malevolent people, not necessarily recognized as being sorcerers. The witch is often the traitor in the gates and assumes a benign appearance so that they can work unopposed.

Indigenous cultures, Kabbalists, the Celts (and Druids) and others are well aware of the power of tricksters and dark forces that can sabotage one’s life.

 

There is nothing you can think or intend that is not accessible to dark forces and that they will not attempt to corrupt.

 

The greatest ally of the dark is in making you believe they do not exist, so that they can operate unopposed. The dark side, sorcery and witchcraft were recognized by Kabbalah as part of the Omnipresent primordial light and darkness.

“I create the light and the dark – choose light!”

Lucifer, the Nephilim (the fallen angels) are real and not mythological. However, they assume different titles in varying cultures. 

 

“If you would dispel the darkness, seek the sacred.”

 

Soul loss or soul sickness. The soul and the body are supposed to be as one. The soul is pure, made in the image of the Divine and is always unified - it does not "split". When the body becomes subject to control by ego, monkey mind and shadow and the allure of sentient pleasures the soul may separate to a greater (soul loss) or lesser extent (soul sickness) from the body. There are many other factors besides physical, emotional and spiritual abuse by oneself (sex, drugs, rock and roll) or by others that can cause soul sickness or more rarely loss. These include trauma from war or violence, isolation and loneliness, severe burn out or illness or some of the spiritual diseases discussed here.