Witchcraft
Witchcraft to the Navajo exists as the basis of being. "When it ceases to exist, so will this creation." There is a balance of witchcraft that the Navajo hold sacred. The individual holds the power of good or evil, therefore it is the individual who dictates whether their power is used for good or evil. Witchcraft is essential however, to the beliefs and practices of everyday life.
Origins
Witchcraft stems from the creation of the Navajo. The Navajo call their creation story the Diné Bahaneʼ or the "Story of the People." The myth tells the emergence of the Navajo as well as their land, the Dineh'tah. The story follows deities and the supernatural witch the First Man and First woman through their journey through the four worlds, until they reached the fourth world, the land of the Navajo today. The myth is significant as it established values, belief, morality and emphasizes spiritual connection through its later reverence in Navajo society. The image to the left is a depiction of the First Man and the First Woman emerging from the First World into the Second. Their journey is vital to the practices and beliefs that are significant in everyday life.
Good or Evil?
The use of Navajo witchcraft is neither good nor evil. As Robert McPherson depicts in his textbook Dinéjí Na`nitin, how power associated with witchcraft is harnessed is determined by the individual. It is the goodness and evil that lie within a person that draw upon upon spiritual power necessary to conduct the physical power necessary to witchcraft. Even Christopher Vecsey in Navajo Morals and Myths, Ethics and Ethicists states, "In such an interrelated, personal world fraught with danger, one ought to attain and reiterate over a lifetime an orderly conduct—a harmonious, symmetrical, balanced equilibrium of paired forces as a means to avoid harm. Such rectification is the basis for Navajo law as well as ritual (Vecsey, 86)." These statements depict that good and evil are complimentary partners that cannot be separated in Navajo life and witchcraft.
"In traditional Navajo thought, control of spiritual power leads to control of physical power. How that power is used, be it for good or evil, depends not on its source but on how a person chooses to employ it. Goodness and evil are inverse images of each other, with similar but reversed principles guiding both. One brings life, the other death; one blesses, the other curses; one is orderly and prescribed, the other chaotic. Each of these qualities in opposition to the other fosters appreciation for life and the creations of the holy people. They are all sacred, are here for the People’s use, and carry results and consequences."
- Robert S. McPherson in Dinéjí Na`nitin Chapter Three: Sacred Evil: The Dark Side of Life along the San Juan
Good and evil are coexistent among each other, meaning that there are circumstances in which the two powers work together. The complimentary use of good and evil are commonly used in everyday ritual settings. Medicine men are important leaders in the Navajo tribe, as well as healers. As a healer the medicine man chants and sings, but most importantly holds the knowledge of how their people emerged into the world. They use the powers of good and evil in order to aid their community. However, there are other forms of Navajo witchcraft that use spiritual knowledge and connection in order to cause harm.
Medicine Men
Nesjaja Hatali a Navajo medicine man