Navajo Sand Paintings

The Navajo sandpaintings are known as the places where the Gods come and go. The sand paintings are used in the ceremonies when they are asking for help in their healing and harvesting. The figure that you see in a sand painting is a symbol of their story in the mythology of the Navajo. The figures display sacred mountains that the God lives at or a vision from the Gods. They sand paintings could also display the chants and rituals used during ceremonies.

What Are Sand Paintings

The individuals who are doing the healing will choose a number of different sand paintings to use on the individual that they are healing and will never be allowed to use all the chants or sand paintings in one swoop. They will have to use the sand paintings at different times in order to use them all. During this nightly period, the chant is done with one sand painting being made the first night and during the other nights, they make other sand paintings throughout the nine night ceremonial period.

When the chanter begins, he will create the sand painting until he is satisfied. The person who needs to be healed will then sit on the sand painting while the healer begins his chant. This allows for the sand painting to work by releasing the healing power of the image. Once the chant is completed, the individual will immediately take the image outside of their Hogan to the North and return the sand to its rightful place, the earth.

Belief

In their belief, the Navajo use the sand paintings as a way to heal because it brings out the Holy people and their power. They use the images as a way to attract the holy being and creates a level of respect for the mutual exchange of power to heal and remove the illness. The power in the sand painting is that it allows for the patient and forces to reconnect allowing the spiritual power and physical health of the individual to be reestablished. By doing this, the patient then is corrected in all of life.

The sand painting that is made by the Navajo will be of dynamics and a sacred entity. This allows for the patient to be transformed to their mental and their physical state by focusing on the image that is created. The symbols used for the chant will create a pathway to connect between the events that were once lived and the events of today.