Gila Monster- Navajo SpiritSpirit · Beast
Also known as: Na'ashǫ́'ii
Description
When illness strikes and no one knows its cause, a hand-trembler extends a palm over the patient's body and lets it shake. The trembling points to the source of sickness and names the ceremony needed to cure it. This power comes from the Gila Monster, who taught the first diviners to channel the same quivering that runs through its beaded body.
Mythology & Lore
The Trembling Gift
In the early times, when illness struck and no one could name its cause, the Gila Monster offered its own power. The lizard's beaded body trembles when aroused, a quivering that runs from head to tail. It taught selected humans to channel that same trembling into ndilniih, hand-trembling divination.
The practitioner enters a trance and extends a hand over the patient's body. The hand begins to shake on its own, moving in patterns the diviner reads: pointing to the seat of illness, tracing directions, spelling out the cause. Lightning exposure or contact with the dead each demands its own chantway. Without the Gila Monster's diagnosis, no hatałii knows which ceremony to perform.
The Diviner's Burden
The gift often runs in families, passed from one generation to the next, though others may receive it through proper approach and preparation. But the Gila Monster did not give freely. A hand-trembler must make offerings and observe the correct prayers before and after every divination. Neglect these and the ability fades. Worse, a diviner who treats the gift carelessly risks falling ill from the same power meant to diagnose illness in others.
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