Native American Religion

Navajo Sand Paintings

 

Navajo sand paintings are dry paintings and are the "places where gods come and go". These paintings are often used during ceremonies of healing or harvest.

 

"For the Navajo, the sandpainting is a dynamic, living, sacred entity that enables the patient to transform his or her mental and physical state by focusing on the powerful mythic symbols that re-create the chantway odyssey of the storys protagonist, causing those events to live again in the present."

 

Through the images and symbols represented in the sand paintings, the Navajo believe that the Holy People become attracted to the art and thus use their healing powers on the patient who is sick. Thus, "The sandpainting works its healing power by reestablishing the patient's sense of connectedness to all of life"        ( Griffin-Pierce 1991:66).