Passing through trees as a magical cure against illness

Up until the early 20th century, the insufficiencies of medical services left most of the rural population dependent on traditional folk medicine and healing rituals conducted by the cunning folk – older men and women who were specialists in healing and experts of magical charms and rituals. Traditional folk medicine included forms of ritual healing where prayers, charms or spells accompanied rituals as means of treatment. “Passing through” or “passing under” were amongst the most persistent and widespread healing practices to have survived and recorded in the folklore archives. The practice meant that a sick person had to pass through – usually by crawling or being lifted through – a natural or man-made opening in a tree, through rocks or the earth itself, normally at dawn or midnight. This article is based on approximately 300 accounts from the Dialect and Folklore Archives in Uppsala describing the method of passing through trees. According to the archival sources, it was a common method for curing rickets, especially in young children, but it could also be used to cure a variety of other illnesses and for protection against sorcery. The article also explores other uses of the ritual of “passing through”, and discusses offerings that were left at the healing trees after the ritual had been completed.