BY JEDIAEL CARTER Staff reporter carterj@jamaicaobserver.com Sunday, December 17, 2017
YOU see the advertisements promising remedies to all your problems — sickness, wealth, legal matters — they fix it all. But are Indian astrologers operating in Jamaica in contravention of the nation's laws?
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| Obeah or Astrology |
“The way they advertise themselves and the services they offer is an assertion of superior capabilities. In other words, they are saying that they are capable of doing things that a doctor cannot do, a lawyer cannot do and other persons cannot do, but somehow, were you to visit them, they can do it,” said veteran attorney-at-law Linton Gordon.
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Attorney-at-law Linton Gordon. |
The astrologers proclaim their ability to provide solutions to sexual problems, enemies, children, special problems, protection, financial issues, bad luck, education, promotion, career troubles, addiction, depression, childlessness, prediction of one's future, healing illnesses, better love life or marriage, getting a visa and much more — abilities some would argue are similar to that of an obeah worker, whose practices are outlawed in Jamaica.
Obeah, as described by Kenneth Bilby and Jerome Handler in a research paper titled Obeah: Healing and Protection in West Indian Slave Life, is “a wide variety of beliefs and practices involving the control or channelling of supernatural or spiritual forces, usually for socially beneficial ends such as treating illness, bringing good fortune, protecting against harm, and avenging wrongs”. more
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