We Are Made of Time: Astrology and Healing in Rakhine State, Myanmar

Abstract:Grounded in data collected over multiple fieldworks among Buddhist communities living in Rakhine State between 2005 and 2011, this work explores the reasons for the ubiquity of astrology among apotropaic and healing practices employed by these communities. I suggest that it is astrology's mastery of time, its capacity to connect individual and cosmic time that explains its dominant position. It is indeed because of this capacity that astrology allows to see, predict, and manipulate cosmic connections on which individual and cosmic order and wellbeing depend. This article will first elaborate on Burmese astrological theory to show how the practice is part of Buddhist cosmology and how, by virtue of its mastery of time, it holds the key of the grammar it shares with other healing practices. I will then present the case study of a healer to show how these characteristics of astrology provide the basis for its dominant position in the field of health.