The Mystic’s Refuge Thaumaturgy as Sanctuary in Kashmir’s Troubled Times

The Inheritance of Miracles

When the world becomes too heavy, the soul seeks lighter realms. In Kashmir’s valleys, where the weight of history presses like perpetual winter, the ancient art of wonderworking has never been more vital—or more desperate. Kashmir’s spiritual landscape was forged in the crucible of centuries, where Buddhism flourished under the Mauryas and Kushanas, eventually giving way to a native tradition of Shaivism that arose in the ninth century during the Karkota Dynasty. But it was Kashmir Shaivism—that profound monistic philosophy developed by luminaries like Abhinavagupta—that created the intellectual foundation for what would become one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of spiritual thaumaturgy.

Unlike theurgy, which focuses on invoking divine powers, thaumaturgy concerns itself with utilizing occult principles to achieve specific outcomes in the tangible world. In Kashmir’s unique spiritual ecology, this practical mysticism found fertile ground. The Pratyabhijnā, or “Recognition,” system taught that the entire universe is a manifestation of Shiva, and through meditation and spiritual practices, individuals could attain liberation—and with it, extraordinary powers.

The Valley’s saints and Sufis became living repositories of wonderworking traditions. Shrine culture, though considered syncretism in orthodox puritanical Islam, became deeply rooted in Kashmir, with the Kashmiri Muslim community relying on shrines as alternate power centres that were more transcendental. These sacred spaces served as laboratories of the miraculous, where the boundaries between the possible and impossible grew gossamer-thin.

The Anthropology of Wonder in Crisis

Research across 114 diverse societies reveals that nearly all cultures develop supernatural explanations for natural phenomena—96% for disease, 92% for natural disasters, and 90% for drought. But here lies a crucial insight: societies develop more supernatural explanations for social phenomena as they grow larger and more complex, particularly when people know and trust each other less. Kashmir, caught in the vortex of decades-long conflict, exemplifies this pattern with stark clarity. Since the 1989 insurgency erupted, the valley has witnessed tens of thousands of casualties, human rights abuses, and the systematic erosion of social trust. In such circumstances, thaumaturgy transforms from luxury to necessity—not merely spiritual practice but psychological survival mechanism.

Shamanic traditions worldwide recognize that practitioners often emerge from communities experiencing crisis, serving as wounded healers who address not only physical symptoms but the spiritual and communal aspects of suffering. Kashmir’s contemporary wonder-workers—whether Sufi healers, tantric practitioners, or village wise women—fulfil precisely this role.

The Sacred Economy of Miracles

In troubled societies, thaumaturgy operates on multiple economic levels. Among many cultures, shamanism provides vital economic revenue, particularly for women living under patriarchal constraints who find in spiritual practice one of their few paths to financial independence. Kashmir’s current reality reflects this pattern: as traditional livelihoods collapse under conflict’s weight, the sacred arts become economic lifelines.

But the deeper economics involve hope itself. Miraculous powers are considered the “natural” result of ascetic practice in Hindu and Buddhist belief systems, with the reality of such powers never doubted even when considered spiritually negligible. This creates what we might call a “hope economy”—a parallel system where the currency is faith and the commodity is possibility.

Consider the village healer who promises to divine the fate of a disappeared son, or the Sufi who offers protective amulets against night raids. These transactions occur outside conventional economic frameworks but serve essential social functions: they preserve agency in contexts where formal power structures have failed, and they maintain community bonds when institutional trust has eroded.

Thaumaturgy as Resistance

Kashmir Shaivism originally emerged as a domestication of radical Kaula tantric movements, with practices that were “toned down, concealed under the guise of propriety, or interpreted as metaphors.” This tradition of concealment reveals thaumaturgy’s political dimension: wonderworking becomes a form of soft resistance, preserving autonomous space within systems of control.

In contemporary Kashmir, where the security compulsions have made it imperative to station an abnormally large number of troops and paramilitary personnel for anti-terrorist, law & order, and connected duties of keeping vital road axes open, etc., the practice of traditional spiritual arts represents more than religious observance. It constitutes cultural persistence, a refusal to let the soul’s landscape be colonized along with the political terrain.

Despite tensions, Kashmir maintains remarkable religious harmony at the grassroots level, communities collaborating across faith lines, and shared participation in each other’s religious ceremonies. This syncretistic spirit, nurtured through centuries of shared thaumaturgical traditions, becomes itself a form of resistance against forces that seek to divide along communal lines.

The Digital Age Mystic

Modern thaumaturgy adapts with startling flexibility. While contemporary magicians draw from wide-ranging historical and cultural sources to create eclectic and personalized systems of magic, Kashmir’s practitioners face unique challenges. How does one practice divination when mobile internet is frequently suspended? How do healing circles function under curfew? The answers reveal human ingenuity: sacred practices migrate to domestic spaces, healing networks operate through whispered referrals, and protective rituals adapt to include prayers for peaceful nights and safe passage through checkpoints. Traditional arts serve as tangible links to the past, fostering connection with ancestors and their wisdom while communicating guidance for present and future endeavours.

The Physiology of Faith

Neurological research suggests shamanic practices provide valuable benefits to practitioners, their groups, and individual clients, developing reliably across cultures because they address fundamental human needs. In Kashmir’s hyper-vigilant atmosphere, where trauma becomes normalized and anxiety chronic, thaumaturgical practices offer crucial neurological relief by helping perpetuate that trauma.

The rhythmic breathing of dhikr, the focused attention of mantra recitation, the communal healing of traditional ceremonies—these practices regulate nervous systems pushed beyond sustainable limits. They provide what medical anthropology recognises as culturally appropriate interventions for collective trauma.

Toward a Philosophy of Practical Magic

What Kashmir teaches us about thaumaturgy extends far beyond its valleys. The global prevalence of supernatural explanations for natural phenomena represents humanity’s persistent need to find meaning in mystery. But Kashmir’s experience reveals something deeper: in societies under stress, wonderworking becomes less about controlling external forces and more about preserving internal sovereignty.

The metaphor of energy manipulation that underlies thaumaturgy—the belief that the world is filled with various forms of energy that can be harnessed and directed through magical practices—takes on profound significance in contexts where conventional power structures have failed. When political agency is constrained, spiritual agency becomes paramount.

The traditional Kashmiri greeting “Adaab,” meaning respect or honour, captures this ethos. It acknowledges the divine spark in every encounter, suggesting that every human interaction contains potential for the miraculous. This isn’t mere politeness but thaumaturgical practice: the recognition that consciousness itself is the primary tool for transformation.

The Future of Wonder

As Kashmir’s young generation grows up amid conflict, they inherit both trauma and ancient tools for transcendence. Political turmoil has created a generation for whom “rebelling and revolting has become part of a bourgeoning number of young Kashmiris’ culture.” Yet alongside political resistance, many also inherit thaumaturgical traditions—subtler but perhaps more enduring forms of power.

The challenge lies in transmission. The erosion of traditional practices due to modernization, displacement, and loss of elders threatens the survival of invaluable skills and techniques. Kashmir faces the dual challenge of preserving these traditions while adapting them to contemporary realities.

The Universal Sanctuary

Kashmir’s experience with thaumaturgy illuminates a universal human truth: in times of trouble, we don’t abandon the miraculous—we need it more desperately. Primitive peoples inhabit a “wonderworld charged with sacred power, spirits, and deities,” experiencing the uncanny and powerful as manifestations of sacred or numinous forces. Modern Kashmir, despite its sophistication, returns to this primal recognition.

The Valley’s thaumaturgical traditions offer something more precious than solutions: they offer sanctuary. Not physical refuge—those have proven tragically elusive—but spaces of meaning where the soul can rest, gather strength, and remember its own capacity for wonder.

In a world increasingly defined by the quantifiable and controllable, Kashmir’s mystics preserve something essential: the recognition that reality remains fundamentally mysterious, that human consciousness contains untapped possibilities, and that even in the darkest times, the extraordinary remains available to those who know how to look.

The editorial in Greater Kashmir was right to highlight thaumaturgy’s prevalence in troubled times. But perhaps its real significance lies not in its prevalence but in its persistence—the stubborn human refusal to accept that the visible world contains all there is. In Kashmir’s valleys, where beauty and suffering intertwine like incense and smoke, the ancient arts of wonderworking continue their patient labour: keeping alive the possibility that even here, even now, miracles remain possible.

For in the end, thaumaturgy’s greatest magic may be its simplest: the transformation of despair into possibility, one prayer, one ritual, one moment of transcendence at a time.

Tamanna M. Shah is Dr. Eric A. Wagner Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ohio University, USA.