Editing Cherokee spiritual beliefs (section)

==Principal beliefs==
To the traditional Cherokee, spirituality is woven into the fabric of everyday life. The physical world is not separated from the spiritual world. They are one and the same. In her book ''Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700–1835'', historian Theda Perdue wrote of the Cherokee's historical beliefs:<ref name="Perdue" /><blockquote>"The Cherokee did not separate spiritual and physical realms but regarded them as one, and they practiced their religion in a host of private daily observances as well as in public ceremonies."</blockquote>

Cherokee [[cosmology]] traditionally includes a conception of the universe being composed of three distinct but connected worlds: the Upper World and the Under World, which are the domains of the spirits, and This World, where humans live.<ref name="Perdue">{{cite book |last1=Perdue |first1=Theda |title=Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 |date=1998 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=9780803235861}}</ref>

Unlike some other religions, in the Cherokee belief system, humans do not rule or have dominion over the earth, plants or animals. Instead, humans live in coexistence with all of creation. Humans mediate between all worlds in an attempt to maintain balance between them. Plants, animals, and other features of the natural world such as rivers, mountains, caves and other formations on the earth all have spiritual powers and attributes. Theda Perdue and Michael Green write in their book ''The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast'',<ref name="Columbia">{{cite book |last1=Michael D. Green |first1=Theda Perdue |title=The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast |date=June 22, 2005 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231506021}}</ref><blockquote>"These features served as mnemonic devices to remind them of the beginning of the world, the spiritual forces that inhabited it, and their responsibilities to it."</blockquote> Perdue also outlines the ways that Cherokee culture persisted through multiple attempts by Christian missionaries to convert them. Their strong ties to Selu, the corn mother in their creation story, put women in a position of power in their communities as harvesters of corn, a role they did not give up easily.<ref name="Columbia" />

===Sacred fire===
Fire is important in traditional Cherokee beliefs, as well as in other Indigenous cultures of the Southeastern United States.<ref name="Traditions">{{cite web |title=Cherokee Religious Traditions |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cherokee-religious-traditions |website=encyclopedia.com |access-date=21 August 2020}}</ref> In his book ''Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places'', anthropologist Peter Nabokov writes:<ref name="Nabokov">{{cite book |last1=Nabokov |first1=Peter |title=Where the Lightning Strikes The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places |date=March 27, 2007 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |isbn=9781440628597}}</ref>
<blockquote>"Fire was the medium of transformation, turning offerings into gifts for spiritual intercessors for the four quarters of the earth."</blockquote> 
From The Cherokee People by T.Mails, the sacred fire was a special gift to the Cherokee people and in their dance around that blessed fire they would become united as one mind.

===Balance===
To the traditional Cherokee, the concept of balance is central in all aspects of social and ceremonial life.<ref name="Traditions" /> In ''Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700–1835'', Theda Perdue writes:<ref name="Perdue" /> <blockquote>"In this belief system, women balanced men just as summer balanced winter, plants balanced animals, and farming balanced hunting."</blockquote>

===Sickness and healing===
Author John Reid, in his book titled ''A Law of Blood: The Primitive Law of the Cherokee Nation'', writes:<ref name="Reid">{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=John Phillip |title=A Law of Blood The Primitive Law of the Cherokee Nation |date=2006 |publisher=Northern Illinois University Press |isbn=9780875806082}}</ref> <blockquote>"All human diseases were imposed by animals in revenge for killing and each species had invented a disease with which to plague man."</blockquote>
According to Reid, some believed animal spirits who had been treated badly could retaliate by sending bad dreams to the hunter. These would cause the hunter to lose their appetite, become sick and die. To prevent this from happening the hunter must follow traditional protocols when hunting, to honor the animal and spiritual world and continually maintain balance.<ref name="Reid"/>

===Purity and sacred places===
Ritual purification is traditionally important for ceremonial and ongoing spiritual balance. Bathing in rivers, year-round, is one traditional method, even in the winter when ice is on the river.<ref name="Nabokov" /> Anthropologist Peter Nabokov writes of a river known as "Long Man":<ref name="Nabokov" /><blockquote>"For the Cherokee who bathed in his body, who drank from him and invoked his curative powers, the Long Man always helped them out."</blockquote>
He went on to say:<ref name="Nabokov" /> <blockquote>"At every critical turn in a man's life, the river's blessings were imparted through the 'going to the water' rite, which required prayers that were lent spiritual force with 'new water' from free-flowing streams."</blockquote>