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This is the 15th in the series of blog entries I began with #101-- a collection of notes and essays (and book reviews, I'm just realizing) from my files all dealing in one way or another with the emerging new religious consciousness. They are mostly things I've written over the last decade or two to clarify my own thoughts but which I would like to make available for anyone who might be interested.
ARCHIVE. For a list of all my published posts:
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This is the 15th in the series of blog entries I began with #101-- a collection of notes and essays (and book reviews, I'm just realizing) from my files all dealing in one way or another with the emerging new religious consciousness. They are mostly things I've written over the last decade or two to clarify my own thoughts but which I would like to make available for anyone who might be interested.
Post #115 is a collection of notes on books I looked at in the early 1990s, all dealing with what might be called our "mythic imagination"-- if that term had a clear meaning in our culture.
If you have questions and think I might be of help, you're welcome to send me a note: sam@macpeno.com
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THE SACRED PAW, Shepard, Paul and Barry Sanders
Viking, 1985
Reviewed Mar 1992. There's even more information here than in the
recent book on bear rites, GIVING VOICE TO BEAR.
See the footnote reference, page 188, for a Book of Hours in the
British Museum which depicts 30 scenes of hunting culture rituals. I wonder if
that's available anywhere?
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RITES AND SYMBOLS OF INITIATION, Mirceau Eliade
1966 HarperCollins
Reviewed Mar 1992. Initiation rites are essentially death-rebirth
rites; ultimately, all are based on puberty rituals. They find their full flower
in shamanic initiation rites. The shaman is the ideal type of the "re-made
man." He is exemplar of humanness, which is essentially religious. (I
don't think I'd previously read this book, yet almost nothing here is new!)
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NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES: European Contributions
Pieter Hovens, ed. 1981, Gottingen, Edition Herodot
Reviewed Apr 1992. Two volumes (2nd: 1984). These essays vary
immensely; they are poorly translated, often pompously academic, and deal to a
great extent with sociological data.
I made the ILL request (it came from Princeton) to see the article
by Rolf Krusche (of the Leipzig Museum of Anthropology), "The Wabeno Cult
as a Adversary of the Medewiwin." It's very disappointing. Talks mostly
about Wabeno's "bad press" as being created by the Medi; offers an
example of Parry Island where the opposite happened: Wabeno is the established
religion and Mede is "devil worship." Other than the fact that they
danced all night (ending at dawn) and handled hot things (the way Hekoka do), and
were 'founded' by Morning Star the article gives no information about them.
Volume I contains an interesting essay about the Castaneda books.
Volume II has a long article by Ake Hultkrantz about Swedish contributions to
NA (especially NA religions) studies; the Swedes really do deserve much credit.
The only other essay of interest is Franco Meli (U of Rome), "Charles A.
Eastman: A Parabola of Integration." (Very sympathetic. Claims that SOUL
OF AN INDIAN is his most important book, and that it remains valid today as
profound critique of white culture's lost-ness.)
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TENDING THE FIRE, The Ritual Men's Group, Wayne Liebman. Ally
Press, 1991
Reviewed Apr 1992. This is a gem of a book. Only 57 pages total,
and the main points are made in the first forty. Highly confirming of our men's
group process and my personal understanding of ritual. 'Verification' might be
a better word than 'confirming.
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INNER TRADITIONS OF MAGIC, William Gray. Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1970.
Reviewed Apr, 1992. By the same author: SEASONAL OCCULT RITUALS; it might be worth
looking at. This is the first real book about 'magic' I've ever read. It never
uses the words "craft" or "witchcraft" and doesn't seem
feminist or earth goddess oriented in a contemporary sense.
The author plunges right in, in chapter one, with a discussion of
images as divine energies which are the basis of our existence, and of ritual
as the process by which we make them our own. The language is exotic, to be
sure, but the concepts are quite clear. Far more even than Wayne Leibman's
book, this is highly confirming of my own understandings.
The real essence of the work (of magic) seems to be creating of
sacred space via the circle/cross; here the guardians of the four directions
are called by the names of archangels, but there is also an above and below and
emphasis on the individual as the center of it all. Not unfamiliar, to be sure!
At least from this book I see a difference between this kind of activity and
shamanism: it's the work of individuals or small groups, and perhaps even
"for all" in some sense, but never do I get the idea that the
practitioner acts to help another, less able, to come in contact with the
powers. I.e., there's no sense of the kind of healing and/or diving rites so
characteristic of shamanism.
The author says very many good things about the importance of a
modern calendar which keeps ties with the important ancient dates. He says
something like "This recovery is one of the most important things needed
in our time."
This book contains the only authoritative description I've ever
read of the Black Mass. Essentially it is the intentional use of power to do
evil, specifically by conceiving a child which would in some way be an
incarnation of evil powers. There's also a description of an "incarnation
of God" ceremony, where twelve "potent males," representing the
fullness of masculine attributes, donate semen used to artificially inseminate
an "untouched virgin." The resulting child, after 32 years, becomes a
sacrificial victim. Overall view: despite odd things like these rites, this is
a remarkably sensible book.
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THE CIRCLE OF LIFE, David Cohen
May, 1992. Wonderful photos from around the world. The LIFE
magazine issue printed most of the best things.
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BY STANDING STONE AND ELDER TREE, by William C. Gray (Llewellyn,
1990).
Reviewed May 1992. In the Cotswold area in England there is a very
old circle of stones which the author, via ESP, has tuned into and come up with
this book about how the stones were used; it also includes much theory behind
such activities. Main idea: stone (including crystal) is especially able to
hold psychic 'vibrations' that can be 'read' by someone willing to make the
effort. He claims the Cotswold circle is much older than Stonehenge.
It's quite interesting. Gray is also the author of the above
reviewed INNER TRADITIONS OF MAGIC. Ads in the back mention one book which might
be worth looking at: THE NATURE AND USE OF RITUAL, Dr. Peter Roche de
Coppens. 0-87542-675-1 (Llewellyn, 19??). (I never got to it.)
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TURTLE ISLAND ALPHABET, A Lexicon of Native American Symbols
and Culture, by Gerald Hausman. St Martin's Pr, 1992.
Reviewed May, 1992. Eighty or so NA-related items are described
here: From arrow, basket, bead, bear... to yucca and zigzag. The style is
somewhat fuzzy ("poetic") but readable for the most part. Nothing
new, as far as I can see, but much appreciation of NA perspectives, which is
good enough. The author is from New Mexico and the references are all heavily
southwest oriented, so it's not as interesting as it might be for my taste. For
example, "pipe" here means only a sacred object, not a way of life.
Many old and fascinating photos, which are merely credited but not, alas,
described.
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SPIRIT, SPIRIT. Shaman Songs and Incantations
David Cloutier
1973, Copper Beach Pr
ISBN 0-914278-30-4
Reviewed April, 1992. A small book. It contains poem-like versions
of some shaman songs originally published in classic texts around 1900:
Siberian, Eskimo and Northwest Coast. "Limited edition, 1000 copies."
Not clear who the author is or why it was published.
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THE MYTHIC IMAGINATION, Stephen Larsen
1990, Bantam
ISBN 0-553-07096-7
Reviewed, Apr 1992. Much here is of basic interest. Several things
I want to note.
1. "To put on airs" means "to put on Ares (= Mars);
i. e, male ego pretensions.
2. Concerning inner, psychological work: "At best, this kind
of work is a dialogue.... Imagination is followed by interpretation (and
response, if needed) and more imagination again-- Image: Idea: Image, and so
on."
This basic pattern seems to be the way in which creativity best
unfolds: "inspiration" and "perspiration" follow each other
in a rhythm....(p 219) (If I can claim anything, it is faithfulness to this
process.)
3. "It is wonderful and gratifying to see people improve
their feelings of self-worth, not through the aggrandizement of the perennially
inflated ego, but through realizing that in their own depths lie transpersonal
wisdom figures and an inexhaustible and creative life force."(p 233)
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MAKE PRAYERS TO THE RAVEN, A Koyukon View of the Northern
Forests, Richard K. Nelson
1986 U of Chi Pr. ISBN 0-226-57163-7
Reviewed Apr 1992. Unlike Nelson's earlier books, here he tries to make sense of the "supernatural" aspects of the world experienced by "Northern Hunters."
This work was done in the late 1970's. Data was collected in a small
village along the Yukon River, among the Koyukon people. He tries (and succeeds
nicely) to codify the principles and to some extent the practices underlying
this people's experience of nature. They are an Athapaskan people--
hunter-gatherers-- to whom the Navojos and Apaches are related. The author is
personally unsuccessful; as he says, "I don't understand the
spirits." But it's a good attempt. He lists numerous individual 'inanimate
objects,' places, plants and animals, along with something about their natural
history and what kinds of taboos need to be observed and the consequences of
breaking the taboos. But he himself quite literally cannot feel into the
worldview, nor thus pass it on to the reader. (So close! I guess it's good that
a WASP anthropologist can go as far as he did!)
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PIMAN SHAMANISM AND STAYING SICKNESS
Donald Bahr, Juan Gregorio, David Lopez, and Albert Alvarez.
1974, U of AZ Pr
ISBN 0-8165-0303-6
Reviewed Apr 1992. A willing Piman shaman was extensively
interviewed over a period of a year and a half, on the nature of certain
afflictions, here called 'staying sicknesses,' which affect only Pimans, and
which come about by violation of various taboos (mostly disrespect of various
kinds shown toward certain objects and animals).
The shaman's answers are given in the original language, then in
transliteration, then in translation, then paraphrased and summarized. It is
tedious and deadly, yet the content is certainly of interest.
If I had the time and good will to seriously study the text, a
fruitful line of approach would be to compare the worldviews of this group
(part of the Papagos of the southwest and northern Mexico) with those of
Nelson's "hunters of the northern forests" in Make Prayers to the
Raven.
For example: In both perspectives, non-believers (or those
ignorant of what they are doing) are not affected, for the most part; and a
very large number of taboos are sexually differentiated. It would take more
time and energy than I have available.
Of special interest: Among the Pimam, girls become women via first
menstruation. But a boy becomes a man by doing something for the welfare of the
community. Three examples are given: one is a warrior task, killing a tribal
enemy; the others are ritual/hunting acts: obtaining eagle feathers from an
eagle or a pilgrimage-quest for ocean salt.
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THE RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS, Ake Hultkrantz
1979, U of CA Pr. ISBN 0-520-02653-5
Reviewed Apr, 1992. Read and reviewed previously. (Hard to tell
which of H's books I've previously seen; all have very similar titles.)
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FOLKTALE, FICTION AND SAGA IN HOMERIC EPICS
Carpenter, Rhys. Rutgers U.
Two chapters out of eight deal with the Bear story: death/resurrection
forty days after winter solstice. (Shocking that "Bear" shows up in
the Homer stories of 25 centuries ago.) "Bear" may be foundational
for much of Western myth as well as NA stories!
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THE OJIBWAY WOMAN by Ruth Landes, AMS Press 1969. (first published
1938, Columbia U.)
Reviewed May 1992. This book was sent (via ILL) by mistake. I'd
asked for some other similar title by the same author. It contains a remarkable
amount of interesting information about sexual differences in the Cree-Ojibway
culture, gathered 'in the field' by the author. Clearly from anthropology's
collecting, rather than interpreting, stage. Nothing so far that I want to
note.
The information all was given by one woman to the author, also a
woman; it's clear that the informant intensely dislikes male shamans, and
perhaps males generally. No question women were second class citizens, but this
frequently reads like unremissive feminist bitching. (1938!)
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TETON SIOUX MUSIC, Frances Densmore.
1988 Reprint, ISBN 0-317-90156-7
Reviewed May, 1992. A monster book, almost 600 pages! Original
published in1915.
This book gives the musical notation and text (both English and
Sioux-- Dakota, I think) for numerous songs. It also contains unbelievably
uninteresting commentary on the music itself (surely a labor of love), but also
the stories which go along with the songs. Who first sang them, under what
conditions, ceremonial songs, pipe songs, sundance songs, sacred stones songs,
bear healing songs, buffalo songs, hunt songs, war songs, game songs,
childrens' songs, etc. Simply to page through and read 'whatever caught my eye'
took a week of evenings! (And I never did finish paging through.)
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THE SACRED SCROLLS OF THE SOUTHERN OJIBWAY, Selwyn Dewdney
1974, U of Toronto Pr ISBN 0-8357-3991-0
Reviewed May, 1992. This is one of the most awfully written books
I've encountered. Admittedly, the material is difficult. But when the author
begins his acknowledgments with the comment that he no longer has violent
feelings toward the original editorial reader, you can expect less than a
perfect job!
There are many hundreds of scrolls in existence, found in an area
centering on northern MN and southern central Canada. Many of them make little
sense even to the author. They seem to contain origin accounts and descriptions
of the four stages of the Mediwiwin lodge.
There are probably not any three consecutive sentences in the book
which follow logical one after the other. I think the book may contain some
interesting material on webenowiwim, and it definitely contains interesting
material on the tent-shaking form of shamanism. But it remains for the most
part in accessible. Several weeks of full time study would be needed to sort
out the good stuff. Maybe at some later date....
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THE OMAHA TRIBE, Alice C. Fletcher and F. La Flesche; 1971 Reprint
(2 vols!) ISBN 0-384-16000-X
Reviewed May 1992. I didn't have more than a few days, while I was
sick, to look at these two volumes. It constitutes a tremendous summary of
Omaha culture, published around 1905 and so including many bits of information
from pre-reservation days. Omahas occupied much of present day Nebraska. Worth
pursuing at leisure eventually.
===
MY OLD PEOPLE SAY, Catharine McClellan
1975, Ottawa ISBN 0-660-00064-4 or
ISBN 0-686-88482-5 (2 vols!)
Reviewed May 1992. As with the previous book (Fletcher's The
Omaha Tribe), I didn't have more than a few days, while I was sick, to look
at these volumes. This work was done in the 60's and 70's in the Yukon area.
Three related tribes are studied. Much of interest. Again, as with the previous
title, it may well we worth pursuing at leisure, eventually.
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