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Ripinsky-Naxon explores the core and essence of shamanism by looking at its ritual, mythology, symbolism, and the dynamics of its cultural process. In dealing with the basic elements of shamanism, the author discusses the shamanistic experience and enlightenment, the inner personal crisis, and the many aspects entailed in the role of the shaman.
"This book is provocative! It is a 'thinking book;' the reader cannot remain passive. It makes one realize that truths are constantly being rediscovered in all cultures throughout all time—how we create culture and how culture in turn creates us—the circle of truths, ancient and modern. I was sometimes awestruck by the comprehension of the author. A profound and powerful work, I enjoyed it to the last sentence." — Lana Clark
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1 - Introduction: A Personal Dialectic
2 - Shamanism and Culture: Configurations of a Religious Metaphor
Cultural Ethos and Mysticism
Hunting Magic
Master of the Animals-The Lady of Wild Things
The Spiral and the Labyrinth
Shamanism and Ancient Egyptian Religion
Shamanistic Metaphors, Techniques, and Appurtenances
Mongolian Shamanism
The Celtic Religion
The Role of the Shaman
3 - Substance and Function of Shamanism
Definitions and Problems
"Answering the Call," Initiation, and Shamanic Enlightenment
The Shamanistic Experience
Shamanism and Psychopathology
4 - The Psychotropic Universe: Cosmology of the Spirit World
Cosmic Transformations
Corresponding Realities and Otherworlds
Numerical Potencies
Rock Crystals and the Hexagonal Universe
Reason and Order
5 - The Ritual Drug Complex: Ethnobiology of Heaven and Hell
The Drug Ceremonial
Psychoactivity and Mechanisms of Hallucinations
Phosphenes
6 - The Botanic Experience: Hallucinogens in Archaeology and Ethnohistory
The Old World
The New World
The Quest for Magical Plants and the Origins of Cultivation
7 - The Power of Metaphors: Phenomenology of Symbolic Forms
Language, Perception, and Reality
Metaphor, Myth, and Transcendence
Visionary Experiences and Art
Phosphenes and Shamanistic Symbolism
Shamanistic Parallels and Survivals
Notes
Bibliography
Index