Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman (Compass) 0140194967, 9780140194968

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,

OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT RITUAL, MAGIC,

AND INITIATION LIFE

IN

THE

OF AN AFRICAN SHAMAN "Malidoma Some's

vision

0? °"jB encompasses two worlds and weaves the lessons

of both

into a fine tapestry."

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.

author of

WOMEN WHO RUN

WITH THE WOLVES and

THE GIFT OF STORY

MALIDOMA PATRICE SOME

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2013

http://archive.org/details/ofwaterspiritritOOsome

Of Water and

Praise for

"Some

stands

on the threshold between the

and the modern world of clearly into the

facts

and

world of magic and living

tribal

linear logic.

wounds of these opposing

and sincerity of the writing

the Spirit

reveals the

He

ritual

writes as a diviner, seeing

The knowledge, compassion broken heart in each world and insists on realms.

mutual healing and understanding."

—Michael Meade, author of Men and

"Inspirational

the

and deeply moving

human need

lives.

new

.

.

.

[this]

to 'be a friend to strangers

Malidoma reminds

We

for the old.

us that

we cannot

must learn

to

the

Water of Life

autobiography powerfully

illustrates

and enemies' in our contemporary

sacrifice the old for the

new; or the

walk the 'braided' way and bridge different

worlds without losing our ancestral roots and spiritual integrity."

—Angeles

Arrien, author of The Four-Fold

"This vivid autobiography takes readers into spirits,

walking dead people, force

fields,

a

Way and

Signs of Life

world of black magic, palpable

transdimensional journeys

—

a

world

as

strange as anything in imaginative fiction."

—

Publishers Weekly

Reading Malidoma Patrice Some's story we experience the working of a myth authentically and fully lived. Westerners can thank him for bringing to us his Africa sound vision. Once you experience his story you cannot see your world ever again in the same way." Marion Woodman, Jungian Analyst "Unforgettable.

.

.

.

.

.

.

—

"Some walks

in

two worlds, and

adventures in both. belly of African

ordeals of his

—

A

this

is

a rousing

account of

his

scholar as well as a shaman, he takes his readers into the

wisdom, providing

own

autobiography

a rare

account of divination,

ritual,

and the

initiation."

Stanley Krippner, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Institute

co-author of Personal Mythology and The

Spiritual

Dimensions of Healing

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Malidoma

Patrice

Some, born

in

Upper

Volta

(now

Burkina Faso), West Africa, is initiated in the ancestral traditions of his tribe, and is a medicine man and diviner in the Dagara culture. He holds three masters degrees and two doctorates from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University, and has taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is also the author of Ritual: Power, Healing and Community. He currently devotes himself to speaking and, with his wife, Sobonfu, conducting intensive workshops throughout the United States. They live in Oakland, California.

Magic, and Initiation the Life of an African Shaman

Ritual, in

MXLIDOMA PXTWCG SOM£ Al

PENGUIN COMPASS Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, Penguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Published by the Penguin

M4V

Ontario, Canada

3B2

(a division

of Pearson Penguin

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen's Green, Dublin

WC2R

Canada

U.S.A.

Inc.)

ORL, England

2, Ireland (a division of

Penguin Books Ltd)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia

Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd,

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Community

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Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland,

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(Pty) Ltd,

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Zealand Ltd)

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WC2R ORL,

England

20 Copyright

© Malidoma Patrice Some,

1994

All rights reserved

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGUED THE HARDCOVER AS FOLLOWS: Some, Malidoma

Of water

and the

spirit: ritual,

Patrice, date

magic, and initiation in the

shaman/Malidoma

Patrice

life

of an African

Some.

cm.

p.

"A Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam book." ISBN 0-87477-762-3 (he.)

ISBN0 1.

3.

Shamans

14 01.9496 7 (pbk.)

Dagari —Biography. —Burkina Faso—Biography. Dagari People) — Dagari people) —Rites and ceremonies.

Some, Malidoma

5.

Patrice, date.

(African people)

2.

Religion.

(African

4.

(African

I.

DT555.45.D35S667

Title.

1994

960'.049635'0092—>

peated brutality. There came a time when I rebelled

God. In spite of all my prayers for him to ( come and help me, nothing happened. As I grew / older, I found it more and more difficult to rely on