Observations placeholder
Mircea Eliade - Rebirth In the cave of the Reindeer woman
Identifier
004123
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamaism: Archaic techniques of Ecstasy
From the cave of the Reindeer-Woman the initiate went to another mountain with another cave. In it he met a naked man working a bellows. The man caught him, ‘cut off his head, chopped his body into pieces’ and threw everything into a cauldron. He suffered death and dismemberment. His body ‘boiled in the cauldron for 3 years’. Later the man put the shaman’s bones together again and covered them with flesh. He changed his eyes and that is why, when he shamanises, he does not see with his bodily eyes but with his mystical eyes. He pierced his ears, making him able to understand the language of plants
The source of the experience
Siberian shamanismConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
BellowsBoiled in a cauldron
Cave
Deer
Dismemberment
Ear piercing
Mountain
Nakedness
Pierced with swords
Smith, the