Observations placeholder
Mircea Eliade - Eskimo initiation
Identifier
011492
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
We have seen that Eskimo initiation in all cases exhibits the universal schema of initiations into the mystical life; vocation, withdrawal into solitude, apprenticeship to a master, acquisition of one or more familiar spirits, symbolic ritual of death and resurrection, secret language. As we shall soon see, the ecstatic experiences of the Eskimo angakok include mystical flight and the journey to the depths of the sea, two exploits that are characteristic of North Asian shamanism.