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Mircea Eliade - On Sleipnir
Identifier
011446
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
Odin’s steed Sleipnir, has eight hooves and it is he who carries his master, and even other gods e.g. Hermodhr, to the underworld. Now the eight hoofed horse is the shamanic horse par excellence; it is found among the Siberians, as well as elsewhere e.g. the Muria, always in connection with the shaman’s ecstatic experience. It is probable, as Hofler supposes, that Sleipnir is the mythical archetype of a many footed hobby horse that played an important part in the secret cult of the men’s society. But this is a magico religious phenomenon that goes beyond the bounds of shamanism