Observations placeholder
Mircea Eliade - The Blacksmith
Identifier
010960
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
The craft of the smith ranks immediately after the shaman’s vocation in importance.
‘Smiths and shamans are from the same nest ‘says a Yakut proverb. ‘A shaman’s wife is respectable, a smith’s wife is venerable’ says another.
Smiths have power to heal and even foretell the future. According to the Dolgan, shamans cannot ‘swallow’ the souls of smiths because smiths keep their souls in the fire; on the other hand, a smith can catch a shaman’s soul and burn it. In their turn, the smiths are constantly threatened by evil spirits. They are reduced to working unintermittingly, handling fire, keeping up a constant noise to drive away hostile spirits