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Mircea Eliade - The Chain of arrows
Identifier
011444
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
Finally, we must mention another group of myths and legends related to the theme of ascent – the ‘chain of arrows’. A hero goes up by fixing a first arrow in the celestial vault, a second in the first, and so on until he has made up a chain between heaven and earth. This motif is found in Melanesia and North and South America; it does not occur in Africa and Asia. The bow being unknown in Australia, its part in the myth is taken by a lance bearing a long strip of cloth; with the lance fixed in the celestial vault, the hero ascends by the trailing cloth.
Source Petrazzoni – The Chain of Arrows