Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman

by Malidoma Patrice Some

Overview

A renowned healer and shaman’s life-changing journey of discovery, healing, and wisdom

“Malidoma has kept faith with the ancestors and with his own heart. His journey is a shimmering ‘missing piece’ in the story of the earth.” —Alice Walker

When he was a young boy growing up in Burkina Faso, Malidoma Somé was taken from his village and brought to a Jesuit mission school, where he spent years being harshly indoctrinated in European ways of thought and worship. In this vivid and paradigm-shifting memoir, Malidoma recounts his journey home—and his initiation into the healing traditions of the Dagara culture, where the natural and supernatural blend together, and every person is encircled by family, community, and the wisdom of ancestors.

By turns humbling, harrowing, magical, and transcendent, Malidoma’s spiritual awakening imparted ancient wisdom that he would spend the rest of his life sharing with others around the world—as an antidote to alienation, a tool for self-transformation, and a bridge between cultures and worlds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140194968
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/01/1995
Series:	Compass
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	152,893
Product dimensions:	5.46(w) x 8.44(h) x 0.53(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Malidoma Patrice Somé was a renowned diviner, healer, and teacher in the spiritual traditions of his African ancestors and was the author of The Healing Wisdom of Africa. After his initiation as a shaman in the Dagara culture, he went on to earn several graduate degrees from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University and established a teaching and training community in the United States.

Table of Contents

Of Water and the Spirit Introduction
Chapter 1: Slowly Becoming
Chapter 2: A Grandfather's Farewell
Chapter 3: Grandfather's Funeral
Chapter 4: A Sudden Farewell
Chapter 5: In the White Man's World
Chapter 6: Life Begins at Nansi
Chapter 7: The Rebellion Begins
Chapter 8: New Awakenings
Chapter 9: The Long Journey Begins
Chapter 10: The Voyage Home
Chapter 11: Hard Beginnings
Chapter 12: Trying to Fit Back into Village Life
Chapter 13: The Meeting at the Earth Shrine
Chapter 14: My First Night at the Initiation Camp
Chapter 15: Trying to See
Chapter 16: The World of the Fire, the Song of the Stars
Chapter 17: In the Arms of the Green Lady
Chapter 18: Returning to the Source
Chapter 19: Opening the Portal
Chapter 20: Through the Light Hole
Chapter 21: The World at the Bottom of the Pool
Chapter 22: Burials, Lessons, and Journeys
Chapter 23: Journey into the Underworld
Chapter 24: A Mission in the Underworld
Chapter 25: Returning from the Underworld
Chapter 26: Homecoming and Celebration
Epilogue: The Fearful Return

Editorial Reviews

Born in West Africa in the early 1950s--the author is indefinite about the year--Some was kidnapped at age four by a French Jesuit missionary to be trained as a priest, for the next 15 years enduring the harsh regimen of a seminary where his native language and tribal traditions were systematically suppressed. At age 20 he escaped, but when he returned to his Dugara people in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) they rejected him as an outsider. To reconnect with his native culture, Some underwent a month-long initiation into shamanism during which he reports that he journeyed to the underworld, became a bird, then a porcupine and was buried alive. A self-described ``man of two worlds,'' Some, who holds a doctoral degree in political science from the Sorbonne and one in literature from Brandeis, is a speaker at men's movement conferences in the US. This vivid autobiography takes readers into a world of black magic, palpable spirits, walking dead people, force fields, transdimensional journeys--a world as strange as anything in imaginative fiction. QPB selection; author tour. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Som, who was born about 1956 in Upper Volta, was close to his shaman grandfather. But this relationship and his tribal way of life was destroyed when, at age four, he was kidnapped by a French Jesuit missionary and raised in a seminary, from which he escaped at age 20. Returning home to his Dagara village, he was viewed by some as too tainted by white knowledge and ways to be able to join fully in tribal life; nevertheless, he underwent an intensive and dangerous six-week shamanic initiation that thoroughly established him as a member of the tribe. Later, he was dismayed to learn his destiny as revealed in divination and decreed by tribal elders: to return to the white world as a bridge to save his tribe from complete inculturation. This fascinating autobiography illustrates the profound culture clashes between Western civilization and indigenous cultures. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.

Library Journal