Eliade, Mircea

The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion

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A Magisterial Work on the Nature of the Sacred
Very insightful look at religion and community
Remarkable mettle; egregious thinker!
Two modes of being in the world
Means of Escape

The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Idea of the Holy
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Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General))

ASIN: 015679201X

Book Description

A noted historian of religion traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times, in terms of space, time, nature and the cosmos, and life itself. Index. Translated by Willard Trask.

Customer Reviews:

A Magisterial Work on the Nature of the Sacred.......2007-02-12

In this book, Eliade writes first in an accesible, then in a most respectful style on religion, magic, initiation, mysticism, and the profane. From the outset, though the book's title states it concerns religion, in which the object of study begins with the Divine, and then continues on consequently to man, Eliade rather begins with man and then continues on consequently to God. Man is shown to create himself, his house, his cosmos, and his existential situation precludes the religious right up until a.d. 1950 (the date of this book's first publication). The author wisely points out profane man is a rather unique and new phenomenon in human history. Whether he is descriibing the initiation rituals of primitive societies, or the construction of a modern abode, Eliade skillfully shows like it or not, we are recreating the cosmos as the gods did before history. Without the slightest hint of a sense of humor, Eliade points out repeatedly that no matter how much modern profane man has attempted to divest Nature of the sacred, he still stubbornly, if unconsciously, sacralizes his environment. Over and over again.

This is a nice little book that provides a glimpse into what we are stubbornly trying to leave behind, to our own obvious detriment.

Very insightful look at religion and community.......2007-01-31

This book was my first foray into Eliade's work and was it ever a powerful place to start. His insights into the delineation of sacred space and what it signifies for a community - repetition of the cosmogonic acts, the establishment of what is termed the axis mundi, or world center and point of contact between the heavens and the earth (as Delphi was viewed by the ancient Greeks, or Mount Meru by the Indians, etc...) and so on - are brief yet fully packed. He covers sacred time as well, with sections that tie in with another of his excellent books, The Myth of the Eternal Return.

If you're interested in the study of world religions, I would highly recommend this book. In my opinion, Eliade is a standout in this area.

Remarkable mettle; egregious thinker!.......2007-01-09

The apparition of this book was pointed out like an important date in the history of religions. Using articulately a rich mass of documents, studying symbols, myths, magic rituals, allying the philological and archeological investigations that really supported the whole structure and working out of the mythic thinking, Eliade gets a dense and fascinating synthesis that engages not only the fervent student of the religions but besides to any cultivated man, interested in distinguish between the holy and the profane. The solar cults as well as the fecundity, the celestial symbols, the lunar mystic, the sacred stones, the renovation rituals, the sacred times and spaces, are analyzed from the double trouble that the work implies. What's the religion? What is the level it may be talked about the history of religions?. The book as his author marks, introduces the reader into the complex labyrinth of the religious facts, familiarizing us with the fundamental structures and with the diversity of the cultural circles, since which they merge they merge.

Two modes of being in the world.......2006-11-11

The central theme of this book is that religious and nonreligious man have two very different ways of experiencing the world. At one time I would have dismissed this as unimportant or foolishness- mere point of view. Now, having experienced both, having gone beyond mere ideas to actual experience, I know the truth of what is being expressed so well here by Eliade.

The religious man (homo religious) experiences space, time, the natural world, and the totality of the cosmos itself far differently from modern man. Indeed, the religious man will not, cannot, live in a nonsacred world- a world without a center. The religious man has found this center through which the sacred penetrates down through the planes. Having found this, the very nature of time itself also changes from linear and meaningless to cyclical and sacred. Nature becomes the reflection of heaven- a book of symbolism and supernatural revelation. The universe itself becomes structured and purposeful instead and random and meaningless. The religious man is never alone. Nor can the nonsacralized world possess reality- the farther you drift from the sacred the less real the world becomes, a thing of shadows. This was true of homo religious in aboriginal and traditional societies, and it is true those individuals who follow the same path today.

After reading quoted passages from this work over the years, I am glad that I finally read it in its entirety. I do not know if it will make its case to the man of the profane world, but then, thank God, I am not such a man.

Means of Escape.......2005-04-20

This little book had a big impact on students of religious history and comparative religion, and paved the way for scientists attempting to deconstruct homo religiosus. Eliade jumps off from Rudolph Otto's Idea of the Holy, a pioneering work of comparative religion that characterized non-rational religious states experienced universally across world cultures. Eliade extends the comparative concept by describing how sacred impulses manifest themselves in space, time, nature, and human society, contrasting the religious viewpoint with that of the non-religious or profane person.

In general, Eliade sees religious man using the sacred as a way of orienting himself in the world and transcending the limitations of the individual life lived in a specific time and place. Non-religious people abjure the tools and consolations of religion, but since they are descended from religious cultures, much of their thinking and practice ends up being bastardized forms of religion anyway.

In the first chapter,"Sacred Space and Making the World Sacred," Eliade describes an Australian Aboriginal tribe, the Achilpa, who believe that their god Numbakula fashioned a sacred pole from the trunk of a gum tree and used it to climb into the sky. The Achilpa carry a replica of this sacred pole with them as they migrate through the desert to new sources of food and water. This pole literally becomes the center of their universe, and if this pole breaks, their world disintegrates. Two anthropologists reported seeing the sacred pole break. The tribe wandered aimlessly for a while, then lay down on the ground and waited for death to overtake them.

Sacred spaces become a way of organizing against primordial chaos, and it's only within this sacred space that religious man has a real existence. Whether it's a pole from a gum tree or Chartres Cathedral, the general principle is the same. Even non-religious people have special places that help orient them in time and space, such as the house they were born in, their elementary school, or the place where they first met their spouse.

Sacred time operates the same way: it focuses and orients human activity, and becomes a repeatable way of stepping out of chronological time. Aborigines, for example practice ceremonies that summon the gods to reveal their presence in the here and now. Aborigines also recreate their origin myths by traveling to the places where the gods sprung out of the ground. Entering into sacred time, Eliade says, is an attempt to return to an "eternal, mythical present." If you're not religious, you might turn to drugs, or sex, or work or hobbies - anything that allows you to escape from the death sentence of historical time.

To talk about the sacred in nature, Eliade invents the useful concept of hierophany, which is the revelation of the sacred through something else, anything from a stone or a tree up through a holy person or a god. For religious man, nature expresses something that transcends itself - a stone can represent absolute existence, the moon represents the cycle of birth, death and resurrection. The profane person needs nature too. Even with god out of the picture, nature can still symbolize beauty or harmony, or the perfect resting place - temporary stays against chaos and decay. For certain irreligious people, art can be used in a hierophanic manner to represent an eternal order that exists out of time (Keats' poem, Ode to a Grecian Urn is a lovely expression of this thought).

Eliade ends by taking us on a tour of various religious rituals. Initiation rites allow the old self to die and a new self to be reborn. Religious practices also ease the trauma of dying because you're only dying to your profane existence in this world, which to the believer isn't the real world anyway. The "real" world is the return to the timeless present created by the gods back in the days before human history. Eliade asserts that access to the spiritual life always entails death to the profane condition followed by a new birth. The Christian myth of Jesus rising from his tomb is but one manifestation of a universal human myth.

Religious or not, everybody wants at least temporary relief from primordial chaos, the burdens of individual consciousness and the inevitability of death. Since we're all pinned down in time and space by language, culture, temperament and genetic inheritance, we all need rituals that allow us to rise up and glimpse eternal order, harmony and peace. Eliade's great contribution is to demonstrate how the particular manifestations of religion, whether it's the Achilpa or the Methodists, spring from universal human needs.

Average customer rating:

Horrible
academic, repetitive
Foundational Reference Work On Cross-Cultural Shamanic Wisdom And Practice
Ian Myles Slater on Fifty Years and Still Going Strong
source of wisdom

Shamanism
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Bollingen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691017794

Book Description

First published in 1951, Shamanism soon became the standard work in the study of this mysterious and fascinating phenomenon. Writing as the founder of the modern study of the history of religion, Romanian émigré--scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) surveys the practice of Shamanism over two and a half millennia of human history, moving from the Shamanic traditions of Siberia and Central Asia--where Shamanism was first observed--to North and South America, Indonesia, Tibet, China, and beyond. In this authoritative survey, Eliade illuminates the magico-religious life of societies that give primacy of place to the figure of the Shaman--at once magician and medicine man, healer and miracle-doer, priest, mystic, and poet. Synthesizing the approaches of psychology, sociology, and ethnology, Shamanism will remain for years to come the reference book of choice for those intrigued by this practice.

Customer Reviews:

Horrible.......2007-02-13

As a shaman myself I was appalled when I began reading this book only to discover that entheogens--THE VERY SOLE FOUNDATION FOR SHAMANISM ITSELF--are not mentioned once--not once. Somehow this book is 600 pages of information about shamanism while not informing the reader of its actual basis. What a blunder that this is supposed to be a definitive textbook on this religion and some poor people have read this book and considered themselves learned in shamanism. It needs to be taken off the shelf.

academic, repetitive.......2007-01-03

Eliade brings a scientist's detachment and skepticism to this broad work on ubiquitous Shamanic practices and techniques; but, he lacks the framework of James's radical empiricism, which might be a more useful approach. I would prefer that the subject be treated with the openness of Benny Shannon's "Antipodes of Mind." But, it is what it is, the product of the 1950s, and an outstanding specimen of that era. A profitable read, although unnecessarily repetitive, in my opinion. Eliade could have condensed this into 200 pages. I don't like diarrhea of the mouth.

Foundational Reference Work On Cross-Cultural Shamanic Wisdom And Practice.......2006-05-24

Mircea Eliade's foundational work 'Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy' is a massive 648 page resource work that was first published in '51. Now some fifty-five years later it's still the authoritative reference work on the history, beliefs and practices of shamanic cultures.

By the way, just in case you were initially attracted by the subtitle 'Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy' let me warn you, it's not that kind of book. Or if you're looking for some entertaining reading the likes of Carlos Castaneda filled with vivid, exotic first-hand accounts of interaction with the spirits you'll be disappointed. This is a scholarly reference work designed for serious students in sociology, anthropology, psychology and the history of religion. There's nothing exciting here, unless you find knowledge something to get excited about.

So if you're serious about the subject of shamanic magical practices and beliefs than this is a must own volume for your library. However when it comes time to read it be sure to have a very large glass of water close at hand. It's as dry and dusty a read as you'll ever find.

Ian Myles Slater on Fifty Years and Still Going Strong.......2003-09-24

I agree whole-heartedly with the many earlier reviewers who have praised this extraordinary book. However, it has given rise to some controversies, and prospective purchasers might as well be aware of them. Given the richness of the volume, I consider them minor, but a chorus of praise invites disappointment.

First of all, the original French edition was in 1951 (and was one of the author's post-war works apparently not written in his native Romanian). The revised and updated English translation (the fine work of Willard Trask) first appeared in the Bollingen series in 1964. Princeton University Press issued the Bollingen edition in paperback in 1972, and this appears to be the version currently in print. Hence, it is, obviously, more than a little out of date bibliographically. Some people are troubled by this, but there is no way the book could have been expanded to deal with the explosion of research and publications which followed its appearance (although about two hundred titles, mainly post-1948, were added to the 1964 bibliography and notes). Just be aware that it may not mention something important.

[Since this review was originally posted, the MYTHOS edition for which it was written has been replaced by a new Princeton printing (January 2004), with a preface by Wendy Doniger, describing the book's importance and limitations with clarity and considerable authority. (She is the Mircea Eliade Distingiushed Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago.)]

Also because of the book's age, Eliade still used terms and ideas which were common in European scholarship in the first half of the century, but have been largely abandoned since, and in some cases never made much of an impression on the English-speaking scholarly world. He takes for granted the ancient Babylonian origin of several ideas about the cosmos, some of which the "Pan-Babylonian" school seems to have been reading into ancient texts. This has some importance for his attempts to trace the diffusion and relative ages of certain ideas. He also uses (and doesn't really define) cultural descriptions like "Palaeo-Arctic" which originated in anthropological theories current in the 1920s. This is where the age of the book really is important to keep in mind.

Of more importance are some of his working assumptions about the nature of Shamanism. Correctly observing that the word entered western European languages from Russian, which had borrowed it from Siberian tribes, he tends to regard the reindeer-herders of the Eurasian sub-Arctic as the model of "true" shamanism, in relation to which other, similar, phenomena, are to be classed. This is reasonable, but, as he sometimes suggests, the Siberian forms have a complex history of their own, and cannot be taken as primitive. It should also be kept in mind than the assumption that reindeer herding was an early precursor of full domestication has been challenged. If it is a secondary imitation of southern pastoral systems, the pristinely archaic nature of the cultures based on it cannot be taken for granted, and their internal history is not independent either.

Because many Siberian forms involve elaborate physical (and sometimes verbal) gymnastics, culminating in a trance state, while others consist only in a trance state, often chemically induced, he treats the latter as secondary (and "degenerate") offshoots. It is easier to see the difficult and complex form being simplified than it is to see a pure trance developing into a demanding theatrical display, but it is not demonstrable. However, Eliade did not intend it as a contribution to later debates over psychedelic drugs, even if it has been read as such. (Eliade doesn't help matters by citing as corroboration for his view the widespread claim that in the "good old days" shamans didn't just dance their flights to the otherworld, they were seen flying through the air!) A very different view is suggested Gordon Wasson's studies of the Vedic Soma, which he relates to the use of fly agaric mushrooms as an intoxicant by the reindeer-herders Eliade invokes for the opposite purpose. In I.M. Lewis' several studies of ecstatic religions he rather brusquely dismisses Eliade's position; one would have hoped for a fuller response.

Finally, Eliade treats out-of-body experiences ("Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy") as definitive of shamanism, and spirit-possession as a side issue. However, possession experiences do seem to be central in several cultures which are commonly described as shamanist, and the distinction may be more important to Eliade's need to limit the material than to anything else.

I would also add that Eliade's copious material on shamanic initiation experiences bears a striking resemblance to some accounts of extra-terrestrial abductions and medical experiments. How did Fox Mulder miss this?

source of wisdom.......2003-07-28

With so many popular books on shamanism (and its relevance to modern forms of psychotherapy) I choose to go to the source of wisdom; which, on this topic, is the work in this amazing book.

I don't think this is the only book one should read on shamanism, but if you have not read any others, I do recommend reading this defining, authoritative and infinitely insightful one first!

The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy
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strong on ideas, research inconsistent

Great Introductions to a fascinating subject

TAKING A GLANCE TO THE MYSTERIES OF ALCHEMY

The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Alchemy

ASIN: 0226203905

Book Description

Primitive man's discovery of the ability to change matter from one state to another brought about a profound change in spiritual behavior. In The Forge and the Crucible, Mircea Eliade follows the ritualistic adventures of these ancient societies, adventures rooted in the people's awareness of an awesome new power.

The new edition of The Forge and the Crucible contains an updated appendix, in which Eliade lists works on Chinese alchemy published in the past few years. He also discusses the importance of alchemy in Newton's scientific evolution.

Customer Reviews:

strong on ideas, research inconsistent.......2007-05-20

As usual Eliade spins wonderful philosophical and spiritual ideas laid over history. And they make engrossing reading. I don't know how much one can trust the historical facts cited throughout this work. For example Eliade says the earliest known metallurgy was in the mountains of Armenia in 1200-1200 BC. In fact it is now widely accepted that the Ban Chiang (present-day NE Thailand) was forging bronze tools and ornaments at least by 2200 BC, possibly earlier.

Still, well worth reading for the ideas.

Great Introductions to a fascinating subject.......2001-12-11

If I had my time over again I would read these three books on alchemy in the following order: All of them are excellent in their own sphere to introduce a complex process.

(1) The Forge and the Crucible - Eliade
This is an excellent prehistory of alchemy showing the patterns of thought out of which Alchemy most probably arose. An easy read.

(2) Anatomy of the Soul - Edinger
Set out according to seven processes involved in alchemy Calcinatio, Solutio, Coagulatio, Sublimatio, Mortificatio, Separatio, Coniunctio, this is an accessible book that puts each process in reasonably neat boxes, (though the considerable overlap and intermingling is acknowledged). The approach is somewhat mechanical.

(3) Alchemy, an Introduction... - Von Franz.
More 'organic' than Edinger, Von Franz has a very warm and human touch. She deals with the origins of alchemy in Egypt and Greece and delves into the 'Aurora Consurgens', attributed to Aquinas. She includes relevent and interesting case material. Being a transcription of lectures, it is a little haphazard, though none the less informative for that.

TAKING A GLANCE TO THE MYSTERIES OF ALCHEMY.......2000-11-23

Lucidly and masterly written, this study on the origins and meaning of ancient Alchemy is a highly useful and recommendable one. As always, M. Eliade has collected a vast amount of data concerning this issue and has reached far-reaching conclusions as for the value, the role and the meaning of the otherwise rather vague world of Alchemy. Very important for anyone interested in knowing about the theme.

The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History (Princeton Classic Editions)

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Human Destiny as the Product of Consciousness

The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History (Princeton Classic Editions)
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691123500

Book Description

This founding work of the history of religions, first published in English in 1954, secured the North American reputation of the Romanian émigré-scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-1986). Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures and drawing on scholarship published in no less than half a dozen European languages, Eliade's The Myth of the Eternal Return makes both intelligible and compelling the religious expressions and activities of a wide variety of archaic and "primitive" religious cultures. While acknowledging that a return to the "archaic" is no longer possible, Eliade passionately insists on the value of understanding this view in order to enrich our contemporary imagination of what it is to be human. Jonathan Z. Smith's new introduction provides the contextual background to the book and presents a critical outline of Eliade's argument in a way that encourages readers to engage in an informed conversation with this classic text.</p>

Customer Reviews:

Human Destiny as the Product of Consciousness.......2005-10-01

Somewhere on the cover, or in the preface, or even in the introductions to other of his many profound works in the field of comparative religious studies, one will find Eliade's famous counsel: "I consider it the most significant of my books; and when asked in what order they should be read, I always recommend beginning with The Myth of the Eternal Return." One of the enduring monuments of twentieth century academic writing, The Myth of the Eternal Return expounds Eliade's seminal ruminations on the advent of the nuclear, or post-modern era - the naissance of our capacity for apocalyptic self-annihilation - an attempt to demonstrate in analyzable terms the relation between the foundations of the contemporary psyche to the seemingly adventitious madness which actively anticipates (and even militates in favor of) an end-time, an Armageddon, a Judgment Day, if you will. Eliade thus asks the arch-question: "What can protect us from the terror of history?"
The discussion is framed within a comparison between what Eliade deems as the distinctive difference between the ancient and modern, the archaic (or primitive) and contemporary world-view. The modern envisions reality as a series of events which fulminate in a linear, progressive history - a history which had a beginning and will have an end. The ancient experiences reality as an endless, cyclic repetition of primordial acts. "... the life of archaic man (a life reduced to the repetition of archetypal acts, that is, to categories and not to events, to the unceasing rehearsal of the same primordial myths) although it takes place in time, does not bear the burden of time, does not record time's irreversibility; in other words, completely ignores what is especially characteristic and decisive in a consciousness of time. Like the mystic, like the religious man in general, the primitive lives in a continual present. (And it is in this sense that the religious man may be said to be a `primitive'; he repeats the gestures of another and, through this repetition, lives always in an atemporal present.)"
Eliade points to the centrality of the lunar cycle in the mythological fabric woven from this perspective, which, to a degree, envelops our own world-view, however linear and eschatologically determinate. "The phases of the moon - appearance, increase, wane, disappearance, followed by reappearance after three nights of darkness - have played an immense part in the elaboration of cyclical concepts. We find analogous concepts especially in the archaic apocalypses and anthropogonies; deluge or flood puts an end to an exhausted and sinful humanity, and a new regenerated humanity is born, usually from a mythical `ancestor' who escaped the catastrophe, or from a lunar animal." Regeneration of humanity is thus always implied in its destruction. In the natural imaging, like the seasons, we assure ourselves, fall and dissolution are ever succeeded by renewal. "... just as the disappearance of the moon is never final, since it is necessarily followed by a new moon, the disappearance of man is not final either; in particular, even the disappearance of an entire humanity ... is never total ..." As the modern (historical) cultures translate this concept, "this optimism can be reduced to a consciousness of the normality of the cyclical catastrophe, to the certainty that it has a meaning and, above all, that it is never final... In the `lunar perspective', the death of the individual and the periodic death of humanity are necessary, even as the three days of darkness preceding the `rebirth' of the moon are necessary. The death of the individual and the death of humanity are alike necessary for their regeneration ... what predominates in all these cosmico-mythological lunar conceptions is the cyclical occurrence of what has been before, in a word, eternal return."
Due to the fact that the modern, predominantly Western model, of consciousness, primarily informed by Hebraic/Christian-Greek (teleological) influences, perceives time as a matrix for linear progress toward eschatological fulfillment, an end (and Eliade does not hesitate to analyze with his usual acumen - and here one must highlight the amazing passage where he claims that the concept of `ekpyrosis', the destruction of the world by fire, originates in early Iranian mythology - how Islam developed within this eschatological framework), we are forced to confront what he terms "the terror of history", the assertion (often stated by zealots of various stripes as fact) that human history, itself, must end. Recognition of this shift in human consciousness, from the archaic celebration of the repetition of nativity to the modern obsession with the limitation of mortality yields enormous explanatory power. In the face of the nuclear option, we must seriously consider how far such concepts as "resurrection", "rebirth" have tangible reality, not merely a traditionally assigned or contemplatively evoked meaning, but value as real states of affairs.
"Since the `invention' of faith, in the Judeo-Christian sense of the word (= for God all is possible), the man who has left the horizon of archetypes and repetition can no longer defend himself against that terror except through the idea of God . . . Any other situation of modern man leads, in the end, to despair. It is a despair provoked not by his own human existentiality, but by his presence in a historical universe in which almost the whole of mankind lives prey to a continual terror (even if not always conscious of it) . . .
In this respect, Christianity incontestably proves to be the religion of `fallen man': and to the extent to which modern man is irremediably identified with history and progress, and to which history and progress are a fall, both implying the final abandonment of the paradise of archetypes and repetition." These are the words with which the book concludes. If all that we are is the product of all that has been thought, they deserve the closest sort of reading by every thinking being. For the final abandonment, in the fine sense and print, means no less than the final abandonment of planet earth and the evolutionary project of humanity in full.

Myth and Reality (Religious Traditions of the World)

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Myth and Reality
Compelling book!
A great book about myth.
All myths are myths of Origin
Awesome!

Myth and Reality (Religious Traditions of the World)
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Waveland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1577660099

Book Description

An informative guide to the modern mythologies! This classic study, translated from the original French, deals primarily with societies around the world in which myth is--or was until very recently-- "living," in the sense that it supplies models for human behavior and, by that very fact, gives meaning and value to life. The author believes that understanding the structure and function of myths in these traditional societies serves to clarify a stage in the history of human thought: "myths reveal that the World, man, and life have a supernatural origin and history, and that this history is significant, precious, and exemplary."

Customer Reviews:

Myth and Reality.......2006-03-17

Myth and Realty is interesting to read in companion with Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. The role of "myth" in our contemporary societies is not understood, let alone appreciated. Mircea develops ideas that anyone intrigued by the place of myth in modern culture should be looking to find.

Compelling book!.......2004-08-13

Eliade was the most complete and pyramidal mythologist of the last century . This book contains wonderful thoughts and considerations about the myth its undeniable influence in the ancient behavior patterns through the years and still its radiant charm and powerful mistery .

A great book about myth........1999-06-27

This was one of the books used in an Introduction to Mythology class I took. It's very scholarly, so have a good dictionary handy.

All myths are myths of Origin.......1998-11-17

This is a good book for myth, though Eliade's style is a little difficult to get used to. Read it if you're interested in myth and comparative religion.

Awesome!.......1998-07-28

Another brilliant look at the archaic religious experience by Eliade. See also Eliade, "Myths Dreams and Mysteries." These are companion books.

The Politics of Myth: A Study of C.G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell (Suny Series, Issues in the Study of Religion)

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Ian Myles Slater on: Three World-Views
Rot
Wonderful debunker of running myths.

The Politics of Myth: A Study of C.G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell (Suny Series, Issues in the Study of Religion)
Robert S. Ellwood
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Interpreting the Sacred: Ways of Viewing Religion
The Implied Spider
Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals
The Art of Inquiry
The New Gnosis: Heidegger, Hillman, and Angels

ASIN: 079144306X

Book Description

The Politics of Myth examines the political views implicit in the mythological theories of three of the most widely read popularizers of myth in the twentieth century, C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. All three had intellectual roots in the anti-modern pessimism and romanticism that also helped give rise to European fascism, and all three have been accused of fascist and anti-Semitic sentiments. At the same time, they themselves tended toward individualistic views of the power of myth, believing that the world of ancient myth contained resources that could be of immense help to people baffled by the ambiguities and superficiality of modern life.

Robert Ellwood details the life and thought of each mythologist and the intellectual and spiritual world within which they worked. He reviews the damaging charges that have been made about their politics, taking them seriously while endeavoring to put them in the context of the individual's entire career and lifetime contribution. Above all, he seeks to extract from their published work the view of the political world that seems most congruent with it.

Customer Reviews:

Ian Myles Slater on: Three World-Views.......2003-10-21

Professor Ellwood very properly informs the reader that he was himself a student of Mircea Eliade at the University of Chicago, so I suppose that I should mention that I am an acquaintance of Professor Ellwood (although not a student, but a fellow Tolkien-fan). However, I am taking the time to review the book mainly because I enjoyed it tremendously, and learned a great deal from it. I would suggest it to anyone who has read a little of any, or all three, of the writers it presents, and is considering reading more. Doing so should reduce arguments about these sometimes-controversial figures, or at least put them on a better intellectual foundation.

"The Politics of Myth" analyzes the political and social thought -- or lack of thought -- of three influential writers of the middle and late twentieth century. It provides enough biographical detail to keep the reader grounded in reality, and just enough information on their theories of mythology to show how much, or how little, they are related to the cultural and political environments in which the three men worked. The story of their influence also receives some coverage, particularly in connection with the Bollingen Foundation's publications of Jung and Eliade, and Campbell's role as editor for the Bollingen Series.

Eliade and Jung both have had large readerships for relatively difficult writers on often esoteric subjects, and simplified versions of their views are widely distributed, not always accurately, or with attribution. The large number of people who became familiar with Joseph Campbell through Public Television will here discover something of his place in the intellectual world.

The book is neither an indictment nor a defense of these writers on mythology (among other subjects). I finished my first reading with some definite impressions. Eliade, sometimes dismissed as a Romanian Fascist, comes off as a disturbingly unpolitical man in an age of totalitarianisms, never quite grasping that his early literary celebrity in his native country made him a valuable asset to any movement which, even falsely, claimed him as a supporter. Jung appears as a hearty Swiss peasant, deeply provincial despite his vast learning and (flashes of) genius, unable or unwilling to see beyond the symbolic exterior of the Nazi movement for a very long time. Campbell, fortunate to live in a more benign political environment, is seen rejoicing that he has freed himself of his Irish Catholic background, not noticing that his disdain for Judaism, distrust of England, and sympathy for Germany, might have something to do with his upbringing. A second reading reminded me that this short book is packed with telling details, and will probably suggest other interpretations to other readers

Rot.......2003-01-09

This is an excellent example of a critic making a name for himself by "reading into" & interpreting (misinterpreting) other hugely respected authors according to one's own projected ideology. Since not one of the three famous & brilliant mythologists studied would agree with Ellwood's assessment of him, why should we assume his oh-so-sensitive political perspective & believe he & his particular judgmental frameworks have more insight into the workings of their minds than they do themselves? We shouldn't. Each of them would be aghast at this so much smaller intellect misreading him for its own ends. I implore you: If you wish to understand Jung, Eliade, or Campbell, read Jung, Eliade, or Campbell themselves. The three together complement each other nicely. If you must read Ellwood, be fair & read some of the great ones he "demythifies" for us *before* you venture into his abuse of them.

Wonderful debunker of running myths........1999-12-23

A refreshing read that gives the details about the lives and times of these three brillian men. It helps to debunk all the soot that has accumulated upon their work from the burning fires of conservatives and the religious right. The attempts to tarnish their names with accusations of anti-semitism and other prejudices fall flat in front of the facts. This book shows that people must deal with the political waves of their own times, but it does not necessarily make them of the same dogmatic ilk.

Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth

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Ian Myles Slater on: Transitions and Rituals
A classic on the subject of initiation

Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Spring Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Images and Symbols
The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General))
Patterns in Comparative Religion
History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity (History of Religious Ideas)

ASIN: 0882143581

Book Description

Organizing data from cultures the world over, Eliade lays out the basic patterns of initiation: group puberty rituals, entrance into secret cults, shamanic instruction, individual visions, and heroic rites of passage. The vast information, assembled so beautifully, transcends usual scholarship. Eliade affirms the greater experience in all initiations--the indissoluable ties between humans and the cosmos of gods, spirits, animals, ancestors, and nature.

Customer Reviews:

Ian Myles Slater on: Transitions and Rituals.......2004-12-07

This little book is a translation of a series of half a dozen lectures, with endnotes providing documentation. The history and bibliography are a little tricky. "Patterns of Initiation: The Haskell Lectures of 1956" were delivered at the University of Chicago by Mircea Eliade, a Romanian exile who had been recruited from the Sorbonne to help build up the University's Comparative Religion department. The lectures were composed in French, Eliade's main second language, and the English translation by Willard Trask was published in 1958, by Harvill Press, London, and Harper & Brothers, New York, as "Birth and Rebirth." (I have reviewed the Harper edition, used copies of which are sometimes available through Amazon: the full title, as given there, is "Birth and Rebirth: The Religious Meanings of Initiation in Human Culture," in The Library of Religion and Culture series.)

The present title, "Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth," was introduced with the Harper Torchbook paperback edition of 1965. (The publisher had meanwhile become Harper & Row; and today is included in HarperCollins.) There was a Harper College Division reprinting in 1980. The current edition, from Spring Publications, has a new Foreword (by Michael Meade), but seems to be otherwise identical.

Meanwhile, a rather different French edition ("a rehandling of the material") had been published as "Naissances mystiques. Essai sur quelques types d'initiation" (Paris, 1959). (That makes three versions and four titles, if you've lost count. And a variety of textually identical editions of the English-language version.)

Eliade (1907-1986) remained connected to the University of Chicago for pretty much the rest of his life. Although from an institutional point of view he wasn't quite the well-organized driving force that had been desired, he continued to produce interesting and exciting work, not all of which has aged equally well. (For a short account of Eliade's life, work, and an evaluation of his place in the twentieth century, see "The Politics of Myth: A Study of C.G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell," by Robert S. Ellwood.)

"Rites and Symbols" is one of a large number of small works by Eliade which stand alongside such monuments of scholarship as "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy," and "Yoga: Immortality and Freedom," and the attempted summation of his views in the three completed volumes of his "History of Religious Ideas."

The material it contains makes it something of a companion to "Shamanism" in particular, giving a more universal context to the initiatory experiences and rituals described there. It deals with ritual responses to "changes of status" in traditional societies, from the commonly recognized "Rites of Passage" (as delineated in Arnold van Gennep's classic book of that name), such as Birth, Adult-hood, and Death, to cultural constructs, such as entry into secret societies, or the company of Gods and Ancestors.

The original lecture-series title, "Patterns of Initiation," is in some ways the best, suggesting at once that Eliade is focusing on recurring themes, rather than unique instances. The more poetic titles, at least of the English-language version, may have been used because a translation of an earlier work had been published already as "Patterns in Comparative Religion."

I think that it remains useful, although according to the classicist Fritz Graf it "remains as superficial as it is dogmatic" ("Magic in the Ancient World," page 264, note 15). I would call it, rather, schematic, concise, and sometimes poorly argued. The documentation, although now obviously rather dated, often is more impressive than the slender body of quotations Eliade provides in his survey of a vast number of times and places. There are also some minor problems with the translation; probably inevitably, with the number of languages involved, in Eliade's own mind as well as the source materials he was using.

I'm not about to give up my aging copy of the Harper Torchbook edition; but Spring Publications deserves gratitude for bringing the book back into print.

A classic on the subject of initiation.......1999-05-04

Anyone planning a initiation into manhood (or woman hood) or rite of passage should know about this book. It is number one most referenced source of information on initiation in traditional cultures. No one can say they understand the legacy of initiation in primative or traditional cultures without reading this book.

Although it is a academic quality work it is very readable. The layman should have no problem understanding it. My only complaint about this book is that I wish it were longer.

Images and Symbols
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Towards a new humanism

Images and Symbols
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Bollingen Series (General))

Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth

Patterns in Comparative Religion

Myth and Reality (Religious Traditions of the World)

ASIN: 069102068X

Book Description

Mircea Eliade--one of the most renowned expositors of the psychology of religion, mythology, and magic--shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is still an essential function of human consciousness. He describes and analyzes some of the most powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development.</p>

Customer Reviews:

Towards a new humanism.......2004-05-13

This insightful book features a central element of Eliade's work as a whole: a humanistic impulse which envisions the study of symbols as the best possible way to overcome close-mindedness and provincialism, and which holds that a liberation from the traps of historicism is necessary in order to reach the archetypes that somehow inform the multiple 'symbolic incarnations' throughout the ages and peoples. Eliade here considers symbols of centre, time, binding (relying a lot on Dumezil on that topic), waters and shells. The relationship between symbol and history is constantly examined in the book: Eliade suggests that each new meaning ascribed by history to a symbol does not alter the latter's fundamental structure, since the symbol can properly be considered 'transhistorical'. This is as good a work as any to start reading Eliade; many quintessential Eliadian themes are treated here.

Changing Religious Worlds: The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade (Suny Series, Issues in the Study of Religion)

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You may have other reasons for losing your time...

Changing Religious Worlds: The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade (Suny Series, Issues in the Study of Religion)

Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0791447308

Book Description

Assesses Mircea Eliade's contribution to the contemporary understanding of religion and the academic study of religion.

Changing Religious Worlds measures the nature and significance of Mircea Eliade's contribution to the understanding and academic study of religion in North America today. It includes the perspectives of the continent's leading experts on Eliade and his thought, both critical and supportive. It also includes previously unpublished fiction and journal entries from Eliade himself. The book ponders whether it is time to leave Eliade behind or whether we can yet learn from either his insights or his errors, and whether the changing world has left Eliade behind or whether it is finally catching up with him. Particular consideration is given to whether Eliade makes any lasting contribution to our ability to deal with the changing face of religion and the ability to "change over" into the religious world of the other and to see through the eyes of the other.

Customer Reviews:

You may have other reasons for losing your time..........2005-08-16

You may have other reasons for losing your time than reading or even perusing this failed attempt to run into Mircea Eliade's legacy. For all the pain it took, I had to read it. What strikes this reader, besides the Stalinist endeavor to destroy Mircea Eliade's reputation, is sheer stupidity at work in the efforts of its many authors. This monumentally inept text is not excused by Herostratic complexes or even more inept professed " views " on " what is religious about religion ". Stupidity, even conceptualized, is of course only an excuse for many authors. The even more numerous " analyses " here are sheer failures - even as pamphlets - as rotten bread tastes, if taken with many, far too many, grains of salt. What matters here is only the attack on Mircea Eliade. Even the few intelligent and " positive " studies are inserted, I'm sure, only to make the attack more credible as an " academic " work.

If authentic, the only prowess of this tasteless conconction is making us, readers, lose time. Within the inner workings of the mind of such authors - if we adventure that far - we still crave to find a hint of logic. For it's really all self-inflated nonsense, aggravated by loud borborygms. Their larger subtext, I'm afraid, is only destruction of value per se. If one " author " needs such captatio benevolentiae as "dear reader" ( p. 4 ) I'm already beyond yawning. If the same author tries to lecture us on the Michelson-Morley experiment, ruining paper by cut-and-paste processes and meaningless quotes ( from the relevant Britannica online passages, of course ), I need not follow such " logic " as an argument against our great and for ever unsurpassed Eliade. Last, but not least, if it's rational at all, the book's argumentarium is a shame. With such sort of snoring discourses - more fit for the understanding of religion in the intellectual realm of the dear leader of northern Korea - there is no wonder that wikipedization of the Western culture is now rampant ! ( Wiki, wiki means " quickie ", in case you are, like myself, ignorant of recent progress in " knowledge technology " ). Using such credentials as machine-readable Google rankings, the intellectual level of the " deconstruction " operated by this chef d'oeuvre is only matched by the power of fans and other vacuum machines at work under their word processors. Paraphrasing Mr Rennie's billious quote on " Augustine ", and Mr Rennie's own profuse knowledge which allows him to " correct " Eliade's thinking, " we all know what religion is, until we think about it ". But Mr Rennie also knows what religion is even when he thinks he thinks about it. I also happen to contemplate the future of Eliade's legacy and I can only end, having studied his opera omnia : Once there were rats attempting to outrun elephants, in en effort to cross the memory bridge together with those elephants. I'm sure that while they made all the noise they could, such rodents thought of themselves in terms of " we all cross bridges ".

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SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR ANY PSYCH/MYTHOLOGY STUDENTS

Myths, Dreams and Mysteries
Mircea Eliade
Manufacturer: Harpercollins (Short Disc)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0061319430

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SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR ANY PSYCH/MYTHOLOGY STUDENTS.......1998-07-18

AN EXCELLENT BEGINNING AN END TO STUDIES INTO PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION, AND MYTHOLOGY. THIS BOOK DEFINES THE PARAMETERS OF WHAT STUDENTS OF RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY ARE LOOKING FOR.

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