@amber.of.the.sea
The Huichol shaman Ramon Medina Silva says the “soul or life-force is connected to the body by a fine thread as thin as the silky
The Huichol shaman Ramon Medina Silva says the “soul or life-force is connected to the body by a fine thread as thin as the silky thread of a spider, while some Australian peoples believe in a thin silk-like thread that emerges from the mouth and connects body and soul.” In North-western Australia, the “medicine men of Rai, travel through the air and below the earth on a ‘rope of air,’ while the shamans of tribes in Northern Dampier Land travel ‘on top’ – that is, to heaven – with a specific aim, such as to cause rainfall. For this purpose, the shaman carries ‘A thread, a stroke of lightning come from his body and thunder is heard, by which the life force of the shaman is liberated and follows the lightning.’”
Mircea Eliade wrote of how it is the “cosmic rope” that holds Heaven and Earth and has a symbolic function similar to that of the World Tree or World Mountain. In the western Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa, the Ju| ‘hoansi say that “a healer must learn to ‘slip out of his or her skin’ and to travel to the Upperworld ‘like a breath being released’. Once freed from the body, the healer’s soul must climb fragile threads or ‘wires to the sky’ that lead to !Xu’s village. The threads can break and the souls can fall back to earth. This makes it terrifying.” In Sudan, the Tapotha say that the supreme god, Nawuge, lives in the sky. “Long ago, all the people lived up above with Nawuge. One day, a bird flew up from earth to heaven, carrying in its beak a long rope. The rope was seized by the people, who started sliding down it until they reached the earth, where they found grass and trees, cattle and sheep. They milked the cattle and liked the taste of milk. A lot of people came down the rope, but some remained above.”
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Included in my book The Bronze Serpent, available @haus.nostromo
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Artwork: "El testigo", 2000, oil on linen, by Tomas Sanchez
@tomassanchezstudio
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#magical #painting #mythology #fineart #bookquotes
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2026-02-22 | 1,919 likes | 25 comments
