Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (Compass) [Paperback]

Malidoma Patrice Some (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997 | Series: Compass

?The stories within these books have the poignancy of new discoveries as well as the unworn imagination of the ancestors. The commentary has the sharp edge of modern thought and the intricacy which results from the intellect being woven through the ritual complexities of tribal life. The purpose of constructing thresholds that bring this world together is to find the powers that can heal the rends in tribal as well as modern communities.? --Michael Meade, from the Introduction Versed in the languages of psychology, comparative literature, as well as ancient mythology, healing, and divination, Malidoma Patrice Some bridges paths between the ancient tribal world of the West African Dagara culture and modern Western society. Ritual is written with wild imagination, careful critical reflection, and intuitive insights that will force the reader to encounter the world anew.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Some is the ideal author for this book, which presents traditional beliefs about spirit possession and the need for ritual. He grew up in a village in West Africa and holds advanced degrees from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University, and he is also a Dagara medicine man and diviner. Some presents his own reactions to Western culture's enslavement to machine technology, which, he states, "is the spirit of death made to look like life." He concentrates on the need for grief ritual and ways of working with emotion in Western culture. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Malidoma Patrice Somé, born in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) West Africa, is initiated in the ancestral traditions of his tribe, and is a medicine man and diviner in the Dagra culture. He holds three master's degrees and two doctorates from Sorbonne and Brandeis University, and has taught at the University of Michigan. He currently devotes himself to speaking and, with his wife, Sobonfu, conducting intensive workshops throughout the United States.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140195580
• ISBN-13: 978-0140195583
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soul expanding, April 7, 2000

By 

Christine Bearse (Vernon, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (Compass) (Paperback)

I first read Of Water and Spirit,5 years ago, and was moved and totally absorbed by Malidoma's account of his most amazing life journey. And I just recently read his third book, The Healing Wisdom Of Africa, and now this, his second book.

There are similarities you will find in this book and The Healing Wisdom Of Africa. But this book, has many more personal accounts of his experiences with Ritual,and with his Grandfather, a powerful influence in his life. He gives a very in depth description of the Death ritual, which caused me to reflect upon the funerals I have gone to, and the vast difference. I found myself wanting to attend a Death ritual,with the Dagara, if only to participate in the togetherness of such a moving and human ceremony.

He shares with us the depth and detail of a culture that has so much to share and to teach everyone. I for one, feel blessed to have been exposed to such wisdom and beauty through Malidomas writings.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing and Community - the power of loyalty and bonding, July 8, 2002

By 

JB (New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (Compass) (Paperback)

I cannot stop reading Malidoma Patrice Some's accounts of his life and the lives of the Dagara people of Burkina Faso. The strong linkages between community, spirit, rituals, and individual growth are compelling and very engrossing. I first read "The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual, and Community," with awe and a realization of the connections that my own people lost when my ancestors were transported from this part of the world by slave traders.

However, Malidoma, through works like this one, opens our eyes to the possibilities that all is not lost to us, and that even in this modern westernized culture, there are ways in which we can begin to make some of those connections again, through the way we relate to community and our loved ones.

I found the chapter titled "a ritual sampler:The funeral and language of grief especially interesting and thought provoking.

I can hardly wait to read more of your books Malidoma. Thank you.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to be savored, March 27, 2006

By 

Daniel J. Benor "Wholistic Healing Publications" (Medford, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (Compass) (Paperback)

Malidoma Patrice Somé, author of Of Water and the Spirit, describes a broad spectrum of ways in which rituals can be helpful. His perspective is that of a shaman trained in the West African Dagara cultural tradition, now living and teaching in the US. He eloquently shares his experiences of powerful shamanic healing practices.

For Somé, rituals are potent interventions on many levels. At the social level they are forms for expression of religious beliefs, or communal celebrations. Rituals affirm our connection with our community. A healing ritual may draw together relatives from the immediate and extended family, as well as from the community at large.

"Where ritual is absent, the young ones are restless or violent, there are no real elders, and the grown-ups are bewildered. The future is dim." (p. 12)

Industrial society has lost much of its awareness of rituals.

"Indigenous people are indigenous because there are no machines between them and their gods. There are no machines barring the door to the spirit world where one can enter in and listen to what is going on within at a deep level, participating in the vibration of Nature. Where machines speak in place of gods, people are hard put to listen, even more hard put to vibrate with the realm of Nature." (p. 17-18)

Healing rituals, properly performed, are tools to achieve specific healing effects. People performing the rituals may enhance the power of the rituals through their innate gifts for healing, through their learning in apprenticeship the ways of a shaman, and through the assistance of various natural energies and spirit assistants.

This is a book to be savored, rich in healings on many levels.