Shaman, the wounded healer : with 131 illustrations, 16 in color
"As healer, ceremonialist, spiritual guide and artist, the shaman has been a key figure in human society since earliest times. He is depicted in the cave paintings made 30,000 years ago by the Palaeolithic hunters of Europe, and in his bestselling books the anthropologist Carlos Castaneda has described how still today a shaman like Don Juan is actively at work in America, using trance and ecstasy to master the unseen forces of nature, to penetrate the visionary realms beyond everyday experience and to transcend time and space. The age-old practice of shamanism lies at the heart of some cultures and survives in the shadowy fringes of others. This account of the sacred and perilous activities of the man or woman "who is doomed to inspiration" picks out those threads that link the tradition wherever it appears, whether in aboriginal Australia or Siberia, in Japan or the jungles of the Upper Orinoco. The words and insights, the costumes and regalia of the shamans themselves, together with actual photographs of their rituals and of their paintings, are the basis of this vivid and informed book"--Back cover
Print Book, English, 1988, ©1982
Thames and Hudson, New York, N.Y., 1988, ©1982