Malidoma Patrice Somé

RITUAL is the first book in the AFRICAN SHAMAN SERIES: ECHOES OF THE ANCESTORS - THE DAGARA TEACHINGS. RITUAL describes the uses & dangers of traditional ritual practice, how it is performed, & the kinds of expected interactions between the ancestral spiritual world & this one. The grief rituals are used as an example of communal ritual & its healing power for us today in the West. The Dagara of West Africa are a people who live in two worlds: the traditional world of villages, land & water, as well as the Otherworld of the Ancestors with its magic & spiritual powers. Initiations, rituals, divination & a special relationship with the elements in nature is what unites these worlds for the Dagara. Malidoma Some, spokesman for the Dagara Ancestors, lives in three worlds: The world of his village, the world of the Ancestors & the modern Western world. Holder of two Ph.D.s, he considers his traditional initiation into ancestral knowledge his true education. Told by the elders of his village that the Ancestors wanted him to go to the West, he immersed himself in Western culture. Malidoma now acts as a bridge between these three worlds, to echo the teaching of the Ancestors to us.

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