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Malidoma Patrice Some Quotes

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Famous Malidoma Patrice Some Quotes

“Nakedness is very common in the tribe. It is not a shameful thing; it is an expression of one's relationship with the spirit of nature. To be naked is to be open-hearted. Normally kids stay naked until puberty and even beyond. It was only with the introduction of cheap cloth from the West, through Goodwill and other Christian organisations, that nakedness began to be associated with shame.”

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Book:Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman
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“If you discuss the beliefs of Christianity with the village diviner, the medicine man, he will say the white man must be extremely stupid. The white man must be profoundly troubled - probably torn by a huge guilt connected to how he treated the ancestors - to think that villagers would buy the idea that someone died on the cross for us. They would say these beliefs are evidence that the white people killed someone of great importance, probably a diviner and a healer. If you kill a healer, you must make amends by appeasing the healer's spirit.”

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Author:Malidoma Patrice Some
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“Nature is like a canvas, a painting of countless options and possibilities. You don't really worship spirit, because you are also spirit, and spirits don't worship one another. What makes you different from spirit overall is that you are locked into temporality. You have a body, like a piece of cloth that is decayable. While you stay in it, it's hard for you to have the same abilities that spirit has without a body. It is also easy to make mistakes about what is real, and how to go about things effectively.”

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Author:Malidoma Patrice Some
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“I see too many people who jump into spirituality as a shelter to hide from reality. It doesn't work that way. The way it works is for the spirit behind you to follow you wherever you go, like a loyal soldier, and show you how to face up to adversity. If you can't face adversity, you will get locked into a new age perception that everything is fine when it isn't. That makes you vulnerable to being exploited by the person who comes along and says, "I am a psychic. I have studied with this guy or that guy, and I know what you should do".”

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Author:Malidoma Patrice Some
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“Healing comes when the individual remembers his or her identity—the purpose chosen in the world of ancestral wisdom—and reconnects with that world of Spirit.”

WorldInspirationalWisdomRememberSpiritPurposeIndividualHealingAwarenessIdentityHealthMindfulnessEnlightenmentAwakeningChosenSpiritual WisdomSpiritual AwakeningSpiritual HealingSpiritual HealthReconnecting
Book:The healing wisdom of Africa: finding life purpose through nature, ritual, and community
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