Here's an excerpt from a not-yet-published book on shamanism. (Is this unethical? Please advise.) This passage intrigued me. Sounds like suffering that one goes through during one's twenties:
"Taken by the faeries" is a common phrase used to explain odd behavior and debilitating illness with no obvious cause or cure. When the Celtic society was still shamanic, "taken by the faeries" meant one had been called into the initiation crisis of the shaman. It was common that the illness or madness lasted for seven years. To others it would appear that the individual was depressed, in the throws of some unknown physical illness, or simply behaving in odd, socially unacceptable ways. For the individual, the journey had begun. He or she had stumbled or been drawn into the Otherworld and was engaged in an adventure of some kind with the Faere Folk. How the individual resolves the journey, and if he or she does, determines whether or he or she becomes a shaman.
4 comments:
Fellow Publishing Drone (by day) says: Under the Fair Use portion of US copyright law, you may quote up to 3 consecutive sentences of copyrighted material w/appropriate attribution without seeking the author's permission. However, since you mention that this book has yet to be released, copyright law might not yet apply to the material in an explicit fashion. On the third hand, it's an interesting quote, and I'd much rather be taking tea on a tulip leaf than enforcing Fair Use standards.
FYI I corrected "throws" to "throes" in the ms.
Dear Anonymous Fellow Publishing Drone,
I'm confused. For once, I didn't say or do anything explicit, and I didn't mention fashion. So you're saying we're all clear?
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