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Imagini si simboluri: Eseu despre simbolismul magico-religios
Romanian (translation)
Original French
Original French
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
About the author
Mircea Eliade
459 books2,478 followersRomanian-born historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, professor at the University of Chicago, and one of the pre-eminent interpreters of world religion in the last century. Eliade was an intensely prolific author of fiction and non-fiction alike, publishing over 1,300 pieces over 60 years. He earned international fame with LE MYTHE DE L'ÉTERNAL RETOUR (1949, The Myth of the Eternal Return), an interpretation of religious symbols and imagery. Eliade was much interested in the world of the unconscious. The central theme in his novels was erotic love.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
April 17, 2009
Too much theoretical reading lately (probably my next reading will be something lighter). I can blame that, ooooooor I can say I wasn’t fully satisfied with the book, which is not, of course, Mr. Eliade’s fault. Except for the shell’s myth (in most cultures the shell and the pearl are a symbol of procreation – the shell represents the vulva while the pearl represents the fetus; shells were also used in funeral processions plus magic and medicine, etc.) the others didn’t really get into me. I wish they did.
May 11, 2016
Some excellent material on the symbol and its tracing (mostly transcendentally) in the history of religion, as well as on symbols themselves. Between these 2 sections (commencing and ending the book) lies a data-supported recap of Eliade's main ideas(Symbolism of the Centre, of Creation Waters, etc), which are also presented in one way or another in most of his books, which may lead to a weakening of the (familiar-with-the-author) reader's attention.
August 9, 2024
Od tej pory będę patrzeć na małże i perły inaczej 🤍 Bardzo ciekawa i na pewno jeszcze sięgnę po inne prace tego autora.
March 9, 2014
Leer a Mircea Eliade es una constante apertura de puertas en tu mente, una lluvia de conexiones entre temas, símbolos e ideas, además de la construcción de bases. Se puede describir lo que hace de muchas formas, pero para mi ha sido esta. No solo me ha ayudado en cosas en las que estoy trabajando, sino que me ha llenado de mil y una ideas para el futuro, y pasarán los años y existirán otros después de él, pero no creo que se pueda olvidar como referencia en el estudio de las mitologíasy religiones desde un punto de vista filosófico. Una relectura asegurada para el futuro, y un libro que tendré que poner en la carta a los reyes magos en las próximas navidades.
(¡Nunca agradeceré suficientes veces a quien me dio la referencia de este libro!)
(¡Nunca agradeceré suficientes veces a quien me dio la referencia de este libro!)
May 22, 2016
"viața omului modern freamătă de mituri pe jumătate uitate, de hierofanii decăzute, de simboluri dezafectate. "
August 4, 2016
hilarious
September 15, 2020
Eliade sucinto e no seu melhor!
January 16, 2023
The Romanian-born historian of religions Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) remains a controversial figure partly because of alliances he made in the Thirties: politically, with the anti-Semitic and nationalist Iron Guard; and intellectually, with the Traditionalist school of metaphysics represented primarily by René Guénon and Julius Evola, although he would later claim that he could never accept their “ahistorical” belief in a Primordial Tradition from which all religions and initiatory practices derive. Certainly, Eliade never assumes the existence of a prehistoric Hyperborean and Atlantean civilisation, where the Tradition is supposed to originate; but his own advocacy of a trans-conscious realm and his exploration of universal patterns in religious thought can be seen as a more intellectually respectable variation on the theme of a Perennial Philosophy.
After WWII, Eliade moved to France, where his proclamation of the reality of the sacred and his insistence on treating religious beliefs on their own terms would before long land him in stellar company. He had already published French-language books on Yoga (1936), The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History (favourably reviewed by Guénon) and Patterns in Comparative Religion when he was approached by Olga Froebe-Kapteyn and asked to lecture at Eranos in the summer of 1950 on the subject of Man and Rite. Frau Froebe had been organising these multi-disciplinary conferences since 1933 and Eliade would soon find himself hobnobbing with the likes of Carl Jung (the founder of analytical psychology), Henry Corbin (the scholar of esoteric Islam) and Gershom Scholem (the historian of Kabbalah). When Jung retired from lecturing due to ill-health, Eliade, Corbin and Scholem would become the three musketeers of ‘religion after religion,’ dominating the conferences in the Fifties and Sixties with their presentations of the harmonia abrahamica: the belief that Judaism, Christianity and Islam constitute three branches of the sophia perennis, a holy trinity which stands against the extremes of religious fundamentalism on one hand and scientism on the other, neither blind faith nor blind materialism.
Eliade’s first lecture was on the Symbolism of the Centre. But, like much of his subsequent work, it was not only a brilliant scholarly analysis but a ‘meta-psychoanalysis,’ a call to re-awaken archaic symbols and fossilised archetypes in order to renew consciousness. The lecture ends with the enduring question: Where is the Grail? For Eliade, the Grail Castle is the sacred centre where the three worlds of Heaven, Earth and Hell meet and from which we can break through to another plane, a separate reality. The world is perishing from a lack of imagination; but by asking the Grail Question we can heal the Waste Land and renew the life of the cosmos, for “death is often only the result of our indifference to immortality.”
Eliade returned to Eranos the following year, just before his seminal study of Shamanism as an ‘archaic technique of ecstasy’ was published, for the conference on Man and Time. He delivered a lecture on ‘Le Temps et l’Éternité dans la Pensée Indienne’, which was first published in English in 1958 as ‘Time and Eternity in Indian Thought,’ (translated by Ralph Manheim in Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, Eranos 3: Man and Time, edited by Joseph Campbell). Along with his first Eranos lecture, it has been translated by Philip Mairet and published in the book under review as ‘Indian Symbolisms of Time and Eternity.’ Here Eliade explores one of his obsessive themes, the human struggle to transcend Time and History through the narration of myths which restore us to the sacred moment when there is no duration, “in the beginning,” the Once-Upon-a-Time. He illustrates this theme with examples of Indian stories which show how we can break through to the mythical Great Time and discusses the doctrine of “ages,” from the primordial Golden Age to the contemporary Kali Yuga, which was at the base of the cosmic pessimism of Guénon and Evola. But where the Traditionalists wanted to ‘ride the tiger’ to the Apocalypse in the expectation that a new world would be born from the ashes of the old, Eliade believes that we can escape the Terror of Time by realising that the great cosmic illusion is a hierophany: that is, that it reveals the sacred. If Time is Māyā, it is nonetheless a manifestation of the Divine: “One is devoured by Time, not because one lives in Time, but because one believes in its reality and therefore forgets or despises eternity.”
Two more chapters illustrate Eliade’s method of studying symbolism “with all its subtleties, variants and uncertainties” by reprinting essays on Knots and Shells; but it is in the last chapter, written expressly for this book, that he reveals to what extent the archetypal image unfolds its structure in Time, so that “it is awaiting the fulfilment of its meaning”; and that this fulfilment comes with the Incarnation: “Time turns into pleroma” and we are presented with the transfiguration of the historical event into hierophany. The “decomposition” of Christianity and the loss of faith in “the trans-historical reality of the historical event” leads to an empty Historicism, which Marxism attempts to transform into a doctrine of salvation whose slogans of liberation and peace have the same “mythical structure and function” as Christianity.
Sadly, Eliade did not live to see the collapse of the Communist system, which he blamed for destroying the possibility of that European spiritual renewal which he had hoped for in the Thirties; but he might have had much to say about the religiously-inspired terrorism which has taken its place on the world stage, in which the myth of the abolition of history is taken only too literally.
There is more on Eliade and religious symbolism in my Goodreads blog: Myth Dancing (Incorporating the Twenty Third Letter). A series of posts on Eliade begins here: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
After WWII, Eliade moved to France, where his proclamation of the reality of the sacred and his insistence on treating religious beliefs on their own terms would before long land him in stellar company. He had already published French-language books on Yoga (1936), The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History (favourably reviewed by Guénon) and Patterns in Comparative Religion when he was approached by Olga Froebe-Kapteyn and asked to lecture at Eranos in the summer of 1950 on the subject of Man and Rite. Frau Froebe had been organising these multi-disciplinary conferences since 1933 and Eliade would soon find himself hobnobbing with the likes of Carl Jung (the founder of analytical psychology), Henry Corbin (the scholar of esoteric Islam) and Gershom Scholem (the historian of Kabbalah). When Jung retired from lecturing due to ill-health, Eliade, Corbin and Scholem would become the three musketeers of ‘religion after religion,’ dominating the conferences in the Fifties and Sixties with their presentations of the harmonia abrahamica: the belief that Judaism, Christianity and Islam constitute three branches of the sophia perennis, a holy trinity which stands against the extremes of religious fundamentalism on one hand and scientism on the other, neither blind faith nor blind materialism.
Eliade’s first lecture was on the Symbolism of the Centre. But, like much of his subsequent work, it was not only a brilliant scholarly analysis but a ‘meta-psychoanalysis,’ a call to re-awaken archaic symbols and fossilised archetypes in order to renew consciousness. The lecture ends with the enduring question: Where is the Grail? For Eliade, the Grail Castle is the sacred centre where the three worlds of Heaven, Earth and Hell meet and from which we can break through to another plane, a separate reality. The world is perishing from a lack of imagination; but by asking the Grail Question we can heal the Waste Land and renew the life of the cosmos, for “death is often only the result of our indifference to immortality.”
Eliade returned to Eranos the following year, just before his seminal study of Shamanism as an ‘archaic technique of ecstasy’ was published, for the conference on Man and Time. He delivered a lecture on ‘Le Temps et l’Éternité dans la Pensée Indienne’, which was first published in English in 1958 as ‘Time and Eternity in Indian Thought,’ (translated by Ralph Manheim in Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, Eranos 3: Man and Time, edited by Joseph Campbell). Along with his first Eranos lecture, it has been translated by Philip Mairet and published in the book under review as ‘Indian Symbolisms of Time and Eternity.’ Here Eliade explores one of his obsessive themes, the human struggle to transcend Time and History through the narration of myths which restore us to the sacred moment when there is no duration, “in the beginning,” the Once-Upon-a-Time. He illustrates this theme with examples of Indian stories which show how we can break through to the mythical Great Time and discusses the doctrine of “ages,” from the primordial Golden Age to the contemporary Kali Yuga, which was at the base of the cosmic pessimism of Guénon and Evola. But where the Traditionalists wanted to ‘ride the tiger’ to the Apocalypse in the expectation that a new world would be born from the ashes of the old, Eliade believes that we can escape the Terror of Time by realising that the great cosmic illusion is a hierophany: that is, that it reveals the sacred. If Time is Māyā, it is nonetheless a manifestation of the Divine: “One is devoured by Time, not because one lives in Time, but because one believes in its reality and therefore forgets or despises eternity.”
Two more chapters illustrate Eliade’s method of studying symbolism “with all its subtleties, variants and uncertainties” by reprinting essays on Knots and Shells; but it is in the last chapter, written expressly for this book, that he reveals to what extent the archetypal image unfolds its structure in Time, so that “it is awaiting the fulfilment of its meaning”; and that this fulfilment comes with the Incarnation: “Time turns into pleroma” and we are presented with the transfiguration of the historical event into hierophany. The “decomposition” of Christianity and the loss of faith in “the trans-historical reality of the historical event” leads to an empty Historicism, which Marxism attempts to transform into a doctrine of salvation whose slogans of liberation and peace have the same “mythical structure and function” as Christianity.
Sadly, Eliade did not live to see the collapse of the Communist system, which he blamed for destroying the possibility of that European spiritual renewal which he had hoped for in the Thirties; but he might have had much to say about the religiously-inspired terrorism which has taken its place on the world stage, in which the myth of the abolition of history is taken only too literally.
There is more on Eliade and religious symbolism in my Goodreads blog: Myth Dancing (Incorporating the Twenty Third Letter). A series of posts on Eliade begins here: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
January 30, 2023
,, Soarele:fenomen cosmic, este un element constitutiv al simbolismului solar, fapt ce
probează că simbolul se înfăţişează dintru început ca o creaţie a psihicului. Ideea se impune
cu şi mai multă evidenţă dacă ne amintim că funcţia 'simbolului este tocmai să reveleze o
realitate totală, inaecesibilă celorlalte mijloace de cunoaştere: coincidenţa contrariilor, de exemplu,
atît de, bogat şi de simplu exprimată de simboluri, nu este dată nicăieri în Cosmos şi nu este
accesibilă experienţei nemijlocite a omului, nici gîndirii logice.
Să ne ferim totuşi să credem că simbolismul se referă numai la realităţile "spiriturue" . Pentru
gîndirea arhaică, o asemenea separare a "spiritualului" de "material" nici nu are sens: cele două
planuri sînt complementare. Chiar dacă se consideră că se află în "Centrul Lumii", o locuinţă
rămîne totuşi un bun care răspundţ unor trebuinţe precise şi care e condiţionat de climă,
de structura economică a societăţii şi de tradiţia arhitecturală. Vechea dispută dintre "simbolişti"
şi "realişti" a reizbucnit recent în legătură cu arhitectura religioasă a Egiptului antic. Cele două
poziţii nu sînt ireconciliabile decît în aparenţă: în orizontul mentalităţii arhaice, a ţine seamă
de "realităţile imediate" nu înseamnă deloc a ignora sau a dispreţui implicaţiile lor simbolice - şi invers. Nu trebuie să credem că implicaţia simbolică anulează valoarea concretă şi specifică
a unui obiect sau a unei acţiuni: dacă sapa e denumită falus (cum se întîmplă în unele limbi
australo-asiatice) şi dacă însămînţatul pămîntului este asimilat cu actul sexual (aşa cum s-a
petrecut aproape peste tot în lume) , nu înseamnă că agricultorul .. primitiv" ignoră funcţia , specifică a muncii sale şi valoarea concretă, nemijlocită a uneltei lui. Simbolismul adaugă o nouă valoare unui obiect sau unei acţiuni, fără ca prin aceasta să le prejudicieze valorile proprii şi
nemijlocite”. FRAGMENT DIN CARTE
probează că simbolul se înfăţişează dintru început ca o creaţie a psihicului. Ideea se impune
cu şi mai multă evidenţă dacă ne amintim că funcţia 'simbolului este tocmai să reveleze o
realitate totală, inaecesibilă celorlalte mijloace de cunoaştere: coincidenţa contrariilor, de exemplu,
atît de, bogat şi de simplu exprimată de simboluri, nu este dată nicăieri în Cosmos şi nu este
accesibilă experienţei nemijlocite a omului, nici gîndirii logice.
Să ne ferim totuşi să credem că simbolismul se referă numai la realităţile "spiriturue" . Pentru
gîndirea arhaică, o asemenea separare a "spiritualului" de "material" nici nu are sens: cele două
planuri sînt complementare. Chiar dacă se consideră că se află în "Centrul Lumii", o locuinţă
rămîne totuşi un bun care răspundţ unor trebuinţe precise şi care e condiţionat de climă,
de structura economică a societăţii şi de tradiţia arhitecturală. Vechea dispută dintre "simbolişti"
şi "realişti" a reizbucnit recent în legătură cu arhitectura religioasă a Egiptului antic. Cele două
poziţii nu sînt ireconciliabile decît în aparenţă: în orizontul mentalităţii arhaice, a ţine seamă
de "realităţile imediate" nu înseamnă deloc a ignora sau a dispreţui implicaţiile lor simbolice - şi invers. Nu trebuie să credem că implicaţia simbolică anulează valoarea concretă şi specifică
a unui obiect sau a unei acţiuni: dacă sapa e denumită falus (cum se întîmplă în unele limbi
australo-asiatice) şi dacă însămînţatul pămîntului este asimilat cu actul sexual (aşa cum s-a
petrecut aproape peste tot în lume) , nu înseamnă că agricultorul .. primitiv" ignoră funcţia , specifică a muncii sale şi valoarea concretă, nemijlocită a uneltei lui. Simbolismul adaugă o nouă valoare unui obiect sau unei acţiuni, fără ca prin aceasta să le prejudicieze valorile proprii şi
nemijlocite”. FRAGMENT DIN CARTE
July 8, 2023
fazla akademik geldi, ilgilisi sevebilir ama konuya fazla yakın olmayanlar için çok teknik bir dil
February 14, 2020
Excellent introduction and conclusion on the study of symbolism. The four 'data' sections, on the symbolism of the centre, time, knots, shells and history also yield many interesting observations and connections.
March 10, 2011
This is the first time I've read Eliade - profound and complex reading. Jung quotes him often, thus my choice to read Mircea and discover the attraction. His writing is not as clear as C.G.'s, but they make similar points; for example: "Each new valorisation of an archetypal Image crowns and consummates the earlier ones: the "salvation" revealed by the Cross does not annul the pre-Christian values of the Tree of the World, that pre-eminent symbol of the total renovatio; on the contrary, the Cross comes to complete all earlier valencies and meanings." (p 164) That sounds a bit Jungian, doesn't it? I highly recommend this to those who are seeking to grasp the underlying archetypal symbols as expressions of the Self; or in Jung's words: the God within.
November 18, 2018
After reading fantastic Eliade book about Shamanism my friend gave me this one to read next. I really enjoyed this one, okay i was always interested in the themes about religion, history and philosophy, but in this one Eliade research religious symbolism very deep, also from philosophical and anthropological perspective. In the book he mostly research symbolism found in Hinduism but also he mentions a lot Christian and European symbolism. Many will find this book to be too teoretical yes it is not book for fun, but if you enjoyed thematics i mentioned above you must read this one, Eliade was defienetely one of the best researchers of the history of Religion, you will learn a lot of new things if you read his works.
January 27, 2014
Arjuna !
Je me donne le droit maintenant de ne lire que les passages qui m'intéressent ... ainsi en est-il allé pour Images et Symboles. J'ai donc pris ce qui m'intéresse pour ma recherche sur le Wayang Gulit. J'ai découvert le mythe bouddhiste d'Arjuna ! ... et j'en ressors avec de nouvelles questions : pourquoi Arjuna dans le jeu du Wayang ? En territoire musulman voir hindou ? Décidément cette Indonésie me fascine ... Revenons à nos symboles.
Le mythe du temps, de la renaissance et de la nature est un passage vraiment très intéressant.
Un livre à relire en des temps moins pressés ....
Je me donne le droit maintenant de ne lire que les passages qui m'intéressent ... ainsi en est-il allé pour Images et Symboles. J'ai donc pris ce qui m'intéresse pour ma recherche sur le Wayang Gulit. J'ai découvert le mythe bouddhiste d'Arjuna ! ... et j'en ressors avec de nouvelles questions : pourquoi Arjuna dans le jeu du Wayang ? En territoire musulman voir hindou ? Décidément cette Indonésie me fascine ... Revenons à nos symboles.
Le mythe du temps, de la renaissance et de la nature est un passage vraiment très intéressant.
Un livre à relire en des temps moins pressés ....
May 12, 2017
Eliade dá ênfase a alguns simbolismos, como por exemplo, o simbolismo do Centro, da Árvore e do Tempo, principalmente nas comunidades primitivas da Índia. Aborda o simbolismo na História, além de tratar de questões de simbolismo e Imagem de maneira geral, algumas críticas à psicanálise lembram Bachelard. Foi issso aí que ficou.
December 26, 2007
Influência psicológica dos símbolos religiosos sobre nossas crenças
May 20, 2009
Read sections (of the English version, which for some reason is not on Goodreads). Classic, and much more fun to read than current scholarship on religious antropology!.
September 19, 2019
اولین چیزی که متاسفانه جلب توجه میکنه ترجمه نسبتاً ضعیف کتاب هست. مطمئناً این کتاب مناسب علاقه مندان به اسطوره هست، بنابر این تفاوت نمره 4.15 جهانی این کتاب و 3.71 برای این ترجمه، نشون میده متاسفانه ضعف ترجمه نظر من نیست و دیگران هم در این مورد با من هم نظر هستند.
اگر از موضوع ترجمه بگذریم، کتاب از یک مقدمه و پنج فصل تشکیل شده که به نظر من مقدمه و فصل آخر بدخوان هستند یا شاید مشکل ترجمه در این دو بخش جدی تر هست و باقی فصول نسبتاً روان هستند.
کتاب در مجموع پنج محور اصلی داره که شامل نماد پردازی مرکز، نماد پردازی زمان و جاودانگی، نماد پردازی گره ها، نماد پردازی صدف ها و در آخر هم نماد پردازی و تاریخ میشه و مقدمه هم به اهمیت موضوع، چالش ها و محدودیت ها پرداخته. سبک نویشنده این هست که کارهای روان شناسان و بسیاری از همکاران اش رو کوبیده بخصوص در مقدمه بخش قابل توجهی رو به جای اینکه به اهمیت تحقیق و کتاب خود اش اختصاص بده به ضعف های دیگران اختصاص داده و بخصوص به نظر میاد اصلاً میانه خوبی با فروید نداره.
در مجموع در مقایسه با آثار جوزف کمپبل، من آثار کمپبل رو خیلی خیلی بیشتر میپسندم. ساختارمندتر و مستدل تر هستند. این کتاب تا حد زیادی پرداکنده است و فقط در فصل پنجم چند صفحه ای سعی کرده با پرداختن به مسیحیت و پیدا گردن نمادهای چهار فصل قبلی کتاب در مسیحیت به نحوی فصول قبلی کتاب رو که به نظر من کم ارتباط یا حتی بی ارتباط به هم بودن، به همدیگه ربط بده.
با وجود همه اینها در نظر دارم کتاب های بیشتری از این نویسنده مطالعه کنم. یعنی ا��تقاداتی که کردم از ارزش اطلاعاتی که از این کتاب گرفتم کم نمیکنه، واقعا سر نخ های ارزشمندی رو به من داد و علاقمند شدم که تحقیقات مستقلی در خصوص چهار مبحث فصل های یک تا چهار کتاب انجام بدم. البته در مقایسه با دو اثر آقای کمپبل یعنی قدرت اسطوره و قهرمان هزار چهره، نمیتونم به این کتاب بیشتر از نمره 3 از 5 بدم.
اگر از موضوع ترجمه بگذریم، کتاب از یک مقدمه و پنج فصل تشکیل شده که به نظر من مقدمه و فصل آخر بدخوان هستند یا شاید مشکل ترجمه در این دو بخش جدی تر هست و باقی فصول نسبتاً روان هستند.
کتاب در مجموع پنج محور اصلی داره که شامل نماد پردازی مرکز، نماد پردازی زمان و جاودانگی، نماد پردازی گره ها، نماد پردازی صدف ها و در آخر هم نماد پردازی و تاریخ میشه و مقدمه هم به اهمیت موضوع، چالش ها و محدودیت ها پرداخته. سبک نویشنده این هست که کارهای روان شناسان و بسیاری از همکاران اش رو کوبیده بخصوص در مقدمه بخش قابل توجهی رو به جای اینکه به اهمیت تحقیق و کتاب خود اش اختصاص بده به ضعف های دیگران اختصاص داده و بخصوص به نظر میاد اصلاً میانه خوبی با فروید نداره.
در مجموع در مقایسه با آثار جوزف کمپبل، من آثار کمپبل رو خیلی خیلی بیشتر میپسندم. ساختارمندتر و مستدل تر هستند. این کتاب تا حد زیادی پرداکنده است و فقط در فصل پنجم چند صفحه ای سعی کرده با پرداختن به مسیحیت و پیدا گردن نمادهای چهار فصل قبلی کتاب در مسیحیت به نحوی فصول قبلی کتاب رو که به نظر من کم ارتباط یا حتی بی ارتباط به هم بودن، به همدیگه ربط بده.
با وجود همه اینها در نظر دارم کتاب های بیشتری از این نویسنده مطالعه کنم. یعنی ا��تقاداتی که کردم از ارزش اطلاعاتی که از این کتاب گرفتم کم نمیکنه، واقعا سر نخ های ارزشمندی رو به من داد و علاقمند شدم که تحقیقات مستقلی در خصوص چهار مبحث فصل های یک تا چهار کتاب انجام بدم. البته در مقایسه با دو اثر آقای کمپبل یعنی قدرت اسطوره و قهرمان هزار چهره، نمیتونم به این کتاب بیشتر از نمره 3 از 5 بدم.
October 6, 2021
There's nothing more I could say about any of works of Mircea Eliade that hasn't been told already, or couldn't be observed by anyone, even at a first reading of his works. This volume is a nice collection of asorted studies, concerning a vast area of Universal symbols and their interpretation. Throught the volume, even more so than in other of his works, Eliade makes use of psychoanalysis, especially that of C.G. Jung, which gives a contemporary twist to his alreadt remarkable study.
My only objection concerning this volume is the one I only encounter when it comes to Mircea Eliade's works: he seems to reuse a lot of the information and ideas/arguments that were previously published in other of his works. At times the reader might have a strange feeling of deja vu. But, if this is your first enocunter with his works you'll have a brilliant trip through the mysteries of the world (even though this isn't the best book to start with if you want to get familiarised with Eliade's work).
My only objection concerning this volume is the one I only encounter when it comes to Mircea Eliade's works: he seems to reuse a lot of the information and ideas/arguments that were previously published in other of his works. At times the reader might have a strange feeling of deja vu. But, if this is your first enocunter with his works you'll have a brilliant trip through the mysteries of the world (even though this isn't the best book to start with if you want to get familiarised with Eliade's work).
June 22, 2022
An interesting study of selected threads running through myths and civilizations, sufficient to illustrate fragments of the world's ceremony in a snippet. Some notions fished out from various works to make it interesting. For an amateurish read, it does its duty. Eliade didn't mean it for a professional, critical reader, methinks. It fails in its purpose if it wants to be anything other than a Western-oriented lecture that tries to weave various threads into some sort of magnificent plot. At the very end, a flawed crescendo in christological contagion, as if the author wants to throw everything else away. It's a problem when people who study religious studies, theologies, deities, comparative religions have a personal kink in their own direction. It's like masturbating to your own image and trying to avoid discovery by someone else while pretending you can empathize with the secret voyeur.
June 19, 2020
In opinia mea este una din cele mai potrivite carti de introducere si familiarizare cu istoria lui Eliade.
Pe langa aducerea in atentie a unor mituri, autorul ne invita sa privim inainte de aparitia religiilor, dezvaluind modul in care imaginile si simbolistica deja existente au fost utilizate, revalorizate, reintegrate si redenumite in cadrul religiilor.
“Ne putem intreba chiar daca “accesabilitatea” crestinismului nu se datoreaza in mare masura simbolismului sau; daca imaginile universale pe care le reia, la randu-i, nu i-au usurat considerabil difuzarea propriului mesaj.”
Pe langa aducerea in atentie a unor mituri, autorul ne invita sa privim inainte de aparitia religiilor, dezvaluind modul in care imaginile si simbolistica deja existente au fost utilizate, revalorizate, reintegrate si redenumite in cadrul religiilor.
“Ne putem intreba chiar daca “accesabilitatea” crestinismului nu se datoreaza in mare masura simbolismului sau; daca imaginile universale pe care le reia, la randu-i, nu i-au usurat considerabil difuzarea propriului mesaj.”
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February 15, 2021"Door zich aan zijn historiciteit te onttrekken doet de mens nog geen afstand van de hoedanigheid mens te zijn, wordt hij nog niet opgeslokt door de dierlijkheid; hij vindt de taal en soms de ervaring terug van een verloren paradijs. Dromen, dagdromen, beelden van zijn heimwee, van zijn verlangens, van zijn geestdrift, enzovoort: dat alles zijn krachten die de historisch geconditioneerde mens in een geestelijke wereld overplaatsen, welke oneindig veel rijker is dan de gesloten wereld van zijn historisch nu."
August 1, 2020
Consider că lucrarea constituie un amplu tratat despre apariția și rolul simbolului în decursul vremurilor. Axându-se în special pe comportamente religioase( la societăți arhaice) , Eliade expune conceptul de simbol, ca fiind depozitar al concepțiilor umane și sursă a descoperirilor de mai târziu din spațiul European.
April 10, 2019
ترجمه مهاجری به غایت افتضاحه. طی ایمیلی به انتشارات این مطلب رو انتقال دادم و اونا گفتن ما فیدبک بد نگرفتیم و ترجمه قدیمیه. توصیه می کنم قبل از خرید حتما یکی دو پاراگراف رو رندوم بخونید تا متوجه بشید جمله ها ناقص و گنگ و نارسا هستند
February 5, 2023
Straordinario. Contrariamente alle mie aspettative è di una chiarezza disarmante. Ho preso alcuni appunti piuttosto interessanti. Una luce in un periodo buio della mia vita. Spero vivamente che approfondendo la cosa riscoprirò lo stesso piacere
September 10, 2019
A very good book about religious symbolism and images. It has a bit too many examples but in the age of raging atheism, one has to do so in order to shut the mouths of radicals.
May 14, 2024
Introductory.
August 3, 2024
You know when people ask "if you could have a dinner with people alive or dead, who would you invite?" I'm picking this guy.
January 8, 2020
I love a concise theology book and this comes in at under 180 pages. Fascinating analysis of four different symbols (e.g. knots, shells, etc) across different religious, periods, and regions. It's based on various lectures so the tone and structure vary quite a lot.
June 24, 2021
The first three chapters, covering man outside time, the center of the world, and the escape from time are wonderful and enlightening. The other two chapters on knots and shells are quite dull.
However, the writing in the first three more than makes up for the last two. Even though this is the third Eliade I have read, I still found something new here, and insight into the latest Marvel series on LoKi.
However, the writing in the first three more than makes up for the last two. Even though this is the third Eliade I have read, I still found something new here, and insight into the latest Marvel series on LoKi.
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