Ritual: Power, Healing and Community

Explores the essential role ritual plays in maintaining community and examines the structure common to all ritual. The author draws on his own experience of ritual with his native West African Dagara tribe to argue that lack of ritual is causing the fabric of Western society to unravel.
"The stories within these books have the poignancy of new discoveries as well as the unworn imagination of the ancestors. The commentary has the sharp edge of modern thought and the intricacy which results from the intellect being woven through the ritual complexities of tribal life. The purpose of constructing thresholds that bring this world together is to find the powers that can heal the rends in tribal as well as modern communities." --Michael Meade, from the Introduction Versed in the languages of psychology, comparative literature, as well as ancient mythology, healing and divination, Malidoma Patrice Some bridges paths between the ancient tribal world of the West African Dagara culture and modern Western society. RITUAL is written with wild imagination, careful critical reflection and intuitive insights that will force the reader to encounter the world anew.