“One has to be wounded in order to become a healer. This is the local image of a universal mythological motif, which is described in Eliade's book about the initiation of medicine men and shamans. Nobody becomes either one or the other without first having been wounded, either cut open by the initiator and having certain magical stones inserted into his body, or a spear thrown at his neck, or some such thing. Generally, the experiences are ecstatic – stars or ghost-like demons – hit them or cut them open, but always they have to be pierced or cut apart before they become healers, for that is how they acquire the capacity for healing others.”
― The Problem of the Puer Aeternus
― The Problem of the Puer Aeternus
“O Reader! had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
O gentle Reader! you would find
A tale in every thing.
What more I have to say is short,
And you must kindly take it:
It is no tale; but, should you think,
Perhaps a tale you'll make it.”
― Simon Lee: The Old Huntsman
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
O gentle Reader! you would find
A tale in every thing.
What more I have to say is short,
And you must kindly take it:
It is no tale; but, should you think,
Perhaps a tale you'll make it.”
― Simon Lee: The Old Huntsman
“A poem is good if it contains a new analogy and startles the reader out of the habit of treating words as counters.”
―
―
“The healing hero, therefore, is the one who finds some creative way out, a way not already known, and does not follow a pattern. Ordinary sick people follow ordinary patterns, but the shaman cannot be cured by the usual methods of healing. He has to find the unique way, the only way that applies to him. The creative personality who can do that then becomes a healer and is recognized as such by his colleagues.”
― The Problem of the Puer Aeternus
― The Problem of the Puer Aeternus
“I started to make a literary being of myself, someone who lives as if her experiences were to be written down someday.”
― Mémoire de fille
― Mémoire de fille
Ana’s 2025 Year in Books
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