Описание: Одно из самых лучших собраний мифов североамериканских индейцев, которое когда-либо издавалось. В этих мифах содержится внушительная эзотерическая мудрость, и они поражают воображение не менее, чем европейские. Их можно воспринимать, как обычные истории, а можно смотреть в корень, изучая скрытую в них великую мудрость. Наряду с тем, что данные мифы демонстрируют общие черты между различными культурами, они также проливают свет на способ мышления, отличающейся от нашего - тонкий и необыкновенно привлекательный сегодня для тех, кто с ним познакомился. Каждый читатель сможет, наконец, должным образом оценить истинную сущность и значимость индийской культуры Северной Америки в этой полной, добросовестно написанной книге, которую написал известный ученый-оккультист Льюис Спенс (1874-1955). Подробно: Мифология индейцев Северной Америки всегда проявляла своего рода "волшебное" обаяние на тех, кто с ней знаком. Атмосфера этих мифов отражает духовное содержание людей, жизнь которых внешне проходила в позднем каменном веке. Они имели лишь навыки охотников, рыбаков и ловцов, но их внутренняя жизнь состояла из своего рода сказочного ясновидения, некого визуализированного сознания, отличного от нашего современного образа мыслей. Природа также придает уникальные черты мифам индейцев Северной Америки. В частности большое значение имел земной магнетизм, который проявлялся в культуре населявших Северную Америку людей, например, в часто повторяющемся мотиве сверхъестественных перевоплощений, волшебства, как белого, так и черного, которое работает через какого-то человека или полубожественного героя. Так же, как электричество характеризуется резким контрастом между положительным и отрицательным, мифология индейцев также изображает эту противостоящую дуальность. Можно наблюдать это в высокой степени напряженности, существующей между благотворными и пагубными силами, между которыми оказывается человек. Это также отражено в индейской мифологии, связанной с созданием мира, где земля показана, как возникшая посредством взаимодействия духов двух типов. Аналогично, и сам духовный мир характеризуется выражением "небеса двух", показывая тем самым дуальность первичного мира, где эти силы воздействуют друг на друга. При этом божественный "Создатель Вселенной", кажется, отказывается от физической активности, становясь "полигоном", на котором происходит эта борьба, приводящая к гармоничному, сбалансированному взаимодействию между этими противостоящими силами. Долгое время это представление принималось христианскими миссионерами, как почитание индейцами "Святого Духа", который мог равняться с Богом-отцом в монотеистическом смысле. Но индийцы почитали только лишь Большую Святую Тайну, которая, возможно, может быть трактована, как бесконечность или божественность. Хотя в определенных мифах один или другой аспект этой Святой Тайны может быть персонифицирован, это никоим образом не затрагивает его суть, как некого все наполняющего духа, "божественного", в его всецело бесконечном смысле. В состоянии ясновидения индийцы созерцали существа мира природы, опасных и полезных видов, отражающих работу дуальных сил во всех созданных вещах. В лесах, горах, озерах и потоках эти защищающие духи проявляются в определенных типах животных (буйвол, медведь, выдра, олень, лось, бобер, и так далее) или, как некие доброжелательные элементарные создания. Могущественные космические создания, связанные с солнцем, звездами, планетами, громом, молнией также несут благо людям. Особенно важными были духи, проявляющиеся, как радуга, кукуруза, растения табака, которые в индейских мифах выступают, как создания большой красоты и волшебной власти. Среди пагубных сил, работающих против блага вселенной, земли и человечества, были наводящие ужас первобытные гиганты, страшные монстры различных мастей, большие водные змеи, ужасные драконы, злые духи шторма и бури, более активные по их мнению в глухих лесах и темных озерах, далеких от мест поселения людей. В то время как "верхний" мир, плодородная земля и небесное пространство были в юрисдикции благотворных сил, пагубным существам были отведены темные подземные области, скрытые пещеры и гроты, а также удивительные подземные реки и озера. В то же самое время земной дом человека был сценой его борьбы и побед, на которые влияют силы добра и зла, как олицетворение вечной дуальности вещей. В визуальном представлении индейцев древней Америки отразились знания о зарождении космоса, земли и человеческого рода. В ранней фазе земного развития её населяли антропоморфические существа, которые вели себя частично как люди, частично как животные. В более позднем космическом этапе животное преобразуется в "героев" экстра-человеческих пропорций и полномочий. Могущественные волшебники и охотники, в которые входят такие полубожественные герои как Manibozho, Glooskap и Wiyot, эпическая борьба которых с силами добра и зла играет видную роль в мифологии индийцев Северной Америки, о чём вы можете наряду с остальным прочить в этой книге. Это интересно: Несмотря на то, что книга вышла в свет более ста лет назад, она по прежнему актуальна как в первый день издания и до сих пор является одним из самых подробных и авторитетных исследований доступных читателям. |
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Вариант описания на английском: Here is one of the finest collections of myths of the North American Indians ever published. Once thought to be simple stories of a race of child-like men, they can now be seen as profound theology impressive esoteric wisdom, and strikingly like European myths. While the stories show the deep similarities between different cultures, they also cast light on a mind orientation different from ours in ways both subtle and attractive to us today. With this book, every reader will be able, finally, to properly evaluate and respect the true nature and significance of the Indian of North America. Lewis Spence, the author, has here once again presented a scholarly and thoroughly researched volume, even as he has in his other Steinerbook, Mysteries of Egypt. INTRODUCTION The mythology of the Indians of North America has long exerted a kind of "magic" fascination. The "atmosphere" of these myths reflects the spiritual outlook of a people whose external life was largely that of men of the later stone age, whose occupations were mainly those of the hunter, fisher and trapper, but whose inner life consisted of a kind of dreamlike clairvoyance, a picture-consciousness quite unlike our modern way of thinking.Every mythology is inseparably linked with the people among whom it evolved. In addition, it is equally united with its particular geographical "homeland," the manifestations of weather, the seasons, the elements, as well as the qualities of the soil, the mountains, plains, rivers, lakes, deserts, forests, in their relationship to the prehistoric and historic destiny of the landscape, with all that this implies. Thus the element of earth magnetism gives a certain unique "flavor" to the myths of the Indians of North America. The fact that the magnetic pole of the earth is located in the general region of the globe where these myths originated, and that the major developments in the field of electrical technology have taken place in the same part of the hemisphere, may not be unrelated phenomena. It also may not be unreasonable to suggest that this electricity, this magnetism has manifested itself not only in the soil and the atmospnere of the country, but in the energy-quality, the will-activity of the people as well. In the mythology of the Indians of North America this magnetism-motivated will-activity is expressed, for example, in the ever-repeated motif of supernatural 'trickster" transformations, of magic, both white and black, working through the individual human being or semi-divine hero. Just as electricity involves the sharp contrast between positive and negative, the mythology of the Indians pictures this opposing duality as well. One can observe this in the high degree of tension existing between beneficent and maleficent powers, with the human being placed between them. This twofoldness is also indicated in the Indian accounts of creation where the earth is pictured as having come into existence through the interworking of two types of spirit-beings. Likewise the spiritual world itself is characterized by the expression, "the heaven of the two", indicating the one archetypal world where these dual forces воздействуют each other. Meanwhile the divine "Creator of the Universe" appears to withdraw from outer activity, to remain hidden, concealed in the background, as it were, or perhaps better said, becomes the "Ground" (to use the expression of Jacob Boehme) upon which takes place the struggle to bring about a harmonious, balanced cooperation between these opposing powers. This "withdrawal" into "concealment" on the part of the Creator expresses the essential nature of the Divine as the Indians pictured it. It has long been assumed, partly out of a certain misconception of early missionaries, that the Indians originally reverenced a "Great Spirit" which could be equated with a "Father-God" in a monotheistic sense. In contrast, however, the Dakota (Sioux) name Wakan-tanka, for example, more nearly approximates the experience of the Divine on the part of the Indians of North America. The word Wakan means "the Holy Mystery," and tanka means "the Great." Hence Wakan-tanka can be rendered as "The Great Holy Mystery," somewhat akin to the Hebrew Ain-Sof, "the Infinite," which can neither be described, pictured, comprehended nor approached by human thinking. Thus the Indians reverenced as supreme not a single entity, but a Great Holy Mystery, which perhaps can be described as the Infinite or the Divine, not at all as an individual but in an all-encompassing sense. Although in certain myths one or another aspect of this Holy Mystery may be personified in one form or another, this in no way affects the Indians' experience of the all-pervading Spirit, the Manitou, as "the Divine" in an entirely infinite sense. In clairvoyant vision the Indians beheld the world of Nature-beings of both beneficent and maleficent kinds, reflecting the dual forces at work in all created things. In forests, mountains, lakes and streams these protecting spirits manifested themselves in certain animal types (buffalo, bear, otter, deer, elk, beaver, and so on) or as certain elemental beings of kindly disposition The mighty cosmic beings related to the sun, the stars, the planets, thunder, lightning, tne elements, also brought blessings to men. Of particular importance were the spirits manifested as the rainbow the corn, the tobacco plant, imaged in the Indian myths as creatures of great beauty and magic power. Among the maleficent powers working against the good of the universe, earth and mankind were the dread primeval giants, terrible monsters of various sorts, great water serpents, horrible dragons, wicked elemental creatures of storm and tempest, particularly active in lonely forests and dark pools, far from the haunts of men. Under certain conditions the spirits of the dead were also experienced as exerting a malicious influence upon the world of the living. While the heights, the "upper" world, the fertile earth and the expanses of the heavens above were sacrosanct for the activities of the beneficent powers, to the maleficent beings were reserved the dark underground regions, hidden caves and grottos, mysterious and awesome subterranean rivers and lakes. At the same time, the earthly home of man was the scene of his struggles and victories, influenced always by both the good and evil powers, the eternal duality of things. In the picture-consciousness of the Indians of ancient America is mirrorecf the origin of cosmos, earth and the human family. In an early phase of earth-development whole populations existed, consisting entirely of animal forms, anthropomorphic creatures who in part behaved like men, in part like animals. Through magic "transformations" they performed deeds of "creation," but their activities remained without lasting result. At a later point in the development of the cosmos, the animal forms change into suprahuman forms, into "heroes" of extra-human proportions and powers. Mighty "Magicians" and hunters, their number includes such semi-divine figures as Manibozho, Glooskap and Wiyot, whose epic struggles with the forces of good and evil play a prominent role in the mythology of the Indians of North America. Four stages of creation are frequently to be observed in the mythology of the North American Indians. The first is dominated by a mysterious demiurge, usually called ''the Trickster." Although he is variously pictured as Haven, Rabbit, Coyote, etc., he nevertheless exists in a state of undifferentiated chaos, out of which everything subsequently evolves. This primeval chaos is often characterized by the Indian myths as a kind of Saturn warmth-state, a condition of pregnant heat. The second stage appears under the figure of "the I hire," again a demiurgic figure, who is accompanied by or is sometimes pursued by the Hunter who tries to swallow the Sun. This second stage is followed by a third, when a great battle takes place between the good and the evil forces. This warfare, personified by various types of animals who appear as warriors, was later reflected in the clan system among the various Indian tribes. Under the guidance of initiate-leaders the latter divided themselves into groups who, as it were, saw themselves "overshadowed" by one or another animal type, which they then took as the "symbol" of their particular group or clan. This is expressive of the stage of the reflective Moon consciousness, often described in ancient mythology. Finally, at the fourth stage, Earth appears, although in a condition different from our present earth. Nevertheless, at this stage man makes his appearance, but as a duality, for the first human kind are twins, one of them fettered by earth-heaviness, the other devoted to the spirit-life. This duality is a kind of intensification, an enhancement of the struggle characteristic of the third stage. In the course of man's development on earth this duality was reflected in the social .structure of every Indian tribe, where two distinct types of human being emerged. The first were more devoted to spiritual matters, to prophecy based on knowledge and experience of the supersensible worlds, and particularly to the art of healing. From this group the so-called "medicine men" (misnamed by the early white explorers to whom their proper designation as "Men of the Holy Mystery" conveyed no meaning at all) derived. The second group was concerned with responsibility' for earthly matters: hunting, food, clothing, shelter, guidance of the group, and so on. From this group came the "chiefs", the leaders of their people. Thus can be seen how the basic duality, reflecting forces at work in environing Nature, in spiritual life and in human affairs, is a reality of which the mythology of the Indians of North America bears witness in a most impressive way. In the following pages will be found one of the finest collections of myths of the North American Indians ever published. Long out of print, its reappearance in this series of books on the mythologies of the peoples of the earth is a very valuable contribution to our present-day need to understand tne human being in all aspects or his past stages of development in order that it may be possible to evolve in the present deeds by which a better future for mankind may come to be. |