Books › Of water and the spirit
Of water and the spirit
First published 1994 · 415 pages
A profound, harrowing, and ultimately transcendent journey across the chasm between Western indoctrination and indigenous spiritual reality.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like sitting by a fire under a vast, unfamiliar sky, listening to a storyteller bridge two entirely different realities. The narrative moves at a steady, deliberate pace, anchoring you first in the stark, painful reality of colonial erasure before plunging into the deeply mystical, awe-inspiring landscape of indigenous initiation. The prose is both grounded and luminous, treating the supernatural with the same matter-of-fact clarity as the physical world. It is a deeply atmospheric read, haunting in its depiction of cultural loss, yet profoundly expansive in its spiritual revelations. This book will captivate seekers, anthropologists of the spirit, and anyone drawn to stories of profound personal transformation, ancestral healing, and the enduring power of ancient rituals.
- Mood
- mystical
- grounded
- haunting
- transformative
- Tone
- earnest
- reflective
- reverent
- resilient
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- cultural dislocation · spiritual awakening · ancestral connection · healing colonial trauma · the power of ritual
- The writing
- Lyrical, direct, and deeply evocative, blending straightforward narrative with rich, mythic resonance.
- The arc
- Moves from profound alienation and cultural erasure to a harrowing, transcendent reconnection with ancestral roots.
- Who it's for
- Seekers interested in indigenous wisdom, decolonization, shamanism, and profound spiritual memoirs.
Content notes
- child abuse
- colonial violence
- cultural erasure
- physical hardship
About the book
Malidoma Patrice Some was born in a Dagara Village. He was soon to be abducted to a Jesuit school, where he remained for the next fifteen years, being harshly indoctrinated into European ways of thought and worship. The story tells of his return to his people and his hard initiation back into those people, which led to his desire to convey their knowledge to the world. Of Water and the Spirit is the result of that desire; it is a sharing of living African traditions, offered in compassion for those struggling with our contemporary crisis of the spirit.
Description from Open Library.
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