Reviews for The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, & the Sacred Geography of the Body

The average rating for The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, & the Sacred Geography of the Body based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-04-09 00:00:00 Amy Dao I picked this up at a second hand book shop, prior to which I'd not heard of the title nor it's author. The subtitle & synopsis were sufficient to capture my imagination, since mythology, meditation, shamanism & the body are core interests of mine. My enthusiasm for the topic carried me through a fascinating but sometimes frustrating & intermittently baffling read that ultimately took me a couple of months to finish. The sheer scope & depth of the material covered - from human physiology to physics & philosophy - all within the broad context of mythology & yoga is presented in great detail. Amongst the detail however I found several compelling sections which lucidly clarified & deepened my understanding of the authors clever synthesis of ancient & modern ideas of consciousness, meditation & trance. A worthwhile read for anyone who wants to deepen & broaden their understanding of meditation & trance, especially if those interests are accompanied with an enthusiasm for European or Indoeuropean mythology in the broadest possible sense. I was surprised to find the section covering Christianity full of insights & ideas I hadn't even faintly considered before. A lot to digest, but ultimately rewarding. Reading this has already had an impact on my appreciation of my practice of meditation & trance, despite not being instructional in any kind of specific practice.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-09-23 00:00:00 Sam Dillard Notable claims: Greco-Roman deities and mythological cycles describe respiration and interoception. The labors of Hercules are really twilight-language to describe progressive jhana absorption. Hercules is a yogi. The Iliad is a terma. Druids and Celtic head-hunters were rishis, aware of a cosmic map in the bones and inlets of human skulls. ...Big if true. Sansonese, as he makes no effort to hide, is himself a tantrist arguing in support of an underlying tantric current beneath exoteric religious tradition, especially the hellene mystery schools which fed the monastic tradition of Orthodox Christianity. He defines the role of Greco-Roman deities as comparable, or equivalent, to the tantric symbolism of Hindu deities in the accomplishment of yogic exercises. While there are several, perhaps even valid parallels between Greek "navel-gazing", Orthodox hesychasm, Hindu tantra, the pagan rites of the British isles, and the I Ching, among other things, the scholarly rigor required to lucidly unify them is not presented here.