Malidoma Patrice Some Quotes

• The power of quiet is great. It generates the same feelings in everything one encounters. It vibrates with the cosmic rhythm of oneness. It is everywhere, available to anyone at any time. It is us, the force within that makes us stable, trusting, and loving. It is contemplation contemplating. Peace is letting go - returning to the silence that cannot enter the realm of words because it is too pure to be contained in words. This is why the tree, the stone, the river, and the mountain are quiet.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Letting Go, Oneness, Rivers

  Malidoma Patrice Somé (1995). “Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman”, Penguin Books

  34 Copy quote

• Healing comes when the individual remembers his or her identity—the purpose chosen in the world of ancestral wisdom—and reconnects with that world of Spirit.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Healing

  Malidoma Patrice Somé (1999). “The healing wisdom of Africa: finding life purpose through nature, ritual, and community”, J P Tarcher

  38 Copy quote

• As long as we are not ourselves, we will try to be what other people are.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Long, People, Black History

  Malidoma Patrice Somé (1995). “Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman”, Penguin Books

  56 Copy quote

• One can say, 'Teach me what you know,'
  but the better request is,
  'Teach me about what teaches you.'

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Teach, Request, Knows

  25 Copy quote

• Whether they are raised in indigenous or modern culture, there are two things that people crave: the full realization of their innate gifts, and to have these gifts approved, acknowledged, and confirmed. There are countless people in the West whose efforts are sadly wasted because they have no means of expressing their unique genius. In the psyches of such people there is an inner power and authority that fails to shine because the world around them is blind to it.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Mean, Unique, Psych

  Malidoma Patrice Somé (1999). “The healing wisdom of Africa: finding life purpose through nature, ritual, and community”, J P Tarcher

  22 Copy quote

• The power of nature exists in its silence. Human words cannot encode the meaning because human language has access only to the shadow of meaning.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Silence, Shadow, Language

  21 Copy quote

• Peace is Letting Go--Returning to the Silence that cannot enter the realm of words because it is too pure to be contained in words. This is why the tree, the stone, the river, and the mountain are quiet.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Letting Go, Rivers, Silence

  Malidoma Patrice Somé (1995). “Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman”, Penguin Books

  15 Copy quote

• The spiritual thirst that is latent in everybody can never come to a place of fulfillment unless people begin to think of each other as potential brothers and sisters.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Spiritual, Brother, Thinking

  "Remembering Our Purpose". Interview with Sarah van Gelder, www.context.org. 1993.

  20 Copy quote

• Our souls do not like stagnation. Our souls aspire toward growth, that is, toward remembering all that we have forgotten due to our trip to this place, the earth.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Soul, Growth, Earth

  Malidoma Patrice Some (1997). “Ritual: Power, Healing and Community”, p.22, Penguin

  8 Copy quote

• I see too many people who jump into spirituality as a shelter to hide from reality. It doesn't work that way. The way it works is for the spirit behind you to follow you wherever you go, like a loyal soldier, and show you how to face up to adversity. If you can't face adversity, you will get locked into a new age perception that everything is fine when it isn't. That makes you vulnerable to being exploited by the person who comes along and says, "I am a psychic. I have studied with this guy or that guy, and I know what you should do".

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Adversity, Reality, People

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  14 Copy quote

• Nature is like a canvas, a painting of countless options and possibilities. You don't really worship spirit, because you are also spirit, and spirits don't worship one another. What makes you different from spirit overall is that you are locked into temporality. You have a body, like a piece of cloth that is decayable. While you stay in it, it's hard for you to have the same abilities that spirit has without a body. It is also easy to make mistakes about what is real, and how to go about things effectively.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Real, Mistake, Different

  6 Copy quote

• If you discuss the beliefs of Christianity with the village diviner, the medicine man, he will say the white man must be extremely stupid. The white man must be profoundly troubled - probably torn by a huge guilt connected to how he treated the ancestors - to think that villagers would buy the idea that someone died on the cross for us. They would say these beliefs are evidence that the white people killed someone of great importance, probably a diviner and a healer. If you kill a healer, you must make amends by appeasing the healer's spirit.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Stupid, Men, Thinking

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  8 Copy quote

• Nakedness is very common in the tribe. It is not a shameful thing; it is an expression of one's relationship with the spirit of nature. To be naked is to be open-hearted. Normally kids stay naked until puberty and even beyond. It was only with the introduction of cheap cloth from the West, through Goodwill and other Christian organisations, that nakedness began to be associated with shame.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Christian, Kids, Expression

  Malidoma Patrice Somé (1994). “Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman”, Tarcher

  11 Copy quote

• In Africa, you cannot come into a comfortable material lifestyle without going through Christ. So many Africans say, "I'll take the whole package. That way I'm sure I'll get what I want." This is the compromise the rising urban class of Africa makes. Christianity is not seen as a soul-transforming device capable of producing redemption, but as a source of substantial material gratification.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Redemption, Urban, Compromise

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  11 Copy quote

• Spiritual methods are essential in Africa if you are going to survive politically. My cousin is the chief security officer for the president of Burkina Faso. He knows the key medicine man who works day and night to keep the president in power. These medicine men don't have offices downtown; they live in huts in remote areas, but that is where the real political power resides. A medicine man has no clue about the actual workings of domestic or international politics. All he knows is that a person has a seat of importance somewhere, and his job is to keep that person on that seat.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Spiritual, Cousin, Real

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  8 Copy quote

• It's true that tribal rivalries have something to do with political instability. It's also true that those rivalries were exaggerated by colonialism. Colonialism essentially insulted the tribal territories, and as a result, nations came to be composed of an agglomeration of many tribes - 65 in Burkina Faso alone. The Mossi majority sees itself as the owner of Africa; others are just negotiators for representation. That is the way it is now, and it is the sole responsibility of colonialism.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Responsibility, Political, Rivalry

  "VISIONS: Malidoma Some". Interview With D. Patrick Miller, www.motherjones.com. March/April 1995.

  8 Copy quote

• Historically the customs and traditions of day-to-day life in Africa have been dismissed by Western cultural anthropologists as primitive, chaotic, pagan activities that should be replaced by Christianity, the only civilized religion. The West has also long assumed that it should convert tribal cultures to literacy, which is to say an entirely different way of looking at the world, of living in the world. Most Africans who have achieved a comfortable Western lifestyle are Christian. Why? Because it comes with the package: Christian-ity, literacy, and a material lifestyle all come together.

  Malidoma Patrice Some

  Christian, Long, Together

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  8 Copy quote

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