Malidoma Patrice Some is a West African shaman of the Dagara lineage. At the time of his birth, he was given his name, Malidoma, which means “friend of the enemy.” He was stolen from his tribe at a young age by Jesuit missionaries, but later on in his life returned to his village and became a fully initiated member of his community. He then went on to become a bridge between the indigenous and modern worlds by earning two masters degrees and three doctorates from Sorbonne and Brandeis Universities. He is the author of three books: Of Water and the Spirit, The Ancient Wisdom of Africa and Ritual. New Life Journal had the great pleasure of speaking with him recently on topics such as community and ritual during his visit to our area.

NLJ: Can you describe to us how the ancient wisdom of Africa can pertain to and assist those of us living within the structures of the modern world?
MS: Well, ancient wisdom of Africa is ancient wisdom of the world; I mean that the geography of the place doesn’t matter as long as you come from this Earth. So, ancient Earth wisdom is something, of course, that can probably be of great help… There is a lack of term because the English language doesn’t have the kind of term. The various localities in Africa have words that describe things that are bigger and larger than human consciousness, and so English just calls it “magical,” although there is nothing magical about it. It is a part of a new type of consciousness that comes with its own sounds and its own cognition, and, within that, also generates its own method of approach…I think that more and more it is wisdom teaching people that there is indeed a consciousness in nature among the trees and among the mountains that comes with a specific vibrational frequency that can be detected. If modern science can, they are going to figure out a machine or measurement unit they can apply to a tree to see what kind of indication appears on the screen. But, once it is possible to merge with that vibration, there are distant realities that can become revealed; imagine tuning into the frequency of a certain tree and for some reason picking up radio transmission from far away—maybe that’s why the tree has been standing there all these years…What I’m saying is that this is really a piece of wisdom that has the capacity to alter our human experience as humans think of their human selves. More and more, we need to look at nature. The current approach to nature is a place to be domesticated and even developed; really, it’s not a credit to human consciousness to think in those terms. This kind of wisdom has a universality…it’s just that some have chosen to ignore it and with this made a commitment to control—control reality, the world and to control people, for that matter. We tend to get to a point where there is more loss than gain associated with such an angle of approach to reality.

NLJ: In the Dagara culture, humans do not remember with their heads, but rather with their bones. Can you describe to us the difference and how activating this ancient memory can transform us?
MS: The thing to know is that using the bones as instruments for comprehension of reality really allows the individual to break into those frequencies that I was talking about in association with trees. Bones don’t think, they project; they spell out something that is already evident. The thinking self is one that is conditioned to find ways of controlling or capturing reality, and, therefore, what the mind does is articulate comfort in terms of assigning structural logic on things that are sometimes other than what they have been labeled to be. Because the labeling comes with a discourse, the mind looks at it as logical; then, there is an imposition to the body to agree with it as though somehow, if it’s logic, you have to embrace it. What if it is exactly the opposite? If it is logical, walk away from it! What if? It is when you think like this, the more you get confused. If you won’t program your mind to make a list of all the things that are illogical, then the mind won’t do it.

That’s when the bones come in, because the bones are the headquarters of what we may call intuition, instinct and feeling; most of these don’t come with a logical arrangement. You leave your house, travel a little bit and somehow you want to go back and get your umbrella. So maybe you turn your car around and get it. To the mind, that is not logical. It is sunny outside, by the way. Not until later on during the day when it starts to rain do you realize, ‘Oh, okay, the bones were picking up on what was going to happen much later.’ But, in the moment, there is no logic to that…So, following intuition and instincts, some of which may feel rather compulsive, you find yourself doing things that you cannot break away from and they are not logical, that is bone trait that is obeying bone memory. This is an area of cognition that the mind doesn’t know yet with what to do. That’s why a lot of you encourage people to believe in their instincts, to trust their intuition, to actually develop a dream self sufficiently, to be able to read the symbols and images given to them in the dream world. That is what can indeed accelerate the era in which the bones are going to be the ones taking over the logic of the mind, because the bones are connected with heart and spirit. The mind is connected with external reality, and, actually, it is only the reality that it has created; whereas, the bones don’t create reality, they merge with it. In that regard, everything becomes a lot more hospitable, a lot more settling to the heart and the spirit.

Malidoma Some will be offering a two-year intensive training, Indigenous African Spirit Technologies, in our area, with two meetings this year and three in 2008. For more information, visit www.ritesofpassagecouncil.com/malidomaashevillebrochure.pdf.
Look for a continuation of the Malidoma Some interview in a future issue of New Life Journal, where he will speak about change and healing.

Emily Sullivan is a licensed massage and bodywork therapist in Asheville, NC. She can be reached at emilybodywork@gmail.com.

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