Author: Lorenzo Maria Colombo

Ritual, rhythm and counterrhythm: the case of two Alpine Carnivals

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, Atlas, folklore

La Bahio of Sampeyre and the Carlavee of Varallo exemplify how the carnival ritual, through the deliberate alteration of time, space and even the physiological rhythms and identity of the participants, can induce completely peculiar experiences. This is an aspect ignored by much academic research but which needs to be explored further if one wishes to understand the profound meaning of Carnival.

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The worlds beneath the world. Underground and initiatory journeys in the practice of esoteric Buddhism

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Esotericism, Mito, History of Religions

In many traditions present throughout the world, transversal to every era and every culture, there is talk of caves or even entire underground worlds inhabited by a lineage of beings endowed with extraordinary faculties: great magicians, mystics, shamans or heroes of the past who they retreated there il tempore and from which they will emerge again in a distant future, when the present cosmic cycle ends and a new one begins. Buddhism, since its origins, has been no exception.

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