Mircea Eliade

Eliade — The Myth of the Eternal Return (1954) [DECLARED]

Eliade — Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1967) [DECLARED]

Eliade — Patterns in Comparative Religion (1958) [DECLARED]

Eliade — Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (1989) [DECLARED]

Chamanismo · Commentator

Perennialismo · Member

Alquimia · Commentator

«In the last analysis, it is for the historian of religions to synthesize all the studies of particular aspects of shamanism and to present a comprehensive view which shall be at once a morphology and a history of this complex religious phenomenon.» — se adjudica la tarea que ordena su oficio: sintetizar los estudios de aspectos particulares del chamanismo y presentar una visión de conjunto que sea a la vez morfología e historia del fenómeno

«This work of deciphering the deep meaning of religious phenomena rightfully falls to the historian of religions.» — y reclama por derecho para el historiador de las religiones el desciframiento del sentido profundo de los fenómenos religiosos

«But it is the historian of religions who will make the greatest number of valid statements on a religious phenomenon as a religious phenomenon—and not as a psychological, social, ethnic, philosophical, or even theological phenomenon.» — la tesis de competencia que sostiene: sobre un fenómeno religioso en cuanto religioso, y no en cuanto psicológico, social, étnico, filosófico ni siquiera teológico, es el historiador de las religiones quien hará el mayor número de afirmaciones válidas

«On this particular point the historian of religions also differs from the phenomenologist. For the latter, in principle, rejects any work of comparison; confronted with one religious phenomenon or another, he confines himself to ‘‘approaching” it and divining its meaning.» — y marca la diferencia con el fenomenólogo, que por principio rechaza todo trabajo de comparación y se limita a aproximarse al fenómeno y adivinar su sentido

«Whereas the historian of religions does not reach a comprehension of a phenomenon until after he has compared it with thousands of similar or dissimilar phenomena, until he has situated it among them; and these thousands of phenomena are separated not only in time but also in space.» — frente a lo cual describe su propio procedimiento: no comprende un fenómeno hasta haberlo comparado con miles de fenómenos semejantes o desemejantes y haberlo situado entre ellos, separados en el tiempo y en el espacio

«Thus the historian of religions, while taking historico-religious facts into account, does his utmost to organize his documents in the historical perspective—the only perspective that ensures their concreteness.» — la razón que da para organizar el material en perspectiva histórica: es, dice, la única que asegura su concreción

«All this is “‘shown” in religious facts; it is not an invention of the historian of religions.» — y lo declara dato y no constructo: eso se muestra en los hechos religiosos, no lo inventa el historiador de las religiones

«In our role of historian of religions, it suffices us to observe that the dialectic of the sacred makes possible the spontaneous reversal of any religious position.» — el alcance que se reserva en su papel: como historiador de las religiones le basta con observar que la dialéctica de lo sagrado hace posible la inversión espontánea de cualquier posición religiosa

«but also to the cultivated man, and it is to the latter that this book is primarily addressed.» — y declara a quién dirige el libro: no solo al especialista sino al hombre culto, y sobre todo a este último

«By examining the" lower " and " higher " religious forms simultaneously, and seeing at once what elements they have in common, we shall not make the mistakes that result from an evolutionist or occidentalist perspective.» — declara el frente de su método comparativo: examinar a la vez las formas religiosas llamadas bajas y altas para no incurrir en los errores de una perspectiva evolucionista u occidentalista

«That is really all the material available to a historian of religions: a few fragments from a vast oral priestly learning (the exclusive product of one social class), allusions found in travellers' notes, material gathered by foreign missionaries, reflections drawn from secular literature, a few monuments, a few inscriptions, and what memories remain in local traditions.» — y mide el material del que dispone su disciplina: fragmentos de un vasto saber sacerdotal oral, alusiones de cuadernos de viajeros, materiales reunidos por misioneros extranjeros y reflexiones de la literatura profana

«The comparisons I have used to illustrate the tenuousness of the evidence the religious historian has at his disposal are, of course, imaginary examples and must be taken as such. My first object is to justify the method I have used in this book.» — declara que sus símiles son imaginarios y para qué los usa: su primer objeto es justificar el método que emplea en el libro

«In this book I am trying to show that both are equally valuable; that the meaning given by the masses stands for as authentic a modality of the sacred manifested in Durga or Siva as the interpretation of the initiates.» — la tesis con que resuelve la disyuntiva entre el sentido de las masas y el de los iniciados: los dos valen igual, y el de las masas es modalidad tan auténtica de lo sagrado como la interpretación de los iniciados

«I have given each piece of evidence the title hierophany, because each expresses some one modality of the sacred.» — dice por qué llama hierofanía a cada testimonio que reúne: porque cada uno expresa alguna modalidad de lo sagrado

«If only we can get away from the prejudices of the lecture-room, can consider such beliefs not simply as pantheism, fetishism, infantilism and so on, but as what they actually meant to those who held them, we shall be better able to understand the past and present meaning of the sacred in primitive cultures ; and at the same time our chances of understanding the modes and the history of religion will increase too.» — y lo que pide al lector para seguirlo: apartarse de los prejuicios del aula y considerar esas creencias no como panteísmo, fetichismo o infantilismo sino como lo que significaban para quienes las sostenían

«We shall meet a great many such revaluations of primal hierophanies, for the history of religion is, from the scientific aspect, largely the history of the devaluations and the revaluations which make up the process of the expression of the sacred.» — la tesis que hace de la historia de las religiones, en su aspecto científico, la historia de las desvalorizaciones y revalorizaciones que componen el proceso de expresión de lo sagrado

«The central theme of the present work is, in fact, the meeting and confrontation of the two types of mentality which might be called, for simplicity’s sake, the traditional and the modern; the first being characteristic of man in archaic and Oriental societies, the second of man in modem societies of the Western type.» — declara el tema central de Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: el encuentro y la confrontación de dos tipos de mentalidad que llama, por simplicidad, la tradicional y la moderna

«Since I am primarily a historian of religions, it is in the perspective of that discipline that I have presented, in this book, some of the results arrived at by hermeneutics.» — dice desde qué disciplina escribe y con qué alcance: como historiador de las religiones ante todo, y presentando algunos de los resultados alcanzados por la hermenéutica

«say that the interpretation or the evaluation of symbols or myths is the prerogative of the historian of religions.» — y renuncia al monopolio de su propia disciplina: interpretar y evaluar símbolos o mitos no es prerrogativa del historiador de las religiones; el tramo arranca donde el troceo reanuda la frase

«As the author of this book sees it, the history of rehgions is worthy to become, one day, our guide upon these far journeys, and to serve as interpreter in our encounters with the most “alien” among “the others”.» — la función que reclama para su disciplina, dicha en tercera persona sobre sí mismo: que la historia de las religiones llegue a ser guía en esos viajes lejanos e intérprete en el encuentro con los más ajenos entre los otros

«The chapters of this book do not presume to constitute a systematic study of the relations between certain constituents of the rehgious universe—such as myths and mysteries—and the universe of dreams.» — abre el prefacio del original acotando lo que el libro no es: no pretende constituir un estudio sistemático de las relaciones entre mitos y misterios y el universo de los sueños

«That is a problem that may fascinate the psychologist, or even the philosopher, but one that is less essential for the historian of religions, and it is in this capacity that I prepared the studies now to be read.» — y dice desde dónde escribe: ese problema es menos esencial para el historiador de las religiones, y es en esa calidad en la que preparó los estudios que siguen

«This effort, rightly to understand peoples demonstrably “other” than we ourselves, who are the heirs of Greece and of Judaso-Christianity, has the effect, as I have said, of enriching the Western consciousness.» — el rendimiento que atribuye a su propio trabajo: entender bien a esos otros pueblos, los que no son herederos de Grecia ni del judeocristianismo, enriquece la consciencia occidental

«needless to add, the comparisons we shall draw do not imply the least depreciation on our part of either Greek or Indian thought; nor do we attach any undue value to archaic thinking.» — y la reserva que declara al comparar: las comparaciones no implican depreciar el pensamiento griego ni el indio, ni atribuye valor indebido al pensamiento arcaico

«We shall begin with the Indian tradition, for it is here that the myth of the eternal return has received its boldest formulation.» — declara por dónde empieza El mito del eterno retorno y por qué: en la tradición india ve la formulación más audaz de ese mito

«But adherence to the myth of “eternal repetition,” as well as to that of apokatastasis (the term entered the Hellenic world after Alexander the Great) are both philosophical positions in which we can perceive a very determined antihistorical attitude together with a will to defend oneself from history. We shall discuss both of these positions.» — lo que lee en las dos adhesiones, a la repetición eterna y al apokatastasis: posiciones filosóficas en que percibe una actitud antihistórica muy decidida junto a una voluntad de defenderse

«Incompetent as we are to pass judgment upon their validity, we shall confine ourselves to observing that the formulation, in modern terms, of an archaic myth betrays at least the desire to find a meaning and a transhistorical justification for historical events.» — se abstiene expresamente de juzgar la validez de esas formulaciones y se limita a observar que formular un mito arcaico en términos modernos delata al menos el deseo de hallar un sentido y una justificación transhistórica a los hechos

«For our purpose, only one question concerns us: How can the “terror of history” be tolerated from the viewpoint of historicism?» — y reduce a una la pregunta que se reserva: cómo puede tolerarse el terror de la historia desde el punto de vista del historicismo

«The third central figure of Eranos in the postwar period, Mircea Eliade (1907–1986), rather seems to represent the unresolved paradox of religionism as such: as has often been noted, the discipline that he referred to as “history of religions” was in fact notable for its attempt to transcend history» — Wouter Hanegraaff lo data entre 1907 y 1986, lo llama la tercera figura central de Eranos en la posguerra y dice que representa la paradoja no resuelta del religionismo: la disciplina que él llamaba historia de las religiones era notable por su intento de trascender la historia

«He relied essentially on secondary sources to provide him with information on a wide variety of religious traditions, and his sympathizing ex-student Robert Ellwood describes him quite correctly as “not at heart a scholar, much less a politician or social scientist, but a litterateur, a writer and literary critic.”» — Hanegraaff dice de qué se servía y cómo lo describe su antiguo alumno: se apoyaba esencialmente en fuentes secundarias, y Robert Ellwood lo llama no un erudito de corazón sino un literato, escritor y crítico literario

«It is therefore somewhat ironic – understandable though it may be, given the dominance of his “Chicago school” in the American study of religion, not to mention the posthumous scandal of his political past – that precisely Eliade’s oeuvre has become the focus of intense methodological debate in the study of religion.» — Hanegraaff consigna la ironía de que su obra se haya vuelto foco de un debate metodológico intenso, con el dominio de su escuela de Chicago y el escándalo póstumo de su pasado político de por medio

«Rather than looking for an implicit method in Eliade’s writings, I believe it is more fruitful to emphasize the absence of method in his work.» — y propone invertir la pregunta habitual: en vez de buscar un método implícito en sus escritos, subrayar la ausencia de método en su obra

«Temporary relief from this oppressive awareness was granted only by special moments of “grace”: evident models of what Eliade would later refer to as “hierophanies.”» — Hanegraaff sitúa el origen de sus hierofanías en momentos personales de gracia que le daban alivio temporal de una conciencia opresiva

«scholars like Russell McCutcheon and Daniel Dubuisson have claimed that fascism and antisemitism are structurally encoded in Eliade’s scholarship.» — Hanegraaff consigna la posición de Russell McCutcheon y Daniel Dubuisson, para quienes el fascismo y el antisemitismo están estructuralmente codificados en su erudición

«Whereas Corbin was inspired by very similar emotions and personal experiences165 but went on to embrace a consistent metaphysical worldview, I see no indication that Eliade ever did so.» — y marca la diferencia que ve entre él y Corbin: Corbin partió de emociones y experiencias personales muy semejantes y abrazó una metafísica consistente, y de Eliade no ve indicio de que lo hiciera

«German Romantic culture always remained somewhat alien to him, but occultist authors played a role in awakening the youthful Eliade’s interest in comparative religion and the Orient, and convincing him of the reality of paranormal phenomena.» — Hanegraaff consigna lo que sí le debe a los autores ocultistas: despertaron en el joven Eliade el interés por la religión comparada y por el Oriente y lo convencieron de la realidad de los fenómenos paranormales

«But by far the most important “esoteric” factor in Eliade’s intellectual development was the Traditionalism of Ren´e Gu´enon, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, and Julius Evola.» — y adjudica al tradicionalismo de René Guénon, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy y Julius Evola el factor esotérico de lejos más importante en su desarrollo intelectual

«Eliade’s brochure Alchimia asiatic˘a (1935) was “based upon one masteridea: alchemy is not a ‘proto-chemistry,’ it is not a ‘proto-science,’ but an autonomous spiritual discipline whose reasonings and goals have nothing to do with the intellectual instruments and the results of modern chemical experiments” (Turcanu, Mircea Eliade, 233).» — Hanegraaff cita la idea maestra que Eliade le adjudica a su propio folleto Alchimia asiatică de 1935: que la alquimia no es una protoquímica ni una protociencia sino una disciplina espiritual autónoma

«Nevertheless, Eliade never became a convinced Traditionalist.» — y niega enseguida la conclusión fácil: Eliade nunca llegó a ser un tradicionalista convencido

«He did not accept the notions of a “primordial tradition,” an initiatic transmission of traditional knowledge, and cyclical decline, and, most importantly, he interpreted Traditionalist beliefs not as metaphysical truths, but as expressions of the fundamental needs of homo religiosus: man’s (and Eliade’s) desire for unity and reintegration in the life of the cosmos, as an emotional response to the existential anguish of temporal being.» — Hanegraaff detalla qué no aceptó: la tradición primordial, la transmisión iniciática y el declive cíclico, y sobre todo que interpretó las creencias tradicionalistas no como verdades metafísicas sino como expresiones de las necesidades fundamentales del homo religiosus

«They clearly answered a widely felt need for alternatives to the dominant trends of thought – notably, in Eliade’s own words, existentialist pessimism and “the chaos and meaninglessness of modern life”182 – and became essential parts of the Zeitgeist of the 1960s.» — Hanegraaff explica el éxito de sus libros por la demanda: respondían a una necesidad muy sentida de alternativas a las corrientes dominantes, y en palabras del propio Eliade al pesimismo existencialista y al caos y sinsentido de la vida moderna

«Eliade’s books do seem to have been experienced as “therapeutic” by a wide postwar readership, including many academics.» — y observa que sus libros parecen haber sido vividos como terapéuticos por un público amplio de posguerra, académicos incluidos

«But whereas colleagues with Christian backgrounds like Corbin or Eliade saw historical existence as a prison or nightmare and “historicism” as the enemy, for a Zionist Jew like Scholem such an attitude was impossible.» — Hanegraaff contrapone las posiciones sin armonizarlas: colegas de formación cristiana como Corbin o Eliade veían la existencia histórica como prisión o pesadilla y el historicismo como enemigo, y para un judío sionista como Scholem esa actitud era imposible

«Eliade is among the most influential scholars in the history of the study of religion, and “almost certainly the most familiar name in the field”72 outside scholarly quarters» — Egil Asprem y Kennet Granholm le miden el peso: está entre los estudiosos más influyentes de la historia del estudio de la religión y es casi con certeza el nombre más conocido del campo fuera de los círculos eruditos

«The popularization of shamanism in the public consciousness can be attributed to two authors in particular: Carlos Castaneda and Mircea Eliade» — Asprem y Granholm le adjudican, con Carlos Castaneda, la popularización del chamanismo en la consciencia pública

«In his youth – and continuing to his death – Eliade was greatly influenced by René Guénon – author and founder of the Traditionalist school of esoteric thought» — Asprem y Granholm trazan su filiación con René Guénon, a quien llaman autor y fundador de la escuela tradicionalista, y la dan por vigente desde su juventud hasta su muerte

«the term “reintegration” that was central to Eliade’s work, as well as his very conception of “tradition”, was most likely to have been derived from Guénon» — y le adjudican, con el grado puesto, que el término reintegración y su concepción misma de tradición procedan muy probablemente de Guénon

«Eliade was an active participant, from 1949 to 1976, in the Eranos meetings arranged in Ascona, Switzerland, since 1933. There he congregated with figures such as Carl Gustav Jung, Gershom Scholem, Henry Corbin, and Joseph Campbell86 – all respected and influential scholars in their respective fields and, even more importantly, influenced by similar esoteric–Traditionalist views, and in turn highly influential on later esotericism» — Asprem y Granholm datan su participación en Eranos entre 1949 y 1976 y nombran con quiénes congregaba: Jung, Scholem, Corbin y Joseph Campbell

«the case of Eliade makes it clear that essentially perennialist notions of tradition, similar to the idea of philosophia perennis discussed earlier, have asserted a strong influence on scholarly constructs such as shamanism, which in the next instance have informed actual practices and emic notions of tradition and connection with an archaic authentic past» — y sacan de su caso la consecuencia general: nociones de tradición esencialmente perennialistas ejercieron fuerte influencia sobre constructos eruditos como el chamanismo

«To the present authors, this aversion seems connected to similar biases in the history of religion, which followed the influence of Mircea Eliade. Eliade and the phenomenological school of “history of religion” associated with him tended to oppose sociology due to what was perceived as its inherent “reductionism”» — Asprem y Granholm ligan a su influencia un sesgo de la historia de la religión que objetan, el de la escuela fenomenológica asociada a él

«Despite the fact that he did not practice any religious tradition and despite the complexity of argument needed to describe him as religious, Eliade was often apprehended as profoundly religious» — Bryan Rennie, citado en ese volumen, consigna la brecha entre su práctica y su recepción: no practicaba ninguna tradición religiosa y aun así se lo percibía a menudo como profundamente religioso

«The counterculture of the 1960s was thus not only important for, and influential on, scholars of religion such as Mircea Eliade and Henry Corbin, new religious movements in general, and the New Age movement in particular; it was also, I will argue, a key influence on the development of the radical right» — Jacob Senholt lo cuenta, con Corbin, entre los estudiosos de la religión sobre los que la contracultura de los sesenta fue influyente

«The exegeses ofAnanda Coomaraswamy, Mircea Eliade, Henry Corbin, and Seyyed H. Nasr always start with the notion of philosophiatheosophiaperennis, and it is to this that their hermeneutics always returns. But not one of them neglects erudition, critical apparatus, or the historical and philosophical tools that constitute a specific aspect of modernity. With them, university scholarship becomes the aid, today indispensable, of Tradition, which they approach both as savants and philosophers.» — Antoine Faivre lo pone en serie con Coomaraswamy, Corbin y Nasr por un rasgo común: sus exégesis parten siempre de la philosophia-theosophia perennis y a ella vuelve siempre su hermenéutica, sin que ninguno descuide la erudición ni el aparato crítico

«Eranos Jahrbücher. Series. Frankfurt: Insul Verlag, last publisher (after Rhein Verlag, Zurich). 57 volumes, about 500 pp. each (1933-1988). This series is composed of contributions in German, French, and English that were the object of presentations at the annual meeting ("Eranos Tagung") in Ascona, Switzerland. Among the most well-known participants and panelists were G. Durand, M. Eliade, H. Corbin, G. Scholem, and C.G. Jung.» — Faivre lo cuenta entre los participantes más conocidos de los Eranos Jahrbücher, con Durand, Corbin, Scholem y Jung

«A list of perennialists would include William James, Evelyn Underhill, Mircea Eliade, Aldous Huxley, Rudolf Otto and W.T. Stace.» — Olav Hammer lo incluye en su lista de perennialistas, con William James, Evelyn Underhill, Aldous Huxley, Rudolf Otto y W. T. Stace

«It is the opposite of a hermeneutical stance, an avowed attempt to subject a tradition that at times sees itself as an ahistorical perennial wisdom to what Mircea Eliade called “the terror of history”.» — Hammer nombra lo que él mismo hace tomándole prestada una fórmula: someter una tradición que a veces se ve como sabiduría perenne ahistórica a lo que Mircea Eliade llamó el terror de la historia

«The chakras reached an academic audience as well as an educated lay readership thanks to writers such as Carl Jung,276 Mircea Eliade277 and Joseph Campbell,278 each with his own reasons for wishing to appropriate the chakras.» — Hammer lo cuenta, con Carl Jung y Joseph Campbell, entre quienes llevaron los chakras a un público académico y a un lector culto, cada uno con sus propias razones para apropiárselos

«Eliade 1958: 234 calls the chakras “transphysiological”, implying that all the centers represent yogic states.» — y registra en nota el término con que Eliade los llama en 1958: transfisiológicos, lo que implicaría que todos los centros representan estados yóguicos

«Mircea Eliade defined shamanism not as a religion properly speaking, but as a "technique of ecstasy," a system of ecstatic and therapeutic methods whose purpose is to obtain contact with the parallel universe of the spirits and to win their support in dealing with the affairs of a g» — Ioan Petru Couliano resume su definición del chamanismo: no una religión propiamente dicha sino una técnica del éxtasis, sistema de métodos extáticos y terapéuticos para contactar el universo paralelo de los espíritus

«According to this definition, shamanism is unknown on the African continent.» — y señala lo que esa definición deja fuera: según ella, el chamanismo es desconocido en el continente africano

«Mircea Eliade distinguished shamanic ecstasy from yogic "enstasy," but the distinction is problematic.» — Couliano consigna su distinción entre el éxtasis chamánico y la enstasis yóguica y la declara problemática

«Eliade tends to concentrate on the “supernatural” experience of the mysterium tremendum et fascinosum and ignores entirely any secular-minded notion of real psychotropic substances that might inspire shamanic ecstasy» — la crítica que Weston La Barre le hace en el volumen de Peter Furst: que se concentra en la experiencia sobrenatural del mysterium tremendum et fascinosum e ignora por completo toda noción secular de sustancias psicotrópicas reales que pudieran inspirar el éxtasis chamánico

«Eliade (1964) has massively demonstrated that shamanism is still found among the ethnographically conservative peoples of Oceania and on all the continents except Africa, he thinks; * but Nadel (1946) has found true possession shamanism in Africa as well» — y la enmienda que La Barre le pone al mapa: le concede el alcance que traza para Oceanía y todos los continentes salvo África, según cree Eliade, y añade que Nadel halló chamanismo de posesión verdadero también en África

«The degree to which what we had just witnessed conforms to Eliade’s analysis of the meaning of the Symplegades motif in shamanism and funerary and heroic mythologies is remarkable» — Peter Furst, en cambio, declara notable el ajuste entre lo que presenció y el análisis de Eliade del motivo de las Simplégades en el chamanismo y en las mitologías funerarias y heroicas

«This multiplicity of what Eliade has aptly called the “paradoxical passage’ is characteristic also of the Warao account of the neophyte wishiratu’s ecstatic initiatory journey: the snapping jaws» — Johannes Wilbert aplica al caso warao lo que llama el paso paradójico, fórmula que atribuye a Eliade y que juzga acertada

«Eliade, Mircea 1964 Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.» — en el volumen de Michael Harner su Shamanism figura solo en la bibliografía general: es la única vez que se lo nombra, y ni el prefacio ni la introducción lo discuten

«My focus is not on Eliade, however, but on those living human beings he might have well called mutants.» — Jeffrey Kripal desplaza el foco del historiador de las religiones a los vivos que, dice, él habría llamado mutantes

«Hence Altizer relates a dreamlike ecstatic “initiation” involving ghosts, “spirits of those dead who never leave us,” in Hyde Park, Chicago, and goes as far as to argue that such presences were the “instruments” of Mircea Eliade, who lived down the street.» — Kripal recoge de Thomas Altizer una iniciación extática con fantasmas en Hyde Park, Chicago, que Altizer llega a leer como instrumentos de Mircea Eliade

«The “deep sense of mission” Altizer came to know around the altered states of this spectral initiation led him to call Eliade “father” and resulted in his conclusion that “my way was not ultimately different than his.» — y cierra ese episodio con lo que Altizer sacó de él: llamar padre a Eliade y concluir que su propia vía no era en el fondo distinta de la suya

«Eranos was a kind of intellectual retreat center at the villa of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn in Ascona, Switzerland, that hosted a set of annual meetings and lectures from 1933 on, some of which were essentially seed essays for later projects and books that would come to define the comparative study of religion, and especially the comparative study of mystical literature, in the twentieth century. Luminaries included Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, Gershom Scholem, Henry Corbin, and Joseph Campbell.» — Kripal lo cuenta entre las luminarias de Eranos, con Jung, Scholem, Corbin y Campbell, en lo que llama el vivero del estudio comparado de la literatura mística del siglo XX