News
- October 2009
- "The Very Noble Train of the Huntsman"
- CBC Book Club And Other News
- September 2009
- Goblin Market
- A Bumper Crop...
- Turning Japanese
- August 2009
- The Children of Light - Photos!
- Get Fruity
- The Eternal Ones of the Dream
- June 2009
- UK Fruit Media Blitz
- May 2009
- Fruits of Desire
- The Fruit Hunters UK... and other editions out now!
- April 2009
- Newsflash: The Center of the Galaxy Tastes Like Raspberries
- Systems of Delayed Orgasms...
- Obsession Lesson
- March 2009
- More Mega-Fruit Coverage
- January 2009
- Reading Matter
- Upcoming Engagements
- Miracle Fruit Frenzy Continues!
- October 2008
- Shortlisted 2x, Readings...
- Fruit Club!
- Morphology, Purple Flowers
- Audio Book
- Interviews, etc
- July 2008
- Maslin Picks Fruit!
- Montreal Miracle Fruit Party
- Fruity Freakies
- June 2008
- Montreal Launch
- May 2008
- New York Times Hearts Fruit Hunters
- Canadian Tour
- Jerusalem In My Heart
- West Coast
- A New Fruit Hunter Blog
- Q&A
- Utne Reader on Orion Excerpt
- Pre-Publication Fruit Hype
- “Baby, Let’s Make Fruit Salad”
- April 2008
- Fruit Tour
- The City is Blue
- The Trades Are Glowing
The Eternal Ones of the Dream
Aug 28, 2009To research my upcoming book, I’ve been reading Geza Roheim’s (very) seminal work of psychoanalytical anthropology The Eternal Ones of the Dream about aboriginal Australian rituals and magic. It’s full of terrifying, transformative stories of youths undergoing bloody rites of passage from adolescence to adulthood. Arms are cut open with wallaby bones. Elders produce quartz crystals out of their stomachs. Blood is mixed with dust and drunk communally. There are rainbow serpents, water ancestors, impossible incisions and the possibility of getting stuck in the Milky Way.
I can almost imagine an echo of those magical rites in the final melody of the song “Blood” by The Middle East (from Townsville, Australia). Listen to it and their other songs here. So much talent, so much beauty, cut your heart open with quartz crystals…