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Mircea Eliade - The use of the rainbow
Identifier
010963
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
It is always by way of the rainbow that mythical heros reach the sky.
Thus, for example in Polynesia the Maori hero Tawhaki and his family and the Hawaian hero Aukelenuiaiku regularly visit the upper regions by climbing the rainbow or by means of a kite, to deliver the souls of the dead or to meet their spirit wives.
The same mythical function of the rainbow is found in Indonesia, Melanesia and Japan