Ancient Wisdom Atlas

Motif

Ritual specialist returns soul to body through head, forehead, mouth, or heart

ritual_specialist_returns_soul_to_body_through_head_forehead_mouth_or_heart

A motif of the Soul Loss and Restoration family, within the sub-family Soul Recall, Retrieval, and Return to the Body. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.

1 occurrences

1 traditions


comparative

  • The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2) CHAPTER I. THE KING OF THE WOOD. / MACAULAY. / CHAPTER II. THE PERILS OF THE SOUL. / HEINE.; lines 3423-3497 confidence: high

    A Melanesian woman catches a fluttering thing like a moth, declares that she has caught the soul, and opens her hands above the corpse's mouth, but the corpse does not revive.

    The passage describes attempts or rites in which a captured soul is placed over the mouth, on the head, into the head, on the forehead, or made to descend into the heart.

    read in the book