Traditionally, squaring the circle has been about bringing the incommensurable work of the gods within the realm of the commensurate by using infinite cosmic principles to regulate the finite world. The American architect Claude Bragdon (1866-1946) squared the circle using his Theosophic architectural theory that was based on a neo-Pythagorean emphasis on Number, which he believed to have contained the secret of the universe. America at the turn of the 20th century was interested in Eastern spirituality at the beginning of an age of scientific relativity when the world and universe were being questioned due to new scientific discoveries based on higher-dimensional mathematical speculations that challenged relationships between humankind and the cosmos. Paralleling this scientific search was the Western conquest of the world on earth, which brought back speculations about the Near and Far East, including translations of their ancient scriptures and encyclopedias of their architecture. The fourth dimension was an imaginary mathematical (re)creation of great interest to Bragdon and common to scientific relativity and Eastern spirituality; two cultural constructs that altered the perception of time and space to affect the American imagination and architectural production. Within this context, Squaring the Circle investigates the relationship of theory to practice by considering Bragdon's architecture as the material manifestation of his Theosophic architectural theory. / Ph. D.

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This dissertation explores entanglements of body, national identity and nature in contemporary Mongolia. The project is situated within the rising popularity of natural remedies and alternative medicine during a time described as disorganized (zambaraagui) and disorderly. Data was collected from 33 months of fieldwork in Ulaanbaatar and elsewhere, focused on non-biomedical practices and therapeutic landscapes, especially medicinal springs (arshaan) and their sanatoria. This work contributes to studies of post-socialist Mongolia in a few ways. The methodological decision to engage in interview and participant observation of fortunetellers (üzmerch), practitioners of Buddhist and traditional medicine (otoch, ardiin emch), astrologists (zurhaich), energy healers (bio energich), shamans (böö, zairan, udgan), enlightened lamas (huvilgaan) and massage therapists (bariach) was driven by the fluid approach with which patients approach fulfilling the needs of their health and wellbeing. Such fluidity was also echoed in healing practice; as opposed to bounded by strict conceptual distinctions, healers re-purposed personally and culturally-familiar techniques, ranging from biomedical to those of Buddhist medicine (sowa rigpa) to occult practices. Many of the same techniques were practiced by a range of practitioners. The term orthopraxy, commonality of practice across conceptual difference, is used to address this phenomena. Such pairing together of different kinds of therapies – biomedical or otherwise – calls into question a “traditional” vs. modern or neo-spiritual framework within which such practices are often cast. I employ Robbin’s anthropology of discontinuity (2003), suggesting that Soviet influences represented “hard” cultural forms that provided a partial rupture in cultural knowledge between pre-revolutionary society and 1990. Nature (baigal) and natural surroundings (baigal orchin) were concepts often raised when discussing health and wellbeing. “Spiritual” earth and mountain masters (gazariin/uuliin ezed) of estranged homelands (nutag) that cause illness in families relocated to Ulaanbaatar; the water, flora, and mutton from one’s homeland as especially medicinally-suited to the body; shamans empowered to heal by appropriating into their practices the worship of nationally-significant mountains: territorialized national identity represented a prominent trend in healing practices. The revering of a nation through natural landmarks I call national nature, and suggest it be seen both with respect to romantic and utilitarian conceptions of a therapeutic nature that underpinned Soviet medicine, and Soviet indigenization campaigns and the ethnonationalism that was encouraged to flourish in borderland republics. Affective rooting to natural landmarks to maintain or restore wellbeing was also a way to enact Mongol-ness, rendering healing the body at once a practice of national subject-making.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Leandro Ribeiro.pdf: 1930708 bytes, checksum: 491e4c96a5ab0d35c02dbbd4dc297aa9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation consists of a literature search. It aims first to understand what the concept of wealth in Ifa among yoruba in West Africa, second, how this divination occurs in Brazil and finally, what the Ifa concept of wealth in Brazil and its possible influence on african- brazilian religions. The Ifá is a divination system utilized by iorubas societes, in Nigéria and Benin, in West África. He conveys the oral knowledge of Yoruba mythology by a organized in 256 odus called signs, which means "way . Myths are recited by babalawós (diviners) during the oracular consultation as the odus leaving the game. The Yoruba believe that through consultation, the Babalawó is able to foresee the future and more than that, to provide "good ways". That's because, he intervenes in the relationship between the supernatural world (orún) and the human world (aiye). Many Yoruba came to Brazil during the period of slavery. Here, their religious practices, among them the Ifa divination, mingled with other african religious traditions, as well as with indigenous religious traditions and european origin (Catholicism and spiritualism). Thus, the Yoruba tradition, along with these other traditions, influences the african-Brazilian religions. The Ifa is little used in Brazil. The búzios game is more utilized. However, the myths of Ifa are present in african - brazilian religions, even basing some rituals. Unlike Africa, here they appear associated with deities and not to odus. Wealth for the yoruba, expressed in Ifa, is understood as material wealth. The yoruba believe that to have wealth you must be in harmony with the supernatural world and have good relationships with other people. In Brazil, due to the social context is quite different, they find themselves some changes on the design of wealth. In the little that is known about the practice of Ifa in Brazil, despite differences in the methods of the game, this concept remains. In african -brazilian religions, especially candomblé and umbanda, remains the sense of spirituality associated with wealth, however, the same does not happen with the sense of socialization. In these religions, rich does not mean increasing the network of social relations and networks of social relations do not necessarily provide wealth. We note the importance of families holy in both as a means of identification, belonging and social legitimacy, which may indirectly contribute to improved financial conditions of its adherent. Regarding the sense of spirituality in african - brazilian religions, just as happened among the yoruba, financial difficulties, as well as health problems, emotional and spiritual are understood as imbalances being treated in the rites though interventions magical-religious / Essa dissertação consiste em uma pesquisa bibliográfica. Ele tem como objetivo primeiro compreender qual a concepção de riqueza no Ifá entre os iorubás, na África ocidental, em segundo, como essa divinação ocorre no Brasil e por fim, qual a concepção de riqueza do Ifá no Brasil e sua possível influência nas religiões afro-brasileiras. O Ifá é um sistema divinatório utilizado pelas sociedades iorubás, localizadas na Nigéria e no Benin, na África ocidental. Ele veicula o conhecimento oral dos iorubás por meio de uma mitologia, organizada em 256 signos chamados odus, que significa caminhos . Os mitos são declamados pelos babalawôs (adivinhos) durante a consulta oracular, conforme os odus que saem no jogo. Os iorubás acreditam que por meio da consulta, o babalawô é capaz de antever o futuro e mais do que isso, de propiciar bons caminhos . Isso porque, ele intervém na relação entre o mundo sobrenatural (orún) e o mundo humano (àiyé). Muitos iorubás vieram para o Brasil durante o período da escravidão. Aqui, suas práticas religiosas, dentre elas a divinação de Ifá, se misturaram com outras tradições religiosas africanas, bem como com as tradições religiosas indígenas autóctones e de origem europeia (catolicismo e kardecismo). Desse modo, a tradição iorubá, juntamente com essas outras tradições, influencia as religiões afro-brasileiras. Constatamos que o Ifá é pouco utilizado no Brasil, ele foi praticamente substituído pelo jogo de búzios. No entanto, os mitos de Ifá estão presentes nas religiões afro-brasileiras, fundamentando, inclusive, alguns rituais. Diferentemente da África, aqui eles aparecem associados aos orixás e não aos odus. A riqueza para os iorubás, expressa no Ifá, é entendida como riqueza material. Os iorubás acreditam que para se ter riqueza é necessário estar em harmonia com o mundo sobrenatural e ter boas relações com as outras pessoas. No Brasil, devido ao contexto social ser bastante diferente, constatam-se algumas mudanças em relação à concepção de riqueza. No pouco que se sabe sobre a prática do Ifá no Brasil, apesar de diferenças nos métodos do jogo, essa concepção se mantém. Nas religiões afro-brasileiras, em especial, na umbanda e no candomblé, permanece o sentido de espiritualidade associado à riqueza, porém, o mesmo não acontece com o sentido de socialização. Nessas religiões, enriquecer não significa aumentar a rede de relações sociais, bem como redes de relações sociais não propiciam necessariamente riqueza. Observamos a importância das famílias de santo em ambas como meio de identificação, pertencimento e legitimação social, os quais podem, de forma indireta, contribuir para a melhoria das condições financeiras de seus adeptos. Em relação ao sentido de espiritualidade nas religiões afro-brasileiras, do mesmo modo que acontecia entre os iorubás, as dificuldades financeiras, assim como problemas de saúde, afetivos e espirituais, são entendidos como desequilíbrios, sendo tratados nos ritos por meio de intervenções mágico-religiosas

This research has been a study in amazement. Initially an agnostic physics graduate, the researcher undertook training in the person-centred approach (pca) to self-development and counselling, during which she came to experience strange personal experiences which she could neither gainsay nor fit into her then worldview. Sketching these briefly, exceptional human experiences (EHEs) and synchronicities increasingly happened until (shockingly) they declared a seeming spirit guide (Mungo) to her, also juxtaposed in time with her first-ever chance encounter with dowsing. Thereafter these phenomena, combined with randomisable image-cards, tutored her into a physically observable method of 'discussion' with them (alone or with another) conducted with pca values. This PhD involved researching that phenomenon-complex through 'discussions' with 35 participants. The methodology used was heuristics and its heuristic self-search inquiry specialism (HSSI) whose attention to personal experiencing, indwelling to contact tacit knowledge, and incubatory rest phases to foster illuminatory new 'ahaa!' apprehensions suited this nascent mysterious subject. Both participants and researcher experienced coincidences weaving the 'discussions' and their wider lives together. Thus synchronicity became equal-partner research-topic, being studied as it occurred and, through affecting certain choices, becoming part of the methodology itself. The phenomenon-complex was experienced as fostering ethical living, creativity, personal development and science-spirituality interconnection in ways wellpitched and paced for each experiencer. The phenomena were also experienced as synergizing with each other, and as fostering integration within and between persons. After work on the participant sessions was completed, the writings of further thesis chapters were 'butted into' by in-the-moment relevant synchronicities, not just singly but in flows and patterns in which the researcher found herself discerning overarching meanings. Given this exceptional opportunity the researcher (in effect doing a bonus research-section) tracked her experiencing of these synchronistic flows and her responses thereto wherever they led, using Sela-Smith's first-person heuristic self-search inquiry (HSSI) methodology. Each synchronistically-influenced chapter was experienced as exploring certain themes, with themes building as the thesis progressed. Heuristics and HSSI are usually transformative. This researcher was transformed from the ground up from agnosticism to credence in 'something more' through her experiencings (both alone and inter-relationally with participants). Their 'package deal' presented personal shadow-work alongside help in life difficulties, and great fascination but darker times too. In total she came to feel part of an interconnected, spiritually-intelligent and compassionate cosmic domain, and existentially happier.

Si le mythe est devenu aujourd'hui une donnée incontournable pour comprendre l'âme humaine et ses différentes formes d'expression, il reste cependant équivoque et difficilement conceptualisable. En effet, le mythe est à la fois compris comme un récit fictif qui ne repose sur aucun fond de réalité mais aussi comme un discours vrai et hautement significatif. Pour bien marquer le sens philosophique de notre travail, nous avons commencé par poser le problème du mythe tel qu'il évolue dans la pensée européenne. Le mythe souffre d'une trop longue histoire, il a été déchiré entre rationalisme et romantisme. Puis nous avons questionné d'autres civilisations - les Fon du Dahomey, au Bénin - pour qui le mythe représente tout ce que les hommes doivent savoir et comprendre pour bien s'ancrer dans l'existant. Elles nous donnent à voir un mythe authentique, vivant, inséparable d'une gestuelle magico-religieuse. Ainsi le vrai sens du mythe ne se trouve pas dans nos livres, dans un Homère ou un Hésiode, mais dans le vécu même des hommes. Il est d'abord élaboré par les sociétés primitives, par des groupes d'hommes qui ne vivent que par et pour lui, avant d'être écrit, classé, interprété et réinterprété. Il semblerait à cet égard que Gaston Bachelard, à la fois poète et épistémologue, se soit intéressé au mythe. Il nous livre ainsi une réflexion originale, libre et ouverte qui nous en donne une autre image. Il pose le problème du mythe en soi, au cœur de l'écrit et, riche de ses lectures, il jette les bases d'une nouvelle mythanalyse. La compréhension du mythe semble pour nous incontournable aujourd'hui, car notre civilisation a irrémédiablement coupé entre les informations portées par des images et celles portées par les systèmes d'écritures. Cette rupture est sans doute la cause de cette grave crise spirituelle que nous traversons. Le mythe semble à cet égard salutaire : il nous reconduit directement vers les grands principes de la création, création du monde ou bien création poétique, il ré-enchante le monde.

Les deux premiers chants de Lucain témoignent d'une utilisation novatrice des discours directs dans l'épopée. Présentés sous forme de triades de paroles juxtaposées -le dialogue n'est plus possible dans le monde du De bello ciuili- dont l'objectif et le genre sont similaires, ils incitent le lecteur-auditeur de l'Antiquité, rompu aux joutes oratoires des concours de déclamation, à les comparer. L'examen de deux de ces groupes de discours sert de préliminaire à une enquête plus large sur la parole rhétorique, puis sur la parole poétique.Dans la confrontation des discours de la première triade (Curion / César /Laelius, au chant I) se lit la condamnation de l'éloquence traditionnelle fondée sur des valeurs éthiques universellement partagées. Elle est supplantée par une rhétorique sophistique qui redéfinit, exclusivement en fonction des intérêts personnels de l'orateur, tout ce qui a trait au droit, au juste ou à la citoyenneté, notions problématiques dans le contexte de perversion morale du bellum ciuile. L'efficacité de cette nouvelle éloquence est signalée par le succès des trois suasoires qui sont à l'origine des grands tournants narratifs de l'œuvre : Curion décide César à entrer définitivement dans l'affrontement civil (Chant I), Cicéron pousse Pompée à donner le signal du début du combat à Pharsale (Chant VII) et Pothin persuade Ptolémée d'assassiner Magnus (Chant VIII).Dans la comparaison des trois paroles prophétiques de la fin du livre I auxquelles répondent les trois discours du début du chant suivant, effusions angoissées de Romains anonymes (les femmes, les hommes et le vieillard), se dessine un art poétique destiné à justifier les choix génériques du poète pour traiter son sujet. Conformant son œuvre à la médiocrité humaine des masses, il doit renoncer au genre tragique (discours des femmes) ainsi qu'à la célébration épique des héros (discours des hommes) et s'efforcer de proposer, à l'instar du vieillard qui se remémore le passé pour anticiper le futur (le plus long discours de l'épopée, rappelant, par sa place et son sujet, l'ilioupersis d'Enée), une épopée historique qui cherche à percer l'opacité du monde de la guerre civile, dans lequel les dieux ne sont plus anthropomorphes. Empruntant leur esthétique du déchiffrement du réel aux Piérides ovidiennes, ces poétesses humaines, rivales des divines Muses (Métamorphoses V), Lucain refonde alors la persona de son uates. Chantre d'un genre nouveau, pour une épopée renouvelée, le 'piéridique' uates du De bello ciuili qui ne peut plus être omniscient -puisque les pensées et les actions des superi lui sont inconnaissables- refuse le patronage des divinités traditionnelles de la poésie, promet à son 'héros' César, non la gloire mais l'exécration éternelle et proclame avec défi, qu'il ne devra lui-même l'éternité qu'à la seule puissance de son talent personnel, divines Muses et grands guerriers héroïques des œuvres du passé ayant été congédiés par la guerre civile.

Ally literature suggests processes and guidelines that non-Indigenous researchers can follow in order to establish respectful relationships (Battiste, 1998; Wilson, 2008; Edward, 2006; Margaret, 2010). It also states the importance of preparedness for engaging and sustaining long term alliances (Lang, 2010; Brophey, 2011); however specific training methods; modalities that support long-term relationships; practices to develop desired qualities; or self-care approaches for Allies have not been addressed in the literature. Through autoethnographic work I sought to explore this gap in literature. This study is situated within decolonizing methodologies looking to contribute to legitimizing traditional ways of knowing; and within Anzaldúas (1987) philosophical view of “Doing Mestizaje” (1987). My work is a personal account of the complicated and conflicted situation of working as an Ally, being both Mestiza and Buddhist in a culture of colonization/decolonization. Unique to this exploration are modalities I chose to help with a deeper understanding, and as possible approaches to address emotional stress and prevent burnout in Ally work: art, meditation, mindfulness practice, prayer, dream work, and narrative/poetry. My findings show that a Mestizo view of Allyhood presents differences with those of White Allies; that implementation of the Buddhist concepts of interdependence and selflessness can support Allies during a painful or stressful process of self-reflection, as well as through out the relationship; and that doing research as ceremony, and ceremony as research contributes to the revitalization of Indigenous traditional ways of knowing and its importance in Decolonizing work. / Graduate

This is a study of Cape Nguni diviners practising in the townships of Grahamstown where, during the 1970s, there was a large and active concentration of diviners treating clients from the locality, the rural areas and even the large urban centres further afield. The study situates local diviners in the socio-economic, cultural and religious context of contemporary township Iife during the 1970s (see chapter 1 and section 2.1). The personalities and socio-economic circumstances of diviners (and herbalists) are described as well as their case-loads, the various problems they treat, the relations between them and their clients, the economics of healing and the ethics pertaining to the profession (see chapter 2) . Chapter three focuses on the various problems and afflictions - which are largely of an interpersonal nature - suffered by those who are eventually inducted as diviners and the ritual therapy this necessarily entails. Here we see how the diviner, what Lewis (1971) terms a 'wounded healer', becomes an expert in interpersonal and social relations as a result of suffering problems - largely connected to the family but not necessarily limited to it - in interpersonal relations and that require a ritual, and thus social, prophylaxis. The main theoretical argument is that the diviner, qua healer, functions as a hybrid of Levi-Strauss' s bricoleur and Castaneda's 'man of knowledge' artfully combining the ability of the former to invert, mirror or utilise analogies from linguistics to make everything meaningful and the ability of the latter to creatively bend reality . The diviner's cosmology is described in terms of a 'handy', limited but extensive cultural code/repertoire of signs, symbols and metaphors that is utilised in getting the message across to others and in which animals bear the main symbolic load (see chapter 4). This leads logically to a reappraisal of Hammond-Tooke's (1975b) well-known model of Cape Nguni symbolic structure particularly in so far as it pertains to the way in which diviners classify animals, both wild and domestic (see section 4.6). A striking evocation and confirmation of the view argued here, namely of the diviner as bricoleur/'man of knowledge', is contained in chapter five dealing with an analysis of the diviner's 'river' myth and the context, form and content of the divinatory consultation itself. Finally, the conclusions, arising out of this study of contemporary Cape Nguni diviners in town, are evaluated in the ligrht of Lewis's (1966, 1971, 1986) deprivation hypothesis of spirit possession (see chapter 6)

Ce travail se donne pour objectif d'approfondir le lien existant entre la théologie mystique eckhartienne de la naissance et la phénoménologie de la vie telle qu'elle est développé par Michel Henry. Etant cette vérité éminemment chrétienne, "la naissance de Dieu dans l'âme" constitue l'essence du message évangélique, le fondement des doctrines spirituelles des Pères de l'Eglise ainsi que le soubassement intérieur de toute expérience mystique vivante. Sont analysés dans ce travail plusieurs axes mystiques et phénoménologiques qui se rapportent à la naissance mystique tels que la question du "détachement" eckharien et la libération phénoménologique de l'essence, le problème de la connaissance absolue qui est essentiellement une connaissance filiale, la phénoménologie de l'homme intérieur, la réception de la grâce comprise comme réception de la vie dans le mystère trinitaire, la question du "présent vivant", la phénoménologie de la communauté vivante, la révélation esthétique qui trouve son sens ultime dans la naissance mystique ainsi que la filiation considérée comme le lieu d'une "divination" identique à cette naissance constamment intensifiée dans la vie de Dieu / The goal of this work is to deepen the existing link between Eckhart's mystical theology of birth and phenomenology of life such as it is developed by Michel Henry. Being eminently a Christian truth, "God's birth in the soul" frames the essence of the evangelical message, the foundation of the spiritual doctrines of the Church Fathers as well as the internal basis of any living mystical experience. Several mystical and phenomenological axis related to the mystical birth are analyzed in this work such as the question of Eckhart's "detachement" and the phenomenological liberation of essence, the problem of absolute knowledge which is essentially a filial knowledge, the phenomenology of the inner man, the receptivity of grace understood as the adherence of life in the Trinitarian mystery, the question of the "living present", the phenomenology of the living community, the esthetical revelation which finds its ultimate sense in the mystical birth as well as the filiation considered as the place of a "deification" identical to this birth constantly intensified in God's life