12-25-2014, 11:58 PM
An Indian fakir performed a ritual dance on a raised dais, upon which I also stood as an observer. This ritual was one that I think Joseph Campbell had written about, whereby the dancer cuts off parts of his body until he bleeds out. It is archetypal, such that it is supposed to enact a sacrificial renewal. Watching the fakir cut off his ears, nose, lips, then toes and fingers -- I just thought the whole thing was tawdry, wasteful and useless.