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78-665: Numinous was derived in the 17th century from the Latin numen , meaning "nod" and thus, in a transferred (figurative, metaphorical) sense, "divine will, divine command, divinity or majesty." Numinous is etymologically unrelated to Immanuel Kant's noumenon , a Greek term referring to an unknowable reality underlying all things. The word was given its present sense by the German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto in his influential 1917 book Das Heilige , which appeared in English as The Idea of

156-450: A "divine power" ( vis divina ) "which pervades the lives of men". It causes the motions and cries of birds during augury . In Virgil 's recounting of the blinding of the one-eyed giant , Polyphemus , from the Odyssey , in his Aeneid , he has Odysseus and his men first "ask for the assistance of the great numina" ( magna precati numina ). Reviewing public opinion of Augustus on

234-641: A cathedral, saying he gets "a feeling of luminosity out of the numinous," though he does not hold the Catholic religious beliefs with which he was raised. In a 2010 article titled " James Cameron 's Cathedral: Avatar Revives the Religious Spectacle" published in the Journal of Religion and Film , academic Craig Detweiler describes how the global blockbuster movie Avatar "traffics in Rudolph Otto’s notion of

312-402: A condition absolutely sui generis and incomparable whereby the human being finds himself utterly abashed." Otto argues that because the numinous is irreducible and sui generis it cannot be defined in terms of other concepts or experiences, and that the reader must therefore be "guided and led on by consideration and discussion of the matter through the ways of his own mind, until he reaches

390-456: A controversy). In his private notes, Eliade wrote that he took no further interest in the office, because his visits abroad had convinced him that he had "something great to say", and that he could not function within the confines of "a minor culture". Also during the war, Eliade traveled to Berlin , where he met and conversed with controversial political theorist Carl Schmitt , and frequently visited Francoist Spain , where he notably attended

468-516: A correspondence with the Ceylonese -born philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy . In 1936–1937, he functioned as honorary assistant for Ionescu's course, lecturing in Metaphysics . In 1933, Mircea Eliade had a physical relationship with the actress Sorana Țopa, while falling in love with Nina Mareș, whom he ultimately married. The latter, introduced to him by his new friend Mihail Sebastian , already had

546-456: A daughter, Giza, from a man who had divorced her. Eliade subsequently adopted Giza, and the three of them moved to an apartment at 141 Dacia Boulevard . He left his residence in 1936, during a trip he made to the United Kingdom and Germany, when he first visited London, Oxford and Berlin . After contributing various and generally polemical pieces in university magazines, Eliade came to

624-467: A gentle tide pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant, until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its "profane," non-religious mood of everyday experience. [...] It has its crude, barbaric antecedents and early manifestations, and again it may be developed into something beautiful and pure and glorious. It may become

702-642: A list of party members with county -level responsibilities (published in Buna Vestire ). The stance taken by Eliade resulted in his arrest on July 14, 1938, after a crackdown on the Iron Guard authorized by King Carol II . At the time of his arrest, he had just interrupted a column on Provincia și legionarismul ("The Province and Legionary Ideology") in Vremea , having been singled out by Prime Minister Armand Călinescu as an author of Iron Guard propaganda. Eliade

780-463: A physical relationship with her. Eliade received his PhD in 1933, with a thesis on Yoga practices. The book, which was translated into French three years later, had significant impact in academia, both in Romania and abroad. He later recalled that the book was an early step for understanding not just Indian religious practices, but also Romanian spirituality. During the same period, Eliade began

858-419: Is a spirit here". Its interpretation, and in particular the exact sense of numen has been discussed extensively in the literature. The supposition that a numinous presence in the natural world supposed in the earliest layers of Italic religion, as it were an " animistic " element left over in historical Roman religion and especially in the etymology of Latin theonyms, has often been popularly implied, but

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936-715: Is promoted to the highest office in the shortest of times"). He approved of an ethnic nationalist state centered on the Orthodox Church (in 1927, despite his still-vivid interest in Theosophy , he recommended young intellectuals "the return to the Church"), which he opposed to, among others, the secular nationalism of Constantin Rădulescu-Motru ; referring to this particular ideal as "Romanianism", Eliade was, in 1934, still viewing it as "neither fascism, nor chauvinism ". Eliade

1014-420: Is simply "a nod", or more accurately, for it is a passive formation, "that which is produced by nodding", just as flamen is "that which is produced by blowing", i.e. , a gust of wind. It came to mean "the product or expression of power" — not, be it noted, power itself. Thus, numen (divinity) is not personified (although it can be a personal attribute) and should be distinguished from deus (god). Numen

1092-426: Is what the mystics call the mysterium tremendum —the blinding unendurable mystery (whether of God or some other Ultimate or Absolute) before which humans tremble in awe. Numen Numen (plural numina ) is a Latin term for " divinity ", "divine presence", or "divine will". The Latin authors defined it as follows: Cicero writes of a "divine mind" ( divina mens ), a god "whose numen everything obeys", and

1170-451: The Black Sea . In parallel, Eliade grew estranged from the educational environment, becoming disenchanted with the discipline required and obsessed with the idea that he was uglier and less virile than his colleagues. To cultivate his willpower, he would force himself to swallow insects and only slept four to five hours a night. At one point, Eliade was failing four subjects, among which was

1248-632: The Romanian Army from the Eastern Front ("[In his place], I would not be grinding it in Russia"). Eliade also claimed that such contacts with the leader of a neutral country had made him the target for Gestapo surveillance, but that he had managed to communicate Salazar's advice to Mihai Antonescu , Romania's Foreign Minister . In autumn 1943, he traveled to occupied France , where he rejoined Emil Cioran , also meeting with scholar Georges Dumézil and

1326-588: The Romanian Writers' Society , of which he had been a member since 1934. In summer 1937, through an official decision which came as a result of the accusations, and despite student protests, he was stripped of his position at the university. Eliade decided to sue the Ministry of Education , asking for a symbolic compensation of 1 leu . He won the trial, and regained his position as Nae Ionescu's assistant. Nevertheless, by 1937, he gave his intellectual support to

1404-552: The Stoics Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus , and read works of history—the two Romanian historians who influenced him from early on were Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu and Nicolae Iorga . His first published work was the 1921 Inamicul viermelui de mătase ("The Silkworm's Enemy"), followed by Cum am găsit piatra filosofală ("How I Found the Philosophers' Stone "). Four years later, Eliade completed work on his debut volume,

1482-560: The University of Calcutta . Finding that the Maharaja of Kassimbazar sponsored European scholars to study in India, Eliade applied and was granted an allowance for four years, which was later doubled by a Romanian scholarship. In autumn 1928, he sailed for Calcutta to study Sanskrit and philosophy under Surendranath Dasgupta , a Bengali Cambridge alumnus and professor at Calcutta University,

1560-449: The University of Chicago . One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and interpreter of religious experience, he established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential. One of his most instrumental contributions to religious studies

1638-459: The collaborationist writer Paul Morand . At the same time, he applied for a position of lecturer at the University of Bucharest , but withdrew from the race, leaving Constantin Noica and Ion Zamfirescu to dispute the position, in front of a panel of academics comprising Lucian Blaga and Dimitrie Gusti (Zamfirescu's eventual selection, going against Blaga's recommendation, was to be the topic of

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1716-454: The modernist short stories of Giovanni Papini and social anthropology studies by James George Frazer . His interest in the two writers led him to learn Italian and English in private, and he also began studying Persian and Hebrew . At the time, Eliade became acquainted with Saadi 's poems and the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh . He was also interested in philosophy—studying, among others, Socrates , Vasile Conta , and

1794-498: The 1944 Lusitano-Spanish scientific congress in Córdoba . It was during his trips to Spain that Eliade met philosophers José Ortega y Gasset and Eugenio d'Ors . He maintained a friendship with d'Ors, and met him again on several occasions after the war. Nina Eliade fell ill with uterine cancer and died during their stay in Lisbon , in late 1944. As the widower later wrote, the disease

1872-566: The Christian faith as expressed by peasants. Growing up, he aimed to find and record what he believed was the common source of all religious traditions. The young Eliade's interest in physical exercise and adventure led him to pursue mountaineering and sailing, and he also joined the Romanian Boy Scouts . With a group of friends, he designed and sailed a boat on the Danube , from Tulcea to

1950-573: The Devil's Waters'), and Romanul Adolescentului Miop ('Novel of the Nearsighted Adolescent', 1989); the novellas Domnișoara Christina ('Miss Christina', 1936) and Tinerețe fără tinerețe ('Youth Without Youth', 1976); and the short stories Secretul doctorului Honigberger ('The Secret of Dr. Honigberger', 1940) and La Țigănci ('With the Gypsy Girls', 1963). Early in his life, Eliade

2028-488: The Holy in 1923. Otto writes that while the concept of "the holy" is often used to convey moral perfection —and does entail this—it contains another distinct element, beyond the ethical sphere, for which he uses the term numinous . He explains the numinous as a "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self." This mental state "presents itself as ganz Andere , wholly other,

2106-498: The Iron Guard, in which he saw "a Christian revolution aimed at creating a new Romania", and a group able "to reconcile Romania with God". His articles of the time, published in Iron Guard-affiliated papers such as Sfarmă-Piatră and Buna Vestire , contain ample praises of the movement's leaders ( Corneliu Zelea Codreanu , Ion Moța , Vasile Marin , and Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul ). The transition he went through

2184-761: The Romanian state. In 1941, during his time in Portugal, Eliade stayed in Estoril , at the Hotel Palácio. He would later find a house in Cascais , at Rua da Saudade. In February 1941, weeks after the bloody Legionary Rebellion was crushed by Antonescu, Iphigenia was staged by the National Theater Bucharest —the play soon raised concerns that it owed inspiration to the Iron Guard's ideology, and even that its inclusion in

2262-584: The Western European public. He was also briefly involved in publishing a Romanian-language magazine, titled Luceafărul ("The Morning Star"), and was again in contact with Mihai Șora , who had been granted a scholarship to study in France, and with Șora's wife Mariana . In 1947, he was facing material constraints, and Ananda Coomaraswamy found him a job as a French-language teacher in the United States, at

2340-469: The actions of Mahatma Gandhi and the Satyagraha as a phenomenon; later, Eliade adapted Gandhian ideas in his discourse on spirituality and Romania. In 1930, while living with Dasgupta, Eliade fell in love with his host's daughter, Maitreyi Devi , later writing a barely disguised autobiographical novel Maitreyi (also known as "La Nuit Bengali" or "Bengal Nights"), in which he claimed that he carried on

2418-660: The attention of journalist Pamfil Șeicaru , who invited him to collaborate on the nationalist paper Cuvântul , which was noted for its harsh tones. By then, Cuvântul was also hosting articles by Nae Ionescu. As one of the figures in the Criterion literary society (1933–1934), Eliade's initial encounter with the traditional far right was polemical: the group's conferences were stormed by members of A. C. Cuza 's National-Christian Defense League , who objected to what they viewed as pacifism and addressed antisemitic insults to several speakers, including Sebastian; in 1933, he

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2496-478: The author of a five volume History of Indian Philosophy . Before reaching the Indian subcontinent , Eliade also made a brief visit to Egypt . Once in India, he visited large areas of the region, and spent a short period at a Himalayan ashram . He studied the basics of Indian philosophy , and, in parallel, learned Sanskrit, Pali and Bengali under Dasgupta's direction. At the time, he also became interested in

2574-560: The autobiographical Novel of the Nearsighted Adolescent . Between 1925 and 1928, he attended the University of Bucharest 's Faculty of Philosophy and Letters in 1928, earning his diploma with a study on Early Modern Italian philosopher Tommaso Campanella . In 1927, Eliade traveled to Italy, where he met Papini and collaborated with the scholar Giuseppe Tucci . It was during his student years that Eliade met Nae Ionescu , who lectured in Logic , becoming one of his disciples and friends. He

2652-557: The bombing of Bucharest by German zeppelins and the patriotic fervor in the occupied capital at news that Romania was able to stop the Central Powers ' advance into Moldavia . He described this stage in his life as marked by an unrepeatable epiphany . Recalling his entrance into a drawing room that an "eerie iridescent light" had turned into "a fairy-tale palace", he wrote, I practiced for many years [the] exercise of recapturing that epiphanic moment, and I would always find again

2730-464: The capital in 1914, and purchasing a house on Melodiei Street, near Piața Rosetti , where Mircea Eliade resided until late in his teens. Eliade kept a particularly fond memory of his childhood and, later in life, wrote about the impact various unusual episodes and encounters had on his mind. In one instance during the World War I Romanian Campaign , when Eliade was about ten years of age, he witnessed

2808-452: The day of his funeral, the historian Tacitus reports that some thought "no honor was left to the gods" when he "established the cult of himself" ( se ... coli vellet ) "with temples and the effigies of numina" ( effigie numinum ). Pliny the Younger in a letter to Paternus raves about the "power", the "dignity", and "the majesty"; in short, the " numen of history". Lucretius uses

2886-422: The expression numen mentis , or "bidding of the mind", where "bidding" is numen , not, however, the divine numen, unless the mind is to be considered divine, but as simply human will. Since the early 20th century, numen has sometimes been treated in the history of religion as a pre-animistic phase; that is, a belief system inherited from an earlier time. Numen is also used by sociologists to refer to

2964-513: The far right. They displayed his rejection of liberalism and the modernizing goals of the 1848 Wallachian revolution (perceived as "an abstract apology of Mankind" and "ape-like imitation of [Western] Europe"), as well as for democracy itself (accusing it of "managing to crush all attempts at national renaissance", and later praising Benito Mussolini 's Fascist Italy on the grounds that, according to Eliade, "[in Italy,] he who thinks for himself

3042-678: The help of Alexandru Rosetti , he became Cultural Attaché to the United Kingdom, a posting cut short when Romanian-British foreign relations were broken. After leaving London he was assigned the office of Counsel and Press Officer (later Cultural Attaché) to the Romanian Embassy in Portugal , where he was kept on as diplomat by the National Legionary State (the Iron Guard government) and, ultimately, by Ion Antonescu 's regime. His office involved disseminating propaganda in favor of

3120-415: The hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of—whom or what? In the presence of that which is a Mystery inexpressible and above all creatures. Otto's use of the term as referring to a characteristic of religious experience was influential among certain intellectuals of the subsequent generation. For example, "numinous" as understood by Otto was a frequently quoted concept in

3198-486: The idea of magical power residing in an object , particularly when writing about ideas in the western tradition. When used in this sense, numen is nearly synonymous with mana . However, some authors reserve use of mana for ideas about magic from Polynesia and Southeast Asia . Etymologically, the word means "a nod of the head", here referring to a deity as it were "nodding", or making its will or its presence known. According to H. J. Rose : The literal meaning

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3276-789: The infinity of God. In a book-length scholarly treatment of the subject in fantasy literature, Chris Brawley devotes chapters to the concept in " The Rime of the Ancient Mariner " by Samuel Taylor Coleridge , in Phantastes by George Macdonald , in the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien ; and in work by Algernon Blackwood and Ursula Le Guin (e.g., The Centaur and Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight , respectively). Neuroscientist Christof Koch has described awe from experiences such as entering

3354-528: The knowledge of danger, for no one is primarily afraid of what a ghost may do to him, but of the mere fact that it is a ghost. It is "uncanny" rather than dangerous, and the special kind of fear it excites may be called Dread. With the Uncanny one has reached the fringes of the Numinous. Now suppose that you were told simply "There is a mighty spirit in the room," and believed it. Your feelings would then be even less like

3432-503: The mere fear of danger: but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking—a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant and of prostration before it—an emotion which might be expressed in Shakespeare's words "Under it my genius is rebuked." This feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites it as the Numinous. Jung applied the concept of

3510-526: The non-political Petrescu and Ionel Jianu , and Belu Zilber , who was a member of the illegal Romanian Communist Party . The group also included Haig Acterian , Mihail Polihroniade , Petru Comarnescu , Marietta Sadova and Floria Capsali . He was also close to Marcel Avramescu , a former Surrealist writer whom he introduced to the works of René Guénon . A doctor in the Kabbalah and future Romanian Orthodox cleric, Avramescu joined Eliade in editing

3588-473: The notion of God's omnipotence . However, he contended that Ionescu's text was not evidence of antisemitism. In 1936, reflecting on the early history of the Romanian Kingdom and its Jewish community , he deplored the expulsion of Jewish scholars from Romania, making specific references to Moses Gaster , Heimann Hariton Tiktin and Lazăr Șăineanu . Eliade's views at the time focused on innovation—in

3666-654: The numinous concept in his 1985 novel Contact . Psychologist Susan Blackmore describes both mystical experiences and psychedelic experiences as numinous. In 2009, Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof re-released his 1975 book Realms of the Human Unconscious under the title LSD: Doorway to the Numinous: The Groundbreaking Psychedelic Research into Realms of the Human Unconscious . In his 2018 book How to Change Your Mind , journalist Michael Pollan describes his experience trying

3744-411: The numinous to psychology and psychotherapy , arguing it was therapeutic and brought greater self-understanding, and stating that to him religion was about a "careful and scrupulous observation... of the numinosum ". The notion of the numinous and the wholly Other were also central to the religious studies of ethnologist Mircea Eliade . Mysterium tremendum , another phrase coined by Otto to describe

3822-500: The numinous, is presented by Aldous Huxley in The Doors of Perception in this way: The literature of religious experience abounds in references to the pains and terrors overwhelming those who have come, too suddenly, face to face with some manifestation of the mysterium tremendum . In theological language, this fear is due to the in-compatibility between man's egotism and the divine purity, between man's self-aggravated separateness and

3900-405: The numinous, the wholly other that operates beyond reason. [...] As spectacle, Avatar remains virtually critic proof, a trip to Otto’s mysterium tremendum et fascinans." Cameron himself mentioned this in a 2022 interview with BBC Radio 1 when trying to explain the first movie's success, saying "There was that element that I call—borrowing from Carl Sagan —the numinous." Sagan specifically explored

3978-474: The point at which 'the numinous' in him perforce begins to stir... In other words, our X cannot, strictly speaking, be taught, it can only be evoked, awakened in the mind." Chapters 4 to 6 are devoted to attempting to evoke the numinous and its various aspects. Using Latin , he describes it as a mystery (Latin: mysterium ) that is at once terrifying ( tremendum ) and fascinating ( fascinans ). He writes: The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like

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4056-440: The powerful psychedelic substance 5-MeO-DMT , including the following reflection on his experience of ego dissolution : Here words fail. In truth, there were no flames, no blast, no thermonuclear storm; I'm grasping at metaphor in the hope of forming some stable and shareable concept of what was unfolding in my mind. In the event, there was no coherent thought, just pure and terrible sensation. Only afterward did I wonder if this

4134-472: The program was a Legionary attempt at subversion. In 1942, Eliade authored a volume in praise of the Estado Novo , established in Portugal by António de Oliveira Salazar , claiming that "The Salazarian state, a Christian and totalitarian one, is first and foremost based on love". On July 7 of the same year, he was received by Salazar himself, who assigned Eliade the task of warning Antonescu to withdraw

4212-476: The same class as Arșavir Acterian , Haig Acterian , and Petre Viforeanu (and several years the senior of Nicolae Steinhardt , who eventually became a close friend of Eliade's). Among his other colleagues was future philosopher Constantin Noica and Noica's friend, future art historian Barbu Brezianu . As a child, Eliade was fascinated with the natural world, which formed the setting of his very first literary attempts, as well as with Romanian folklore and

4290-436: The same plenitude. I would slip into it as into a fragment of time devoid of duration—without beginning, middle, or end. During my last years of lycée, when I struggled with profound attacks of melancholy , I still succeeded at times in returning to the golden green light of that afternoon. [...] But even though the beatitude was the same, it was now impossible to bear because it aggravated my sadness too much. By this time I knew

4368-454: The short-lived esoteric magazine Memra (the only one of its kind in Romania). Among the intellectuals who attended his lectures were Mihai Şora (whom he deemed his favorite student), Eugen Schileru and Miron Constantinescu —known later as, respectively, a philosopher, an art critic, and a sociologist and political figure of the communist regime . Mariana Klein , who became Șora's wife,

4446-581: The statement by alleging that Zilber was himself a secret agent, and the latter eventually retracted his claim). Eliade's articles before and after his adherence to the principles of the Iron Guard (or, as it was usually known at the time, the Legionary Movement ), beginning with his Itinerar spiritual ("Spiritual Itinerary", serialized in Cuvântul in 1927), center on several political ideals advocated by

4524-474: The study of the Romanian language . Instead, he became interested in natural science and chemistry , as well as the occult , and wrote short pieces on entomological subjects. Despite his father's concern that he was in danger of losing his already weak eyesight, Eliade read passionately. One of his favorite authors was Honoré de Balzac , whose work he studied carefully. Eliade also became acquainted with

4602-438: The summer of 1933, he replied to an anti- modernist critique written by George Călinescu : All I wish for is a deep change, a complete transformation. But, for God's sake, in any direction other than spirituality . He and friends Emil Cioran and Constantin Noica were by then under the influence of Trăirism , a school of thought that was formed around the ideals expressed by Ionescu. A form of existentialism , Trăirism

4680-518: The time, as well as his other far-right connections, came under frequent criticism after World War II . Noted for his vast erudition, Eliade had fluent command of five languages ( Romanian , French, German, Italian, and English) and a reading knowledge of three others ( Hebrew , Persian , and Sanskrit ). In 1990 he was elected a posthumous member of the Romanian Academy . Born in Bucharest , he

4758-533: The world to which the drawing room belonged [...] was a world forever lost. Robert Ellwood , a professor of religion who did his graduate studies under Mircea Eliade, saw this type of nostalgia as one of the most characteristic themes in Eliade's life and academic writings. After completing his primary education at the school on Mântuleasa Street, Eliade attended the Spiru Haret National College in

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4836-483: The writings of Carl Jung , and C. S. Lewis . Lewis described the numinous experience in The Problem of Pain as follows: Suppose you were told there was a tiger in the next room: you would know that you were in danger and would probably feel fear. But if you were told "There is a ghost in the next room," and believed it, you would feel, indeed, what is often called fear, but of a different kind. It would not be based on

4914-471: Was "needless to explain why that is". At signs that the Romanian communist regime was about to take hold, Eliade opted not to return to the country. On September 16, 1945, he moved to France with his adopted daughter Giza. Once there, he resumed contacts with Dumézil, who helped him recover his position in academia. On Dumézil's recommendation, he taught at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. It

4992-480: Was a journalist and essayist, a disciple of Romanian philosopher and journalist Nae Ionescu , and a member of the literary society Criterion . In the 1940s, he served as cultural attaché of the Kingdom of Romania to the United Kingdom and Portugal. Several times during the late 1930s, Eliade publicly expressed his support for the Iron Guard , a Romanian Christian fascist organization. His involvement with fascism at

5070-440: Was also the synthesis of traditional and newer right-wing beliefs. Early on, a public polemic was sparked between Eliade and Camil Petrescu : the two eventually reconciled and later became good friends. Like Mihail Sebastian, who was himself becoming influenced by Ionescu, he maintained contacts with intellectuals from all sides of the political spectrum: their entourage included the right-wing Dan Botta and Mircea Vulcănescu ,

5148-623: Was also used in the imperial cult of ancient Rome, to refer to the guardian-spirit , 'godhead' or divine power of a living emperor—in other words, a means of worshiping a living emperor without literally calling him a god. The cult of Augustus was promoted by Tiberius , who dedicated the Ara Numinis Augusti . In this context, a distinction can be made between the terms numen and genius . The expression Numen inest appears in Ovid 's Fasti (III, 296) and has been translated as "There

5226-421: Was among the signers of a manifesto opposing Nazi Germany 's state-enforced racism. In 1934, at a time when Sebastian was publicly insulted by Nae Ionescu, who prefaced his book ( De două mii de ani... ) with thoughts on the "eternal damnation" of Jews, Mircea Eliade spoke out against this perspective, and commented that Ionescu's references to the verdict " Outside the Church there is no salvation " contradicted

5304-511: Was criticised as "mostly a scholarly fiction" by McGeough (2004). The phrase "numen eris caeloque redux mirabere regna" appears on line 129 of the poem Metrum in Genesin , attributed to Hilary of Arles . Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade ( Romanian: [ˈmirtʃe̯a eliˈade] ; March 13 [ O.S. February 28] 1907 – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion , fiction writer , philosopher, and professor at

5382-488: Was especially attracted to Ionescu's radical ideas and his interest in religion, which signified a break with the rationalist tradition represented by senior academics such as Constantin Rădulescu-Motru , Dimitrie Gusti , and Tudor Vianu (all of whom owed inspiration to the defunct literary society Junimea , albeit in varying degrees). Eliade's scholarly works began after a long period of study in British India , at

5460-641: Was especially dissatisfied with the incidence of unemployment among intellectuals, whose careers in state-financed institutions had been rendered uncertain by the Great Depression . In 1936, Eliade was the focus of a campaign in the far right press, being targeted for having authored "pornography" in his Domnișoara Christina and Isabel și apele diavolului ; similar accusations were aimed at other cultural figures, including Tudor Arghezi and Geo Bogza . Assessments of Eliade's work were in sharp contrast to one another: also in 1936, Eliade accepted an award from

5538-437: Was estimated that, at the time, it was not uncommon for him to work 15 hours a day. Eliade married a second time, to the Romanian exile Christinel Cotescu. His second wife, the descendant of boyars , was the sister-in-law of the conductor Ionel Perlea . Together with Emil Cioran and other Romanian expatriates, Eliade rallied with the former diplomat Alexandru Busuioceanu , helping him publicize anti-communist opinion to

5616-458: Was his theory of eternal return , which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but (at least in the minds of the religious) actually participate in them. Eliade's literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres. The best known are the novels Maitreyi ('La Nuit Bengali' or 'Bengal Nights', 1933), Noaptea de Sânziene ('The Forbidden Forest', 1955), Isabel și apele diavolului ('Isabel and

5694-690: Was kept for three weeks in a cell at the Siguranța Statului Headquarters, in an attempt to have him sign a "declaration of dissociation" with the Iron Guard, but he refused to do so. In the first week of August he was transferred to a makeshift camp at Miercurea-Ciuc . When Eliade began coughing blood in October 1938, he was taken to a clinic in Moroeni . Eliade was simply released on November 12, and subsequently spent his time writing his play Iphigenia (also known as Ifigenia ). In April 1940, with

5772-419: Was one of Eliade's female students, and later authored works on his scholarship. Eliade later recounted that he had himself enlisted Zilber as a Cuvântul contributor, for him to provide a Marxist perspective on the issues discussed by the journal. Their relation soured in 1935, when the latter publicly accused Eliade of serving as an agent for the secret police, Siguranța Statului (Sebastian answered to

5850-521: Was probably caused by an abortion procedure she had undergone at an early stage of their relationship. He came to suffer from clinical depression, which increased as Romania and her Axis allies suffered major defeats on the Eastern Front. Contemplating a return to Romania as a soldier or a monk , he was on a continuous search for effective antidepressants , medicating himself with passion flower extract, and, eventually, with methamphetamine . This

5928-473: Was probably not his first experience with drugs: vague mentions in his notebooks have been read as indication that Mircea Eliade was taking opium during his travels to Calcutta . Later, discussing the works of Aldous Huxley , Eliade wrote that the British author's use of mescaline as a source of inspiration had something in common with his own experience, indicating 1945 as a date of reference and adding that it

6006-631: Was similar to that of his fellow generation members and close collaborators—among the notable exceptions to this rule were Petru Comarnescu , sociologist Henri H. Stahl and future dramatist Eugène Ionesco , as well as Sebastian. He eventually enrolled in the Totul pentru Țară ("Everything for the Fatherland" Party), the political expression of the Iron Guard, and contributed to its 1937 electoral campaign in Prahova County —as indicated by his inclusion on

6084-584: Was the son of Romanian Land Forces officer Gheorghe Eliade (whose original surname was Ieremia) and Jeana née Vasilescu. An Orthodox believer, Gheorghe Eliade registered his son's birth four days before the actual date, to coincide with the liturgical calendar feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste . Mircea Eliade had a sister, Corina, the mother of semiologist Sorin Alexandrescu . His family moved between Tecuci and Bucharest, ultimately settling in

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