“La danza delle Pietre”, which refers to Charles Malamoud’s latest book, aims at reviving the idea of the Vedic rite that “enacts” human sacrifice by using a plant that becomes soma. This is both a Hindu god and the plant juice that priests drink to get out of themselves and live in a divine dimension. But soma for us Westerners is also the body, the material part of the being that is closer to the earth and keeps us connected with the mother of all things. Thus “the dance of stones” is the metaphor of the chain of human beings, the dance of human beings travelling in the universe in search of what they have forgotten about themselves.
Valerio Dehò.
