An Introduction to an Unpublished Novel Written by Ioan Petru Culianu

In the collection of manuscripts of “Mircea Eliade Book Fund”, which belongs to the Metropolitan Library of Bucharest, one can find the novel Râul Selenei [Selena’s River] by Ioan Petru Culianu, a typescript novel not published yet, written in Romanian. This novel is a rewriting in contemporary vision of a rite of shamanic initiation. The research encounters Culianu’s vision – expressed in literary terms – as a replica (and even more) at Mircea Eliade’s thought and at what Carlos Castaneda did in his books. The American anthropologist, Carlos Castaneda, published his first volume, The Teachings of Don Juan (1968), with a “non-fiction” warning as to its contents, and was finally suspected of pure invention in his writings, because nobody except his apprentice could ever see Don Juan. On the other hand, Culianu’s paradox is that he writes Râul Selenei with the mention “novel”, but, beside not being published, we can notice (as to be seen) its non-fictional character. Going back to Mircea Eliade’s ideas, we may consider Râul Selenei an attempt of literary illustration of how the sacred – and implicitly the initiatic dimension involved by the access to it – is hidden in the profane, in the prosaic, everyday existence.

For further reading see a presentation of the novel and my commentaries here.