People,
Read on down the page, which is Chapter
Twenty-Two of Don Quixote, and just past halfway through the page you will see
that Quixote, Sancho Panza (panza means belly!) and a cousin at
Montesinos Cave. This only sets the scene.
http://www.learnlibrary.com/…/don-quixote_chapter_xxii_-_wh…
Then at
the bottom left, click on "next". That will be Chapter Twenty-Three: http://www.learnlibrary.com/don-quixote/don-quixote_U83.htm
There, they lowered him down to the bottom by rope and he ended up
napping for 30 minutes until they pulled him back up. The experinces of Quixote
in the cave are related. You will notice that time dilation took place, he
thought that he had been in the cave for three days.
He had some mystical experiences that were unbelievable, he related an
underground wonderland, and ended up telling Sancho that one day he would tell
everything about the marvels that he had experienced.
If I am not mistaken, on his deathbed, at the end of the book, he was
dismissive about the experience, but he was dismissive about all of his
adventures because he had chased his dream of being a chivalrous knight instead
of turning his attention to God. (A lesson for us all?)
What we want to do is pay attention to the motif; as always in folklore
about such experiences, there was time dilation and a wonderworld on the astral
platform. I'll give an example of this from Chinese folklore:http://www.holloworbs.com/Chinese_Cave%20Heavens.htm
Most commentators agree that the experience that Quixote had in the
Montesinos Cave was a crucial turning point in his life as depicted in the
novel. And this is another common theme, the underground manipulation of the
surface world, whereby the person gets sent back up with some idea in his or
her noggin and an agenda to carry out.
The experience that Duryodhana, the opposing king to Arjuna in The
Bhagavad Gita, is a good example (fascinating!):http://www.holloworbs.com/abduction_of_duryodhana.htm
How is it that Cervantes, who had been an average writer at best, just
jumped up and wrote Don Quixote, the greatest single selling novel of all
time? Did he have such an experience, and was presenting the idea in the form
of fiction?
And speaking of Spain, the Spanish writer Gustavo Adolfo Bequer wrote
The White Doe (La Corza Blanca) which presented the theme of shape shifters
from within the mountain (cambia-formas, cambiante) who occupied prominent
positions on the surface.
And he wrote about the experience of a sheep herder who wandered into a cave at the foot of Mount Moncayo, and the marvels that he saw before he dropped dead. He went to the region about 50 years later in order to interview the folk and find out what he could.
http://www.holloworbs.com/1815.htm
Get informed, people, read up on the matter of underground worlds.
A great book with a plethora of information is Caverns, Cauldrons and Concealed Creatures. If you read it, you'll be completely informed.
Posted by Dean Dominic De Lucia