From: Loren Miller (loren@wharton.upenn.edu)
Date: Tue 12 Nov 1996 - 23:20:24 EET
The problem with stating that there was a time before time is that
by so doing you have already placed yourself in the land of paradox,
and forfeited any credibility you might have as far as scientific
explanations are concerned. Chronological time is straight, it
stretches out in an infinite, evenly measured line ahead of you and
behind you. It never starts. It never ends. It is a measuring device!
New things are always happening in Chronological Time. Mythic Time is
circular, repetitive, it happens again and again. Nothing new ever
happens in Mythic Time.
Think of it this way...
Myths take place in a different universe, an otherworld in which
events that happen once are reflected again and again. Once they
have become a part of the mythic landscape, they must also be
reflected in the mundane world, reflected again and again and again.
That's why it gets cold and dark at the end of the year, because Yelm
is dead. That's why every year at the beginning of the planting
season the whole village has those interesting fertility rites. I
like to picture Mythic Time as a wheel--a juggernaut--rolling forward
upon chronological time. Whenever a Mythic landmark is on the bottom
of the wheel it stamps its image into chronological time. There are
many wheels inside each other too, so one cycle comes around every
year, another comes around every month, one comes around every day,
another comes every time someone is born, every time a king or queen
takes the crown, every time a city is built, and every new age.
Wheels within wheels within wheels.
Heroquesting is a matter of hopping out of our chronological timeline
into the wheels of mythic time, making a change in the mythic
landscape, and getting back safely.
Q: OK, so what are people talking about when they say "before time"?
A: "Before Time" is not meant to be taken literally, any more than
"Once Upon a Time" is. It is meant to be a marker that lets the
listener know that now he is dealing with Mythic, or cyclical, Time.
Mythic Time is not measured in an unending straight line but has an
end where it meets its own beginning, ouroborous-like.
- --
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller <http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren>
Life at the water's edge is the real life for men and women, and penguins
------------------------------
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #276
*******************************
RuneQuest is a trademark of Avalon Hill, and Glorantha is a trademark
of Chaosium. With the exception of previously copyrighted material,
unless specified otherwise all text in this digest is copyright by the
author or authors, with rights granted to copy for personal use, to
excerpt in reviews and replies, and to archive unchanged for
electronic retrieval.
Send electronic mail to Majordomo@hops.wharton.upenn.edu with "help"
in the body of the message for subscription information on this and
other mailing lists.
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 13 Jun 2003 - 16:53:41 EEST