From: Nils Weinander (nilsw@ibm.net)
Date: Sat 21 Mar 1998 - 17:06:33 EET
Jeff Richard:
>
> cosmological truth and I don't deny them. Further, I for one, consider the
> question of whether Humakt's "nature" has remained "essential unchanged"
> since the Dawn to be a question of philosophical esoterica similar to the
> great time zone debate. What interests me is whether the worship of Humakt
> has changed through the ages - which I believe it most certainly has.
I hope this eminently sensible point doesn't drown
in the expletives ("bollocks", "straw man" etc). I
agree with Jeff that beliefs change with time. I
would like to expand on this a bit.
The changes to beliefs and cultic practices are of
two kind. First there are the slow and gradual changes
as society in general changes. Old customs are forgotten
and new are added. When a region is urbanized prayers
for good hunting luck are less important than those for
good trade. Patrons of the crafts are more important
than patrons of cattle. Etc.
Second, there are the sudden religious reformations.
I would say that these do not change the nature of the
deities as much as the other way around. The reforms
are instigated because the reformer percieved that the
cult didn't fit the nature of her deity (any more).
Anything else would be rather blasphemous for a pious
believer.
To take one of the dreaded real word examples, Martin
Luther didn't start his reformation to change the
nature of Christ, but because he thought the roman church
didn't match the nature of Christ as revealed by the
gospels.
Few Gloranthan religions seem to have holy scripture,
but they do have Divination.
Before the outcries start, there are also the exceptions:
Arkat changed religion by his creative heroquesting and
membership in various cults. The God Learners messed
around with myths. Paraphrasing Greg Stafford's words,
everything Arkat touched turned to dust (and he betrayed
every cause eventually). We all know what happened to
the God Learners. So it seems that these active changes
don't turn out very well.
Finally, I can think of grey areas, like Lokamayadon.
I don't think he worked on the Arkat/GL level, but he
biased his reforms to his own advantage.
Jeff again:
>
> I suspect that most Gloranthan peoples' "core myths" (an admittedly fuzzy
> concept) have true validity and reveal key cosmological truths that pertain
> to these "core myths" but I think people also have a vast amount of
> misknowledge about everything else.
Another gem of sensible thought!
I also think that the "fundamental nature" of Glorantha
manifests itself a few times: the recreation of the
universe at the end of the chaos war, the backlash
against the god learners. I suspect that the constant
transformations and changing masks of the moon goddess
has something to say about this as well.
______________________________________________________
Nils Weinander | Everything is dust in the wind
nilsw@ibm.net | http://www.geocities.com/Paris/8689/
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