Initiation

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From: Loren J. Miller (MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu)
Date: Mon 25 Apr 1994 - 08:21:57 EEST


alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk writes:
> Not quite. Rather, some of us are unconvincded that clan initiation and
> religious initiation are either: the same thing; or: a job lot.

In _The Sacred and the Profane_ (and lots of his other works) Mircea Eliade goes on at great length about "religious man" and how, for much of human history and pre-history, humans perceived society and the social rules as sacred duties prescribed by the gods back in the first days of the world. Society itself was sacred and any progress in society, any initiation, was religious in nature.

I think this is true, but more importantly I am 99.999% certain that it's true for Glorantha. The pattern for society was created by the gods. Orlanthi attempt to live in the same relations as Orlanth and his friends, thanes and women. Malkioni attempt to live in the same relations as Malkion and his children. Lunars attempt to live in the same relations as the Red Goddess and her friends and children (the fact that we know almost nothing about this pattern is inexcusable). Now who is going to say "this initiation is to your culture, but that one is to your religion"? They're both sacred. They're both the product of the gods. Any differentiation is artificial.

This is why I think that RQ/Glorantha needs to acknowledge the role of the culture/religion in initiation in addition to the individual cult. I still haven't seen acceptable rules proposals to do this, but I remain hopeful that it's possible and convinced that it is a good idea.

whoah, 

+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller            internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
"Enough sound bites. Let's get to work."        -- Ross Perot sound bite

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