Turning ceremonies into heroquests?

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 21:16:00 -0000

> > "Andrew Solovay" suggests:
>
> > But as I understand it, a lot of ritual magic *can* be done as a
> > heroquest, and often is when the stakes are high.
>
> > e.g. If you're about to go out and fight a single-combat, your
> > clan may hold an "arming of Orlanth" ceremony to give you some
> > helpful magic. But if you're about to go on a major heroquest,
> > you might well run the "arming of Orlanth" as a practice quest--
> > increasing the difficulty (and the consequences if you screw
> > up), but also increasing the reward.

The Greg write:
>
> I am perplexed by this confusion. Ceremonies can not be run as a
> heroquest. Ceremonies (like all rituals) are similiar in that they
> invoke the Otherworld, but there is not travel to the Otherworld
> in a ceremony.

I guess my assumption was that many or most of these ceremonial rituals are, on some level, re-enactments of things that happened in the Godtime. That is, when you're performing the "Arming of Orlanth" ritual, you are re-enacting a mythic event when the various gods of the Storm Tribe armed Orlanth for battle; when you perform the "summons of evil" ceremony, you're recalling a mythic event when Orlanth forced his enemies to heed a summons for battle.

And *if* the ceremony is re-enacting a mythic event, then (I assumed)
instead of just performing the ceremony, you could re-enact the myth more directly, by heroquesting it--either as a practice quest, or by going to the Other Side. Risks and rewards would thus be greater.

Does this idea make any sense?