The reality of myth

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Sun, 03 Sep 1995 19:54:23 +1300


Michael Raaterova:

Nils had written:

>>Instead, by working backward, you will find a (pre)historical event which
>>really happened.

Mike replies:

>Uh, Nils, that will result in a backward extrapolation. We can never find
>out what *really* happened, because the event has been changed by our
>preconception of it. If there ever was an original blueprint of an event it
>has long ago been rewritten, replaced or recreated. History is as
>unpredictable as the future. The only thing we have left that has validity
>is Myth.

Considering that this whole debate centres around the death of the Sun, I must point out that there is _contemporary evidence_ for what really happened. The GRAY contains the copper plates of the Starseers of Dara Happa and one of the oldest plates they have is the Doom Conjunction which contains the position of the planets at the First Sunset. This shows Yelm...er sorry the Sun fleeing towards the western horizon with the constellation known as Orlanth's Ring at the centre of the Sky. This constellation is also observed by them to be a major agent of celestial havoc. (I shall ignore modern interpretations of the Doom Conjuction - Yelm disintegrated - as I think they're mostly bullshit).

So Orlanth killed Yelm? Case solved? Hardly. Orlanth's Ring is known to the Yuthuppans as Yumatum which is presumably their name for Umath. Now to simplify matters, I shall define Umath as the Body of the World Cyclone which sweeps around the world as described in Elder Secrets.

(Orlanthi) All Storm Cults, IMO, gain most of their power from worship of this cyclone. However the cults usually view the Cyclone in the image of their favourite storm ancestor (ie Orlanth, Humath, Worlath, Valind, Urox etc). But the constellation of Orlanth's Ring/Yumatum does not follow the patterns of the World Cyclone and is a _seperate_entity_.

Therefore, I suspect it was not Umath (or Orlanth etc) who historically killed the Sun. Given that the Yuthuppans say the constellation has storm influences, I believe that the constellation is that of the High Wind that sweeps through the sky. Historically the Wind of Heaven killed the Sun. Mythically it's open season. The Orlanthi say that their god lives in the Celestial Ring and so when they say he slew the Sun Emperor they are correct mythically. The Dara Happans say a much more complicated scenario which contradicts the Orlanthi version of events in several places and they too are completely correct mythically.

The error many make is assuming that Myth equals History. A Myth is a magic tool to comprehend the uncomprehendable Otherworld and draw power from it. What happened in the past has theoretically sod-all constraints on the myths told in the present. Some myths are more historically accurate than others but magically they are equally powerful.          

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