Chronological Time and Mythic Time from Loren Miller on 1996-11-12 (Glorantha Digest Vol 03)

From: Loren Miller <loren_at_wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 16:20:24 EST

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"?

"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

WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html