little everyday rituals

From: Martin Crim <MCrim_at_erols.com>
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 21:37:44 -0400


Oliver Bernuetz says:
> Somehow I still think that if people were performing
>little rituals and spells as part of their day to day life that were totally
>necessary the world would seem quite different even from say ancient Greece
>or stone-age Gaul.

I can't say, having never travelled in time. But you could see some pretty strange little rituals around you today if you look at them right. Ever wondered about what makes money valuable? No, it's not a ritual, but it is an example of something which is purely cultural and totally necessary.... if you live in a money-based culture. Likewise, the kinds of rituals necessary to live in a magic-based culture would be quite different from your present day-to-day life, but equally cultural and necessary.

>I agree that the
>use of magic shouldn't seem to be any different than the use of technology
>I'm unfamiliar with (ala that overly used quote from Isaac Asimov).

Arthur C. Clarke, actually.

>In Glorantha the divine and the magical can be objectively manifested.

Thanks for the knee-slapper. You're a modernist, did you know that?

>A Gloranthan IMHO (that's In My Heretical Opinion) always experiences
>something beyond the mundane.

We agree here. The curse of a belief in objectivity does not exist there (except, as you say, maybe for the Brithini, Vadeli, and God Forgoti).

>I still don't think I've made my point very well.

I know I didn't make mine at all well; skipped too many steps in the proof, as I often do, I'm afraid, and likely to get flames from people saying, basically, "huh?"

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