Heler, Procreation, Delecti

From: LORDBACBUC <LORDBACBUC_at_aol.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 13:18:19 EDT


From: Julian Lord

David Dunham :

=3DIn the draft of Belintar's Book which I saw months ago, Heler led the
=3Dinvasion of Umathela, though my recollection is he did so as an air go=
d and
=3Dnot a water god. His rams were certainly involved, and if I recall, he

Thanks for this one!

I once sent Greg a write-up, and his response was to encourage me to deve= lop=0Amy idea for Rain spirits.
(The write-up was just ok, I think; much too Orlanthi ...) Daga is a shamanistic cult, I hear.
So, except among those Orlanthi who worship Heler as a "normal" god, Heler, is probably a version of the Horned God (with rams horns!), Daga b= eing=0Athe Bad Man.

What I don't know, and would be grateful to find out, is:

Do mermen worship Heler and, if so, how? I would guess that Heler could be a shaman's god for them, living on the Other Side (or World without Water), but I've never read anything to support such a theory. What would the god of rain be to those who inhabit the depths?

For Heler as a water god, see WF pp 45 and 49, of course, although this m= ight=0Abe out of date.
Not news, I imagine.

madamx :

=3DThere is (or was in 1978 anyway) at least one Aboriginal tribe in the
=3DKimberlies, Western
=3DAustralia, who were at least in deep denial over the male role in
=3Dprocreation. These people
=3Dhad a very sophisticated spiritual explantion for the event but absolu=
tly
=3Dforbade any mention,
=3Damong men, of physiological causes. An RQ tribe among whom this belie=
f was
=3Dcurrent could,
=3Dif isolated, forget the role of sex. If the spiritual cause became
=3Dparamount in their belief sex may
=3Dlose its role. Why not? G is founded in its spirituality not its
=3Dphysicality. Perhaps the Ulerian
=3Dmyths are a plot,dating from Godtime, to control fertility; or perhaps=
 not.

Exactly. Denial is not ignorance.

(By the way; touch=E9!
"taking the piss" is apparently NOT the only origin of anthropological=
=0Atheories

regarding primitive ignorance )

To my mind, in Glorantha, a tribe which had belief in non-sexual procreat= ion
would also HAVE a non-sexual procreation method (whether or not the *norm= al*=0Amethod
worked too), and virgin childbearing would be a not uncommon occurrence among some Pamaltelan tribes, for example. (Such births _are_ medically possible from dirty toilet seats in the RW, yes, etc., but I'm talking about *real* virgin childbearing.)

The Mostali are the obvious example of non-sexual reproduction.

Gloranthan alchemists see procreation as the metamorphosis of substance a= nd=0Aspirit,
and they sometimes produce chidren as more or less successful attempts to=
=0Acreate

the perfect androgyne, or other philosophical substance. Many alchemists must, therefore, be hermaphrodites themselves, or partially inhuman distillations of various portions of the human soul,=  etc.
(The more successful children being likely to be chosen as students of=0A= alchemy.)

Some Gloranthan babies may, indeed, be found inside cabbages, if that wer= e the
local mythology.

Anyway, I haven't had time to read most of the old Digest stuff, but it h= as=0Aoccurred to me
that if the Ducks/Carl Barks connection were taken to its most absurd ext= reme,
Then Delecti would be a Duck. =0A


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