Mystics: Greg and the God-Learners....

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 00:26:34 +0100


I was thinking about our nice, new, overly prescriptive set of magical paradigms and something struck me.

We've always referred to Greg as a shaman because that's what he identifies himself as. But judging by his work, by Glorantha-the- creation he's actually a mystic.

Hidden in the background is the oft-repeated idea that power and knowledge don't bring you freedom but greater and greater responsibility and involvement in the world until you loose the ability to change and live. And doesn't Greg's Trickster stance strike you as a mystical path leading away from knowledge and power and towards foolishness and freedom? It do me.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to reading An Introduction to Glorantha (going to be delayed a bit getting to the UK, says my contact at Esdevium: they aren't in the country yet no matter what the press releases say) to see if my guesses about the God-Learners actually being mystics is correct. The RuneQuest Sight (bet that name has to change) might be something that stops the Mystic from being an alien everywhere and makes him frighteningly native to all the Otherworld planes and lets him see them in a unified way. (They bequeathed a set of world models to posterity that gets in the way of people rediscovering their secret: or perhaps someone did that for them....) I bet a God-Learner could tell you if Urox and Storm Bull are the same thing....

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