Andrew Larsen :
> Perhaps Nandan doesn't just offer men access to Ernaldan magic.
He doesn't, really. The magic is Ulerian.
> Perhaps
> he is a cult through which men gain access to earth magic in general,
> including all the Earth goddess.
Ulerian magic is "Earth magic" from a historical (or rather prehistorical) POV only. She isn't an Earth goddess at all, although her cult does now belong to the Earth group. She is a Predark entity.
Uleria predates not only the division between the sexes (as Heler does, from one debatable POV), but she also predates every other dichotomy (and all other foundations of basic cosmic alterity, such as the Elements) of Glorantha, although she is one of those who engendered them.
She IS Cosmic Love ; because she provides the transcendental joy of REUNION. Within Uleria ; or within the Heart of Uleria at least ; dichotomies cease to be meaningful, and the deepest creative forces of Glorantha (which are "sexual" forces from a limited, human POV) are accessible to those who follow her path.
That is how Nandan can produce children IMO ; and NOT by using women's magic per se. He returns to the primal, elemental fount of sexuality itself, with the help of his lover (who provides the necessary Other in this magical equation : an Other who also enters into the Heart of Nandan, via a different path), and transcends his own sexual identity ; although the Nandani is *still* a man (except perhaps in social convention). He has access to some of the deepest mysteries of female magic, but not the shallower ones : because males have the _same_ deepest mysteries [albeit in the other half of the Ulerian dichotomy (created by Her, although she precedes and transcends it)] of sexual generation, but not the same shallow ones.
All eminently debatable, of course ...
Julian Lord
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #18
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