Julian Lord:
> Hm, actually I partially disagree with Greg here : I agree that no-one can
> UNDERSTAND anything before the creation of people, but I don't
> agree when Greg says no-one can go back there. Strange meditation
> practises can IMO take you to places where not only does individual
> consciousness not exist (Green Age Mind), but even Collective
> Consciousness nor any perception of Being whatsoever (Black Age
> Mind) : but you CAN come back from that place, [...]
Well, it would be a reasonably generalisation to say that elimination of all consciousness in that sense was, generically, the objective of "mystical" practices. (Insert exceptions and caveat to taste.) I'm not sure these exercises are what would normally be described as "HeroQuests" mind you (though, what's with normal, anyway). And (also generically), one would not normally actually wish to _return_ from such a state at all.
Whether this state of Cosmic Unconsciousness can be identified with an age, as a GL (or someone else) would conceptualise it is the trickier part, though, for me. (I imagine that few cosmogenies out-and-out contradict the GL elemental progression, but some seem to pay little attention to it, some seem to "skip" elements, as far as any overt creation of them is concerned.) Certainly darkness being the "first element" doesn't necessarily entail it being the first concept/entity/ state of being.
I'm not saying the GL conception is necessarily "wrong", certainly. But rather, my predisposition would be to believe that the terminology used by mystics themselves is the more accurate and useful for describing such experiences, rather than external understandings.
> Similar meditation and "deep" HeroQuesting
> practises are a core "mystic" element of many Gloranthan religions :
> although only those that accepted the GL/Theyalan pre-Ages model
> could believe that the practises can take you to the pre-Ages.
Or to be more precise, only in such circumstances would they use those concepts to describe them. I can certainly imagine a Vithelan ascetic performing practices a GList would say must be a such-and-such-Age HQ.
> Knowing a Great Secret may (or may not) also be a method for going to
> those places (coincidentally, out of the game).
Those would essentially identify you with a Great God, which would be possibly equivalent to, though I suspect a somewhat "lesser" state of being/consciousness than identification with a Celestial Court entity (or their various analogues). So they wouldn't necessarily put you at a point in "mythic time" before the creation of an element (though not necessarily not, either).
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End of Glorantha Digest
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