Re: Instinctive Heroquests

From: Donald R. Oddy <donald_at_grove.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 00:43:45 GMT


>Since nonsentient animals display ritual behaviour that is
>obviously instinctive, I'm very surprised that so many people
>seem resistent to the idea that Gloranthan humans can perhaps
>do likewise. Especialy since we know that many Gloranthan
>human populations are descended from nonsentient animals.
>Indeed some of them were in fact nonsentient animals awakened
>to conciousness (awakened herd men).
>
>Finaly, what do we gain by deliberately making gloranthan
>humans inhuman, as requiring that they perform planned magical
>rituals to concieve seems to do? To me the most compelling
>thing about glorantha is that we can apply what we now about
>ourselves to learn more about glorantha. What can we possibly
>gain by breaking that conection? Especialy since Glorantha is
>already well populated with nonhuman species ripe for such
>experimentation.

I think it was Greg who suggested that humans in Glorantha either did not have DNA or didn't pass it onto their offspring. In my view the former makes them non-human and in either case some other process is required. A heroquest seems to be a particularly Gloranthan way of doing this although you can reasonably argue that the term is inapplicable to anything done by most of the population. This is also true of the various initiation heroquests and possibly other rituals mentioned in various publications.

Regarding nonsentinent creatures we know that a significant number of priestesses dedicate themselves to the fertility of domestic animals and even plants which indicates that there is some magical element to reproduction.

I don't think there is any resistence to the idea of instinctive rituals, just the idea that pretty high powered magic such as conception and birth should be instinctive. Magic is ritual plus intent and the latter is very difficult to justify as instinctive.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/

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