I haven't read this work, but I am a big fan of Mircea Eliade's "Yoga: Immortality and Freedom". He also wrote some really important work on Shamanism as well.
Interesting insights regarding "Ideal Time" and Heroquesting!
-Santo
aum shanti shanti shantih.
"The world is like the impression left by the telling of a story." - from
the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha
On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 5:04 AM, <hcarteau_at_VvHQcHTOvUORNA8kFl_2j5u7OkP0sOlLoknLmYJC9L3t9Im_nmuVQSnwtFIc2yfJwoi2Lgl7.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>
> Honored learned folks,
>
> I have been reading a small book by Mircea Eliade, "The Myth of the Eternal
> Return". For once, it's a relatively easy read necessating only infrequent
> use
> of my dictionary (words such as "hierogamy", "ontology" etc.)
>
> The whole point of the book is to highlight that all primitive societies
> (pre-history and dawn of history) all yearned to go back to an "ideal time"
> while doing their best to ignore and refute "real time". Said "ideal time"
> was
> when their Gods and Heroes were shaping the cosmos. In fact, there was no
> concept of a linear time back then : what had been done before should be
> done
> again, and again.
>
> EVERYTHING they did was inspired by the need, the will to go back to that
> time.
> They only REPEATED what their Great Forebears had done before, on and on
> and on.
> As for religious ceremonies, such as New Year celebration, they didn't
> "re-enact" myths, they did go back to the moment when they were actually
> made.
>
> This whole idea of negating "real time" is very interesting and has many
> parallels to our beloved gloranthan societies, except it's one big step
> further.
> "Heroquesting" to "Ideal Time" was not a matter of great ceremonies, but
> also of
> everyday ritual, even in the way they ate, married and fought.
>
> All said, I do recommend this book !
>
>
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