Re: How prevalent is magic?

From: Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_KlbcWaOT_zSkLH8n1E_xGimbhi3m79S7x-LmEpEe0wv_w01lN0ZGaY9-0w4tEHG-M-y>
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:17:32 -0600

And of course, Farmer John's neighbors on the next Tula know that Barntar agreed with the goddess of barley to always plant more barley than oats in exchange for her promise that barley would always grow well on that Tula.

Andrew E. Larsen

On Nov 26, 2012, at 9:49 PM, John Biles <john_at_hZRGQlqJS1tWKzh-h8nDIDSV-kwRRy19fjHLZD2GNIYHaP8m7djgwZNHYkHh0uz62jC3B_7c8DY.yahoo.invalid> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 4:27 PM, michaelL <michaelalewis25_at_66zqD8sJMe5m1aydDC_zwi3HyHBPsjtZrIPoVHjtjHs0eqoz3jnpkZJw_S6PRMJSvlnJor5c14BzqAYYlE53a0z6Voo.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
> > 1) That's a nice way of viewing things. Thanks
> >
> > 2) Could you give me some examples of emulation of a god? I don't totally understand this. How do you act like the god of plowing? By going outside and plowing?
> >
>
> Warning, all examples are pulled out of my imagination, but:
>
> Farmer Jolin has a maple tree in the northwest corner of his field
> which he just plows around, even though he *could* clear it. Why?
> Because his god Barntar has a tree in *his* field in the northwest
> corner.
>
> This is because when Barntar faced an unusually wet spring, the local
> stream overflowed its banks and ran down into the northwest corner of
> his field. He tried digging a drainage ditch but that overflowed too
> because the water just *kept coming*.
>
> So he went to his mother, Ernalda and asked her advice and she went to
> a 'friend' and came back with a seed and planted it; it grew into a
> mighty, thirsty maple tree; as fast as the river flooded his field,
> the oak tree drank it up and turned it into syrup; so long as Barntar
> tended the tree and left it undisturbed, it provided him with tasty
> syrup and kept his field dry.
>
> So as his god does, so does Farmer Jolin, keeping his field dry and
> getting tasty syrup.
>
> Once a year, he gathers friends and initiates of Barntar and Ernalda
> and the 'friend' who re-enact the myth.
>
> (He is blissfully oblivious that the women's side of this involves
> Ernalda getting help from her old lover Flamal. And it's probably
> better that way if he doesn't know what *that* involves. His wife
> doesn't know what the men do during the Minlister festival and she
> really doesn't *want* to know.)
>
> When he plows a field, he follows the pattern laid down by Barntar
> when he first yoked his uncle Urox to a plow and plowed the field.
>
> When he sows the field, he plants equal amounts of barley, rye, and
> oats, as Barntar did, because Barntar didn't want to offend his kin,
> the three sisters who are goddesses of grain, by making one of them
> seem more important.
>
> And so on.
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]