spooky2
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Hi Bets and Augoeideian,
in circular time perception as it seemed to be strong in the ancient times, and nowadays in some little hidden cultures, there is a (or many) little story, or better a common knowing or belief the folks live in, which contains an action which is actually happening all over again, once a day, or once a year, the clue is, it seems to be not only a repetition, but the same, the identical action. (The linear time perception is also involved). For example, God is dividing light from darkness and creating night and day. When the cyclic time perception is strong, people would feel every morning the day is created by God, despite it is another day than yesterday (linear time) it's also the same identical act that takes place, every day again (circular time). So, I don't know if people feel like time speeded up or slowed down in comparison to a much more dominant linear time, but in essence it might be neither nor, but it's just different, it is more like eternity, unchanging. So, when linear time becomes dominant, like presently, God is creating not every day the day, but it's now what we call a repeating process, with similar, but not identical occurances, so we might more likely say God made the initial invention and since then a process is running. As easy to see, mythic-thinking societies are much more resistent of change. When in cyclic-time perception, change is unthinkable, it is just as it is, as it was, and it will ever be this way; when people hold on to strange old-fashioned seeming traditions and some of us can't figure out why they do that, then it's quite interesting if we imagine that these traditional thinking people might perceive differently, they perceive more in this cyclic-time, in which change is simply unthinkable.
(There are other characteristics of mythic perception, for example the ego seems to be perceived only as one of many driving forces of a self, others are gods, demons etc.)
When in our times myths are not teached anymore it is (1.) a sign that teachers just don't know where to put it- it fits nowhere in the dominant perception. A typical comment about a myth may show it: "That is long ago and I haven't anything to do with it". Here is to see, the full ancient lively understanding of the myth is gone because of the dominance of linear time- it is a long time ago, while in the full blown mythic experience it is never "ago", it is but always present (the degree depends on if the specific myth is bound to a linear time date of the year and which date presently is). This "lost" of the mythic experience seems to have begun in the old western world maybe between Homers "Ilias" and "Odyssey" (two different authors). But it never faded totally. (2.) If not a mythic experience, it is though possible to read myths and "translate" it in a way that makes sense to us today, and that is through means of psychology/psychoanalysis, together with some knowledge of ancient history and symbology. One has not to be a psychoanalytic to do this. If you (I speak generally) ever read an interpretation that you resonate with (there are also some that might sound weird to you) you might be impressed what can be found in a myth. Once you have read such interpretation, you might have gotten the approach, the method, and be able to start thinking about myths on your own, with a little bit knowledge in those fields. After all it seems to be that there are symbols we know of without being taught about it, it's only needed to change a bit the way of thinking, it's maybe similar to this opening up for non-verbal messages as TMI and Bruce recommend. That this doesn't happen in educational systems simply mirrors that in our cultures we are constantly told everything is in the brain and those things, and with this background reflecting on ourselves and our place in our surrounding is stagnating in measuring bodily data and curing with standard means, rather than exploring ourselves with means of introspection, imagination, symbols and philosophy.
Spooky
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