{"id":189,"date":"2023-03-23T14:05:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T14:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/chapter\/the-cosmological-function-and-the-king-god-2\/"},"modified":"2023-04-05T03:23:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T03:23:34","slug":"the-cosmological-function-and-the-king-god-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/chapter\/the-cosmological-function-and-the-king-god-2\/","title":{"raw":"9. The Cosmological Function And The King God","rendered":"9. The Cosmological Function And The King God"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"the-cosmological-function-and-the-king-god\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Examination and exploration of the natural world led to the inevitable conclusion that natural events happen as a result of knowable causes and effects, which engendered the idea that the universe functions according to certain knowable, immutable laws. A dropped object falls to the ground; water seeks its own level; decay is the default process of life;<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote1anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\">1<\/a> <\/sup>cause always precedes effect.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The reasoning seems to have been something like:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>There are universal laws of the natural world which are always true and unbreakable.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Rules of behavior result from the ordering of thoughts by conscious will.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Therefore, the universal laws of nature must have been formulated, enacted, and are continually enforced, by an overarching, controlling consciousness.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2>Protology: Architectural Myths of Origin<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The Cosmological Function is thus associated with <em>architectural<\/em> creation\/origin myths, in which the physical universe is conceived, manifested, structured, and ordered by the <em>conscious agency<\/em> of a deity or deities. The manifested deity or deities (who often arise <em>increatus<\/em>) set about to build the universe according to some design.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Thus, <em>all automatic origin myths become architectural at some point.<\/em> This may happen quickly, as we see in the first line of Genesis, \u201cIn the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote2anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote2sym\">2<\/a><\/sup> The first phrase, \u201cIn the beginning, God,\u201d is an automatic origin myth; neither God\u2019s origin nor nature is explained \u2014 it is assumed, he is <em>increatus<\/em>. The remainder of the passage, \u201ccreated the Heavens and the Earth,\u201d begins an architectural origin myth; the physical universe and everything in it brought into existence through the conscious actions of God, for his own reasons and purposes.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The overarching, controlling consciousness of architectural myths of origin was almost everywhere assigned to a male deity in preference to a female. Edith Hall, Professor in the Department of Classics and Centre for Hellenic Studies at King\u2019s College, London, tells Bettany Hughes:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">Walled cities start to be built all around the \u2026 Mediterranean world, and you get large armies; you get very powerful kings; you get accumulation of money and capital. You get something you've got to defend, something really worth fighting for. And violence, in terms of policing the world, becomes \u2014 I think \u2014 much more common. Mass violence, between different communities. And that's the moment at which you start to get these big, masculine gods, that's I think a reflection of a much more militaristic culture on the ground.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote3anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote3sym\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Harvey Whitehouse, et. al., confirm this, in an article titled \u201cBig Gods came after civilization, not before\u201d:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">But as societies grew larger and interactions between relative strangers became more commonplace, would-be transgressors could hope to evade detection under the cloak of anonymity. For cooperation to be possible under such conditions, some system of surveillance was required. What better way than to come up with a supernatural \u201ceye in the sky\u201d \u2014 a god who can see inside people\u2019s minds and issue punishments and rewards accordingly. Believing in such a god might make people think twice about stealing or reneging on deals, even in relatively anonymous interactions. Maybe it would also increase trust among traders. If you believe that I believe in an omniscient moralizing deity, you might be more likely to do business with me, than somebody whose religiosity is unknown to you.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote4anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote4sym\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">But why would a male god be so much better suited to this task than a goddess?<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Shlain suggests that it was because big-game hunting generally fell to males:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">The prolonged childhood of their progeny precluded most women from hunting. A mother could not leave her young for long and a crying baby could not accompany a hunting expedition. Among other social predators such as wolves, lions, and killer whales, the females actively participate in both hunting and killing. Humans became the first group of social predators in which females left this critical task to the males. A hunter must maintain a singularity of purpose when focused on prey; a mother must keep a field awareness of all that is going on around her.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote5anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote5sym\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Thus, according to Shlain, the average male became more goal-oriented and task-focused, while the average female became more process-oriented and multi-tasking. He also contends that the perpetuation of <em>culture<\/em> became the purview of mothers, while <em>socializing<\/em> the young became the task of fathers.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote6anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote6sym\">6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">Besides providing her young with breast milk, a mother became responsible for imparting the knowledge of the <em>culture<\/em>, imprinting upon the infant's mind essential lessons regarding love, honor, respect, courage, loyalty, honesty, curiosity, playfulness, and self-esteem. To enhance their offspring's chances of survival, the females also reached across the growing divide separating the sexes and engaged the males of the tribe in the job of <em>socializing<\/em> children.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote7anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote7sym\">7<\/a><\/sup> [emphasis added]<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Society, by its very nature, is a set of permissions and prohibitions dictated to individuals by the collective will of the body politic. Thus, the argument goes:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>The laws of nature are formulated, enacted, and continually enforced, by a Father God.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Society is bounded by laws, just as nature is bounded by laws.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Because males are more logically minded than females<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote8anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote8sym\">8<\/a><\/sup>, it is in the male nature to explore and apprehend natural laws.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Familiarity with the essence and functioning of natural law qualifies males to conceive, enact, and enforce societal laws.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">(Yes, there is more than a hint of a circular argument here, but, as Gary Zukav points out, mythos \u201c\u2026 follows a much more permissive set of rules\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote9anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote9sym\">9<\/a><\/sup> than does logos.)<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The fifth and final point is the least palatable. Because, as Shain says, \u201cHunting demands \u2018cold-bloodedness\u2019 tinged with cruelty; nurturance requires emotional generosity combined with warmth,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote10anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote10sym\">10<\/a><\/sup> and hunters are perforce male<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote11anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote11sym\">11<\/a><\/sup>; males became, therefore, naturally better equipped to enforce the sometimes rigorously inequitable and unjust rules of society in order to ensure the greatest good to the greatest number for the majority of the time.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote12anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote12sym\">12<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This has also been supposed to explain that\u2026<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">The male brain tends to be more efficient to lateralize and compartmentalize, which has the advantage of making him more task-focused. The female brain has more [nerve] connections and constantly cross-signals and takes in more, so it tends to see and feel more than the male brain.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote13anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote13sym\">13<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">An example: It so often happens that when a hetero-husband is discovered to have cheated on his spouse, his response is something like, \u201cIt was one time; it has nothing to do with <em>us<\/em>!\u201d He apparently literally believes that his dalliance with another woman is completely and utterly unrelated to his relationship with his wife.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The spouse, on the other hand, tends to respond along the lines of \u201cIt has <em>everything<\/em> to do with us!\u201d In her awareness, <em>he is her husband at all times and in all situations<\/em><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote14anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote14sym\">14<\/a><\/sup>, whether she is physically present with him or not; as far as she is concerned, he might just has well have engaged in sex with the other woman while his wife was in the same room.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">It is not that either of them is more-or-less \u201cright\u201d about the situation; they simply have conflicting understandings of the circumstances. Shlain concludes:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">Evolution, in time, equipped men and women emotionally to respond differently to the same stimuli. This resulted in men and women having different perceptions of the world, survival strategies, styles of commitment, and, ultimately, different ways of <em>knowing: <\/em>the way of the hunter\/killer and the way of the gatherer\/nurturer.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote15anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote15sym\">15<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2>A Structured, Orderly World<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The architectural aspect of protology (origin myths) appears in some of the earliest written accounts of mytho-religious literature. Most of these record the origin and nature of the structure and order of the physical universe; enumerate the specific actions of a seminal male deity<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote16anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote16sym\">16<\/a><\/sup> who brought it all about; and emphasize that organizing physical principles and processes are <em>crucial<\/em> for a smoothly functioning reality that is both conducive and kindly to human existence.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Norse mythology reflects this model when Odin and his brothers construct the Nine Realms from the body of the Frost Giant, Ymir; and, of course, the Tanakh<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote17anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote17sym\">17<\/a><\/sup> enumerates in great detail in the book of Genesis the order in which Yahweh creates the various physical aspects of the universe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"325\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image1-3.jpeg\" alt=\"Reproduction of the illustration &quot;The Great Chain of Being&quot; from the book Rhetorica Christiana by Didacus Valades\" width=\"325\" height=\"469\" \/> <strong>Fig. 9.1<\/strong> Reproduction of the illustration \"The Great Chain of Being\" from the book Rhetorica Christiana by Didacus Valades. Public Domain.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_chain_of_being\">Wikipedia<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This was also captured in the European Medieval concept of the Great Chain of Being <strong>figure 9.1<\/strong>, a hierarchical structure of the physical universe, both animate and inanimate, progressing upward from minerals at the bottom to God at the pinnacle.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The underlying message is that the universe has the structure it does for good reasons, and if you\u2019re going to try to manipulate it, you should do so intelligently, with a thorough understanding of the possible and potential effects your actions will produce.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This is the other face of the Divine Father: the Moral Authoritarian; the King God who has ordained the universe to be as it is, decreed that it is perfect as-built, and demands that his order be honored and his natural laws be observed and obeyed.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote18anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote18sym\">18<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In <em>Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction<\/em>, Geraldine (Harris) Pinch, faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, discusses the Memphite Theology, sourced to an ancient scroll which was partially duplicated on a stele known as the Shabaqo Stone.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote19anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote19sym\">19<\/a><\/sup> She relates that in this account, the creator deity, Ptah, is linked,<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">\u2026 with a whole series of deities who represent elements of the primeval world \u2026 [including] Ptah-Nun and Ptah-Naunet, the male and female aspects of the dark, watery chaos of the primeval ocean. The potential for intelligent life was inherent in this ocean, but was not realized until the spirit of the creator attained awareness.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote20anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote20sym\">20<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Note here the echoes of animistic thought; the quintessential material from which physical reality will arise or be constructed is described as a mysterious \u201cstuff\u201d which has no nature of its own, but holds in suspension all possible things, awaiting a directing consciousness to bring them into being.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This is strikingly similar to Hindu cosmogony, as when Campbell quotes from the Upanishads, \u201cIn the beginning there was only the Great Self, reflected in the form of a person. Reflecting, it found nothing but itself, and its first word was, \u2018This am I.'\u201d.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote21anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote21sym\">21<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Geraldine Pinch tells of Atum of Heliopolis, who, as described in the Pyramid and Coffin Texts:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\u2026 acted as both father and mother, by giving himself an erection, taking his \u2018seed\u2019 into his mouth, and spitting out the first divine couple Shu and Tefnut. The androgynous nature of the creator was sometimes made clearer by personifying the hand of Atum as a goddess who united with his penis to create life.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote22anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote22sym\">22<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">A more specific relationship to the Cosmological Function is found in the retelling of the story in the Memphite Theology, in which \u201c\u2026 Ptah is said to bring deities, people, and animals into being by devising them in his heart and naming them with his tongue.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote23anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote23sym\">23<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This power of <em>divine speech<\/em> is ubiquitous in architectural creation myths, and serves to illustrate the awareness of the earliest societies of the power of first spoken, and then written, language.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote24anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote24sym\">24<\/a><\/sup> Pinch emphasizes that \u201c\u2026 the \u2018divine words\u2019 of Ptah can, like hieroglyphs, <em>make thoughts real<\/em>\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote25anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote25sym\">25<\/a><\/sup> [emphasis added].<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">If we posit that \u201cthoughts\u201d in this sense, refers to \u201ccogitations born of contemplation and exploration\u201d, then the concept is demonstrably logos-oriented, since experience and feeling are indelibly linked to mythos. Speech and written language are structured and ordered expressions of the results of asking questions and discovering answers, clearly a function of logos-knowledge.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Thus, a structured and orderly world, created by structured and orderly thoughts, realized by structured and orderly language, <em>must<\/em> be the product of the agency and actions of a male deity, himself functioning in a structured and orderly fashion.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Pinch observes that, \u201cOn one level, the Memphite Theology can be seen as a classic validatory myth. It justifies the continued existence of institutions such as kingship and the priesthood by giving them divine origins,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote26anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote26sym\">26<\/a><\/sup> but she also points out that, \u201c\u2026 local deities of both genders achieved the status of creator, [and] where a temple had two principle deities, both could be given creation myths,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote27anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote27sym\">27<\/a><\/sup> and that, although \u201cEgyptian cosmogonies usually list several, apparently contradictory primal events, [they] do not seem to have regarded their creation myths as literally true, [but] more like highly charged metaphors, drawn from the natural world.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote28anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote28sym\">28<\/a><\/sup><sup>,<\/sup><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote29anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote29sym\">29<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This power of divine speech also appears in the <em>Popol Vuh<\/em>, the Mayan account of creation, wherein \u201cCreation begun with a declaration of the first words,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote30anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote30sym\">30<\/a><\/sup>, and of course, in the first chapter of the Hebrew Bible, \u201cAnd God said, Let there be light: and there was light,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote31anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote31sym\">31<\/a><\/sup> as well as the first verse of the Christian New Testament Book of John: \u201c<span class=\"import-text\">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word <\/span><em class=\"import-text\">was<\/em><span class=\"import-text\"> God \u2026 and the Word was made flesh\u2026.\u201d<\/span><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote32anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote32sym\">32<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2><span class=\"import-text\">Linear and Cyclical Time<\/span><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Most logos-structured worldviews see time as linear <strong>figure 9.2<\/strong>, following a path from a starting point to a conclusion, an ending which is inevitable, inescapable, and absolutely final.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"599\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image2-5.png\" alt=\"Diagram of linear time, showing the progression from past, through present, to future.\" width=\"599\" height=\"222\" \/> <strong>Fig 9.2<\/strong> Diagram of linear time, showing the progression from past, through present, to future. Conrad II, Martin CC-BY-SA 4.0.[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In addition, most cultures which use an alphabet writing modality also depict the flow of time as left-to-right (or, more rarely, top-down), so that on a timeline, earlier dates are to the left of later ones. This is reflected in many mythologies which have an <em>eschatological<\/em> mode, both at an individual and a universal level. An eschatology<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote33anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote33sym\">33<\/a><\/sup> is any system of stories concerning last or final matters, such as an apocalypse, a judgment, an afterlife, etc.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">These mythologies purport to describe or predict for an individual what to expect after death (predicated upon a moral-ethical assessment of the conduct of their lifetime). However, they as well elucidate what form a general \u201cend of the world\u201d will take, and whatever (if anything) follows \u2014 which is usually expected to be utterly different and generally \u201cbetter\u201d than the current situation (at least for those who qualify to partake in it).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">All of these systems tend to have strong architectural protological elements; a Creator brought the universe into being, is watching over it as it functions, and will either bring about or at least preside over its demise when its function comes to an end. It is easy to see how this worldview came about.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In everyday experience, everything has a beginning, an existence of some duration, and an ending. Plants sprout, grow and flourish, and finally wither; animals are born, live and interact, and eventually die. Even mountains \u2014 the very rocks, themselves \u2014 are not permanent, but rise, maintain for a time (a very long time, in human terms, but a finite time), and erode away. It makes sense that this becomes entrenched in a culture\u2019s \u201cunderstanding\u201d of \u201chow things work.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Other worldviews, however, see time and existence as more-or-less cyclical (at least when it is functioning properly). The totality may be subdivided into lesser units which have a finite nature, but the essence of being \u2014 the nature of existence \u2014 is, itself, unbounded, having no beginning and no ending. It is <em>transcendent<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Try imagining a canvas so large that an infinite number of paintings of any individual size may be created on it, but regardless how many paintings are painted on it, there is always room for one more, of any size. The mind literally rebels.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"235\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image3-2.png\" alt=\"A white and black analog clock.\" width=\"235\" height=\"235\" \/> <strong>Fig. 9.3<\/strong> A white and black analog clock. Public Domain.[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">A more practical example can be seen in a standard analog clock <strong>figure 9.3<\/strong>. Each cycle of the minute hand around the clock denotes an hour of time, and each cycle of the hour hand defines a day. But the circle of the clock\u2019s circumference, itself, has no beginning and no end. If an analog clock were able to function in perpetuity,<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote34anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote34sym\">34<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0the minute and hour hands would cycle around it endlessly, ceaselessly marking out individual minutes and hours, but never coming to an end of their journey.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Similarly, a wall-calendar with 12 sheets, each divided into regular arrangements of squares beginning with January 1 in the upper-left of the first page and concluding with December 31 at the lower-right of the last page tracks the passage of a year. But time, itself, does not come to a stop at the end of the last page; a new calendar with a similar structure replaces the previous one, and another year is counted through (again, theoretically in perpetuity).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"the-cosmological-function-and-the-king-god\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"215\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image5-1.png\" alt=\"Illustration of the Mayan Long-Count calendar carving.\" width=\"215\" height=\"214\" \/> <strong>Fig. 9.4<\/strong> Illustration of the Mayan Long-Count calendar carving. <a href=\"https:\/\/freesvg.org\/img\/aztec-calendar.png\">Public Domain<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/\">CC0 1.0<\/a>[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt\">Misunderstanding of this principle is why so many people incorrectly believed that \u201ctime\u201d would \u201cend\u201d when the Mayan Long-Count calendar <strong>see figure 9.4<\/strong> \u201cran out\u201d on December 21, 2012; the famous circular carving is simply a depiction of a very long period of time (5,125 years), but each of those periods is believed to be preceded by a previous 5,125-year period, and it is assumed that each will be succeeded by a following 5,125-year period, for as long as the universe exists.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The Ancient Egyptian view of time was primarily cyclical on a universal level<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote35anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote35sym\">35<\/a><\/sup>. Again, it is not hard to see why this would be so: each day the Sun rose in the east, travelled across the sky, and set in the west. Each daylight period was followed by a dark period in which the Moon<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote36anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote36sym\">36<\/a><\/sup> and various arrangements of stars (constellations) were visible, also traversing the sky from east-to-west.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The nighttime period, however, had more variety than the daylight period; the shape of the Moon changed in a regular, predictable cycle, and which constellations were in the sky also shifted over time. Counting from one Full Moon to the next yielded a count of about 29 cycles of the Sun rising and setting. Counting from the night when a given constellation was directly overhead in the middle of the night, to the next time it was in that precise position again yielded about 365 risings of the Sun.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote37anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote37sym\">37<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">So, even though the Sun was \u201cborn\u201d each morning and \u201cdied\u201d each night, and the Moon was renewed on a monthly basis, and the heavens cycled on a yearly scale, these cycles, themselves, never came to a stop \u2014 unless there was an eclipse, which universally terrified logos-thinking humans all over the world for thousands of years, until it was noted that these events, too, occurred on a regular, predictable cycle.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">So, a plant may sprout, flourish, and wither, a person may be born, thrive for a time, and die, but time itself continued to flow. Thus, while Egyptian mythology does have an origin story (several, in fact; see above), and while it does have an eschatological mode for people, animals, and objects, it does not foresee and end for the universe, itself.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Hindu cosmogony takes a similar view, but accounts for much longer divisions of perpetuity. In this view, infinite time is divided into the <em>Yuga<\/em><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote38anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote38sym\">38<\/a><\/sup> Cycle a series of repeating cycles each of which is called a \u201c<em>maha yuga<\/em>\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote39anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote39sym\">39<\/a><\/sup> (or sometimes a \u201c<em>chatur yuga<\/em>\u201d), and which the Vedas tell us comprise 4,320,000 years.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote40anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote40sym\">40<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Each Maha Yuga is further divided into four smaller yugas: <em>Krita<\/em> (sometimes <em>Satya<\/em>) <em>Yuga<\/em>, <em>Treta Yuga<\/em>, <em>Dvapara Yuga<\/em>, and <em>Kali Yuga<\/em>. However, these divisions are not equal in length, nor in character; in order, each represents 40-30-20-10 percent of a Maha Yuga. Below is a table for clarity.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin: auto\">\r\n<table>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"background-color: #d9d9d9;vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Yuga<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"background-color: #d9d9d9;vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Percentage of<\/strong><strong><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>Maha Yuga<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"background-color: #d9d9d9;vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Length (years)<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Krita<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">40%<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">1,728,000<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Treta<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">30%<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">1,296,000<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Dvapara<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">20%<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">864,000<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Kali<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">10%<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">432,000<\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Total<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>100%<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>4,320,000<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">As shown, each succeeding yuga is shorter than the preceding one, and the conditions in the universe, and in human society, progressively worsen as each yuga passes into the next. (Unfortunately, the details are far too complex to detail here, but an interesting point to ponder is whether human society degenerates because the universal conditions worsen, or whether it works the other way around).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">For our purposes, the important point is that at the end of each Kali yuga, there is a sort-of \u201cresetting\u201d period, after which a new Maha Yuga begins, starting with a new Krita Yuga. One thousand Maha Yugas (4,320,000,000; 4.32 billion years), represents <em>one day<\/em> in an even longer cycle!<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote41anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote41sym\">41<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Interestingly, we are said to currently be in a Kali Yuga (surprise, surprise), which began 5,124 years ago (does that number seem somehow familiar?) in 3102 BCE.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote42anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote42sym\">42<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Finally, the Cosmological Function is frequently where the explanation for the creation and purpose of human beings is to be found. In the Sumerian account of Atrahasis, humankind is created purposely to function \u201c\u2026 as short-lived drudges to do the work \u2026 on earth.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote43anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote43sym\">43<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In the <em>Popol Vuh<\/em>, the creation of humankind only occurs after three previous failed attempts, and their purpose is \u201c\u2026 as essential mediators between this world and that of their patron deities and ancestors.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote44anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote44sym\">44<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In the Tanakh, humans are created (male first and female later) as the pinnacle of God\u2019s material creation, to serve as keepers of the Garden of Eden, and only later become mortal and subject to hard labor through their own failings.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The Vedas reveal that humans were simply a part of the original material manifestation of the universe, but the ease and quality of their physical existence alters with the changing quality of morality through the successive yugas.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote45anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote45sym\">45<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote1sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\">1<\/a> Later formalized as the Second Law of Thermodynamics: \u201cThe universe tends towards disorder.\u201d<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote2sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote2anc\">2<\/a> Genesis 1:1, KJV.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote3sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote3anc\">3<\/a> <i>Divine Women<\/i>, episode 1, \"When God Was A Girl,\" narrated by Bettany Hughes, aired April 11, 2012 (first broadcast April 11, 2012), on British Broadcasting Corporation, The Open University.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote4sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote4anc\">4<\/a> \u00a0Harvey Whitehouse, Peter Turchin, and Pieter Francois, \"Big Gods Came After the Rise of Civilizations, Not Before,\" UConn Today, last modified March 21, 2019, accessed February 26, 2023, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/03\/big-gods-came-rise-civilizations-not-study-finds\/#.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote5sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote5anc\">5<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict between Word and Image<\/i> (New York: Viking\/ Penguin), 1998.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote6sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote6anc\">6<\/a> I am fully aware that these statements border on being baldly gender-binary and over-simplified; for the sake of brevity and clarity, I have chosen to risk this perception in preference to the torturous circumlocutions of language necessary to give full-and-proper attention to diversity and inclusion. I humbly beg for grace from the reader. Also, when directly quoting sources, I do not feel myself empowered to drastically change the original author\u2019s text, but consider myself bound to report it as-written.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote7sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote7anc\">7<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabet<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote8sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote8anc\">8<\/a> Again, I\u2019m just reporting the ancient attitude; please don\u2019t slay the messenger.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote9sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote9anc\">9<\/a> Gary Zukav, <i>The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics<\/i> (New York: Morrow, 1979).<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote10sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote10anc\">10<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabe<\/i><i>t<\/i>.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote11sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote11anc\">11<\/a> Shlain: \u201cThe prolonged childhood of their progeny precluded most women from hunting.\u201d<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote12sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote12anc\">12<\/a> The ubiquitous declaration of Utilitarianism.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote13sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote13anc\">13<\/a> Michael Gurian, <i>What Could He Be Thinking?: How a Man's Mind Really Works<\/i> (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003).<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote14sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote14anc\">14<\/a> \u201cOut of sight, out of mind\u201d is no excuse.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote15sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote15anc\">15<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabet<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote16sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote16anc\">16<\/a> Who is sometimes <i>increatus<\/i> (\u00e0 la Yahweh), and sometimes a member of a second, or even third, generation of entities created by or emergent from an <i>increatus <\/i>Primal Goddess<i>.<\/i> It is worth noting that Zeus is never really presented as a creator deity; mostly, he is depicted as having wrested control of the extant universe from his elders, Gaia and the Titans.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote17sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote17anc\">17<\/a> The \u201cHebrew Bible\u201d, which forms the basis of the Christian \u201cOld Testament\u201d.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote18sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote18anc\">18<\/a> This morphs into one aspect of the Sociological Function, as well, where it takes the form of the dictum that social institutions and norms are also divinely decreed (or at least inspired), and as such are valid, justified, and transgressed only at great risk or in highly distinctive circumstances.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote19sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote19anc\">19<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction<\/i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 43.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote20sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote20anc\">20<\/a> Ibid., 46.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote21sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote21anc\">21<\/a> Joseph Campbell, \"The Message of The Myth,\" interview by Bill Moyers, <i>Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth<\/i>, produced by Joan Konner and Alvin H. Perlmutter, aired 1988 (first broadcast 1988), on Athena.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote22sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote22anc\">22<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth<\/i><i>.<\/i>, 48-9<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote23sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote23anc\">23<\/a> Ibid., 49.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote24sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote24anc\">24<\/a> Shlain also devotes several pages to a discussion of the advent of language and its impact upon social norms, especially as regards the development of division of labor and value along gender lines.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote25sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote25anc\">25<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth<\/i><i>.,<\/i>49.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote26sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote26anc\">26<\/a> Ibid.. 51.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote27sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote27anc\">27<\/a> Ibid., 52.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote28sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote28anc\">28<\/a> Ibid., 48.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote29sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote29anc\">29<\/a> This highlights a distinctive feature of Egyptian mythology: often shows elements of both animism and theism. So much so, that one might almost declare Egyptian practices as being of a transitory nature between the two forms of spiritual expression. The composite representation of many Egyptian deities as beings with human bodies but animal heads gives further credence to this observation (as well as perhaps revealing a tacit admission that in many ways <i>homo sapiens<\/i> are physically human, but still fundamentally animalistic in their psychic character?).<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote30sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote30anc\">30<\/a> Allen J. Christenson, trans., <i>Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quich\u00e9 Maya People<\/i> (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), 37.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote31sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote31anc\">31<\/a> Gen 1:3 KJV.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote32sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote32anc\">32<\/a> John 1:1-14 KJV.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote33sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote33anc\">33<\/a> Greek <i>\u00e9schato(s)<\/i> \u201clast\u201d.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote34sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote34anc\">34<\/a> Note: I am purposely avoiding the word \u201ceternity\u201d here, because, as Campbell pointed out to Bill Moyers: \u201cEternity isn\u2019t some later time; eternity isn\u2019t a long time; eternity has <i>nothing to do with time<\/i>. Eternity is that dimension of <i>here<\/i> and <i>now<\/i> which <i>thinking in time cuts out<\/i> \u2026 and the experience of eternity <i>right here and now<\/i> is the function of life.\u201d (Campbell, \"The Message,\" interview, <i>Joseph Campbell<\/i>)<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote35sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote35anc\">35<\/a> Though it was definitely linear for human beings.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote36sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote36anc\">36<\/a> Which was also sometimes visible in the daytime sky, whereas the Sun was <i>never<\/i> visible at night.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote37sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote37anc\">37<\/a> Ever more precise measurements eventually led the Egyptians to identify a \u201cmonth\u201d as 29\u00bd days long (a \u201csynodic\u201d month), and a year as comprising 365\u00bc days (a \u201csolar\u201d year); these figures have been progressively more precisely defined, and, in fact, change over time, as the Earth\u2019s rotational and orbital motions are not perpetually constant.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote38sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote38anc\">38<\/a> Loosely translated as \u201cage\u201d, the word is ultimately from Sanskrit and means \u201ca yoke\u201d, as in a joining of two things, or a \u201cperiod of time\u201d.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote39sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote39anc\">39<\/a> Sanskrit; \u201cgreat age\u201d, as in \u201cextensive period of time\u201d.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote40sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote40anc\">40<\/a> Donna Rosenberg, <i>World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics<\/i>, 2nd ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Pub. Group, 1994).<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote41sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote41anc\">41<\/a> It is also worth noting that most versions recount that each Maha Yuga is identical in every aspect and particular to every other. Much like listening to a song on infinite repeat, the cycle continues indefinitely, but never varies in character. This, in the Buddha\u2019s view, was the very description of horror. Any parent who has ever endured a Disney movie being replayed repeatedly for an entire day surely understands the Buddha\u2019s point.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote42sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote42anc\">42<\/a> Joscelyn Godwin, <i>Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult Revelations<\/i> (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2011), 300-1.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote43sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote43anc\">43<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth<\/i><i>.<\/i>, 50<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote44sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote44anc\">44<\/a> Christenson, <i>Popol Vuh<\/i>, 59.<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"sdfootnote45sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote45anc\">45<\/a> Donna Rosenberg, <i>World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics<\/i>, 2nd ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Pub. Group, 1994).<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"the-cosmological-function-and-the-king-god\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Examination and exploration of the natural world led to the inevitable conclusion that natural events happen as a result of knowable causes and effects, which engendered the idea that the universe functions according to certain knowable, immutable laws. A dropped object falls to the ground; water seeks its own level; decay is the default process of life;<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote1anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\">1<\/a> <\/sup>cause always precedes effect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The reasoning seems to have been something like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are universal laws of the natural world which are always true and unbreakable.<\/li>\n<li>Rules of behavior result from the ordering of thoughts by conscious will.<\/li>\n<li>Therefore, the universal laws of nature must have been formulated, enacted, and are continually enforced, by an overarching, controlling consciousness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Protology: Architectural Myths of Origin<\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The Cosmological Function is thus associated with <em>architectural<\/em> creation\/origin myths, in which the physical universe is conceived, manifested, structured, and ordered by the <em>conscious agency<\/em> of a deity or deities. The manifested deity or deities (who often arise <em>increatus<\/em>) set about to build the universe according to some design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Thus, <em>all automatic origin myths become architectural at some point.<\/em> This may happen quickly, as we see in the first line of Genesis, \u201cIn the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote2anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote2sym\">2<\/a><\/sup> The first phrase, \u201cIn the beginning, God,\u201d is an automatic origin myth; neither God\u2019s origin nor nature is explained \u2014 it is assumed, he is <em>increatus<\/em>. The remainder of the passage, \u201ccreated the Heavens and the Earth,\u201d begins an architectural origin myth; the physical universe and everything in it brought into existence through the conscious actions of God, for his own reasons and purposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The overarching, controlling consciousness of architectural myths of origin was almost everywhere assigned to a male deity in preference to a female. Edith Hall, Professor in the Department of Classics and Centre for Hellenic Studies at King\u2019s College, London, tells Bettany Hughes:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">Walled cities start to be built all around the \u2026 Mediterranean world, and you get large armies; you get very powerful kings; you get accumulation of money and capital. You get something you&#8217;ve got to defend, something really worth fighting for. And violence, in terms of policing the world, becomes \u2014 I think \u2014 much more common. Mass violence, between different communities. And that&#8217;s the moment at which you start to get these big, masculine gods, that&#8217;s I think a reflection of a much more militaristic culture on the ground.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote3anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote3sym\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Harvey Whitehouse, et. al., confirm this, in an article titled \u201cBig Gods came after civilization, not before\u201d:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">But as societies grew larger and interactions between relative strangers became more commonplace, would-be transgressors could hope to evade detection under the cloak of anonymity. For cooperation to be possible under such conditions, some system of surveillance was required. What better way than to come up with a supernatural \u201ceye in the sky\u201d \u2014 a god who can see inside people\u2019s minds and issue punishments and rewards accordingly. Believing in such a god might make people think twice about stealing or reneging on deals, even in relatively anonymous interactions. Maybe it would also increase trust among traders. If you believe that I believe in an omniscient moralizing deity, you might be more likely to do business with me, than somebody whose religiosity is unknown to you.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote4anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote4sym\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">But why would a male god be so much better suited to this task than a goddess?<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Shlain suggests that it was because big-game hunting generally fell to males:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">The prolonged childhood of their progeny precluded most women from hunting. A mother could not leave her young for long and a crying baby could not accompany a hunting expedition. Among other social predators such as wolves, lions, and killer whales, the females actively participate in both hunting and killing. Humans became the first group of social predators in which females left this critical task to the males. A hunter must maintain a singularity of purpose when focused on prey; a mother must keep a field awareness of all that is going on around her.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote5anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote5sym\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Thus, according to Shlain, the average male became more goal-oriented and task-focused, while the average female became more process-oriented and multi-tasking. He also contends that the perpetuation of <em>culture<\/em> became the purview of mothers, while <em>socializing<\/em> the young became the task of fathers.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote6anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote6sym\">6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">Besides providing her young with breast milk, a mother became responsible for imparting the knowledge of the <em>culture<\/em>, imprinting upon the infant&#8217;s mind essential lessons regarding love, honor, respect, courage, loyalty, honesty, curiosity, playfulness, and self-esteem. To enhance their offspring&#8217;s chances of survival, the females also reached across the growing divide separating the sexes and engaged the males of the tribe in the job of <em>socializing<\/em> children.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote7anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote7sym\">7<\/a><\/sup> [emphasis added]<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Society, by its very nature, is a set of permissions and prohibitions dictated to individuals by the collective will of the body politic. Thus, the argument goes:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The laws of nature are formulated, enacted, and continually enforced, by a Father God.<\/li>\n<li>Society is bounded by laws, just as nature is bounded by laws.<\/li>\n<li>Because males are more logically minded than females<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote8anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote8sym\">8<\/a><\/sup>, it is in the male nature to explore and apprehend natural laws.<\/li>\n<li>Familiarity with the essence and functioning of natural law qualifies males to conceive, enact, and enforce societal laws.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">(Yes, there is more than a hint of a circular argument here, but, as Gary Zukav points out, mythos \u201c\u2026 follows a much more permissive set of rules\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote9anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote9sym\">9<\/a><\/sup> than does logos.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The fifth and final point is the least palatable. Because, as Shain says, \u201cHunting demands \u2018cold-bloodedness\u2019 tinged with cruelty; nurturance requires emotional generosity combined with warmth,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote10anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote10sym\">10<\/a><\/sup> and hunters are perforce male<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote11anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote11sym\">11<\/a><\/sup>; males became, therefore, naturally better equipped to enforce the sometimes rigorously inequitable and unjust rules of society in order to ensure the greatest good to the greatest number for the majority of the time.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote12anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote12sym\">12<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This has also been supposed to explain that\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">The male brain tends to be more efficient to lateralize and compartmentalize, which has the advantage of making him more task-focused. The female brain has more [nerve] connections and constantly cross-signals and takes in more, so it tends to see and feel more than the male brain.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote13anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote13sym\">13<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">An example: It so often happens that when a hetero-husband is discovered to have cheated on his spouse, his response is something like, \u201cIt was one time; it has nothing to do with <em>us<\/em>!\u201d He apparently literally believes that his dalliance with another woman is completely and utterly unrelated to his relationship with his wife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The spouse, on the other hand, tends to respond along the lines of \u201cIt has <em>everything<\/em> to do with us!\u201d In her awareness, <em>he is her husband at all times and in all situations<\/em><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote14anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote14sym\">14<\/a><\/sup>, whether she is physically present with him or not; as far as she is concerned, he might just has well have engaged in sex with the other woman while his wife was in the same room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">It is not that either of them is more-or-less \u201cright\u201d about the situation; they simply have conflicting understandings of the circumstances. Shlain concludes:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">Evolution, in time, equipped men and women emotionally to respond differently to the same stimuli. This resulted in men and women having different perceptions of the world, survival strategies, styles of commitment, and, ultimately, different ways of <em>knowing: <\/em>the way of the hunter\/killer and the way of the gatherer\/nurturer.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote15anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote15sym\">15<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>A Structured, Orderly World<\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The architectural aspect of protology (origin myths) appears in some of the earliest written accounts of mytho-religious literature. Most of these record the origin and nature of the structure and order of the physical universe; enumerate the specific actions of a seminal male deity<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote16anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote16sym\">16<\/a><\/sup> who brought it all about; and emphasize that organizing physical principles and processes are <em>crucial<\/em> for a smoothly functioning reality that is both conducive and kindly to human existence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Norse mythology reflects this model when Odin and his brothers construct the Nine Realms from the body of the Frost Giant, Ymir; and, of course, the Tanakh<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote17anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote17sym\">17<\/a><\/sup> enumerates in great detail in the book of Genesis the order in which Yahweh creates the various physical aspects of the universe.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 325px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image1-3.jpeg\" alt=\"Reproduction of the illustration &quot;The Great Chain of Being&quot; from the book Rhetorica Christiana by Didacus Valades\" width=\"325\" height=\"469\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Fig. 9.1<\/strong> Reproduction of the illustration &#8220;The Great Chain of Being&#8221; from the book Rhetorica Christiana by Didacus Valades. Public Domain.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_chain_of_being\">Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This was also captured in the European Medieval concept of the Great Chain of Being <strong>figure 9.1<\/strong>, a hierarchical structure of the physical universe, both animate and inanimate, progressing upward from minerals at the bottom to God at the pinnacle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The underlying message is that the universe has the structure it does for good reasons, and if you\u2019re going to try to manipulate it, you should do so intelligently, with a thorough understanding of the possible and potential effects your actions will produce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This is the other face of the Divine Father: the Moral Authoritarian; the King God who has ordained the universe to be as it is, decreed that it is perfect as-built, and demands that his order be honored and his natural laws be observed and obeyed.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote18anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote18sym\">18<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In <em>Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction<\/em>, Geraldine (Harris) Pinch, faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, discusses the Memphite Theology, sourced to an ancient scroll which was partially duplicated on a stele known as the Shabaqo Stone.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote19anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote19sym\">19<\/a><\/sup> She relates that in this account, the creator deity, Ptah, is linked,<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt;margin-right: 36pt\">\u2026 with a whole series of deities who represent elements of the primeval world \u2026 [including] Ptah-Nun and Ptah-Naunet, the male and female aspects of the dark, watery chaos of the primeval ocean. The potential for intelligent life was inherent in this ocean, but was not realized until the spirit of the creator attained awareness.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote20anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote20sym\">20<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Note here the echoes of animistic thought; the quintessential material from which physical reality will arise or be constructed is described as a mysterious \u201cstuff\u201d which has no nature of its own, but holds in suspension all possible things, awaiting a directing consciousness to bring them into being.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This is strikingly similar to Hindu cosmogony, as when Campbell quotes from the Upanishads, \u201cIn the beginning there was only the Great Self, reflected in the form of a person. Reflecting, it found nothing but itself, and its first word was, \u2018This am I.&#8217;\u201d.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote21anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote21sym\">21<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Geraldine Pinch tells of Atum of Heliopolis, who, as described in the Pyramid and Coffin Texts:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\u2026 acted as both father and mother, by giving himself an erection, taking his \u2018seed\u2019 into his mouth, and spitting out the first divine couple Shu and Tefnut. The androgynous nature of the creator was sometimes made clearer by personifying the hand of Atum as a goddess who united with his penis to create life.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote22anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote22sym\">22<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">A more specific relationship to the Cosmological Function is found in the retelling of the story in the Memphite Theology, in which \u201c\u2026 Ptah is said to bring deities, people, and animals into being by devising them in his heart and naming them with his tongue.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote23anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote23sym\">23<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This power of <em>divine speech<\/em> is ubiquitous in architectural creation myths, and serves to illustrate the awareness of the earliest societies of the power of first spoken, and then written, language.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote24anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote24sym\">24<\/a><\/sup> Pinch emphasizes that \u201c\u2026 the \u2018divine words\u2019 of Ptah can, like hieroglyphs, <em>make thoughts real<\/em>\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote25anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote25sym\">25<\/a><\/sup> [emphasis added].<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">If we posit that \u201cthoughts\u201d in this sense, refers to \u201ccogitations born of contemplation and exploration\u201d, then the concept is demonstrably logos-oriented, since experience and feeling are indelibly linked to mythos. Speech and written language are structured and ordered expressions of the results of asking questions and discovering answers, clearly a function of logos-knowledge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Thus, a structured and orderly world, created by structured and orderly thoughts, realized by structured and orderly language, <em>must<\/em> be the product of the agency and actions of a male deity, himself functioning in a structured and orderly fashion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Pinch observes that, \u201cOn one level, the Memphite Theology can be seen as a classic validatory myth. It justifies the continued existence of institutions such as kingship and the priesthood by giving them divine origins,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote26anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote26sym\">26<\/a><\/sup> but she also points out that, \u201c\u2026 local deities of both genders achieved the status of creator, [and] where a temple had two principle deities, both could be given creation myths,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote27anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote27sym\">27<\/a><\/sup> and that, although \u201cEgyptian cosmogonies usually list several, apparently contradictory primal events, [they] do not seem to have regarded their creation myths as literally true, [but] more like highly charged metaphors, drawn from the natural world.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote28anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote28sym\">28<\/a><\/sup><sup>,<\/sup><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote29anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote29sym\">29<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">This power of divine speech also appears in the <em>Popol Vuh<\/em>, the Mayan account of creation, wherein \u201cCreation begun with a declaration of the first words,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote30anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote30sym\">30<\/a><\/sup>, and of course, in the first chapter of the Hebrew Bible, \u201cAnd God said, Let there be light: and there was light,\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote31anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote31sym\">31<\/a><\/sup> as well as the first verse of the Christian New Testament Book of John: \u201c<span class=\"import-text\">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word <\/span><em class=\"import-text\">was<\/em><span class=\"import-text\"> God \u2026 and the Word was made flesh\u2026.\u201d<\/span><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote32anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote32sym\">32<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"import-text\">Linear and Cyclical Time<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Most logos-structured worldviews see time as linear <strong>figure 9.2<\/strong>, following a path from a starting point to a conclusion, an ending which is inevitable, inescapable, and absolutely final.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 599px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image2-5.png\" alt=\"Diagram of linear time, showing the progression from past, through present, to future.\" width=\"599\" height=\"222\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Fig 9.2<\/strong> Diagram of linear time, showing the progression from past, through present, to future. Conrad II, Martin CC-BY-SA 4.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In addition, most cultures which use an alphabet writing modality also depict the flow of time as left-to-right (or, more rarely, top-down), so that on a timeline, earlier dates are to the left of later ones. This is reflected in many mythologies which have an <em>eschatological<\/em> mode, both at an individual and a universal level. An eschatology<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote33anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote33sym\">33<\/a><\/sup> is any system of stories concerning last or final matters, such as an apocalypse, a judgment, an afterlife, etc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">These mythologies purport to describe or predict for an individual what to expect after death (predicated upon a moral-ethical assessment of the conduct of their lifetime). However, they as well elucidate what form a general \u201cend of the world\u201d will take, and whatever (if anything) follows \u2014 which is usually expected to be utterly different and generally \u201cbetter\u201d than the current situation (at least for those who qualify to partake in it).<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">All of these systems tend to have strong architectural protological elements; a Creator brought the universe into being, is watching over it as it functions, and will either bring about or at least preside over its demise when its function comes to an end. It is easy to see how this worldview came about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In everyday experience, everything has a beginning, an existence of some duration, and an ending. Plants sprout, grow and flourish, and finally wither; animals are born, live and interact, and eventually die. Even mountains \u2014 the very rocks, themselves \u2014 are not permanent, but rise, maintain for a time (a very long time, in human terms, but a finite time), and erode away. It makes sense that this becomes entrenched in a culture\u2019s \u201cunderstanding\u201d of \u201chow things work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Other worldviews, however, see time and existence as more-or-less cyclical (at least when it is functioning properly). The totality may be subdivided into lesser units which have a finite nature, but the essence of being \u2014 the nature of existence \u2014 is, itself, unbounded, having no beginning and no ending. It is <em>transcendent<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Try imagining a canvas so large that an infinite number of paintings of any individual size may be created on it, but regardless how many paintings are painted on it, there is always room for one more, of any size. The mind literally rebels.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image3-2.png\" alt=\"A white and black analog clock.\" width=\"235\" height=\"235\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Fig. 9.3<\/strong> A white and black analog clock. Public Domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">A more practical example can be seen in a standard analog clock <strong>figure 9.3<\/strong>. Each cycle of the minute hand around the clock denotes an hour of time, and each cycle of the hour hand defines a day. But the circle of the clock\u2019s circumference, itself, has no beginning and no end. If an analog clock were able to function in perpetuity,<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote34anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote34sym\">34<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0the minute and hour hands would cycle around it endlessly, ceaselessly marking out individual minutes and hours, but never coming to an end of their journey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Similarly, a wall-calendar with 12 sheets, each divided into regular arrangements of squares beginning with January 1 in the upper-left of the first page and concluding with December 31 at the lower-right of the last page tracks the passage of a year. But time, itself, does not come to a stop at the end of the last page; a new calendar with a similar structure replaces the previous one, and another year is counted through (again, theoretically in perpetuity).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"the-cosmological-function-and-the-king-god\">\n<figure style=\"width: 215px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2023\/03\/image5-1.png\" alt=\"Illustration of the Mayan Long-Count calendar carving.\" width=\"215\" height=\"214\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Fig. 9.4<\/strong> Illustration of the Mayan Long-Count calendar carving. <a href=\"https:\/\/freesvg.org\/img\/aztec-calendar.png\">Public Domain<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/\">CC0 1.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"margin-left: 36pt\">Misunderstanding of this principle is why so many people incorrectly believed that \u201ctime\u201d would \u201cend\u201d when the Mayan Long-Count calendar <strong>see figure 9.4<\/strong> \u201cran out\u201d on December 21, 2012; the famous circular carving is simply a depiction of a very long period of time (5,125 years), but each of those periods is believed to be preceded by a previous 5,125-year period, and it is assumed that each will be succeeded by a following 5,125-year period, for as long as the universe exists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The Ancient Egyptian view of time was primarily cyclical on a universal level<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote35anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote35sym\">35<\/a><\/sup>. Again, it is not hard to see why this would be so: each day the Sun rose in the east, travelled across the sky, and set in the west. Each daylight period was followed by a dark period in which the Moon<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote36anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote36sym\">36<\/a><\/sup> and various arrangements of stars (constellations) were visible, also traversing the sky from east-to-west.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The nighttime period, however, had more variety than the daylight period; the shape of the Moon changed in a regular, predictable cycle, and which constellations were in the sky also shifted over time. Counting from one Full Moon to the next yielded a count of about 29 cycles of the Sun rising and setting. Counting from the night when a given constellation was directly overhead in the middle of the night, to the next time it was in that precise position again yielded about 365 risings of the Sun.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote37anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote37sym\">37<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">So, even though the Sun was \u201cborn\u201d each morning and \u201cdied\u201d each night, and the Moon was renewed on a monthly basis, and the heavens cycled on a yearly scale, these cycles, themselves, never came to a stop \u2014 unless there was an eclipse, which universally terrified logos-thinking humans all over the world for thousands of years, until it was noted that these events, too, occurred on a regular, predictable cycle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">So, a plant may sprout, flourish, and wither, a person may be born, thrive for a time, and die, but time itself continued to flow. Thus, while Egyptian mythology does have an origin story (several, in fact; see above), and while it does have an eschatological mode for people, animals, and objects, it does not foresee and end for the universe, itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Hindu cosmogony takes a similar view, but accounts for much longer divisions of perpetuity. In this view, infinite time is divided into the <em>Yuga<\/em><sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote38anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote38sym\">38<\/a><\/sup> Cycle a series of repeating cycles each of which is called a \u201c<em>maha yuga<\/em>\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote39anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote39sym\">39<\/a><\/sup> (or sometimes a \u201c<em>chatur yuga<\/em>\u201d), and which the Vedas tell us comprise 4,320,000 years.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote40anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote40sym\">40<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Each Maha Yuga is further divided into four smaller yugas: <em>Krita<\/em> (sometimes <em>Satya<\/em>) <em>Yuga<\/em>, <em>Treta Yuga<\/em>, <em>Dvapara Yuga<\/em>, and <em>Kali Yuga<\/em>. However, these divisions are not equal in length, nor in character; in order, each represents 40-30-20-10 percent of a Maha Yuga. Below is a table for clarity.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin: auto\">\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"background-color: #d9d9d9;vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Yuga<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"background-color: #d9d9d9;vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Percentage of<\/strong><strong><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>Maha Yuga<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"background-color: #d9d9d9;vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Length (years)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Krita<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">40%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">1,728,000<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Treta<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">30%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">1,296,000<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Dvapara<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">20%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">864,000<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">Kali<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">10%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\">432,000<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"TableGrid-R\" style=\"height: 1pt\">\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Total<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>100%<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"TableGrid-C\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;border: solid windowtext 0.5pt\">\n<p class=\"import-Normal\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>4,320,000<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">As shown, each succeeding yuga is shorter than the preceding one, and the conditions in the universe, and in human society, progressively worsen as each yuga passes into the next. (Unfortunately, the details are far too complex to detail here, but an interesting point to ponder is whether human society degenerates because the universal conditions worsen, or whether it works the other way around).<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">For our purposes, the important point is that at the end of each Kali yuga, there is a sort-of \u201cresetting\u201d period, after which a new Maha Yuga begins, starting with a new Krita Yuga. One thousand Maha Yugas (4,320,000,000; 4.32 billion years), represents <em>one day<\/em> in an even longer cycle!<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote41anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote41sym\">41<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Interestingly, we are said to currently be in a Kali Yuga (surprise, surprise), which began 5,124 years ago (does that number seem somehow familiar?) in 3102 BCE.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote42anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote42sym\">42<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">Finally, the Cosmological Function is frequently where the explanation for the creation and purpose of human beings is to be found. In the Sumerian account of Atrahasis, humankind is created purposely to function \u201c\u2026 as short-lived drudges to do the work \u2026 on earth.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote43anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote43sym\">43<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In the <em>Popol Vuh<\/em>, the creation of humankind only occurs after three previous failed attempts, and their purpose is \u201c\u2026 as essential mediators between this world and that of their patron deities and ancestors.\u201d<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote44anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote44sym\">44<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">In the Tanakh, humans are created (male first and female later) as the pinnacle of God\u2019s material creation, to serve as keepers of the Garden of Eden, and only later become mortal and subject to hard labor through their own failings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">The Vedas reveal that humans were simply a part of the original material manifestation of the universe, but the ease and quality of their physical existence alters with the changing quality of morality through the successive yugas.<sup class=\"import-FootnoteReference\"><a id=\"sdfootnote45anc\" href=\"#sdfootnote45sym\">45<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote1sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\">1<\/a> Later formalized as the Second Law of Thermodynamics: \u201cThe universe tends towards disorder.\u201d<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote2sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote2anc\">2<\/a> Genesis 1:1, KJV.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote3sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote3anc\">3<\/a> <i>Divine Women<\/i>, episode 1, &#8220;When God Was A Girl,&#8221; narrated by Bettany Hughes, aired April 11, 2012 (first broadcast April 11, 2012), on British Broadcasting Corporation, The Open University.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote4sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote4anc\">4<\/a> \u00a0Harvey Whitehouse, Peter Turchin, and Pieter Francois, &#8220;Big Gods Came After the Rise of Civilizations, Not Before,&#8221; UConn Today, last modified March 21, 2019, accessed February 26, 2023, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/03\/big-gods-came-rise-civilizations-not-study-finds\/#.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote5sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote5anc\">5<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict between Word and Image<\/i> (New York: Viking\/ Penguin), 1998.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote6sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote6anc\">6<\/a> I am fully aware that these statements border on being baldly gender-binary and over-simplified; for the sake of brevity and clarity, I have chosen to risk this perception in preference to the torturous circumlocutions of language necessary to give full-and-proper attention to diversity and inclusion. I humbly beg for grace from the reader. Also, when directly quoting sources, I do not feel myself empowered to drastically change the original author\u2019s text, but consider myself bound to report it as-written.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote7sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote7anc\">7<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabet<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote8sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote8anc\">8<\/a> Again, I\u2019m just reporting the ancient attitude; please don\u2019t slay the messenger.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote9sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote9anc\">9<\/a> Gary Zukav, <i>The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics<\/i> (New York: Morrow, 1979).<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote10sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote10anc\">10<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabe<\/i><i>t<\/i>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote11sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote11anc\">11<\/a> Shlain: \u201cThe prolonged childhood of their progeny precluded most women from hunting.\u201d<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote12sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote12anc\">12<\/a> The ubiquitous declaration of Utilitarianism.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote13sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote13anc\">13<\/a> Michael Gurian, <i>What Could He Be Thinking?: How a Man&#8217;s Mind Really Works<\/i> (New York: St. Martin&#8217;s Press, 2003).<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote14sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote14anc\">14<\/a> \u201cOut of sight, out of mind\u201d is no excuse.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote15sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote15anc\">15<\/a> Leonard Shlain, <i>The Alphabet<\/i><i>.<\/i><\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote16sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote16anc\">16<\/a> Who is sometimes <i>increatus<\/i> (\u00e0 la Yahweh), and sometimes a member of a second, or even third, generation of entities created by or emergent from an <i>increatus <\/i>Primal Goddess<i>.<\/i> It is worth noting that Zeus is never really presented as a creator deity; mostly, he is depicted as having wrested control of the extant universe from his elders, Gaia and the Titans.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote17sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote17anc\">17<\/a> The \u201cHebrew Bible\u201d, which forms the basis of the Christian \u201cOld Testament\u201d.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote18sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote18anc\">18<\/a> This morphs into one aspect of the Sociological Function, as well, where it takes the form of the dictum that social institutions and norms are also divinely decreed (or at least inspired), and as such are valid, justified, and transgressed only at great risk or in highly distinctive circumstances.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote19sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote19anc\">19<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction<\/i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 43.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote20sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote20anc\">20<\/a> Ibid., 46.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote21sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote21anc\">21<\/a> Joseph Campbell, &#8220;The Message of The Myth,&#8221; interview by Bill Moyers, <i>Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth<\/i>, produced by Joan Konner and Alvin H. Perlmutter, aired 1988 (first broadcast 1988), on Athena.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote22sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote22anc\">22<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth<\/i><i>.<\/i>, 48-9<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote23sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote23anc\">23<\/a> Ibid., 49.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote24sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote24anc\">24<\/a> Shlain also devotes several pages to a discussion of the advent of language and its impact upon social norms, especially as regards the development of division of labor and value along gender lines.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote25sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote25anc\">25<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth<\/i><i>.,<\/i>49.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote26sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote26anc\">26<\/a> Ibid.. 51.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote27sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote27anc\">27<\/a> Ibid., 52.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote28sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote28anc\">28<\/a> Ibid., 48.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote29sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote29anc\">29<\/a> This highlights a distinctive feature of Egyptian mythology: often shows elements of both animism and theism. So much so, that one might almost declare Egyptian practices as being of a transitory nature between the two forms of spiritual expression. The composite representation of many Egyptian deities as beings with human bodies but animal heads gives further credence to this observation (as well as perhaps revealing a tacit admission that in many ways <i>homo sapiens<\/i> are physically human, but still fundamentally animalistic in their psychic character?).<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote30sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote30anc\">30<\/a> Allen J. Christenson, trans., <i>Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quich\u00e9 Maya People<\/i> (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), 37.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote31sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote31anc\">31<\/a> Gen 1:3 KJV.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote32sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote32anc\">32<\/a> John 1:1-14 KJV.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote33sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote33anc\">33<\/a> Greek <i>\u00e9schato(s)<\/i> \u201clast\u201d.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote34sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote34anc\">34<\/a> Note: I am purposely avoiding the word \u201ceternity\u201d here, because, as Campbell pointed out to Bill Moyers: \u201cEternity isn\u2019t some later time; eternity isn\u2019t a long time; eternity has <i>nothing to do with time<\/i>. Eternity is that dimension of <i>here<\/i> and <i>now<\/i> which <i>thinking in time cuts out<\/i> \u2026 and the experience of eternity <i>right here and now<\/i> is the function of life.\u201d (Campbell, &#8220;The Message,&#8221; interview, <i>Joseph Campbell<\/i>)<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote35sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote35anc\">35<\/a> Though it was definitely linear for human beings.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote36sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote36anc\">36<\/a> Which was also sometimes visible in the daytime sky, whereas the Sun was <i>never<\/i> visible at night.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote37sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote37anc\">37<\/a> Ever more precise measurements eventually led the Egyptians to identify a \u201cmonth\u201d as 29\u00bd days long (a \u201csynodic\u201d month), and a year as comprising 365\u00bc days (a \u201csolar\u201d year); these figures have been progressively more precisely defined, and, in fact, change over time, as the Earth\u2019s rotational and orbital motions are not perpetually constant.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote38sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote38anc\">38<\/a> Loosely translated as \u201cage\u201d, the word is ultimately from Sanskrit and means \u201ca yoke\u201d, as in a joining of two things, or a \u201cperiod of time\u201d.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote39sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote39anc\">39<\/a> Sanskrit; \u201cgreat age\u201d, as in \u201cextensive period of time\u201d.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote40sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote40anc\">40<\/a> Donna Rosenberg, <i>World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics<\/i>, 2nd ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Pub. Group, 1994).<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote41sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote41anc\">41<\/a> It is also worth noting that most versions recount that each Maha Yuga is identical in every aspect and particular to every other. Much like listening to a song on infinite repeat, the cycle continues indefinitely, but never varies in character. This, in the Buddha\u2019s view, was the very description of horror. Any parent who has ever endured a Disney movie being replayed repeatedly for an entire day surely understands the Buddha\u2019s point.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote42sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote42anc\">42<\/a> Joscelyn Godwin, <i>Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult Revelations<\/i> (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2011), 300-1.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote43sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote43anc\">43<\/a> Geraldine Pinch, <i>Egyptian Myth<\/i><i>.<\/i>, 50<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote44sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote44anc\">44<\/a> Christenson, <i>Popol Vuh<\/i>, 59.<\/div>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote45sym\"><a href=\"#sdfootnote45anc\">45<\/a> Donna Rosenberg, <i>World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics<\/i>, 2nd ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Pub. Group, 1994).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"menu_order":10,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-189","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/189\/revisions\/236"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/189\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}