Light Does Not Come From Light, But

In Imitating The Exemplary Acts Of A God Or Of A Mythic Hero, Or Simply By Recounting Their Adventures, The Man Of An Archaic Society Detaches Himself From Profane Time And Magically Re-enters The Great Time, The Sacred Time.

It Is Not Without Fear And Trembling That A Historian Of Religion Approaches The Problem Of Myth. This Is Not Only Because Of That Preliminary Embarrassing Question: What Is Intended By Myth? It Is Also Because The Answers Given Depend For The Most Part On The Documents Selected.

It Would Be Frightening To Think That In All The Cosmos, Which Is So Harmonious, So Complete And Equal To Itself, That Only Human Life Is Happening Randomly, That Only One's Destiny Lacks Meaning.

When The Sacred Manifests Itself In Any Hierophany, There Is Not Only A Break In The Homogeneity Of Space; There Is Also A Revelation Of An Absolute Reality, Opposed To The Nonreality Of The Vast Surrounding Expanse. The Manifestation Of The Sacred Ontologically Founds The World. In The Homogenous And Infinite Expanse, In Which No Point Of Reference Is Possible And Hence No Orientation Can Be Established, The Hierophany Reveals An Absolute Fixed Point, A Center.

The Great Cosmic Illusion Is A Hierophany.... One Is Devoured By Time, Not Because One Lives In Time, But Because One Believes In Its Reality, And Therefore Forgets Or Despises Eternity.