time and death / metaphoric beliefs?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Apr 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

joya250	04 Apr 2002
I initially started posting this under the Talking Tarot thread about distant future and reading tarot.... but I thought it kinda deviated into something else... so I figured I'd post it here. is all time considered a circle because we can THINK about past, present, and future all at once? Because I'm having a real hard time believing that everything is happening now. As Silencedogood said in another thread, if that were so, then Alexander the Great would still be out there somewhere conquering the world. Well, that can't possibly happen... I mean, he couldn't be doing it NOW --- because after it was done, there was a certain outcome that affected history and as a result, has shaped in some way, our current lives. so, obviously an event occurred and then the event ended. One could argue that the repercussions of the event are still being felt, and in that sense the event is still "happening"..... one could also argue that because we are aware that the event happened and we can think about it, we can imagine what it must have been like, we can meditate on it.... because it is "accessible", then it still exists. BUT ..... There is a hard reality to time. You cannot deny that. .... and I think when people say that time is a circle, or rather, non-linear, it's kind of a metaphor for the ability to reflect and project on past, present, and future events. ..... and, the same could be said for death. Supposedly we live "forever".... and that may be so, but everyone has a concieved notion of how that will be... well, why can't it simply be that we will "turn to dust" and nourish the ground, that in-turn nourishes a sprouting plant, which feeds an animal, which feeds a man... etc., the entire cycle of life. What if all of the "ancient teachings" on this subject that say live is immortal were trying to make THAT point, the circle of life point... ..... but us humans have clung to it and inflated it to something more.... into afterlife, and angels, and reincarnation, etc. I am not denying people's remembrances of previous lives, or whatnot, but who is to say those are their memories -- and not cellular memories of someone or something else, which had been recomposited over and over..... this process of each life as a lesson to be learned, from which we evolve higher and higher as "spiritual beings" ..... where did THAT idea come from? so, what are you thoughts about this? I can't wait to hear! :) joy

purplelady	07 Apr 2002
As far as Time not existing , or all time existing at once, I look at it this way: I imagine something like a big poster board, and everything that ever happened or will happen has it's spot or picture on the poster board. So............Alexander the Great , and also Cleopatra have their picture in their respective times on the poster board. If I wasn't in this time , but were floating above it all, and I could see the whole poster with all it's little pictures, then All Time Would Exist At Once. Maybe it does? From the perspective of our consciousness floating out there above the big poster All Time Does Exist At Once.

cricket	07 Apr 2002
I've personally always seen time as a spiral. You can look back on where the spiral has been, look forward where it's been drawn, but exist in the place you look from. If that makes any sense. *LOL* If you look back over history, you see that things go in a cycle. The details are never the same, but the same things happen over and over. Imagine, if you will, a spiral drawn on a sheet of paper, with a straight line going from the center starting point through the whole thing, and ending outside the last part. The first round - from the start of the straight line to where it meets - would be like the first cycle in time. Then things start to repeat in a general fashion, forming the second round. And so on and so forth. Events stay basically the same, but the people/places/details are all different. Or maybe I'm just crazy.

The time and death / metaphoric beliefs? thread was originally posted on 04 Apr 2002 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.