| The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas. |
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| —Andrew Marvell, “The Garden” |
Type: Stratum of the Astral
Description: That section of the dimension of the mind which comprises the consciousness, awareness and self-identity of the rest of the world beyond humanity; from animals to trees, oceans to mountains, from fish to fire, from the stars to the arcana themselves.
Here one can visit the world as mountains see it, or meet the incarnation of how a spider thinks about itself, all of it free from human interpretation. For example: In the Temenos, the realm of human understanding, foxes are often clever tricksters who can talk and assist the third son of the family. In the Dreamtime they're canine animals who hunt in packs and live in underground dens.
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Regions of the Dreamtime
0.The Omphalos
The gateway to the Dreamtime, the boundary between the Temenos & Anima Mundi, the barrier that needs to be overcome in order to leave behind the realms of human thought. It also happens to be the subrealm representing High Speech itself.
Two different ways to draw maps of the Anima Mundi
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1.The Anthropic Redoubts
The two paths humans can travel along in order to reach the world's soul.
The Spire Perilous
The mind-shatteringly vast spire (or tree, or desert, etc) that once upon a time bonded humanity with the rest of the world. This should have been the Axis Mundi, the world-tree Yggdrasil; it should be the way to absolute truth unfettered by human desire or perspective; but now it's a symbol of everything humanity has squandered, and reduced link we have left to connect our spirits to the natural world. Orthodox lore claims it was used as the ''foundation'', or ''scaffolding'', for building the Celestial Ladder, and that the Spire's was reduced to its current state when hit by the backlash from the Fall.
The Swath
The sum total of how humanity has influenced the world around us, the perspective that nature itself has on the results of our actions. Needless to say, it's a pretty horrible place, containing every instance of pollution and devastation ever committed by mankind, but as perceived by non-human minds.
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2.The Dreaming Earth
The thoughts & dreams & self-image of the planet and everything (non-human) on and in it. Traditionally divided into 4 regions according to classical elementalism, to make it easier for humans to categorize and map the place than any inherent trait of the realm itself.
Keb, the Earth domain
Neuth, the Sky domain
Shu, the Domain of Heat
Tefnut, the Water domain
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3.The Whorl
The self-identity & consciousness of everything beyond earth.
The Sidereal Wastes
The other planets as well as the stars & galaxies beyond those vast gulfs of space between us.
The Ocean Oroboros
On the far side of the Whorl, beyond the Sidereal Wastes, is its outer edge, which is where the universe itself comes to an end: A beach of gray sand, washed by the corrupting waves of the the Abyss, here manifest as a silent and turbulent black ocean which surrounds the world entirely.
The Aeonic Citadels
Along the shoreline at the end of the world reside the Aeons, the self-aware personalities of the very Arcana themselves.
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