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Circle of Life

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Black Elk introduces us to the "Circle of Life" perspective on time, space, and being, which is common to many primal religions.

1. Describe its understanding and perceptions of reality.

2. Contrast it to the more linear time, space, and being concepts of modern cultural religions.

3. Compare Black Elk's ideas with the Christian view of nature and purpose of Creation.

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Solution Summary

The expert describes the understanding and perceptions of reality. Linear time, space and being concepts are contrasts for modern cultural religion.

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This is an outline that you need to fill out a bit. I gave you lots of sources and ideas.
The opinions here are mine, and need not necessarily be yours.

Black Elk introduces us to the "Circle of Life" perspective on time, space, and being, which is common to many primal religions.

Describe its understanding and perceptions of reality.

Contrast it to the more linear time, space, and being concepts of modern cultural religions.

Compare Black Elk's ideas with the Christian view of nature and purpose of Creation.

Black Elk's view of the "circle of life" is part of the global and perennial wisdom. While saints like Augustine spoke of time as a line, that is, from the Fall to the Incarnation to the Acopolypse, eastern Orthodox have always maintained a cyclical time, though not without the three major watersheds of Augustine's concept.

Black Elk, in describing the circle of life, makes several points that can be summarized this way:

1. The circle as a symbol is paramount. An ancient and primeval symbol with many meanings, it holds that the cycle of the seasons, of death and life, and the transference of generations is self-enclosed, never ending and an ontological part of human and all material existence.
2. Roundness is perfection. Perfection does not normally mean without stain, but that which is self-sufficient. In cultures worldwide, this concept of circularity or roundedness is common.
3. Another concept of roundness is the tree. Another archetype of ancient lineage, the tree is seen in numerous ways. It is a link between the heavens and the earth, the sky with the land. Of course, the two are biologically connected. The tree is also round, though the vertical relation is paramount. It can also refer to the cyclical regeneration well known in nearly all cultures, where the winter is the death of the earth, while the Spring is its rising. Unlike the Christian conception, this never ends. For Christ, Pascha is the eternal resurrection that breaks the cycle.
4. The circle also means universalism. This, contrary to the above, is rarely seen in the primordial tradition. Powerful empires like the roman and Mongol often used universalist images, the concept of the round world ...

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