From:	Stephanos Piperoglou <steve@*******.HOL.GR>
Subject:	Re: Gods/Heaven/Hell
Date:	Tue, 19 Sep 1995 19:39:04 +0300

On Mon, 18 Sep 1995, S.F. Eley wrote:

> > Totems are not gods. They are totems. Full stop. They are *NOT* entities,
> > *NOT* spirits, *NOT* deities.
>
> Awww, and you were doing so well there, too. >8-> What happened to "*NO*
> analysis of religious FACTS?" Many shamans treat their totems religiously.
> Sure, they MIGHT be none of the above.. Then again, they might be all of
> the above, or some of the above. We don't know. Shadowrun only describes
> the effect totems have, not their nature.

True, very much so, and that's sort of what I was trying to point out:
one should not treat, say, Dog as a being or a consciousness that might
actually drop by for tea one day. Dog is a totem, a way of life, an
outlook, a source of energy. That's about it, though. It's just that some
people where starting to talk about totems visiting their shamans, which
in my view is not realistic (bad choice of words? :-)).

--
Stephanos Piperoglou -- steve@****.hol.gr
"Beside the everlasting `Why?' there is a `Yes', and a `Yes', and a `Yes'!"
- E. M. Forster, "A Room with a View"
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