Thursday, February 24, 2022

The Wheel of Time: A Consideration

         It is a series of books by author Robert Jordan and his successors.  I read the first few long time ago…stopped while he was still writing more, then never picked it up again.  I am sorry that he passed away before he could finish the series.  I will admit to a certain skepticism of another finishing the work.

          Those are the books.  Now there is the series.  There will be spoilers so read on at your own caution. 

          It is set in a world that cycles through long periods, of three thousand years and more.  It’s a fantasy type world where there is magic, from the One Source.  Women wield this magic, in this cycle, without insanity, unlike men.  There is a “Dark One”, a devil-figure, currently bound.  And there is a Messianic figure, the Dragon, who shows up at intervals as the Wheel of Time turns.  But instead of being for the forces of good, it seems this Dragon can tilt in either direction, leading the time period to a period of peace and prosperity, or into evil and chaos, if the Dragon falls in with the Dark One.

          At least, that is what I gather is the structure they are attempting to set into motion.  I have watched it through once and basing my impressions on my recollections.  This is one of two themes that I am drawn to reflect on as a person of the Christian faith, how time is structured.

          The other is the question of the balance of magic and the power of the genders implicit in this.  But that is another post.

          There is an implied eternality to these cycles of time.  That some go well and some go less well.  In these current circumstances, the Dark One has been bound up since the Last Dragon, although the result has been a blight on the surrounding lands.  So the new Dragon has appeared, and the magic ladies, one in particular, are guiding this Dragon to face the Dark One, to defeat it ideally, but to stop the Dragon from joining the Dark One if necessary.

          There is language of the Last Battle, and the season ends with what is apparently the first scrimmage of the Last Battle, so much to follow.  On the surface, there seems to be links to End Times theology in the Christian faith, but I will be honest, that is not what I see.

          What I see is from Ecclesiastes.  Vanity, vanity, all is vanity says the Preacher.  Good and Evil seem locked in an eternal battle that is never finished or decided, because Time is not a created line, but a wheel.  There seems to be no real concept of good and evil in the Christian sense, but rather, in a dualistic sense, that they are balanced and play off one another.

          The Dragon, the Dark One, the Last Battle, this is all language that smacks of Revelation.  But it is spun very differently, pun intended.  The cyclical nature I believe draws its inspiration from Eastern religions, but I do not know enough about them to make any firm conjectures.

No comments: