Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
On the fertile, m u d d y plains on the banks of great rivers, people built civi
lizations that needed dramatic rituals to bring order, unity, and a shared sense of
purpose to a large population. By communal effort they fashioned river m u d into
bricks and built huge temple mounds that were like artificial mountains, connecting
their society to the heavens and providing a stairway to the world of the gods.
These temple pyramids or ziggurats also served as spectacular backdrops
for highly theatrical presentations designed to evoke a healthy religious feeling in a
whole population.
These religious spectacles were staged with exquisite precision to a calendar
set by a giant celestial clock, the movement of the sun, moon, and stars across the
sky. Lives were short but people accumulated thousands of years of observations
that could be passed down by various forms of notation. T h e y paid particularly close
annaabi.ee 
