Parallel Explanation: Mythic Elements and Their Relational-Ontological Functions

This guide maps each symbolic element in Liora and the Three Mysteries of the Valley-Wind to the core concepts of the horizon/metabolic/ecological model and our relational ontology more broadly.

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1. The Valley-Wind (the indivisible field)

Mythic element:

The valley-wind that brushes Liora and a distant cedar simultaneously; one wind moving through multiple points.

Ontological function:

• Represents the ecological field of potential — the shared readiness, inclination and ability spanning multiple loci.

• Demonstrates entanglement as an ecological indivisibility rather than a connection between individuals.

• Emphasises that the horizon of potential is distributed, not “owned” by particles or agents.

• Dispels any implication of “spooky action”; the ecology is already unified.

Key principle:

Entanglement expresses one horizon, many perspectives — not many objects with mysterious links.

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2. The Cedar Tree (a distant locus inside the same horizon)

Mythic element:

A cedar far away that sways in perfect sympathy with the breeze that touches Liora.

Ontological function:

• Serves as a second locus of instantiation within the same ecological potential.

• Illustrates how multiple instances share a horizon of readiness without being independently endowed with potentials.

• Makes clear that separation in space does not imply separation in horizon.

Key principle:

Distance is irrelevant to ecological readiness; the horizon distributes inclination across loci.

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3. Liora Kneeling to the Ground (perspectival cut-awareness)

Mythic element:

Liora touches the earth to sense what is happening.

Ontological function:

• Shows the first-person experience of perspectival positioning.

• She is not discovering a hidden property but becoming aware of how she is differently positioned inside a single horizon of potential.

• Aligns with the model: instantiation is a perspectival shift, not a temporal unfolding.

Key principle:

The instance is a cut through the ecological horizon, not an isolated event.

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4. The Hearth of Becoming (the metabolic site of actualisation)

Mythic element:

The stone-ring hearth whose glow intensifies as Liora approaches, and which “commits” a possibility when touched.

Ontological function:

• Embodies metabolism — the act of construal through interaction.

• Represents measurement as the metabolic narrowing of a horizon’s pluripotential inclinations into a specific actualisation.

• Demonstrates that measurement is not revelation but construction: a metabolic cut that reorganises the ecology.

Key principle:

Measurement = metabolism → construal → ecological reconfiguration.

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5. The Hearth Whisper (“To touch is to choose…”)

Mythic element:

The hearth explains that contact creates the outcome, rather than uncovering a hidden truth.

Ontological function:

• States explicitly that measurement actualises a disposition; it does not retrieve an uninterpreted property from the world.

• Reinforces the Hallidayan distinction: this is meaning-as-construal, not biological value-making.

Key principle:

The outcome is a product of interactional construal, not discovery.

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6. The Braided Currents (uncommitted inclinations)

Mythic element:

Currents that fold over one another, forming delicate patterns before any decision is forced.

Ontological function:

• Depict interference as interacting inclinations within the horizon.

• Show that interference is intra-horizon modulation, not wave-based ontology.

• Emphasise that these patterns exist only before metabolic commitment — afterwards, the ecology restructures.

Key principle:

Interference = inclination interacting with inclination before the cut.

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7. The Braid Breaking and Reforming (ecological dynamism)

Mythic element:

A pattern dissolves as Liora walks past, reforming in a new arrangement.

Ontological function:

• Shows that horizons are dynamic relational organisations, not static containers.

• The ecology shifts as new perspectives are introduced, but without making any metabolic commitment.

Key principle:

Horizon-level potential is dynamic and relationally sensitive.

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8. The Valley’s Closing Lesson (“We are horizons… metabolism… ecologies…”)

Mythic element:

The valley-wind summarises its nature in three lines.

Ontological function:

• States the trilogy of the model: horizon → metabolism → ecology.

• Connects the myth directly to the ontological distinctions.

• Reiterates that meaning is relational construal, not intrinsic content.

Key principle:

Become attentive to how the world becomes — through horizons, metabolic cuts, and ecological reorganisations.

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9. Liora Leaving the Valley (integration of understanding)

Mythic element:

She departs not with secrets but with a reconfigured orientation.

Ontological function:

• Represents the instance transformed by its encounter with the horizon.

• Demonstrates your ontology’s core idea: meaning is not gained but co-constituted through relational positioning.

• Her journey is a metaphor for the reader’s perspectival integration.

Key principle:

Understanding is an instance-event: a reconstrual that reorganises the ecology of meaning.

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In summary

Mythic Element	Relational-Ontological Function
Valley-wind	Ecological horizon of shared readiness
Cedar tree	Distant locus within the same horizon
Liora sensing	Perspectival positioning; instance as cut
Hearth	Metabolic actualisation; measurement
Hearth whisper	Construal, not revelation
Braided currents	Interference as inclination-interaction
Braid reforming	Dynamic ecological potential
Valley’s lesson	Explicit mapping to horizon/metabolism/ecology
Liora leaving	Integrative reorganisation of perspective