Thoughts dredged from the Slog.
Upon further reflection, I guess I don't get it.
"That which comes before determines that which comes after."
Seems simple enough, and makes logical sense. Cause, effect. Do something, there is a reaction. In reverse, any observed reaction should be able to be followed back to a cause. To its origin.
Maybe it says a little something about free will, and freedom, too. You don't determine your actions, rather the chain of events preceding any action taken determined it.
My real confusion comes from the reverse of the statement.
"That which comes after determines that which comes before"
Sorcery if oft cited as such an event. Can someone explain why? The schoolmen using sorcery still fall into that circuit of before and after, don't they?
If you know a person is a schoolmen, and know the events leading up to a situation just before the dispensation of sorcery, wouldn't you, or at least a Dunayin, be able to surmise that said schoolmen would Sing?
How is the after - sorcery - in fact the before? How can the reaction, an event, be its own cause?