Parabola's Summer 1988 issue: Repetition and Renewal We are born to a cyclical world, to the repetition of change. We recognize this as a law of creation, and we accept quite willingly the recurrent patterns of Nature, even making up new patterns for ourselves and pursuing those made long ago by others. Our social customs, the way we eat and dress, conduct our businesses and our religious practices, all repeat the patterns we have invented or inherited. Why do we do this? We feel, as Peter Brook says, that repetition is "like a force, which can have either positive or negative results." We do the same things over and over again, we say the same words, and go through the same motions. When does this militate for renewal, and when for slow death? --from the editorial Focus Cover: "God of the Rainbow, Servant of Thunder" Bas-relief from the Palace of King Ghv®zv¥ Musv©e de l'Homme, Paris In this issue:

• "The Eternal Return" by Mircea Eliade
  - From the classic study of recurring cycles in myth and ritual
• "Fires of the Solstice" by Marguerite Yourcenar
  - Solar celebrations through the ages
• "Testing the Boundaries" by Harry Remde
  - A craftsman defines the limits in his work
• "Following Your Bliss" Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell
  - Two old friends delight in "The Power of Myth"
• "Well, Shoot Me!" by P. L. Travers
  - A tale of the cycles of youthful discontent
• "The Gospel as Yoga" by Ravi Ravindra
  - Approaching The Gospel According to St. John
• "The Art of Fine Tuning" with Steve Reich, Lincoln Kirstein, Peter Brook
  - Three conversations on repetition in the performing arts
• "Trapped on a Wheel" by P. D. Ouspensky
  - From The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin
• "So the Darkness Shall Be the Light: A photo essay"
  - Paul Caponigro, Minor White, Nicholas Hlobeczy, Peter Caroff, Walter Chappell
• ARCS: "Sacred Echoes"
• "Very Like a Frog Hopping" by Gertrude Stein
  - The difference between repeating and insistence in writing
• "World Renewal" by Thomas Buckley
  - How the Jump Dance came to the Yurok
• "Waking up the Rake" by Linda Hogan
  - Lessons learned from birds of prey
• "Three Poems"
• "Even the Ancestors" by Paul Jordan-Smith
  - The efficacy of ritual repetition

Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world

• "Markandeya's Journey" / Hindu
• "Two Banquets" / Sufi
• "The Prayer" / Muslim
• "Legend of the Flowers" / Australian