I think the true concept of time is better thought of as "timelessness." In today’s American society, time is linear. We have been taught that time and history are "going somewhere." For example, the past keeps falling further back the timeline while we look forward to fulfilling a destiny or long-term goal. For example, I was always taught in history class to not let history repeat itself – in otherwords, don’t let negative happenings that have already occurred on life’s timeline occur on the future end of the timeline.. if that makes sense.
Primal time, on the other hand, is not linear, but eternal. "Eternal" in this situation does not mean "forever." The idea of forever is in itself linear (forever implies time going on and on). Instead, eternity simply "is." This "isness" is the constant, unchanging setting within which the gods and ancestors simply "are." They are not moving along an ever-evolving timeline, but merely existing. This world is encountered in any number of ways, such as dreams, shamanic ecstasy, mask performance, etc. Primal people may speak of "the Past," but this understanding is not of time-line form, but as a whole.
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