In the book The Myth of the Eternal Return, Mircea Eliade suggests the meaning of ritual in religious practice, the real meaning of myths, and the nature of other repeated actions and the use of certain symbolism in human activities and human creations throughout the world. Eliade finds that all religions and all societies develop a basic believe in the eternal return, by which he means a return to a more primitive state, or to an earlier time when the gods ruled more directly, and that they achieve this by performing rituals, telling stories, building structures, and generally acting out certain higher truths so as to bring the here-and-now more in line with the eternal.
Eliade explains this with reference first to the actions of primate human beings, or archaic man, as Eliade calls them. He develops his argument by drawing facts from different cultures to find patterns which suggest a deeper human need than can be explained culturally. Eliade finds that human begins from the earliest recorded time had a need to shape reality by reference to something greater, some larger pattern of which this world is only an imitation. This larger pattern is called the celestial archetype, and for archaic man, "reality is a function of the imitation of a celestial archetype" (5). A second element Eliade derives from his examination of different cultures is that this reality is conferred through participation in the "symbolism of the Center" in the development and layout of cities, temples, and houses. The Center refers to that point where heaven, earth, and hell unite, and this point is right here and right now, with the elements joined by ritual and symbolism. Third, Eliade cites archaic man and his involvement with "rituals and significant profane gestures which acquire the meaning attributed to them, and materialize that meaning, only because they deliberately repeat such and such acts posited ab origine by gods, heroes, or ancestors"...