(Especially in Sci-fi and Fantasy)
Some stories feel new.
Others…..well others feel as though they are so timeless that the ancestors told them in hushed whispers around fires long before the written word was established
What makes the difference.
Often the difference doesn’t stem from the setting, the characters, or even the plot.
Instead, the patterns are what give that timeless feel.
Mythic structures—cycles, thresholds, sacred numbers, and cosmic rhythms—shape the way that we intuitively recognize a story as being “ancient”, “epic”, or “foundational”. Even in a galaxy-spanning (or universe-spanning) sci-fi epic, we respond to symbolism that feels older than any system of writing or recording.
In a previous post, I explored the symbolic power of 12, 13, and the Pause between them, and how these patterns anchor the mythic architecture of my universes.
This post steps back a bit from those specifics and seek to explore a broader thought:
Why do mythic patterns matter in storytelling at all?
And why do readers resonate with these patterns, even if they never consciously take notice of the?
Humans Are Pattern-Seekers
The earliest of human myths were no simple stories intended for entertainment—
they were established as frameworks to help in understanding the world.
People were witness to :
– Seasons shifting and colors changing
– Days split into the dawning of light and the rising of stars
– The moon changing its shape and color
– Constellations, the very stars themselves, turning across the sky
– Life transitioning from one stage to the next, predictably or not
From these observations, stories were built that mirrored and explained these patterns.
That instinct remains as genetic memory.
Modern reader—even those who have no understanding of our own mythos— are still able to feel when a story reflects deep structural truths:
– Cycles ending and beginning
– The threshold just before transformation
– The moment of stillness, that drawn out breathe, before revelation
– The break, the ending, that precedes renewal
These are mythic constants that cross cultures and can be felt by all mankind in these stories.
Numbers Are Symbols Long Before They Are Math
Twelve and thirteen are famous examples and those that I chose to use in my own work, but they are far from the only or the most famous.
Cultures assign meaning to numbers because they:
– Divide the world cleanly
– Map natural cycles
– Offer structure to the unstructured
– Give us a shorthand for our relationship to the world abroad
You don’t need to know or understand numerology to feel the difference between:
– A story built on order (12)
– A story built on transformation (13)
– A story living in the silence before change (the Pause)
These motifs, and others, resonate because they reflect human experience.
Thresholds Are Where Stories Actually Happen
Almost every transformative moment in myth and fiction occurs at a threshold, a between-state.
Examples can be seen across the many mythologies of human culture:
– The pause between worlds in Norse mythology with Ragnarök
– The sacred stillness between death and rebirth with Jesus Christ in Christianity
– The liminal nights in Celtic and Egyptian calendars (Samhain, Beltane, and the 5 epagomenal days)
– The symbolic zero-state between notes in music
Every culture recognizes that change doesn’t happen inside of the cycle, rather it happens between cycles.
This is what I call the Pause—
a concept that appears in my mythic fantasy world (Kurillia) and my far-future harmonic universe (The Harmonic Constellation), though expressed differently in each.
Mythic Patterns Create Emotional Stability in Fiction
Readers crave two contradictory things:
– Something Ancient— something that feels inevitable, foundational, or cosmically “right”.
– Something Surprising— the break in the pattern, or the push into the unknown.
This is why the dance between order (12) and transformation (13) is so potent:
– Once creates stability and structure
– The other creates motion and opportunity for change
The space between them— the Pause— creates tension, anticipation, and meaning.
It’s the storytelling equivalent of a rest in music:
The silence that makes the next note matter.
How Writers Can Use These Patterns
You don’t need to build a pantheon or invent cosmic harmonic physics to use mythic structure in your storytelling. These were just the paths that I chose to take. Instead, you can apply the same principles by:
– Structuring character arcs around cycles
– Using symbolic numbers intentionally
– Highlighting moments of hesitation of stillness
– Embracing thresholds as transformative spaces
– Letting the world, and your writing, naturally reflect the natural or cosmic rhythms
Readers will probably never read my writing or yours and say to themselves, “Ah. That right there. That’s the moment the author decided to use a liminal-state numerology pattern!”
Regardless, they will feel those moments.
And when it comes to fiction, feel is everything.
My Use of These Patterns
In my fantasy setting of Kurillia, mythic numbers shape much:
– The Pantheon
– The Animus Beasts
– The Flow of Destiny
– The Architecture of Magic and Theology
– The Rhythms of Prophecy and Transformation
In The Harmonic Constellation setting, these patterns appear as:
– Harmonic Cycles
– Resonance States
– Cosmic Constants
– Transitional Physics Inspired by Real-World Oscillatory Systems
They are in no way the same universe.
But they have been build around the same symbolic backbone—a mythic architecture of patterns.
Because stories, at their core, are built on rhythm and flow.
In the End, Stories Are Echoes
Every tale we tell and every epic we read echoes something older:
– The cycles we live through
– The thresholds we cross
– The transformations we have undergone
– The origins we just can’t reach, but are still aware of
– The silence between who we were, are, and want to become
Whether in myth or fantasy, science or religion, present or future, the patterns remain.
Because stories are not merely words.
They are resonances
And mythic patterns give them their own heartbeat.
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