The “basic feeling of the sacred” and the “basic division” that is given along with it prefigure both the total comprehension of space as well as the way in which individual boundaries are posited within it. The original partitioning of space, in which it is first of all uncovered as such, distinguishes two “regions”: a “sacred,” extraordinary, appropriately preserved and protected region, and a “common” region that is at all times accessible to everyone. Space is, however, never given prior to this “in itself,” in such a way that it can then be mythically “interpreted.” Rather, mythical Dasein first of all discovers space as such in this manner. The mythical spatial orientation is thereby guided everywhere by the opposition between day and night, which for its part announces itself primarily mythically, that is, in the specific mana-like power that forces all Dasein into its binding spell. To the extent that spatiality, thus uncovered, co-determines in general a possible habitat for Dasein, space and its corresponding factical division can become a schema for the most manifold traits of Dasein (consider, for example, the complicated classification of the totemistic perceptual sphere). Mythical Dasein procures for itself in this way a uniform overall orientation that can be easily mastered.

Time is still more originally constitutive for mythical Dasein than space. Cassirer grounds the characterization of these connections in the vulgar concept of time and understands by the “temporal” character of myth “being-within-time” — for example, of the gods. The “sacredness” of the mythically actual is determined by its origin. The past as such shows itself as the genuine and last ‘why’ of all beings. In the periodicity of the seasons, in the rhythm of the phases of life and age, the power of time is made evident. The individual sections of time are “sacred times.” The comportment toward them, far from being a mere calculation, is regulated by particular cults and rites (for example, initiation rites). The order of time, as an order of destiny, is a cosmic power and thus makes manifest in its regularity a binding obligation that pervades all human practice. Calendrical regulation and ethical obligation are welded to the power of time. The basic mythical-religious relation to time can then especially accentuate an individual time orientation. The individual modifications of the different feelings of time and the conceptions of time that are prefigured in these make up “one of the most profound differences in the character of individual religions.” Cassirer shows (p. 150ff.) [Symbolic Forms, p. 119ff.] in broad strokes the typical images of time that are found in the Hebrews, the Persians, the Indians, in Chinese and Egyptian religion, and in Greek philosophy.