Right now, the Tale has a linear structure: creation, fall, exile, quest, transformation, coronation, golden age, apocalypse, ascension.
A beginning, middle, and end.
But, Time is circular, or rather spiral — and the "end" of the story is also its beginning seen from a higher turn of the spiral.
The New Jerusalem is the Garden of Eden restored — not the same (naïve innocence) but transformed (conscious innocence). The Tree of Life that was guarded by the cherubim is now available again, its leaves for the healing of the nations.
And the apocalypse, the unveiling, does not happen once at the end of history. It happens in every moment of awakening. Every time the veil parts and you see truly, that is apocalypse. Every time you forgive and release a grievance, that is the last judgment. Every time you remember who you are, that is the second coming.
The Tale must be both linear (a story that unfolds in time, with tension and resolution) and eternal (a pattern that is always happening, that the reader is living right now).
The Prince's coronation is not only at the end of the book — it is available in this moment, has always been available, will always be available.
This is why the Christ says both "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (right here, right now) and teaches us to pray "Thy Kingdom come" (as if it is future).
Both are true. The Kingdom is eternally present and is perpetually arriving. We are always being crowned and always awaiting coronation.
The story is not only about something that happened or will happen, but is performing something that is always happening. The reader, in reading, enters the myth, and the myth becomes their life.