Re: Hmong's version of creation.
- From: "beemouachaofa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <beemouachaofa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:31:18 -0700
On Oct 3, 5:01 pm, fajkhaum <fajkh...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thaum kuv nyob zos Vib Nais. Kuv tseem yau thiaj hniaj hnub mus pem
xoom 3 lub tsev koom haum. Lawv hais tias ntuj tsim teb raug ntuj tsim
noob neej raws li nram no:
1. Thaum xub thawj tswv ntuj yawm saub thiab pog saub twb tsim muaj
lub ntiaj teb qab ntuj, tsiaj txhu, liaj teb, hiav txwv txhua yam tag
lawm.
2. Tabsis lub sijhawm ntawd tseem tsi muaj tib neeg nyob hauv lub
ntiaj teb. Yog li pog saub thiab yawm saub nyob khua siab khuav.
Yog li, muaj ib hnub, pog saub thiaj hais rau yawm saub hais tias,
yawm saub, " kuv xav pom lwm tus txiv neej zoo nraug ib yam li koj".
Yog muaj pojniam thiab txiv neej coob coob ntshe lub neej yuav lom zem
heev.
Yawm saub nyob-b muaj ib hnub yawg kho siab thiab chim siab heev vim
nws tus pog saub hniaj hnub kom nws tsim tib neeg nyob rau hauv lub
ntiaj teb.
Yog li, muaj ib hnub yawm saub thiaj muab tau ib lub taub twg los
tshuab pa rau hauv. Yawg tshuab 6 pas kom muaj 3 nkawm niam txiv. 3
tug txiv neej 3 tug pojniam.
Thaum yawg tshuab 6 pas rau hauv, yawg txawm muab cuam rau puag nram
niag dej hiav txwv lawm.
Muaj ib hnub, niag pog saub txawm pom lub taub twg ntab-b los. Nws
txawm xav loo tias, "aub...yau... zaum no yawm saub tsim txiv neej los
ntxiv rau kuv lawm tiag laud...
Thaum pog saub nta kiag tau lub taub ntawd los mus. nws txawm maj ceev
muab kiag ib tug muv hlau los hlawv kub kub laum kiag rau lub taub
ntawd. Oh yau....
Cas tawm kiag thawj ob tug los cas nkawv mas lo plaus plav dub nciab.
Ob tug no khiav khiav mus nyob rau Africa teb lawm.
Tom qab ntawd, ob tug ho tawm loo los thiab. Ob tug no tseem lo plaus
plav daj rhuv. Knawv khiav khiav rau phab tebchaws Asia lawm.
Hos ob tug puag tom kawg mam li maj mam ib xauj ib xauj tawm los.
Nkawv tsi lo plaus plav. Nkawv thiaj khiav khiav rau puag sis phab
hnub poob lawm.
Ob tus uas khiav-v rau phab tebchaws Asia lawm yog Hmoob. Ob tug no
txawm nyob-b thiab sib zeem li muag nus xwb ib txhis yeej tsi sib kov
sib ua li.
Nyob los muaj ib hnub cas nkawv txawm cia li txawj khaus thiab txawj
sib thab. Knawv thiaj pw uake. Cas tus pojniam txawm xeeb tub. Thaum
tau los cas zoo li ib lub niag taub kheej kheej xwb. Nkawv thiaj muab
txiaj ua tej daim tej daim. Muab ib daig pov rau nram ntsa vaj thiaj
muab hu ua xeem Hmoob Vaj. Muab ib daig pov rau ub rau no thiaj tsim
muaj Hmoob cov xeem los mus. Thaum muaj xeem lawm rov sib yuav thiaj
muaj me nyuam zoo ntsej zoo muag zoo tam li yawm saub thiab pog saub
vam tseg.
Txij thaum ntawd los, yog xeem twg rov yuav nws xeem ces thiaj tau me
nyuam zoo li lub taub twg taub hau loj loj ...
Qhov tsim kom muaj pojniam txiv neej yog los ntawd pog saub. Pog saub
kom yawm saub tsim txiv neej los npaj txog txoj me kev kho siab. Yog
li nej cov uas pheej sib cav hais tias Nyiaj, Pojniam thiab Hwjchim
yog yam tseem ceeb tshaj no yuav tau tig rov los xav txog tias: " Txiv
neej tseem ceeb tshaj txhua yam hauv ntiaj teb no no nawb". Ntuj tsim
teb raug Pog saub yeej hais tseg li ntawd.
Faj
Origin belief
(Redirected from Creation belief)· Have questions? Find out how to askFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
questions and get answers. ·Jump to: navigation, search
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality
standards.
Please improve this article if you can.(October 2006)
This article needs additional references or sources for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references.
Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
For scientific articles about the origins of the Earth, the Universe,
and Life see: formation and evolution of the solar system, Big Bang,
and Origin of life respectively.
Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and The First Men, showing part of a
Haida creation story. The Raven represents the Trickster figure common
to many mythologies. The work is in the University of British Columbia
Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.An origin belief, or creation myth,
is a supernatural story or explanation that describes the beginnings
of humanity, earth, life, and the universe (cosmogony). [1]
Origin beliefs are mytho-religious stories which typically explain the
beginnings of the universe as a deliberate act of "creation" by a
supreme being.
The term creation myth is sometimes used in a derogatory way to
describe stories which are still believed today, as the term myth may
suggest something which is absurd or fictional. While these beliefs
and stories need not be a literal account of actual events, they may
yet express ideas that are perceived by some people and cultures to be
truths at a deeper or more symbolic level. Author Daniel Quinn notes
that in this sense creation myths need not be religious in nature, and
they have secular analogues in modern cultures.
Many accounts of creation share broadly similar themes. Common motifs
include the fractionation of the things of the world from a primordial
chaos (demiurge); the separation of the mother and father gods; land
emerging from an infinite and timeless ocean; or creation ex nihilo
(Latin: out of nothing).
Some religious groups assert that their accounts of creation should be
considered alongside, supersede, or even replace scientific accounts
of the development of life and the cosmos. This assertion has proven
highly controversial (for one example, see creation-evolution
controversy).
Contents [hide]
1 Asia
1.1 Ainu
1.2 Hmong
1.3 Korea
1.4 Mansi
1.5 Mongol
1.6 Orok
1.7 Shinto
1.8 Taoism
1.9 Zen
2 Africa
2.1 Bakuba
2.2 Maasai
2.3 Mandinka
2.4 Voodoo
2.5 Yoruba
2.6 Zulu
3 Europe
3.1 Finnish
3.2 Greek (Classical)
3.3 Norse
4 India
4.1 Buddhist
4.2 Hindu
4.3 Jainism
4.4 Sikh
4.5 Surat Shabda Yoga
5 Pacific
5.1 Australian Aboriginal
5.2 Polynesian
5.3 Hawaiian
5.4 M ori
5.5 Tagalog
6 Middle East
6.1 Babylonian
6.2 Bahá'í
6.3 Egyptian
6.4 Hermeticism
6.5 Islam
6.6 Judeo-Christian
6.7 Mandaeism
6.8 Zoroastrianism
7 North America
7.1 Kiowa Apache
7.2 Aztec
7.3 Cherokee
7.4 Choctaw
7.5 Creek
7.6 Digueno
7.7 Hopi
7.8 Inuit
7.9 Iroquois
7.10 Lakota
7.11 Navajo
7.12 Ojibwa
7.13 Seminole
7.14 Tlingit
8 South America
8.1 Inca
8.2 Mayan
9 Modern
9.1 Evolutionary Spirituality
9.2 Mormonism
9.3 Raëlism
9.4 Randomness
9.5 Scientology
9.6 Wicca
10 See also
11 References
12 External links
[edit] Asia
[edit] Ainu
The Ainu people of Hokkaid recount the demiurge with a cosmology
consisting of six heavens and six hells where gods, demons, and
animals lived. Demons lived in the lower heavens. Amongst the stars
and the clouds lived the lesser gods. In highest heaven lived Kamui,
the creator God, and his servants. His realm was surrounded by a
mighty metal wall and the only entrance was through a great iron gate.
Kamui made this world as a vast round ocean resting on the backbone of
an enormous trout. This fish sucks in the ocean and spits it out again
to make the tides; when it moves it causes earthquakes.
One day Kamui looked down on the watery world and decided to make
something of it. He sent down a water wagtail to do the work. By
fluttering over the waters with its wings and by trampling the sand
with its feet and beating it with its tail, the wagtail created
patches of dry land. In this way islands were raised to float upon the
ocean.
When the animals who lived up in the heavens saw how beautiful the
world was, they begged Kamui to let them go and live on it, and he
did. But Kamui also made many other creatures especially for the
world. The first people, the Ainu, had bodies of earth, hair of
chickweed, and spines made from sticks of willow. Kamui sent Aioina,
the divine man, down from heaven to teach the Ainu how to hunt and to
cook.
[edit] Hmong
According to Hmong tradition, a long time ago the rivers and ocean
covered the Earth. A brother and sister were locked in a yellow wooden
drum. The Sky People looked out and saw the Earth. Everything was
dead. Only a yellow wooden drum was left on the water.
"Punch holes in the Earth so the water will drain away," said the King
above the Sky.
The water went down. Finally, the drum bumped against the ground. The
brother and sister came out of the drum and looked around. Everything
was dead.
"Where are the people?" asked the sister.
But the brother had an idea. "All the people on Earth are gone. Marry
me, we can have children."
"I can't marry you, we are brother and sister."
But he asked her again and again and she said, "No."
Finally the brother said, "Let's carry the grindstones up the hill and
roll them into the valley. If the stones land on top of each other,
then you shall marry me."
The sister rolled her stone and then, as soon as the brother rolled
his stone he ran as fast as he could down the hill and stacked the
stones on top of each other.
When the sister saw the stones she cried. Finally she said, "I will
marry you, because it was meant to be."
A year later the wife gave birth to a baby, but the baby was not a
real baby. It had no arms or legs. It was just round like a pumpkin.
The husband cut it up and threw the pieces away. One piece fell on the
garden and it became the "Vang" clan because "Vang" sounds like the
word for "garden" in Hmong. One piece fell on the goat house. Some
pieces fell on the leaves and grass and they became the other Hmong
clans. The Nhia, Mhoua, Pao, Ho, Xiong, Vue, and so on.
The next morning the village was full of houses. Everyone came to the
husband and wife and said, "Mother and father, come have breakfast
with us."
The husband said to his wife, "I asked you to marry me because all the
people on Earth were dead. Now these people are our family -- our sons
and daughters."
[edit] Korea
There were heavenly ones in the sky domain. JoMulJu created everything
in the universe, and the heavenly ones had their own kingdom. The son
of the Supreme Being (JoMulju) came to the Earth with ministers
(people and animals) who control wind, water, fire, etc, to govern the
Earth, as he is in fact a human being as well as some kind of deity. A
bear and a tiger wished to become humans. They prayed to the Supreme
Being, and he gave them 20 cloves of garlic and a handful of mugwort,
and told them to live in a dark cave for 100 days. The bear was
patient enough to withstand the hardship of the cave and the
starvation, but the tiger failed at the last minute and ran out of the
cave. The bear became a girl and wanted to have a child, so the son of
the Supreme Being married her. The son was Dangun who established the
kingdom of Korea.
[edit] Mansi
The traditional account of creation by the Mansi people of Siberia
involved two loons which dove to the bottom of primeval waters to
retrieve a piece of the bottom and placed it on top of the water. From
there the Earth grew. After a time, at the behest of his daughter, the
spirit of the sky ordered his brother, the spirit of the lower world
to create humanity. His brother made seven earthy, clay figures and
which were quickened by the gods' sister, Mother Earth.
[edit] Mongol
There is no singular Mongol account of the creation and the beginning
of the world, but from a variety of accounts from Mongol tribes of
Central Asia, a general outline can be made. The creation of the world
is attributed to a lama named Udan who is sometimes also conflated
with God or Buddha Sakyamuni by the tribes influenced by Tibetan
Buddhism. The primordial world is usually described as being covered
in darkness with no separation between earth and sky. The construction
of the cosmos proceeds in a variety of fashions. One account describes
ninety-nine golden columns holding apart the sky and earth. In this
description the world has three stories, the upper one being heaven
where gods and goddesses live, the middle one being earth where man
dwells, and the lower one being the place where man goes after death;
heaven (sky) is the father and earth is the mother of man, animals,
etc. Another narrative recounts that when the creator divided the
heaven and earth he created a nine-story heaven, a nine-story earth,
and nine rivers. In some accounts, the world first was a vast ocean,
but dust and sand rose to cover the ocean surface and become earth. In
another account, the land is placed on the back of a golden frog who
was pierced with arrows causing fire and water to spew from him at
various places
After the creation of the Earth itself, the first male and female
couple were created out of clay. They would become the progenitors of
all humanity. The various tribes and peoples were placed there with
different characteristics. In the north, the men were paired with ewes
as sexual mates and this was the spawn of the Mongol ethnicity while
the Han Chinese were the spawn of hens while the Dorbed and the Buryat
recount that they are the descendants of a coupling between hunters
and Swan Maidens.
Another account tells that in the beginning, seven suns rose in the
sky so that the rivers and vegetation on earth dried up, so the people
asked the archer Erkei-Mergen to shoot the suns out of the sky. The
archer shot down six, but while he was taking aim at the seventh a
martin flew in front of the sun and was shot in the tail. From then
on, the martin had a forked tail and there was a single sun remaining
in the sky. The archer was so distressed that he fled to the steppe,
cut off his thumbs in shame, and became the ancestor of the marmot.
[edit] Orok
The Oroks traditionally interpret the presence of sundogs such as this
to be evidence that three distinct suns used to reside in the sky. The
remaining present-day sun is located outside of the picture to the
right.The traditional creation narrative of the Orok people of
Sakhalin begins with three suns shining in the sky. The earth was
completely liquid, but the liquid was slowly diminishing and the earth
was hardening. Under the heat, cliffs and stones boiled. At that time,
on earth there were no living creatures except the family of a man
named Hadau. When the earth hardened, Hadau shot arrows at two suns
first killing the older sister sun with one arrow, and then the
younger sister sun with another leaving only the middle sun. Sundogs
are said to be the visible shadows of the two earlier suns, as if
imprints of one on each side. After this, Hadau created a family of
eagles and a family of ravens. Therefore upon seeing an eagle on a
hunt, the Oroks call him their elder (grandfather). The flight of
these birds allowed people to be dispersed across the Earth.
[edit] Shinto
See also: Japanese mythology
The god Izanagi and goddess Izanami churned the ocean with a spear to
make a small island of curdled salt. Two deities went down to the
island, mixed there, and bore main islands, deities, and forefathers
of Japan.
This short section requires expansion.
[edit] Taoism
See also: Chinese creationism
Tao is the nameless void, the mother of the Ten Thousand Things. Tao
is considered by Laozi to be that which eternally gives without being
depleted, and eternally receives without being filled. That which does
not exist for its own sake is able to endure.[2]
Taoist philosophy appears relatively late in Chinese history. In it,
Tao is described as the ultimate force behind the creation. With tao,
nothingness gave rise to existence, existence gave rise to yin and
yang, and yin and yang gave rise to everything. Due to the ambiguous
nature of this myth, it could be compatible with the first myth (and
therefore say nothing). But it could, like its antithesis, be
explained in a way to better fit the modern scientific view of the
creation of universe.
Another view is the relatively late myth of Pangu. This was an
explanation offered by Taoist monks hundreds of years after Laozi;
probably around 200 CE. In this story, the universe begins as a cosmic
egg. A god named Pangu, born inside the egg, broke it into two halves:
The upper half became the sky, the lower half became the earth. As the
god grew taller, the sky and the earth grew thicker and were separated
further. Finally the god died and his body parts became different
parts of the earth.
[edit] Zen
Everything and nothing are all interconnected, inseparable, a whole.
Zen denies that the person is the first cause. If it speaks of origins
at all, it says that the ground of being is the real first cause.
[edit] Africa
[edit] Bakuba
The Bakuba account of demiurge is as follows. Originally, the Earth
was nothing but water and darkness. Mbombo, the white giant ruled over
this chaos. One day, he felt a terrible pain in his stomach, and
vomited the sun, the moon, and the stars. The sun shone fiercely and
water steamed up in clouds. Gradually, the dry hills appeared. Mbombo
vomited again, this time the trees came out of his stomach, and
animals, and people , and many other things: the first woman, the
leopard, the eagle, the anvil, monkey Fumu, the first man, the
firmament, medicine, and lighting. Nchienge, the woman of the waters,
lived in the East. She had a son, Woto, and a daughter, Labama. Woto
was the first king of the Bakuba.
[edit] Maasai
The Maasai of Kenya in their creation narrative recount the origin of
humanity to be fashioned by the Creator deity from a single tree or
leg which split into three pieces. To the first father of the Maasai,
he gave a stick. To the first father of the Kikuyu, he gave a hoe. To
the first father of the Kamba, he gave a bow and arrow. Each son
survived in the wild. The first father of the Maasai used his stick to
herd animals. The first father of the Kikuyu used his hoe to cultivate
the ground. The first father of the Kamba used his bow and arrow to
hunt.
[edit] Mandinka
The traditional creation narrative of the Mandinka people of southern
Mali begins with Mangala, a singular, powerful being who is perceived
to be a round, energetic presence. Within Mangala existed four
divisions, which were symbolic of, among many things, the four days of
the week (time), the four elements (matter), and the four directions
(space). Mangala also contained two sets of dual gendered twins.
Mangala was tired of keeping all of this matter inside, so the god
removed it and compiled it into a seed. The seed was his creation of
the world. The seed however did not hold together well and blew up.
Mangala was disappointed with this and destroyed the world he created.
Mangala did not lose hope; the creator began again, this time with two
sets of twin seeds. Mangala planted the seeds in an egg shaped womb
where they gestated. Mangala continued to put more sets of twin seeds
in the womb until he had 8 sets of seeds. In the womb, the gestating
seeds transformed themselves into fish. The fish is considered a
symbol of fertility in the Mande world. This time, Mangala's creation
was successful. This is important, because it illustrates the idea of
dual gendered twinship, an idea that permeates Mande culture.
Mangala tried to maintain this perfect creation, but chaos crept in;
one of the male twins became ambitious and tried to escape from the
egg. This chaotic character is called Pemba. He is a trickster figure
whose first trick was to steal a piece of the womb's placenta and
throw it down. This action made the earth. Pemba then tried to
refertilize what was left of the womb, committing incest against his
mother, the womb.
Mangala decided to sacrifice Pemba's brother Farro to save what was
left of his creation. He castrated him and then killed him in order to
raise him from the dead. Mangala took what was left of the placenta
and transformed it into the sun, thus associating Pemba with darkness
and the night. Farro was transformed into a human being and was taught
the language of creation by Mangala. Farro's knowledge of words is
very powerful and the tool he used to defeat Pemba's mischief. Farro
and his newly created twins came to Earth and got married (not to each
other). This is the basis for the foundation of exogamy in Mande.
Next, a being named Sourakata arrived from the sky with the first
sacred drum, hammer, and the sacrificed skull of Farro. Sourakata
began to play on the drum and sang for the first rain to come.
Sourakata is a magical being who can control nature, and he taught
Farro and his followers.
[edit] Voodoo
Veve of DamballaDamballah (Sky-serpent loa and wise and loving Father
archetype) created all the waters of the earth. In the form of a
serpent, the movement of his 7,000 coils formed hills and valleys on
earth and brought forth stars and planets in the heavens. He forged
metals from heat and sent forth lightning bolts to form the sacred
rocks and stones.
When he shed his skin in the sun, releasing all the waters over the
land, the sun shone in the water and created the rainbow. Damballah
loved the rainbow's beauty and made her his wife, Aida-Wedo. (Aida-
Wedo represents the sky powers and is symbolized by the rainbow; wife
of Damballah, she shares his function as cosmic protector and giver of
blessing.)
The revelations of the loa (deity) descended upon the first faithful
in Ifé, a legendary city located in Nigeria. Therefore, everything in
life and all spiritual strength comes from Ifé. The homeland of all
voodoo devotees, where Ifé is located, is Ginen, from where they were
forced to flee in the African Diaspora. In death, the higher soul will
return to Ginen (the world of the dead, said to be under the water
below the earth) to reside with the loa and the ancestral spirits.
Because of this, all practitioners of voodoo refer to themselves as ti
guinin, sons or daughters of Ginen.
[edit] Yoruba
The Yoruba creator is called Olurun or Olodumare and is often assisted
by the lesser god, Obatala. In the beginning, there was only water and
chaos. The supreme being sent Obatala or Orishanla down from the sky
to create some land out of the chaos. He descended on a long chain
(umbilical cord) and brought with him a rooster, some iron, and a palm
kernel. First, he put the metal on the earth and the rooster on top of
that. The rooster scratched the metal and spread it out to create
land. Then he planted the palm seed and from it grew the earth's
vegetation. Olurun named earth "Ife" and the first city "Ile-Ife."
Orshilana created humans out of the earth and got Olurun to blow life
into them.
[edit] Zulu
The Ancient One, known as Unkulunkulu, is the Zulu creator. He came
from the reeds and from them he brought forth the people and the
cattle. He created everything that is: mountains, streams, snakes,
etc. He taught the Zulu how to hunt, how to make fire, and how to grow
food.
[edit] Europe
[edit] Finnish
Ancient Finns believed that the world was formed from egg that was
broken.
A bird was flying above the sea, seeking a place to make a nest and
lay her eggs. She searched everywhere, but found nothing but water.
Then she noticed the first dry place. In some stories it was an
island, in other stories it was a boat and in other stories it was a
body part of a floating being, like the wizard Väinämöinen. The place
was too unstable for a nest: a big wave came and broke the eggs,
spreading their parts all over. However the eggs were not wasted: the
upper part of egg covers formed the sky, yolk became the sun, and
lower parts of egg formed the mother earth. The first human was
Väinämöinen, he was born from the maiden of air Ilmatar that was made
pregnant by the sea. Väinämöinen ordered forests to be planted, and
started human culture.
[edit] Greek (Classical)
Main article: Greek mythology
Plato, in his dialogue Timaeus, describes a creation myth involving a
being called the demiurge.
Hesiod, in his Theogony, says that Chaos existed in the beginning, and
then gave birth to Gaia (the Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), Eros
(desire), Nyx (the darkness of the night) and Erebus (the darkness of
the Underworld). Gaia brought forth Ouranos, the starry sky, her
equal, to cover her, the hills, and the fruitless deep of the Sea,
Pontus, "without sweet union of love," out of her own self. But
afterwards, Hesiod tells, she lay with Heaven and bore the World-Ocean
Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and the Titans Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia
and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and Phoebe of the golden crown and
lovely Tethys. "After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most
terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire." Cronos, at
Gaia's urging, castrates Ouranos. He marries Rhea who bears him
Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Zeus and his
brothers overthrow Cronos and the other Titans, then draw lots to
determine what each of them will rule. Zeus draws heaven, Poseidon
draws the sea, and Hades draws the underworld. The Earth was contested
and no one of them had absolute sovereignty over it, as shown by
Poseidon's anger when Zeus forced him to leave the battlefield in the
Iliad.
[edit] Norse
The Voluspa opens with the Norse account of the creation of the
present universe :
Old tales I remember | of men long ago. I remember yet | the giants of
yore [...] Of old was the age | when Ymir lived; No Sea nor cool waves
| nor sand there were; Earth had not been, | nor heaven above, Only a
yawning gap, | and grass nowhere.
In the beginning there was nothing except for the ice of Niflheim, to
the north, and the fire of Muspelheim, to the south. Between them was
a yawning gap (the phrase is sometimes left untranslated as a proper
name: Ginnungagap), and in this gap a few pieces of ice met a few
sparks of fire. The ice melted to form Eiter, which formed the bodies
of the hermaphrodite giant Ymir and the cow Auðumbla, whose milk fed
Ymir. Auðumbla fed by licking the rime ice, and slowly she uncovered a
man's hair. After a day, she had uncovered his face. After another
day, she had uncovered him completely: Búri.
Ymir fathered Thrudgelmir, as well as two humans, one man and one
woman. Búri fathered Borr. Borr had three sons, Vili, Ve, and Odin,
who killed the giant Ymir. In the vast flood of Ymir's blood, both the
primordial man and woman died. Thrudgelmir was also drowned, although
not before he had fathered Bergelmir. Bergelmir hid in a hollow tree
trunk and survived. Odin and his brothers used Ymir's body to create
the universe : they ground his flesh into dirt, and the maggots that
appeared in his flesh became the dwarves that live under the earth.
His bones became the mountains, and Odin strew his brains into the sky
to create the clouds. The universe comprises nine worlds, of which
this earth (Mannheim) is central.
They placed the four dwarves Nordri (North), Sudri (South), Austri
(East), and Vestri (West) to hold up Ymir's skull and create the
heavens. Then using sparks from Muspelheim, the gods created the sun,
moon and stars. As Odin and two others (the Eddas say H?nir and
Lóðurr, these are thought to be kennings for Vili and Ve) walked along
the beach, they found two pieces of driftwood. From these, they
created the 'first' human beings (the previous two having drowned in
the flood of Ymir's blood), Ask and Embla. Ymir's eyebrows were used
to create a place where the human race could live in; a place called
Midgard.[1]
The gods regulated the passage of the days and nights, as well as the
seasons. Sol is the goddess of the sun, a daughter of Mundilfari, and
wife of Glen. Every day, she rides through the sky on her chariot,
pulled by two horses named Alsvid and Arvak. This passage is known as
Alfrodull, meaning "glory of elves," which in turn was a common
kenning for the sun. Sol is chased during the day by Skoll, a wolf
that wants to devour her. Solar eclipses signify that Skoll has almost
caught up to her. (It is fated that Skoll will eventually catch Sol
and eat her at the end of the world; however, she will be replaced by
her daughter.) Sol's brother, the moon Mani, is chased by Hati,
another wolf. The earth is protected from the full heat of the sun by
the dwarf Svalin, who stands between the earth and Sol. The flaming
manes of Arvak and Alsvid provide the light for the earth.
[edit] India
[edit] Buddhist
Buddhism generally ignores the question regarding the origin of life.
The Buddha regarding the origin of life has said "Conjecture about
[the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to
be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone
who conjectured about it."AN IV.77, and in regard to ignoring the
question of the origin of life the Buddha has said "And why are they
undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are
not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to disenchantment,
dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening,
Unbinding. That's why they are undeclared by me." MN 63. The Buddha
also compared the question of the origin of life - as well as many
other metaphysical questions - to the parable of the poison arrow: a
man is shot with a poison arrow, but before the doctor pulls it out,
he wants to know who shot it (arguing the existence of God), where the
arrow came from (where the universe and/or God came from) why that
person shot it (why God created the universe), etc. If the man keeps
asking these questions before the arrow is pulled out, the Buddha
reasoned, he will die before he gets the answers. Buddhism is less
concerned with answering questions like the origin of life, and more
concerned with the goal of saving oneself and other beings from
suffering by attaining Enlightenment, or Nirvana. However, the
esoteric Buddhist teaching, the Kalachakra Tantra, deals with the
formation and functioning of reality. Modern day Buddhists such as the
Dalai Lama don't perceive a conflict between Buddhism and science and
consider they are complementary means of understanding the world
around us.[2]
[edit] Hindu
In Hindu philosophy, the existence of the universe is governed by the
Trimurti of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer) and Shiva
(the Destroyer). The sequence of Avatars of Vishnu- the Dasavatara
(Sanskrit: Dasa-ten, Avatara-incarnation) is generally accepted by
most Hindus today as correlating well with Darwin's theory of
evolution, the first Avatar generating from the environment of water.
Hindus thus do not see much conflict between creation and evolution.
An additional reason for this could also be the Hindu concept of
cyclic time, such as yugas, or days of Brahma in approximately 4.3
billion year cycles (unlike the concept of linear time in many other
religions). In fact, time is represented as K lá Chakra, the wheel of
time.
In Hinduism, nature and all of God's creations are manifestations of
Him. He is within and without his creations, pervading the entire
universe and also observing it externally. Hence all animals and
humans have a divine element in them that is covered by the ignorance
and illusions of material or profane existence.
In earlier Vedic thinking, the universe was created by Hiranyagarbha
(here interpreted as 'the golden embryo') or by Prajapati who was born
from the Hiranyagarbha (here interpreted as 'the golden womb').
Prajapati was later identified with the puranic Brahma. Other gods are
credited with acts of creation, primarily the act of propping apart
the sky and the Earth - gods who are said to have done this include
Indra, Varuna and Vishnu. Another myth which began in late Rig-Vedic
times with the Purusha Sukta hymn was the story of the creation of the
universe from the remains of the primaeval cosmic male Purusha, who
had sacrificed himself or been sacrificed by other primaeval beings
(not the most popular Vedic gods because they were said to have been
born from Purusha after the sacrifice) at the Purushamedha yajna.
According to Hindu mythology creation happened gradually. The universe
in primitive form was made up of Ishwar Tattva, the Ishwar Tattva
primarily spread homogeneously throughout the universe.
[edit] Jainism
See also: Jainism and non-creationism
According to Jain beliefs, the universe was never created, nor will it
ever cease to exist. It is eternal but not unchangeable, because it
passes through an endless series of cycles. Each of these upward or
downward cycles is divided into six world ages (yugas). The present
world age is the fifth age of one of these "cycles", which is in a
downward movement. These ages are known as "Aaro" as in "Pehela Aara"
or First Age, "Doosra Aara" or Second Age and so on. The last one is
the "Chhatha Aara" or Sixth Age. All these ages have fixed time
durations of thousands of years.
When this reaches its lowest level, even Jainism itself will be lost
in its entirety. Then, in the course of the next upswing, the Jain
religion will be rediscovered and reintroduced by new leaders called
Tirthankaras (literally "Crossing Makers" or "Ford Finders"), only to
be lost again at the end of the next downswing, and so on.
(see: universe history section in the Jainism article.)
[edit] Sikh
See also: Sikhism
Sikhs believe that prior to creation, all that existed was God
(V higur ) and his will (hukam).[3] When God willed, the entire cosmos
was created. From these beginnings, God nurtured "enticement and
attachment" to m y , or the human perception of reality.[4]
[edit] Surat Shabda Yoga
Surat Shabda Yoga cosmology depicts the whole of creation (the
macrocosm) as being emanated and arranged in a spiritually
differentiated hierarchy, often referred to as eggs, regions, or
planes. Typically, eight spiritual levels are described above the
physical plane, although names and subdivisions within these levels
will vary to some extent by mission and Master. (One version of the
creation from a Surat Shabda Yoga perspective is depicted at the Sant
Ajaib Singh Ji Memorial Site in "The Grand Scheme of All Creation".)
All planes below the purely spiritual regions are subject to cycles of
creation and dissolution (pralya) or grand dissolution (maha pralya).
The constitution of the individual (the microcosm) is an exact replica
of the macrocosm. Consequently, the microcosm consists of a number of
bodies, each one suited to interact with its corresponding plane or
region in the macrocosm. These bodies developed over the yugas through
involution (emanating from higher planes to lower planes) and
evolution (returning from lower planes to higher planes), including by
karma and reincarnation in various states of consciousness.
[edit] Pacific
[edit] Australian Aboriginal
See also: Dreamtime and Dreaming
There is no single creation story among Aboriginal peoples, who have a
diverse mythology. Some traditions hold that the Earth was created by
one of the gods of the Dreamtime (see Dreaming), others that
particular creatures were created by particular gods or spirit
ancestors. More common is the view that although unformed, the Earth
itself was eternal.
This short section requires expansion.
[edit] Polynesian
Main article: Polynesian mythology
Polynesians believed that an all powerful god named Jamahara created
their land. He created a female god Fortunuk and had a son named
Bertrip who provided juice to all the meowchis.
This short section requires expansion.
[edit] Hawaiian
Main articles: M ui (mythology) and Kumulipo
For many months Pele followed a star from the northeast, which shown
brighter than the rest, and migrated toward it. One morning, Pele
awoke to the smell of something familiar in the air. In the distance
could be seen a high mountain with a smoky haze hiding its peak. Pele
knew she had found her new home. She named the island Hawai'i.
Pele, carrying her magic stick Pa'oa, went up to the mountain where a
part of the earth collapsed into the ground. She placed the stick into
the ground. Pele called this place Kilauea. Inside the Kilauea Crater
was a large pit. She named it Halema'uma'u, maumau being the fern
jungle surround the volcano. Halema'uma'u would be her new home.
There was a fire God living on Kilauea named 'Ailaau. He and Pele both
wanted Kilauea for their home. They started throwing fire balls at
each other, causing considerable damage. 'Ailaau fled and still hides
in the caverns under the earth. Pele alone would rule the Island of
Hawai'i. The people of the island loved and respected the Goddess
Pele. The egg her mother gave Pele hatched into a beautiful girl. Pele
named her new sister, Hi'iaka'i-ka-poli-o-Pele. Kamohoali'i, the shark
God taught Hi'iaka the art of surfing.
Pele fell in love with a man she saw in a dream. His name was Lohi'au,
a chief of the island of Kaua'i. Pele sent her sister Hi'iaka to fetch
Lohi'au on Kaua'i to bring him back to Hawai'i to live with Pele.
Hi'iaka would have forty days to bring Lohi'au back or Pele would
punish the girl by hurting Hi'iaka's girl friend Hopoe. Upon reaching
Kaua'i, Hi'iaka found Lohi'au dead. She quickly rubbed his body with
herbs and chanted to the Gods for help; bringing the young chief of
Kaua'i back to life. Grateful for Hi'iaka's help, Lohi'au agreed to
return with her to the Big Island.
The forty days had passed. Pele suspected that Hi'iaka and Lohi'au had
fallen in love and were not coming back. In her fury, Pele caused an
eruption which turned Hopoe into stone. On her return to Hawai'i with
Lohi'au, Hi'iaka found Hopoe, a statue in stone. Hi'iaka, filled with
sadness and anger decided to take revenge. Leading Lohi'au to the edge
of the Halema'uma'u crater where Pele could see them, Hi'iaka put her
arms around Lohi'au and embraced him. Furious, Pele covered Lohi'au
with lava and flames.
The two sisters, anger subsided, were remorseful. One lost a friend,
the other a lover. Pele decided to bring Lohi'au back to life to let
him choose which sister he would love. Pele was sure Lohi'au would
choose her. Lohi'au chose Hi'iaka. Pele, with aloha, gave the two
lovers her blessing and Hi'iaka and Lohi'au sailed back to Kaua'i.
Pele still lives on Hawai'i where she rules as the fire Goddess of the
volcanoes. The smell of sulphur reminds the natives that she is still
there in her home, Halema'uma'u, her fiery lava building a new island
to the south, still submerged, named Loahi.
[edit] M ori
The M ori creation myth tells how heaven and earth were once joined as
Ranginui, the Sky Father, and Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother, lay
together in a tight embrace. They had many children who lived in the
darkness between them. The children wished to live in the light and so
separated their unwilling parents. Ranginui and Papatuanuku continue
to grieve for each other to this day. Rangi's tears fall as rain
towards Papatuanuku to show how much he loves her. When mist rises
from the forests, these are Papa's sighs as the warmth of her body
yearns for him and continues to nurture mankind.
[edit] Tagalog
The Tagalog people believe that three deities were created from the
collision of the Sky (Langit) and the Sea (Linaw). They were Bathala,
who reigned over the Sky, Aman Sinaya, who reigned over the Sea, and
Amihan, the North Wind, who took over the realm in between.
Bathala and Aman Sinaya then became fierce rivals that led them to
fight each other. In one of their battles, Aman Sinaya sent a tempest
into the Sky to cause a commotion. Bathala threw giant boulders to
stop her. This caused thousands of islands to be created onto the
surface of the Sea (which became to be the Philippine archipelago). As
the situation worsened, Amihan decided to intervene. In a form of a
bird, Amihan flew back and forth between them causing the Sky and the
Sea to become closer than it was before. Soon, the two realms met and
both gods agreed to end the fight and become friends.
As a sign of friendship, Bathala planted a seed underneath the ocean
floor. It soon grew into a bamboo reed, sticking out of the edge of
the Sea. One day, Amihan flew by and heard voices, coming from inside
the reed. "Oh, North Wind! North Wind! Please let us out.", the voices
said. Amihan pecked the reed once, then twice, and all of a sudden, it
cracked open. Inside were two human beings; a male and a female.
Amihan named the man, Malakas ("strong"), and the woman, Maganda
("beautiful"). Both were flown then onto one of the islands where they
settled, built a house, and had millions of offsprings that populated
the Earth.
[edit] Middle East
[edit] Babylonian
The Babylonian creation myth is recounted in the "Epic of Creation"
also known as the Enûma Elish. The Mesopotamian "Epic of Creation"
dates to the late second millennium B.C.E.
In the poem, the god Marduk (or Assur in the Assyrian versions of the
poem) is created to defend the divine beings from an attack plotted by
the ocean goddess Tiamat. The hero Marduk offers to save the gods only
if he is appointed their supreme unquestioned leader and is allowed to
remain so even after the threat passes. The gods agree to Marduk's
terms. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat and destroys her. He then
rips her corpse into two halves with which he fashions the Earth and
the heavens. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets,
stars and regulates the moon, sun, and weather. The gods pledge their
allegiance to Marduk and he creates Babylon as the terrestrial
counterpart to the realm of the gods. Marduk then destroys Tiamat's
husband, Kingu using his blood to create mankind so that they can do
the work of the gods. (Sources, Foster, B.R., From Distant Days :
Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. 1995, Bethesda, Md.:
CDL Press. vi, 438 p., Bottéro, J., Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia.
2004, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. x, 246 p., Jacobsen, T.,
The Treasures of Darkness : A History of Mesopotamian Religion. 1976,
New Haven: Yale University Press. 273.)
[edit] Bahá'í
The founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh, wrote that the material
universe has always existed, though in a different form, and that the
Word of God was its generating impulse. He further writes that God's
Will expresses itself in the contingent world as nature, and that
creation in totality has neither beginning nor end. Bahá'í Writings
state that the material universe is only part of creation: there are
many "worlds of God". (Sources: Bahá'u'lláh, Lawh-i-Hikmat p140-142
[3], `Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace p47 [4])
[edit] Egyptian
There were at least three separate cosmogenies in Egyptian mythology,
corresponding to at least three separate groups of worshippers.
The Ennead, in which Atum arose from the primordial waters (Neith),
and masturbated to relieve his loneliness. His semen and breath became
Tefnut (moisture) and Shu (dryness), respectively. From Shu and
Tefnut, were born Geb (earth), and Nut (sky), who were born in a state
of permanent copulation. Shu separated them, and their children were
Ausare (Osiris; death), Set (desert), Aset (Isis; life), and Nebet Het
(Nephthys; fertile land). Osiris and Isis were a couple, as were
Nepthys and Set.
The Ogdoad, in which Ra arose, either in an egg, or a blue lotus, as a
result of the creative interaction between the primordial forces of Nu/
Naunet (water), Amun/Amunet (air), Kuk/Kauket (darkness), and Huh/
Hauhet (eternity). Ra then created Hathor, his wife, with whom they
had a son, Hor (Horus; in the form known as Horus the Elder), who was
married to Isis. This cosmogeny also includes Anupu (Anubis) as lord
of the dead, amongst others.
The third group, for whom Ptah was eternal and everlasting, and he
spake the world and all the gods into existence, in a similar manner
to Judao-Christian belief about their concept of God.
Over time, the rival groups gradually merged, Ra and Atum were
identified as the same god, making Atum's mysterious creation actually
due to the Ogdoad, and Ra having the children Shu and Tefnut, etc. In
consequence, Anubis was identified as a son of Osiris, as was Horus.
Amun's role was later thought much greater, and for a time, he became
chief god, although he eventually became considered a manifestation of
Ra.
For a time, Ra and Horus were identified as one another, and when the
Aten monotheism was unsuccessfully introduced, it was Ra-Horus who was
thought of as the Aten, and the consequent cosmogony this inspired.
Later, Osiris' cult became more popular, and he became the main god,
being identified as a form of Ptah. Eventually, all the gods were
thought of as aspects of Osiris, Isis, Horus, or Set (who was by now a
villain), indeed, Horus and Osiris had started to become thought of as
the same god. Ptah eventually was identified as Osiris.
A late version of the narrative has it that the Supreme Being (God)
was Atum-Raa and he uttered the words of creation to create the
Primordial water of Nu (The celestial Ocean) Naunet. Naunet contained
everything in embrionic form. From this, Atum-Raa uttered the words of
creation to bring life into the world. This life took the form of an
egg. From this egg came Raa, the light of God who caused all life to
come into existence. Raa was represented by the Egyptian solar disk
(also symbolised in Nordic, Germanic, Greek & Vedic tradition by a Sun
chariot as well as referenced by biblical texts Elijah (prophet)).
Raa, the light of God in nature, later became manifest on earth
through the disc of the sun (eten) & appeared in the form of Dosher -
the sunrise at the beginning of life on earth.
[edit] Hermeticism
In Hermeticism, the origin belief is not taken literally[citation
needed], but an attempt is made to understand it metaphorically. Not
all Hermeticists understand it in the same way, and it is mainly up to
personal understanding. The tale is given in the first book of the
Corpus Hermeticum by God's Nous to Hermes Trismegistus after much
meditation. Also, not all Hermeticists put much weight on the symbolic
texts, and may be unaware of the story.
It begins as God creates the elements after seeing the Cosmos and
creating one just like it (our Cosmos) from its own constituent
elements and souls. From there, God, being both male and female,
holding the Word, gave birth to a second Nous, creator of the world.
This second Nous created seven powers (often seen as Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and the Moon) to travel in circles and
govern destiny.
The Word then leaps forth from the matterializing elements, which made
them unintelligent. Nous then made the governors spin, and from their
matter sprang forth creatures without speech. Earth then was separated
from Water and the animals (other than Man) were brought forth from
the Earth.
The Supreme Nous then created Man, hermaphroditic, in his own image
and handed over his creation. Man carefully observed the creation of
his brother, the lesser Nous, and received his and his Father's
authority over it all. Man then rose up above the spheres' paths to
better view the creation, and then showed the form of God to Nature.
Nature fell in love with it, and Man, seeing a similar form to his own
reflecting in the water fell in love with Nature and wished to dwell
in it. Immediately Man became one with Nature and became a slave to
its limitations such as gender and sleep. Man thus became speechless
(for it lost the Word) and became double, being mortal in body but
immortal in spirit, having authority of all but subject to destiny.
The tale does not specifically contradict the theory of
evolution[citation needed], other than for Man, but most Hermeticists
fully accept evolutionary theory as a solid grounding for the creation
of everything from base matter to Man.[citation needed]
[edit] Islam
The creation narrative of Islam is split among many verses in the
Qur'an and among ahadith.
" When Allah created the Earth it began to oscillate, so He created
the mountains, ordered them onto it, and it became steady. [5] "
This short section requires expansion.
The Quran says that Allah formed the first man out of clay.[6] The
Muslim and Christian believe nearly match here with a few exeptions.
The muslims believe that: In the time before time, God was. And when
God wants to create something, all he needs to say is "Be", and it
becomes. So it was that God created the world and the heavens. He made
all the creatures, which walk, swim. Crawl and fly on the face of the
earth. He made the angels, and the sun, moon and the stars to dwell in
the universe. And consider, as the Qur'an says, how God poured down
the rain in torrents, and broke up the soil to bring forth the corm,
the grapes and other vegetation; the olive and the palm, the fruit
trees and the grass. Then it was that God ordered the angels to go to
the earth, and to bring seven handfuls of soil, all of different
colours, from which he could model man. God took the seven kinds of
earth and moulded them into a model of a man. He breathed life and
power into it, and it immediately sprang to life. And this first man
was called Adam. God took Adam to live in Paradise. In Paradise, God
created Eve, the first woman, from out of Adam's side. God taught Adam
the names of all the creatures, and then commanded the angel to bow
down before Adam. But Iblis, one amongst the angels, refused to do
this, and thus began to disobey God's will. God place the couple in a
beautiful garden in Paradise, telling them that they could eat
whatever they wanted except the fruit of on forbidden tree, But the
evil one tempted them to disobey God, and eat the fruit. When God knew
that Adam and Eve had disobeyed him, he cast them out of Paradise and
sent them to earth. But God is merciful. The earth was created to give
food, drink and shelter to the human race. The sun, moon and stars
give light. It is a good world, where everything has been created to
serve people. And people, the Qur'an teaches, should serve God and
obey his will. For those who submit to the will of God will be saved,
and taken to live for ever in Paradise.
The Muslim creation story is found in the Qur'an, and further
explained in various teachings given by Muhammad, which were collected
and are known as the Hadath. At the heart of the creation story is
something which Muslims all over the world hear every day in their
Call to Prayer - God is great. For Muslims believe there is only one
God who created everything. God's world is a good world, and when
people obey or submit to God then life is good. The word 'Islam' means
submission. Although God made humans superior to the rest of creation,
Muslims believe that this means humans have been given everything on
earth to care for and look after. The world is not ours to do with as
we want. The Qur'an teaches that Muslims should be thankful for all
living things, for God is the creator of all life.
[edit] Judeo-Christian
Creation of Light, by Gustave Doré. The painting depicts a literal
representation of Genesis 1:1 ("Let there be light").Main article:
Creation according to Genesis
Further information: Creation (theology) and Creationism
According to Judeo-Christian narrative, in the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. Throughout a period of six days, God
progressively created more facets of creation such as land, plant-
life, animals, and eventually humans. On the seventh day, he rested,
satisfied with His creation.
Human beings were created apart from animals in the image of God. The
first human being God created was a man named Adam. He did this by
shaping Adam from the dust of the earth and breathing life into him.
Adam was alone and God felt he needed a companion. So when Adam slept,
God took one of Adam's ribs and used it to created Eve, his wife and
the first woman.
Adam and Eve lived with God in the Garden of Eden as his faithful
companions. They did not experience suffering and they did not know of
good and evil. One day, they were tempted by a serpent (whom
Christians believe to have been Satan) to eat from the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil. God had demanded they not do this, but
Adam and Eve both ate. They became aware of evil, and for breaking
God's commandment were expelled from the garden of Eden.
While the scriptural narrative for the creation account in Judaism is
contained in the first chapters of Genesis, the notion of "Tzimtzum",
or God's retraction to make way for space and time, is a core element
to the Jewish approach to the First Cause notion, as explored by Rabbi
Moses Maimonides.
[edit] Mandaeism
According to the traditions of Mandaeism creation proceeds from a
supreme formless Entity, the expression of which in time and space is
creation of spiritual, etheric, and material worlds and beings.
Production of these is delegated by It to a creator or creators who
originated in It. The cosmos is created by Archetypal Man, who
produces it in similitude to his own shape. Inherent to this creation
is Dualism, taking the forms of a cosmic Father and Mother, Light and
Darkness, Right and Left, syzygy in cosmic and microcosmic form.
Instead of a large pleroma, the Mandaeans believe in a discrete
division between light and darkness. The ruler of darkness is called
Ptahil (similar to the Gnostic Demiurge), and the originator of the
light (i.e. God) is only known as "the great first Life from the
worlds of light, the sublime one that stands above all works". When
this being emanated, other spiritual beings became increasingly
corrupted, and they and their ruler Ptahil created our world.
[edit] Zoroastrianism
The Zoroastrian story of creation has Ahura Mazda creating 16 lands,
one by one, such that each would be delightful to its people. As he
finished each one, Angra Mainyu applied a counter-creation,
introducing plague and sin of various kinds. The dualistic idea of two
primordial spirits, called twins by Zoroaster, goes back to an Indo-
European prototype.
[edit] North America
[edit] Kiowa Apache
In the beginning nothing existed, only darkness was everywhere.
Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and
the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc
sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. When he
looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down
and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks
of dawn. To the west, tints of many colours appeared everywhere. There
were also clouds of different colors. He also created three other
gods: a little girl, a Sun-God and a small boy. Then he created
celestial phenomena, the winds, the tarantula, and the earth from the
sweat of the four gods mixed together in the Creator's palms, from a
small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean. The world was
expanded to its current size by the gods kicking the small brown ball.
Creator told Wind to go inside the ball and to blow it up. The
tarantula, the trickster character, spun a black cord and, attaching
it to the ball, crawled away fast to the east, pulling on the cord
with all his strength. Tarantula repeated with a blue cord to the
south, a yellow cord to the west, and a white cord to the north. With
mighty pulls in each direction, the brown ball stretched to
immeasurable size--it became the earth! No hills, mountains, or rivers
were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains appeared. Then the
Creator created the rest of the beings and features of the Earth.
[edit] Aztec
See also: Aztec mythology
Quetzalcoatl in human form, from the Codex Borbonicus.The Aztec
narrative describing creation proceeds with an Earth mother,
"Coatlique", the Lady of the Skirt of Snakes. She was decorated with
skulls, snakes, and lacerated hands. At first she was whole without
cracks in her body -- a perfect monolith (a totality of intensity and
self-containment, yet her features were square and decapitated).
Coatlique was first impregnated by an obsidian knife and gave birth to
Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, and to a group of male offspring,
who became the stars.
Then one day Coatlique found a ball of feathers, which she tucked into
her bosom. When she looked for it later, it was gone, at which time
she realized that she was again pregnant. Her children, the moon and
stars did not believe her story. Ashamed of their mother, they
resolved to kill her. During the time that they were plotting her
demise, Coatlique gave birth to the fiery god of war, Huitzilopochtli.
With the help of a fire serpent, he destroyed his brothers and sister,
murdering them in a rage. He beheaded Coyolxauhqui and threw her body
into a deep gorge in a mountain, where it lies dismembered forever.
This precipitated a great civil war in heaven which crumbled to
pieces. Coatlique fell and was fertilized, while her children were
torn apart by fratricide and them scattered and disjointed throughout
the universe. Who remained were Ometecutli and his wife Omecihuatl
that created life. Their children were: Xipe Totec the god of spring,
Huitzilopochtli the Sun god, Quetzalcoatl the "light one" and "plumed
serpent", and Tezcatlipoca, the "dark one" and god of night and
sorcery.
Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca saw that whatever they created was eaten
by Coatlique who floated in the abyss eating everything with her many
mouths. To stop her, they changed into two serpents and descended into
the water. One grabbed the goddess by the arms while the other grabbed
her by the legs, and before she could resist they pulled her apart
into different pieces. Her head and shoulders became the earth and the
lower part of her body the sky.
The other deities were angry at what the two had done and decided, as
compensation for her dismemberment, to allow her to provide the
necessities for people to survive; so from her hair they created
trees, grass, and flowers; caves, fountains, and wells from her eyes;
rivers from her mouth; hills and valleys from her nose; and mountains
from her shoulders.
Still the goddess was often unhappy and the people could hear her
crying in the night. They knew she wept because of her thirst for
human blood, and that she would not provide food from the soil until
she drank. So the gift of human hearts is given her. She who provides
sustenance for human lives demands human lives for her own sustenance.
[edit] Cherokee
In the beginning, there was just water. All the animals lived above it
and the sky was overcrowded. They were all curious about what was
beneath the water and one day Dayuni'si, the water beetle, volunteered
to explore it. He explored the surface but could not find any solid
ground. He explored below the surface to the bottom and all he found
was mud which he brought back to the surface. After collecting the
mud, it began to grow in size and spread outwards until it became the
Earth as we know it.
After all this had happened, one of the animals attached this new land
to the sky with four strings. The land was still too wet so they sent
the great buzzard from Galun'lati to prepare it for them. The buzzard
flew down and by the time that he reached the Cherokee land he was so
tired that his wings began to hit the ground. Wherever they hit the
ground a mountain or valley formed.
The animals then decided that it was too dark, so they made the sun
and put it on the path in which it still runs today.
[edit] Choctaw
The Choctaw who remain in Mississippi recount a narrative explanation
of how they came to the land where they live now and of how Naniah
Waiya Mound came to be. Chata and Chicksah, two brothers, led the
original people from a land in the far west that had ceased to
prosper. The people traveled for a long time, guided by a magical
pole. Each night, when the people stopped to camp, the pole was placed
in the ground and in the morning the people would travel in the
direction in which the pole leaned.
After traveling for an extremely long time, they finally came to a
place where the pole remained upright. In this place, they laid to
rest the bones of their ancestors, which they had carried in buffalo
sacks from the original land in the west. The mound grew out of that
great burial. After the burial, the brothers discovered that the land
could not support all the people. Chicksah took half the people and
departed to the North and eventually became the Chickasaw tribe.
Chatah and the others remained near the mound and are now known as the
Choctaw.
[edit] Creek
The Creek believe that the world was originally entirely underwater.
The only land was a hill, called Nunne Chaha, and on the hill was a
house, wherein lived Esaugetuh Emissee ("master of breath"). He
created humanity from the clay on the hill.
This short section requires expansion.
[edit] Digueno
The Digueno creation narrative tells of the beginning of creation with
the male sky coming down upon the female Earth. The extant deities
were weighed down by the sky being so close to the ground and all
walked with a stoop. To combat this problem, a creator deity, Tu-chai-
pai, separated the Earth from the heavens by blowing on rubbed tobacco
three times. He had his brother, Yo-ko-mat-is, do the same, and then
the two brothers placed the four cardinal directions at the ends of
the Earth. Tu-chai-pai then proceeded to create hills, valleys,
forests and lakes for the benefit of humanity. The brothers made men
easily but had trouble making women. Initially, human beings were not
subject to fatigue, but to prevent them from hurting themselves in the
dark they were made to sleep at night. Tu-chai-pai then made the Sun
and Yo-ko-mat-is made the moon to help humanity find the light they
were instructed to race towards.
[edit] Hopi
See also: Hopi mythology
The Elders say that the first Hopi had chosen to live in the barren
desert so that they would always need to pray for rain. Thus, they
would not lose faith in their ceremonies, which maintain their bond
with the Mother Nature and creator. They said that the True Hopi
people represent the Red race through the authority vested in them by
the Creator, Maasaw.
This short section requires expansion.
[edit] Inuit
The traditional account of the Inuit people is that the trickster in
the form of Raven created the world. When the waters forced the ground
up from the deep Raven stabbed it with his beak and fixed it into
place. This first land was just big enough for a single house occupied
by a single family: a man, his wife and their son, Raven who had fixed
the land. The father had a bladder hanging over his bed. After much
pleading by Raven the father allowed the boy to play with it. While
playing Raven damaged the bladder and light appeared. The father not
wanting to have light always shining took the bladder from the boy
before he could damage it further. This struggle is the origin of day
and night.
[edit] Iroquois
The Iroquois account of demiurge is that in the beginning there was no
earth to live on, only a watery abyss, but up above, in the Great
Blue, there was a community called the Sky World including a woman who
dreamed dreams.
One night she dreamed about the tree that was the source of light. The
dream frightened her, so she went and asked the men in the Sky World
to pull up the tree. They dug around the trees roots to make space for
more light, and the tree fell through the hole and disappeared. After
that there was only darkness. Distraught, they pushed the woman
through the hole as well. The woman would have been lost in the abyss
had not a fish hawk come to her aid using his feathers to pillow her.
The fish hawk could not keep her up all on his own, so he asked for
help to create some firm ground for the woman to rest upon. A
helldiver went down to the bottom of the sea and brought back mud in
his beak. He found a turtle, smeared the mud onto its back, and dove
down again for more. Ducks also brought beaksful of the ocean floor
and to spread over the turtle's shell. The beavers helped build
terrain, making the shell bigger. The birds and the animals built the
continents until they had made the whole round earth, while the woman
was safely sitting on the turtle's back. The turtle continues to hold
the earth on its back.
After this, one of the Spirits of the Sky World came down and looked
at the earth. As he traveled over it, he found it beautiful, and so he
created people to live on it and gave them special skills; each tribe
of the Iroquois nation was given special gifts to share with the rest
of humanity.
[edit] Lakota
The Lakota recount in their version of demiurge that the gods lived in
the heavens and humans lived in an underworld without culture.
Creation was initiated by Inktomi ("spider"), the trickster, who
conspired to cause a rift in the heavens between the Sun God
Takushkanshkan ("something that moves") and his wife, the Moon. Their
separation marked the creation of time. Some of Inktomi's co-
conspirators were exiled to the Earth where the gods of the four winds
were scattered and created space.
To populate the Earth, Inktomi traveled to the underworld in the form
of a wolf and met with humanity, telling them about a paradisical
world aboveground. Inktomi convinced a man named Tokahe ("the first")
to travel to the surface for a brief visit. When Tokahe emerged
through a cave (Wind Cave in the Black Hills), he found the world to
be strikingly beautiful. Returning to the underworld, Tokahe persuaded
other families to accompany him to the surface, but upon arrival they
discovered that the Earth was full of hardship. Inktomi had by this
time prevented humanity from returning below ground, so the families
had no choice but to scatter and eke out their livelihoods.
[edit] Navajo
See also: Navajo mythology
"Holy Supreme Wind" being created by the mists of lights arose through
the darkness to animate and bring purpose to the myriad Holy People,
supernatural and sacred in the different three lower worlds. All these
things were spiritually created in the time before the earth existed
and the physical aspect of man did not exist yet, but the spiritual
did. In the first world the insect people started fighting with one
another and were instructed by the Holy People to depart. They
journeyed to the second world and lived for a time in peace.
Eventually they fought with each other and were instructed to depart.
In the third world the same thing happens again and they are forced to
journey to the fourth world. In the fourth world, they found the Hopi
living there and succeeded in not fighting with one another or their
neighbors, and their bodies were transformed from the insect forms to
human forms. First man and First woman physically appear in the
narrative here by being formed from ears of white and yellow corn, but
they were also created back in the beginning. There is a separation of
male and female humans because each did not appreciate the
contributions of the other, and this laid the ground work for the
appearance of the Monsters that would start to kill off the people in
the next world. Coyote, the trickster, also appears and steals the
baby of water monster, who brings a great flood in the third world
which primarily forces the humans as well as Holy People to journey to
the surface of the fifth world through a hollow reed. Some things are
left behind and some things are brought to help the people re-create
the world each time they entered a new one. Death and the Monsters are
born into this world as is Changing Woman who gives birth to the Hero
Twins, called "Monster Slayer" and "Child of the Waters" who had many
adventures in which they helped to rid the world of much evil. Earth
Surface People, mortals, were created in the fourth world, and the
gods gave them ceremonies, which are still practiced today.
[edit] Ojibwa
When the Earth was young it had a family. The moon, or Grandmother and
the sun, called Grandfather. The Earth was a woman - Mother Earth -
because from her came all living things. Mother Earth was given four
directions - East, South, West, and North, each with physical and
spiritual powers.
When Mother Earth was young Creator, or Gitche Manitou as Ojibwa
people call him, filled her with beauty. He sent singers in the form
of birds and swimmers in the water. He placed plants, trees, insects,
crawlers and four-legged animals on the land.
Gitche Manitou then blew into four parts of Mother Earth using the
sacred megis shell. From the union of these four and his breath, two-
leggeds or man, was born. Thus, man was the last form of life to be
put on Earth. From this original man came the Anishinaabe - or The
Original People.
[edit] Seminole
The Seminole recount that when the Creator, the Grandfather of all
things, created the earth, he made all animals and birds and put them
in a large shell. When the earth was ready, he set the shell along the
backbone (mountains) of the earth. "When the timing is right," he told
the animals, "the shell will open and you will all crawl out. Someone
or something will crack the shell and you must all take your
respective places on the face of the earth." The Creator then sealed
up the shell and left, hoping the Panther (his favorite animal) would
be first to emerge.
Time went along, and nothing happened. Alongside the shell stood a
great tree. As time passed, the tree grew so large that its roots
started encircling the shell. Eventually a root cracked the shell. The
Wind started enlarging the crack and the Creator reached down to help
the Panther take its place on earth. Next to crawl out was the Bird.
The Bird had picked and picked around the hole, and, when the time was
right, stepped outside the shell. Bird took flight immediately. After
that, other animals emerged in different sequences: Bear, Deer, Snake,
Frog, Otter. There were thousands of others, so many that no one
besides the Creator could even begin to count them all. All went out
to seek their proper places on earth.
[edit] Tlingit
According to Tlingit tradition, creation proceeded with help from the
trickster figure of the raven. At the time there was no light or
water. Raven had to steal light from where it was hoarded in the house
of a rich man far up the Nass River, which was dry at the time. He
accomplished this by making himself small and getting the daughter of
the house to swallow him and become pregnant. When the child was born,
it cried for the bundles of light hanging on the wall of the house.
Finally, the family gave the raven the bundles of stars and moons to
soothe him each of which he let escape through the chimney and which
scattered across the heavens. He left with a box of daylight which was
the last bit of light the family owned.
Raven then proceeded to trick the man who owned the everlasting spring
of water into giving him a drink, but before he could escape through
the chimney, the man made a fire and blackened raven to his current
color. First, he spit out water creating the Nass Stikine, Taku,
Chilkat, the Alsek, and all the other large rivers. Smaller drops
created the salmon creeks.
Raven then proceeded to a town that had never seen daylight. The
people of the town quarreled with him, so raven decided to scare them
by opening his box of daylight. Upon seeing the Sun, the villagers
scattered, some to the ocean where they became sea creatures and some
to the forest where they became forest creatures.
Raven made the winds, the races, and dogs who were human beings that
Raven cursed to walk on all fours.
[edit] South America
[edit] Inca
See also: Inca mythology
Hand drawn image of Manco Capac, founder of the Incan empire and,
according to Incan custom, created along with the world.The Incan
account of creation is known based on what was recorded by priests,
from the iconography on Incan pottery and architecture, and the myths
and legends which survived amongst the native peoples. According to
these accounts, in the most ancient of times the earth was covered in
darkness. Then, out of a lake called Collasuyu (modern Titicaca), the
god Con Tiqui Viracocha emerged, bringing some human beings with him.
Then Con Tiqui created the sun (Inti), the moon and the stars to light
the world. It is from Inti that the Sapa Inca, emperor of Tawantin
Suyu, is descended. Out of great rocks Con Tiqui fashioned more human
beings, including women who were already pregnant. Then he sent these
people off into every corner of the world. He kept a male and female
with him at Cusco, the "navel of the world."
Con, the Creator; was in the form of a man without bones. He filled
the earth with good things to supply the needs of the first humans.
The people, however, forgot Con's goodness to them and rebelled. So he
punished them by stopping the rainfall. The miserable people were
forced to work hard, drawing what little water they could find from
stinking, drying riverbeds. Then a new god, Pachacamac, came and drove
Con out, changing his people into monkeys. Pachacamac then took earth
and made the ancestors of human beings..
The founder of the first dynasty of the kingdom of Cuzco was Manco
Capac. In one legend he was brought up from the depths of Lake
Titicaca by the sun god Inti. In another he was the son of Tici
Viracocha. However commoners were not allowed to speak the name of
Viracocha, which is possibly an explanation for the need for two
foundation legends.
In one myth Manco Capac was the brother of Pachacamac, both were sons
of the sun god Inti who is also known as Apu Punchau. Manco Capac
himself was worshiped as a fire and sun god. According to the Inti
legend, Manco Capac and his siblings were sent up to the earth by the
sun god and emerged from the cave of Pacaritambo carrying a golden
staff, called 'tapac-yauri'. They were instructed to create a Temple
of the Sun in the spot where the staff sank into the earth, they
traveled to Cusco via underground caves, and built a temple in honor
of the sun god Inti, their father. During the journey to Cuzco, one of
Manco's brothers, and possibly one of his sisters, were turned to
stone (huaca). In another version of this legend, instead of emerging
from a cave in Cuzco, the siblings instead emerged from the waters of
Lake Titicaca.
In the Tici Virachocha legend, Manco Capac was the son of Tici
Viracocha of Pacari-Tampu (today Pacaritambo, 25 km south of Cuzco).
He and his brothers (Ayar Anca, Ayar Cachi and Ayar Uchu) and sisters
(Mama Ocllo, Mama Huaco, Mama Raua and Mama Cura) lived near Cuzco at
Paccari-Tampu, and united their people and ten ayllu they encountered
in their travels to conquer the tribes of the Cuzco Valley. This
legend also incorporates the golden staff, which is thought to have
been given to Manco Capac by his father. Accounts vary, but according
to some versions of the legend, the young Manco jealously betrayed his
older brothers, killed them, and became the sole ruler of Cuzco.
[edit] Mayan
See also: Maya mythology
The Maya of Mesoamerica creation story is recounted in the book "Popol
Vuh". Tepeu and Gucamatz came together to create the world. Whatever
was thought of by Tepeu and Gucamatz came into being. Next for
creation are the creatures of the forest: birds, deer, jaguars and
snakes. They are told to multiply and scatter, and then to speak and
"pray to us". But the animals just squawk and howl. So Tepeu and
Gucumatz try to make some respectful creatures from mud. But the
results are not great, and they allow the new race to be washed away.
They call upon their grandparents, who suggest wood as an appropriate
medium. But the wooden people are just mindless robots, so Tepeu and
Gucumatz set about the destruction of this new race by means of a rain-
storm. This causes the animals to turn against the wooden people; even
their pots and querns rebel, and crush the peoples' faces. The wooden
people escape to the forests and are turned into monkeys. Heart-of-Sky
then make yet another attempt at creating a suitably respectful race,
and finally succeed by fashioning humans out of maize-corn dough.
[edit] Modern
[edit] Evolutionary Spirituality
Main article: The Great Story
"The Great Story", "the Story of the Universe", or "the Epic of
Evolution" are titles for the core belief of a social movement that
tells the history of the universe in a way that is simultaneously
scientific and sacred. It articulates the understandings of modern
science - especially the evolutionary sciences ranging from stellar
evolution to biological evolution and cultural evolution - as a sacred
creation story, much like the traditional creation myths passed down
through oral cultures and sacred texts.
[edit] Mormonism
Followers of the book of Mormon believe that physical reality (space,
matter and/or energy) is eternal, and therefore does not have an
absolute origin. The Creator is an architect and organizer of pre-
mortal matter and energy, who constructed the present universe out of
the raw material (demiurge). In addition to the pre-mortal
organization of the earth from existing matter, Joseph Smith taught
that "there is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is
matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by
purer eyes; we cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we
shall see that it is all matter." (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7,8) It
is also found in the Book of Abraham, a book in Mormon scripture,
tells that there were multiple Gods involved in the Creation, and it
can be inferred from the text that one of these is Jehovah[citation
needed], who would later be born as Christ, and Elohim, who is God the
Father.
[edit] Raëlism
Raëlism is a modern UFO religion founded by former motor racing
journalist Claude Vorilhon, in 1974. Raëlians believe that humanoid
aliens called Elohim, created both life on earth and the conditions
necessary to support it, through use of terraforming, genetic
engineering and nanotechnology.[7]
support Wikipedia by making a tax-deductible donation.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Hmong's version of creation.
- From: Tshajplaws
- Re: Hmong's version of creation.
- References:
- Hmong's version of creation.
- From: fajkhaum
- Hmong's version of creation.
- Prev by Date: Re: Moobmekas dlaag nyaj
- Next by Date: Re: Moobmekas dlaag nyaj
- Previous by thread: Re: Hmong's version of creation.
- Next by thread: Re: Hmong's version of creation.
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
