15. In the Beginning: Water - Part 2
This is the fifteenth article in the series From Particles to Angels. If you are interested in this article you should read the previous articles in the series in order, beginning with the first (On Happiness).
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."
The universe begins as a formless and empty darkness. The Hebrew תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (תֹהוּ (tóhu, “nothingness, void”) + בֹּהוּ (bóhu, “emptiness, desolation”), occurring together as תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tóhu vavóhu)) might be translated as either "void" or "chaos". In the last part of the sentence this void is described as deep waters. Should we interpret the above passage to mean the empty void exists after "God created the heavens and the earth", and that it was specifically "the earth" that was formless and empty? That this was not a void in the sense of a vacuum as we now conceive it, but rather it was void of form and order, thus "chaos"? Or should we take the first sentence as a preview of what is to come after the second? Perhaps the "earth was formless" in the second sentence because the creation of the earth described in the first sentence has not taken place yet. But the phrase "hovering over the waters" rather than within them seems to suggest a separation of heaven and earth has already taken place and that the earth is formless in the sense that it is only water with no dry land yet. Though heaven and earth have already been separated, the earth is yet to be given form. It is still in some kind of subtle, embryonic state. A Hindu creation myth, the Vayu Purana, begins with the following words.
"In the beginning, there was nothing in the universe. The brahman alone was everywhere. The brahman had neither color nor scent, it could not be felt or touched. It had no origin, no beginning or no end. The brahman was constant and it was the origin of everything that was destined to be in the universe and the universe was shrouded in darkness. When it was time for creation to begin, the brahman divided itself into three. The first part became Brahma, the creator of the universe. The second part was Vishnu, the preserver of the universe. And the third part was Shiva, the destroyer. At the time of creation, water appeared in the universe and the water was everywhere. In the water was created a golden egg that floated like a gigantic bubble. Brahma was born inside the egg. Since garbha means womb, Brahma came to be known as Hiranyagarbha ['golden womb' or 'golden egg']. Since he effectively created himself, he is also referred to as Svayambhu ['self-manifested']. Brahma had four faces. Also inside the egg were all the worlds that would be created, in embryonic form. The earth was there, with its land, mountains, oceans and rivers. The moon, the sun, the stars and the planets were there. Also present were gods, demons, humans and other living beings who would be created. This was the original creation of the universe"
The word "brahman" (ब्रह्मन्) can refer to a kind of universal principle, ultimate reality, cosmic soul, or as the name of a god. In the beginning there was nothing in the universe ... except for brahman who was everywhere. So that brahman himself constituted a kind of universal medium. Again, before further creation can take place, water must appear throughout the universe. Water is the raw material for substance. It is notable that brahman initially has no characteristics: "neither color nor scent, it could not be felt or touched" so that he was void of form, forms dissolved into formlessness. The first real object to come into being out of the waters is the egg, the symbol of the universe, of unity and wholeness. It represents the unit: 1. The unit emerges not from the zero (0), but from a state that is neither 1 nor 0, something or nothing. Within the egg, the vague and impersonal brahman becomes the definite and personal Brahma, who will be the instrument of further creation. There is, if you'll forgive it, a chicken-and-egg relationship between brahman/Brahma and the golden egg; where the egg emerges out of brahman and Brahma emerges out of the egg. Within the egg, and by implication the waters that preceded it, are the potential forms of everything that is to exist. The Hindu Rigveda tells a similar story: of when "the mighty waters came, containing the universal germ", "the floods containing productive force", the "lucid waters". But here the creator god is Prajāpati.
"In the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha ['golden womb' or 'golden egg'], born only Lord of all created beings. He fixed and holdeth up this earth and heaven.... Giver of vital breath, of power and vigour, he whose commandments all the Gods acknowledge - the Lord of death, whose shade is life immortal.... Who by his grandeur hath become Sole Ruler of all the moving world that breathes and slumbers; he who is Lord of men and Lord of cattle.... His, through his might, are these snow-covered mountains, and men call sea and Rasā [a river, a tributary of the Indus] his possession: his arms are these, his are these heavenly regions.... By him the heavens are strong and earth is stedfast, by him light's realm and sky-vault are supported: by him the regions in mid-air were measured.... To him, supported by his help, two armies embattled look while trembling in their spirit, when over them the risen Sun is shining.... What time the mighty waters came, containing the universal germ, producing Agni [the fire god], thence sprang the Gods’ one spirit into being.... He in his might surveyed the floods containing productive force and generating Worship. He is the God of gods, and none beside him.... Neer may he harm us who is earth's Begetter, nor he whose laws are sure, the heavens' Creator, he who brought forth the great and lucid waters.... Prajāpati! thou only comprehendest all these created things, and none beside thee. Grant us our hearts' desire when we invoke thee: may we have store of riches in possession."
The Vishnu Purana describes cycles of creation and destruction. The universe is born from an egg, "resting on the waters". The universe exists for a time and is then dissolved "into one vast ocean" upon which eventually the egg forms anew. The word translated here as indiscrete (अव्यक्त avyakta), is usually translated as "not manifest" or "devoid of form". The word translated here as "discrete" (व्यक्त vyakta), is usually translated as "manifest".
"Having combined, therefore, with one another, they assumed, through their mutual association, the character of one mass of entire unity; and from the direction of spirit, with the acquiescence of the indiscrete Principle, Intellect and the rest, to the gross elements inclusive, formed an egg, which gradually expanded like a bubble of water. This vast egg, O sage, compounded of the elements, and resting on the waters, was the excellent natural abode of Vishńu in the form of Brahmá; and there Vishńu, the lord of the universe, whose essence is inscrutable, assumed a perceptible form, and even he himself abided in it in the character of Brahmá. Its womb, vast as the mountain Meru, was composed of the mountains; and the mighty oceans were the waters that filled its cavity. In that egg, O Brahman, were the continents and seas and mountains, the planets and divisions of the universe, the gods, the demons, and mankind. And this egg was externally invested by seven natural envelopes, or by water, air, fire, ether, and Ahankára [अहंकार "ego"] the origin of the elements, each tenfold the extent of that which it invested; next came the principle of Intelligence; and, finally, the whole was surrounded by the indiscrete Principle: resembling thus the cocoa-nut, filled interiorly with pulp, and exteriorly covered by husk and rind. Affecting then the quality of activity, Hari [Vishnu], the lord of all, himself becoming Brahmá, engaged in the creation of the universe. Vishńu with the quality of goodness, and of immeasurable power, preserves created things through successive ages, until the close of the period termed a Kalpa; when the same mighty deity, Janárddana, invested with the quality of darkness, assumes the awful form of Rudra [Shiva], and swallows up the universe. Having thus devoured all things, and converted the world into one vast ocean, the Supreme reposes upon his mighty serpent couch [Shesha] amidst the deep: he awakes after a season, and again, as Brahmá, becomes the author of creation. Thus the one only god, Janárddana, takes the designation of Brahmá, Vishńu, and Śiva, accordingly as he creates, preserves, or destroys.
("The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, pp.93-4, Hindu)
We have seen previously (in the "Ouroboros" section of The Scientific Creation Myth) that between universes, Vishnu sleeps on the serpent Sesa that floats on the endless ocean.
"At the close of the previous Kalpa, the three worlds [Loka], Bhu [Earth], Bhuvar and Svar sank into complete darkness. There was one great terrible vast sheet of water. There were neither Devas and others nor the sages. There is that isolated place free from disturbance and trouble, Lord Narayana, the Supreme Person, resorted to the Couch of Sesa and slumbered. He assumed the form of one with thousand heads, thousand eyes, thousand feet, and thousand arms.... Once, when he was asleep, a divine and wonderful lotus that was the quintessence of the three worlds, shone in his umbilical region, for the sake of his diversion. It extended to a hundred Yojanas (1 Yojana = 12 Kilometres). It resembled the morning sun. It had divine fragrance.... While Sarngin (god Vishnu) was staying like this for a long time, Lord Hiranyagarbha (Brahma) came to that place.... Thereafter Visnu, the deity with the Lord of serpents, Sesa as his abode, ... spoke to Pitamaha (god Brahma, the grand-sire of the world). O excellent Purusa, ... enter my eternal abdomen and see all these wonderful worlds. After hearing the pleasing words of the Lord of Laksmi (i.e. Visnu) and approving of them, Kusadhvaja (i.e. Brahma) entered his belly.... Brahma, of truthful exploit, saw the self-same worlds stationed in the womb of the Lord. Ranging about, he did not see any limit of Hari. Then all the other openings were closed by the noble-souled Janardana and Brahma found an opening in the umbilical region. The deity born of Golden Egg entered it through his Yogic power. The four-faced Lord manifested himself out of the lotus."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 9 "Manifestation of the Lotus-Born Deity--Brahma",
"Obeisance to the all-pervading Lord Visnu who, enveloping and deluding the universe by Maya, reposes on the couch of Serpent Sesa and experiences the bliss of his soul through Yoga. Obeisance to that form of Sesa, who is the support of all and who always holds on his head the whole of the universe consisting of fourteen worlds."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 10 "The Creation by Rudra", p.82, Hindu)
Orphism was an ancient Greek religion.
"In the beginning time created the silver egg of the cosmos. Out of this egg burst Phanes-Dionysus.... For them [the Orphics] he was the first god to appear, the firstborn, whence he early became known as Protogonos ["first-born"]. He was bisexual and bore within him the seeds of all gods and men. He was also the creator of heaven and earth, of the sun, the stars, and the dwelling of the gods"
The following creation myth is from Ancient Egypt.
"The Book of knowing the evolutions of Ra, [and] of overthrowing Apep. The words of Neb-er-tcher [which] he spake after he had come into being. I am he who came into being in the form of Khepera, I was (or, became) the creator of what came into being, the creator of what came into being all; after my coming into being many [were] the things which came into being coming forth from my mouth. Not existed heaven, not existed earth, not had been created the things of the earth (i.e., plants), and creeping things in place that; I raised them up from out of Nu (i.e., the primeval abyss of water) from a state of inactivity. Not found I a place I could stand wherein. I worked a charm upon (or, with) my heart. I laid a foundation in Maa [and] I made attribute every. I was alone, [for] not had I spit in the form of Shu [air], not had I emitted Tefnut [moisture], not existed another who worked with me. I made a foundation in my heart my own (or, by means of my own will), [and] there came into being the multitude of things which came into being of the things which came into being from out of the things which came into being of births, from out of the things which came into being of their births. I, even I, had union with my clenched hand, I joined myself in an embrace with my shadow, I poured seed into my mouth my own, I sent forth issue in the form of Shu, I sent forth moisture in the form of Tefnut. Saith my father Nu, 'They make to be weak my eye behind them, because for double henti periods they proceeded from me after I became from god one gods three, that is from out of myself, [and after] I came into being in earth this. Were raised up therefore Shu [and] Tefnut in the inert watery mass wherein they were, brought they to me my eye in their train. After therefore I had united my members I wept over them, [and] came into being men and women from the tears [which] came forth from my eye, [and] it raged against me after it came [and] found [that] I had made another in its place. [I] endowed it with the power (or, splendor) which I had made. Having made to approach therefore its place in my face, afterwards therefore it ruleth earth this to its whole extent. Fall their moments (or, seasons) upon their plants, I endowed it with what it hath taken possession of in it. I came forth from (or, in the form of) the plants, creeping things all, [and] things which came into being all [are] in them. Give birth Shu [and] Tefnut [Seb] and Nut. Give birth Seb and Nut to Osiris, Horus-Khent-an-maati, Set, Isis, Nephthys from the womb, one after the other of them, they give birth [and] they multiply in earth this."
("The History of the Creation of the Gods and of the World. Version A" from
Ra is the sun god, serving as creator in this myth, in the form of Khepera, his "rising sun" form. Apep is the chaos serpent Apophis. E. A. Wallis Budge has the following to say about the god "Neb-er-tcher".
"The story of the Creation is supposed to be told by the god Neb-er-tcher. This name means the 'Lord to the uttermost limit,' and the character of the god suggests that the word 'limit' refers to time and space, and that he was, in fact, the Everlasting God of the Universe. This god's name occurs in Coptic texts, and then he appears as one who possesses all the attributes which are associated by modern nations with God Almighty."
("Legends Of The Gods" by E. A. Wallis Budge)
Ra describes his act of creating all that is; heaven and earth, things of the earth, and creeping things; as "I raised them up from out of Nu from a state of inactivity." Nu is the male personification of the primeval waters, so things come into being by being "activated" out of a previously inert state within the waters. "Maa" appears to mean "truth". The Eye of Ra was the disk of the sun and could act as an independent deity, in the form of one of Ra's consorts: Hathor, Sekhmet or Bastet. Previous versions of this myth had the god Atum in the role played here by Ra.
The Poetic Edda records Norse legends (that is, legends of the Vikings). The first giant Ymir lives in a void (yawning gap). Ymir was created by the river Elivagar ("ice waves") that was in the yawning gap.
("The Poetic Edda", Vafthruthnismol, 30-1, Iceland)
("The Prose Edda", Chapter IV, Norse)
("The Poetic Edda", Vafthruthnismol, 32-3, Iceland)
Now consider the muddy water you get in a river. You scoop out some of the muddy water with a jar, and then you let the jar stand. You come back later and you see the top part of the jar contains pure clear water, and the bottom part of the jar contains opaque silt. Between these two halves you see a thin cloudy region of translucent, suspended silt particles. You look again at the distant horizon and imagine the division of the universe into sea and sky, with a thin layer of vaporous clouds between, emerging in a similar fashion, from the chaos of uniform muddy water, the waters are ordered, the different kinds are separated out from one another, the finer waters rising, the heavier waters subsiding. With clear waters came visibility, and light.
"When on high the heaven had not been named, firm ground below had not been called by name, when primordial Apsu (sweet primeval waters), their begetter, and Mummu-Tiamat (salt primeval waters), she who bore them all, their waters mingled as a single body, no reed hut had sprung forth, no marshland had appeared, None of the gods had been brought into being, And none bore a name, and no destinies determined - then it was that the gods were formed in the midst of heaven. Lahmu ("slime," "mud") and Lahamu ("silt") were brought forth, by name they were called."
The ancient Mesopotamians defined two kinds of water: the bitter (or salt) waters were those of the ocean. The sweet waters were fresh water that emerged from springs of fell as rain. They thought the fresh water from springs came from a realm beneath the ocean, so that the land and the sea that encircled it, resided in a middle realm between a layer of fresh water below, and a layer of fresh water above, so that the universe was enveloped in fresh water with an air-filled space within; that is, the sky; separating the waters below from the waters above. Air, fresh water, salt water, silt, mud, earth; show increasing gradations of solidity. In the Egyptian creation myth, Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture) are the first entities created by Khepera from the primeval waters: air, moisture, water; showing a similar gradient of more or less wet.
A clear liquid solution may give rise to what is called a "precipitate". We are familiar with the term "precipitation" in reference to invisible water vapour collecting into visible raindrops in the air because of a drop in temperature. Solids can also emerge out of liquid solutions for a variety of reasons, and such solids are referred to as precipitates. For instance, two clear liquids of different chemical composition may form an opaque liquid, or a solid when they meet and mix. The solid particles then settle to the bottom. In Mysteries of Light - Part 1 and Mysteries of Light - Part 2 we learned about aether and the four primary elements of the ancients: fire, air, water, earth; and how these four corresponded to our ideas of solid, liquid, gas and radiant energy. "Aether" or "Akasha" may be described as a medium, or simply translated as "void" or "space". With these elements we have again gradations from more subtle (aether, radiant energy and air) to the less subtle and more solid (water and earth).
When natural philosophy (the precursor to science) began in ancient Greece, the philosophers argued over what was the fundamental medium of the universe out of which everything in the universe was made.
"Of the first philosophers, then, most thought the principles which were of the nature of matter were the only principles of all things. That of which all things that are consist, the first from which they come to be, the last into which they are resolved (the substance remaining, but changing in its modifications), this they say is the element and this the principle of things, and therefore they think nothing is either generated or destroyed, since this sort of entity is always conserved, as we say Socrates neither comes to be absolutely when he comes to be beautiful or musical, nor ceases to be when loses these characteristics, because the substratum, Socrates himself remains. just so they say nothing else comes to be or ceases to be; for there must be some entity-either one or more than one-from which all other things come to be, it being conserved. Yet they do not all agree as to the number and the nature of these principles."
One of the earliest, Thales (c.624 – c.546 BC), who has been referred to as the "father of science" and the "father of western philosophy" proposed that the fundamental medium was water.
"Thales, the founder of this type of philosophy, says the principle is water (for which reason he declared that the earth rests on water)...."
Anaximenes (c.585 – c.528 BC) and Diogenes (412 - 323 BC) "make air prior to water", while Hippasus of Metapontium (5th century BC) and Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.535 – c.475 BC) "say this of fire". ("Metaphysics" by Aristotle, 350 BC, Book 1, Part 3) The ancient gods were personifications of natural elements and phenomena. The cosmologies of early science stripped these myths of their personification of the natural elements and phenomena involved. Like the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians and Hebrews, the early ancient Greek philosophers such as Thales (c.624 – c.546 BC), believed the earth was flat; which raised the question: "What is supporting it from below?" Thales apparently suggested the land was floating on the ocean, so the bottom half of the universe was ocean, presumably ocean "all the way down".
Later ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plato (427 - 347 BC) and Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) believed the Earth was a sphere located at the centre of the universe. The Sun, Moon and stars revolved around it. So they believed the heavier elements, such as water and earth, had a natural inclination to move to the centre of the universe, while the lighter elements, such as fire and aether, had a natural tendency to move away from the centre of the universe. The philosopher Eratosthenes (c.276 BC - c.194 BC) had ingeniously calculated the circumference of the Earth to be about 44,450 kilometres, by comparing the lengths of the noonday shadows at Syene and Alexandria. The true figure is 40,075 kilometres. So all-in-all his estimation was quite accurate.
Water is continuous, and therefore represents well a universal medium, a continuum that can be more rarefied and subtle, or dense and solid. Water takes the shape of whatever is its container, so that it is a nice model for something that can take on any form, or from which any form can emerge. It is clear, colourless, tasteless, odourless and lacks solidity. So it is a good model for substance void of characteristics. Nowadays we treat density as how many discrete atoms are packed into a space, or how few. "Creation" of something is only a rearrangement of atoms previously constituting something else. So there is no real creation, just rearrangement. But the ancient creation myths describe matter as emerging out of the universal medium where previously there was no matter.
Stirring the ocean with a rod to create solid land also appears in a Japanese creation myth. The "Kojiki" (古事記 "Records of Ancient Matters") is the oldest extant Japanese chronicle, dating from the early 8th century AD. It contains a Shinto creation story. It first describes the creation of a trinity of deities: "in the Plain of High Heaven [Takamagahara (高天原) or Takama no Hara] when the Heaven and Earth began".
The creation of the world typically occurs at the centre of the world, so that the spear descending into the ocean also serves as an "axis mundi" ("world axis" or "universe axis"). The tree Yggdrasil in Norse mythology also serves as an axis mundi. So too the sacred Mount Meru in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology, "Shumisen" (須弥山, しゅみせん) in Japan (a "Shumisen stone" (須弥山石) is a feature of traditional Japanese gardens); and the mythical mount Kunlun (昆仑), source of the Yellow River in China and also called: "pillar of the sky" (and realm of the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu, 西王母)), and many other mountains. Temples and holy places in general can also serve as an axis mundi, connecting Earth to heaven. The axis mundi is likely derived from the axis of the Earth that the sun, moon and stars appear to revolve around (marked in the northern hemisphere by the pole star). The Chinese referred to this axis variously as Tianxin (天心, "heart of heaven"), Zhong Gong (中宮, "Central Palace"), and "Pivot of Heaven" (see also Buzhou Mountain (不周山) and Sun-and-Moon Mountain ("it is the pivot of Heaven")). In the Urantia Book the Isle of Paradise serves the purpose of axis mundi.
Once they had created Onogoro island the two deities descended onto the island and "saw to the erection of a heavenly august pillar ["amanomihashira" (天の御柱, あまのみはしら)], they saw to the erection of a hall of eight fathoms. Then Izanagi, the Male-Who-Invites, said to Izanami, the Female-Who-Invites, 'We should create children'; and he said, 'Let us go around the heavenly august pillar, and when we meet on the other side let us be united....'" ("The Kojiki or Records of Ancient Matters" in "The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East: Volume XIII Japan", translation by B. H. Chamberlain, p.16, Japan) The Kojiki then proceeds to describe the creation of all the islands of Japan. The idea of creation through churning the ocean appears in the following colourful excerpt from the Hindu "Mahābhārata". The gods seek to obtain ambrosia by churning the ocean with the giant serpent Ananta (Vāsuki), and a mountain (Mandara) fastened to a giant tortoise. They obtain the ambrosia, as well as poison and several other things.
"The gods then said to Brahmā, the giver of boons, ‘We are terribly tired, O Brahmā, all of us, and all the demons and supreme snakes, all except for the god Nārāyaņa, but no ambrosia has come forth. We have been churning this ocean for a long time.’ Then Brahmā said to the god Nārāyaņa, ‘Give them the strength, Viṣņu. You are our last resort.’ Viṣņu replied, ‘I grant strength to all who are engaged in this action. Churn the ocean-pot all together; twirl Mount Mandara.’ When they heard the words of Nārāyaņa they became strong, and all together violently stirred the milk of the great ocean once more. Then from the ocean there arose Soma, the calm moon, with its cool rays, and the sun of a hundred thousand rays. And immediately after this the goddess Śrī, dressed in white, appeared from the clarified butter; then the goddess of wine; then Uccaiḥśravas, the white horse of the sun; and then came the divine, shining Kaustubha gem for the chest of the blessed Nārāyaņa, blooming with rays, born of the ambrosia. And the great elephant Airāvata, with his enormous body and his four white tusks, came forth and was taken by the Wielder of the Thunderbolt. But as they continued to churn excessively, the terrible Kālakūta poison came forth and immediately enveloped the universe, blazing like a smoky fire; the poison paralysed the triple world with the smell of its fumes. The lord Śiva took the form of a sacred chant and held that poison in his throat, and from that time forth he has been known as Blue-throated; thus it is traditionally told. At the request of Brahmā and for the sake of protecting all people, Śiva swallowed the poison, and from it there arose the Eldest, her dark form adorned with every kind of gem. When, Śrī, Wine, the moon, and the horse swift as thought had come forth, the gods went on the path of the sun, the path that leads to immortality. And then the magic tree and magic cow that grant the fruits of all desires were born. At last, the god Dhanvantari came forth incarnate, holding a white pot in which the ambrosia was contained. When the demons saw this marvel they let out a great roar for the ambrosia, each crying, ‘It is mine!’ Then the lord Nārāyaņa took the form of Mohinī, a magic illusion of the marvellous body of a woman, and he went to the demons. As their minds were bewitched, they gave the ambrosia to him in his female form, for all the demons had their hearts set on her. The goddess who was made of the illusion wrought by Nārāyaņa held the bowl and gave it to the gods to drink, but although the demons were seated in a row she did not give it to them to drink."
(Excerpt from the "Mahābhārata" in "Hindu Myths:
There are also references to this episode of the churning of the "milk-ocean" and the emergence of Sri in the Kurma Purana. This scene is reminiscent of the birth of Venus. The "goddess Sri [Lakshmi], the beloved of Narayana, emerged (out of the sea) there while churning." ("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 1 "Salvation of Indradyumma", p.9)
The creation myth of the Maya of Central America has all the usual themes. The mythical idea of matter "gathered together" is akin to the gravitational attraction that gathers gas into nebulae, stars into galaxies, and dust into planets and solar systems. Biological evolution is a "gathering together" of raw materials from the environment to form an organism.
"This is the account of when all is still silent and placid. All is silent and calm. Hushed and empty is the womb of the sky. These, then, are the first words, the first speech. There is not yet one person, one animal, bird, fish, crab, tree, rock, hollow, canyon, meadow, or forest. All alone the sky exists. The face of the earth has not yet appeared. Alone lies the expanse of the sea, along with the womb of all the sky. There is not yet anything gathered together. All is at rest. Nothing stirs. All is languid, at rest in the sky. There is not yet anything standing erect. Only the expanse of the water, only the tranquil sea lies alone. There is not yet anything that might exist. All lies placid and silent in the darkness in the night. All alone are the Framer and the Shaper, Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent, They Who Have Borne Children and They Who Have Begotten Sons. Luminous they are in the water, wrapped in quetzal feathers and cotinga feathers."
(The Maya (Popol Vuh), Central America)
"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.' And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good."
(Genesis 1:3-11)
The theme of aggregation is here again with the waters "gathered together", but we also have the theme of separation: "God separated the light from the darkness" and "separated the waters". Here, a layer of air separates a layer of water above, from a layer of water below, or a bubble of air forms within the waters, like a bubble in lemonade. Moses likewise possessed the power of separating the waters when he parted the Red Sea to set free the Israelites. The waters were separating into distinct layers possessing different characteristics: aether, fire, air, water, earth; or light and darkness. The Quran (Koran) of Islam speaks of "separating" things out of water that serves as the raw material for creation.
"the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing"
In the creation myth of the Māori of New Zealand, Rangi (or Ranginui, "sky father") and Papa (or Papatuanuku, "earth mother") we locked in a loving embrace, so that their children lived in cramped darkness, trapped between the two bodies. One of their children, Tane, forced them apart by laying on his back pushing with his legs against Rangi. Their parents were torn apart. Their father, distant, high up into the sky, their mother supporting them. There was now space and light for their children, but their parents were saddened over their separation. Rangi's tears falling as rain, and Papa's body sometimes shaking in seismic tremors.
The Kojiki opens "when chaos had begun to condense" and "Heaven and Earth first parted".
"Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were not yet manifest, and there was nought named, nought done, who could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first parted, and the Three Deities performed the commencement of creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things. Therefore did he enter obscurity and emerge into light, and the Sun and Moon were revealed by the washing of his eyes; he floated on and plunged into the sea-water, and Heavenly and Earthly Deities appeared through the ablutions of his person. "
We saw above that the creator god Khepera who emerged out of Nu (the primeval waters) gave birth to Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). Shu and Tefnut give birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). Though they were brother and sister, Geb and Nut were also husband and wife. Shu (air) was often depicted standing on his son Geb (earth), with arms raised, holding up his daughter Nut (sky). Nut's naked body was sometimes depicted covered in stars.
A Chinese Taoist (Daoist) creation myth in the Huáinánzǐ (淮南子) describes the separation of what is "clear and light" and therefore "drifted up" from what "was heavy and turbid" to become Heaven and Earth. The masculine cosmic principle "yang" was associated with fire and the sun. The feminine principle "yin" was associated with water and the moon.
"Before Heaven and Earth had taken form all was vague and amorphous. Therefore it was called the Great Beginning. The Great Beginning produced emptiness, and emptiness produced the universe. The universe produced material force, which had limits. That which was clear and light drifted up to become Heaven, while that which was heavy and turbid solidified to become Earth. It was very easy for the pure, fine material to come together but extremely difficult for the heavy, turbid material to solidify. Therefore Heaven was completed first and Earth assumed shape after. The combined essences of Heaven and Earth became the yin and yang; the concentrated essences of the yin and yang became the four seasons; and the scattered essences of the four seasons became the myriad creatures of the world. After a long time the hot force of the accumulated yang produced fire, and the essence of the fire force became the sun; the cold force of the accumulated yin became water, and the essence of the water force became the moon. The essence of the excess force of the sun and moon became the stars, while Earth received water and soil."
(Huáinánzǐ (淮南子), China)
A native American creation myth of the Joshua tribe describes a familiar three layer transition of sky, fog, water; the coming of light and appearance of land in the water, as well as the theme of pairs.
"In the beginning there was no land. There was nothing but the sky, some fog, and water. The water was still; there were no breakers. A sweat-house stood on the water, and in it there lived two men,- Xowalaci (The Giver) and his companion. Xowalaci's companion had tobacco. He usually stayed outside watching, while Xowalaci remained in the sweat-house. One day it seemed to the watcher as if daylight were coming. He went inside and told Xowalaci that he saw something strange coming. Soon there appeared something that looked like land, and on it two trees were growing."
("Shasta and Athapascan Myths from Oregon"
collected by Livingston Farrand and edited by Leo J. Frachtenberg;
from "The Journal of American Folk-Lore", Vol. XXVIII, No. CIX, 1915, p.224,
Joshua tribe, Native American)
The creation myth of the Maidu tribe of North America incorporates an "axis mundi", a rope let down from heaven, down which a sun god climbs who would create dry land where "there was only water".
"In the beginning there was no sun, no moon, no stars. All was dark and everywhere there was only water. A raft came floating on water. It came from the north, and in it were two persons Turtle (A'noshma) and Father-of-the-Secret-Society (Pehe'ipe). The stream flowed very rapidly. Then from the sky a rope of feathers, called Po'kelma, was let down, and down it came Earth Initiate. When reached the end of the rope, he tied it to the bow of the raft, and stepped in. His face was covered and was never seen, but his body shone like the sun. He sat down, and for a long time said nothing. At last Turtle said, 'Where do you come from?' and Earth-Initiate answered, 'I come from above.' Then Turtle said, 'Brother, can not make for me some good dry land, so that I may sometimes come up out of the water?'"
("Maidu Myths" by Roland B. Dixon,
American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XVII, Part II, 1902, p.39,
Maidu tribe, Native American)
In the creation myth of the Jicarilla Apache, out of the initial chaos of "Darkness, Water, and Cyclone" 3 layers are created: sky, earth and underworld. These were created by "Hactcin", spirits who already existed in the darkness. The Earth was a living woman and called "Mother", who faces upwards; the sky a man called Father, who faces downwards.
"In the beginning nothing was here where the world now stands: no earth - nothing but Darkness, Water, and Cyclone. There were no people living. Only the Hactcin existed. It was a lonely place. There were no fishes, no living things. But all the Hactcin were here from the beginning. They had material out of which everything was created. They made the world first, the earth, the underworld, and then they made the sky. They made Earth in the form of a living woman and called her Mother. They made Sky in the form of a man and called him father. He faces downward, and the woman faces up. He is our father and the woman is our mother."
("Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians" by Edward Morris Opler, 1938, p.1,
Apache tribe, Native American)
Water in the religious creation myths, as a representative of primordial substance, encompasses both the material aspects of creation accounted for by elementary particles, forces and laws, light and dark; but also is a storehouse of all the "forms", the arrangements to come; arrangements like "galaxy", "carbon", "fish", "plant", "human being", "male", "female", "goodness", "mercy", "intelligence", trades such as "engineering", "agriculture", "war" or "kingship", "civilization". It is therefore a mystical substance, a union of substance, form, idea and personality. Simple material elements may appear out of the source, like a precipitate forming from a liquid solution, or silt settling out of cloudy water, leaving "earth" below and pure water above. More complex forms precipitate out of the source, forming the simple elements into complex forms, so that by stages, the original form is recreated in its offspring. Material forms may be equated with spiritual qualities, so that light and dark are equated to good and evil.
In Greek mythology, Zeus and his siblings were the children of the Titans Cronus (Cronos, Kronos, "god of the harvest") and Rhea. The Titans were the children of Uranus (god of the sky) and Gaia (goddess of the Earth). Gaia, who gave birth to her husband Uranus, came from Chaos. In the Greek religion of Orphism, Chronos was the unaging god of time. He was "engendered" by "earth and water" (that is, he was the offspring of Hydros (the primordial waters) and Gaia), and he produced Aether, Chaos and the egg from which the god Phanes emerged. It is easy to confuse the god Chronos (Khronos, Chronus) with Cronos, not least because they both carry a sicle or sythe. Chronos' consort was his sister Ananke, personification of necessity and inevitability or compulsion. In this creation story the first 3 entities are Hydros (the primordial waters), Thesis (goddess of creation, sometimes identified with the goddess Metis or the Titan Tethys) and Mud, which solidifies to become Gaia.
In Hinduism, Kala is time.
"Thus, Brahma, the elements (or all living beings) and even Vasudeva [Krishna] and Sankara [Shiva] are created by Kala (time). He alone devours them again. This Lord Kala is beginningless, endless, free from old age or decay and immortal. He is the Supreme Ruler because of his omnipresence, independence and his state of being the soul of all. There have been many Brahmas, Rudras, Narayanas and others, but there is one Lord controller of all viz. Kala. He is omniscient."
"By becoming Kala (Time), this absolute, unsullied great god Siva creates the entire Universe, protects it and destroys it. This eternal one created you Brahma and gave the Vedas unto you. It is that Sankara who comes here. O great-grand-sire of the universe, understand me to be only another form of his--the form that is eternal, the source of origin of the universe and is designated as Vasudeva."
"It is Kala (Time) that creates the living beings. It is he who annihilates the subjects. Everything is subservient to Kala, but Kala is not subordinate to any one.... Kala, the wielder of Maya [illusion], is the Lord of all these potencies, the lord of destruction (and creation). Kala does everything. It is Kala alone that annihilates everything. Kala establishes the Universe. This whole Universe is dependent on Kala."
In Zoroastrianism Time is the uncreated eternal Creator. Time produced fire and water and these "intermingled" to produce the god Ohrmazd, who was "bright, pure, of a fragrant smell, beneficent and powerful in connection with all goodness". But when Ohrmazd "looked into the lowest abyss, he saw Ahriman ..., black, filthy, stinking, and maleficent."
"It is thus manifest in the religion of Zoroaster: except Time all other things have been created and Time is the Creator. Time is without bounds; its top is undiscoverable; its bottom is undiscoverable; it has always existed and it shall ever be. He who is endowed with wisdom will not say whence came Time and on account of all its greatness, there was no one who could call it the Creator: Why? because, it had not made the creation. Then it produced fire and water and when these intermingled, Ohrmazd came into existence. Time is as will the Creator as the Master in relation to the creation produced by him. Now Ohrmazd was bright, pure, of a fragrant smell, beneficent and powerful in connection with all goodness. And when he looked into the lowest abyss, he saw Ahriman at 96,000 farsangs, black, filthy, stinking, and maleficent. It appeared very strange to Ohrmazd that this was a terrible enemy. When Ohrmazd saw that enemy, He thought that He must remove this enemy from the midst and thought of the various means. He thought out all this and began. What Ohrmazd does, He does with the assistance of time. All good indispensable in Ohrmazd was established in Him. Ohrmazd created the Time of Long Endurance, which is reckoned to be of 12,000 years. He connected therewith the celestial sphere, its chart and the heavens. As to the twelve constellations which are fixed in the sphere, every one of them has its duration for 1000 years. The spiritual work was accomplished in the period of 3000 years. Aries, Taurus, and Gemini completed this work — each in one constellation of 1000 years. Then Ahriman lifted up his head so that he might fight with Ohrmazd. He saw an army formed in battle array and rushed to hell. Thereafter he formed an army of the filth, darkness and stench which were in him. How was this possible? There is much to be said about its import. The drift of it is that he had not the power to do anything and even rushed forth to hell. On account of the truthfulness he saw on Ohrmazd, he could not move about for 3000 years, so that during these 3000 years, the work of this world was accomplished. The promotion of the world devolved on Cancer, Leo, and Virgo, and there is much to be said on this subject.
"However, we shall say a few words about its import. As regards the creation of the world, He first created the heavens which reached, to the extent of 576,000,000 farsangs, upwards to Garothman (heaven) which was over the heavens. After 45 days, the sky was created. After 60 days, water; after 75 days, the earth; and after 30 days, large and small vegetation was produced; and after 80 days, cattle and Gayomard (the first human) were created and after 75 days, Adam and Eve were created; in one year of 365 days, the aggregate of all these was made and when the arrangement had devolved on Cancer, Adam and Eve had been created. When these 3000 years which have been mentioned elapsed, men, the earth, and the other creatures which have been mentioned had come into existence. Again the wicked Ahriman began to stir and perforated the sky, the mountain, and the earth, and rushed forth into the world, and whatever there was in the world, he polluted with his own wickedness and filth, and he had no control over the spiritual substances, he made warfare in the world for 90 days and nights. The heavens rent asunder and the spirits came to the assistance of the world. They seized seven worst demons, carried them to the celestial sphere and bound them there with a spiritual chain. Ahriman inflicted a thousand diseases on Gayomard so that he dies and several things came into existence from him. There is much to be said as to the import of this."
(Ulama-I Islam: 8-19)
Zoroastrianism influenced Gnosticism, a religion that appeared during the early days of Christianity. It continued the theme of light versus dark.
"Then I said, 'Who are you?' 'I am,' he said, 'Poemander, the mind of the Great Lord, the most Mighty and absolute Emperor: I know what you would have, and I am always present with you.' Then I said, 'I would Learn the Things that are, and Understand the Nature of them, and know God.' 'How?' said he. I answered, 'That I would gladly hear.' Then he, 'Have me again in your mind, and whatever you would learn, I will teach you.' When he had thus said, he was changed in his Idea or Form and straightaway in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me: and I saw an infinite Sight, all things were become light, both sweet and exceedingly pleasant; and I was wonderfully delighted in the beholding it. But after a little while, there was a darkness made in part, coming down obliquely, fearful and hideous, which seemed to me to be changed into a Certain Moist Nature, unspeakably troubled, which yielded a smoke as from fire; and from where proceeded a voice unutterable, and very mournful, but inarticulate, insomuch that it seemed to have come from the Light. Then from that Light, a certain Holy Word joined itself to Nature, and out flew the pure and unmixed Fire from the moist Nature upward on high; it is exceedingly Light, and Sharp, and Operative withall. And the Air which was also light, followed the Spirit and mounted up to Fire (from the Earth and the Water) insomuch that it seemed to hang and depend upon it. And the Earth and the Water stayed by themselves so mingled together, that the Earth could not be seen for the Water, but they were moved, because of the Spiritual Word that was carried upon them. Then said Poemander to me, 'Do you understand this Vision, and what it means?' 'I would know,' I said. Then he said, 'I am that Light, the Mind, your God, who is before that Moist Nature that appeared out of Darkness, and that Bright and Lightful Word from the Mind is the Son of God.'"
(Corpus Hermeticum: Poimandres)
The Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah seeks to reconcile the existence of evil with a divine plan which is good. In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life:
"The Central Pillar is Shekinah. It is the peace in particular between the light of the right side and that which in another place is called the darkness of the left [Zohar: Bo 16].... The Middle Pillar is otherwise the Master of the House. It is said of the right arm that it draws the immensity of space in love, like the arm of the male drawing the female. The law of faith is on the right side. The left arm draws the immensity of space in rigour. The serpent constitutes the left arm and thence emanates the impure spirit. It is the side of water and the side of sadness.... A day will come when the left side shall disappear and good will obtain only.... [T]he Middle Pillar draws the right and left sides, the good and evil together, in which union evil dissolves as such and the good obtains entirely under the name of Benignity--which is that of the Middle Pillar. It is a question of transmutation."
("The Holy Kabbalah" by A. E. Waite, pp.201-3)
"Come and behold, 'Now there was a day when the sons of Elohim came to present themselves before Hashem' [Job 1:6], as explained that it was on Rosh Hashanah. For on that day, two sides are before the world. All those who come before the Holy One, blessed be He, with repentance and good deeds, merit to be written on that side which is Life, which brings out the effects of life. And whoever is from its side is recorded for Life. All those who come with evil actions are written on the Other Side, which is Death. It is called 'death', and in it death dwells, to kill people."
(Zohar: Bo 21)
"Hashem" (השם) means "the name" and is used in place of the name of God. "Rosh Hashanah" (ראש השנה "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. In this model, instead of light above and dark below we have darkness and light side by side, but in a progress in which the dark is gradually shed. In The Scientific Creation Myth we saw that there was a good serpent (from the Tree of Life), and a bad serpent (from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). If we wrap these around a central pillar (representing Shekinah, the primeval ocean and Mother goddess), in an evolutionary progress, we have a caduceus.
"The Eden story contains one snake and two trees. In Greek myth the God Hermes (the Western Kabbalah tradition is called 'hermetic') creates a magical healing staff of two serpents wound around one stick. This 'caduceus,' as the Greeks called it, still appears as the symbol of the medical profession. So, mythologically, a snake can poison us, but snakes also can heal us. The human body itself is a kind of caduceus. The tradition of yoga describes the basic life energy, called kundalini, as a snake coiled at the base of the spine. But when the energy awakens, the description changes to two streams of snakelike energy, called ida and pingala, that wind around the spine like Hermes' caduceus."
("The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth" by Rachel Pollack, pp. 24-25)
For the meditator, his own body serves as the axis mundi. It may internally represent a microcosm of the universe and contain gods within it. The chakras and sephirot represent spiritual achievements in a wholistic balance. "Spiritual development", for the meditator, corresponds to a process of visualising that you are working your way up through the various energy centres toward divinity. As the Hindu serpent Sesa "upholds the golden egg of the universe", and as the serpent is coiled around the base of the tree of life or the universe tree, so in Tantric meditation the Kundalini serpent is coiled around the base of the spine and the meditator seeks to elevate and transform it. By exiting the top of the head at the crown chakra, the meditator transcends physicality and becomes a Buddha. Beyond the crown sephirot of the Kabbalistic tree awaits endless light.
"And in the pyramid of Pepi I. we read.... 'Thou hast given him the Ladder of God, and thou hast given him the Ladder of Set, whereon this Pepi hath gone forth into heaven.... Every khu and every god stretcheth out his hand unto this Pepi when he cometh forth into heaven by the Ladder of God... that which he seeth and that which he heareth make him wise, and serve as food for him when he cometh forth into heaven by the Ladder of God.... Pepi hath gathered together his bones, he hath collected his flesh, and Pepi hath gone straightway into heaven by means of the two fingers of the god who is the Lord of the Ladder....' His bones are the gods and goddesses of heaven; his right side belongs to Horus, and his left side to Set."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. lxxi-lxxii)
"That the heavens, or the skies, were considered to be a Face is evident from many allusions. Thus the Sun is frequently called 'Eye of Horus,' and the Moon is also an 'Eye of Horus,' the Sun being the right eye, and the Moon the left...."
In their efforts to bring order to their religious symbolism, light and dark came to represent good and evil respectively. Men had claimed the sun as their own symbol, giving the moon (the lesser light) to women. At first, night and day, black and white, light and dark had both represented legitimate and largely benign principles, either of which might hold dangers, and forming harmonious complements. But in the simplistic moral absolutism that was to develop, the queen of the night came to resemble Lilith, handmaid of Satan. This trend predates Christianity. It was already present in the gradual demonization of the Egyptian Set, god of the night. In monotheism there is room for only one god, thus the god of light. Relationships that had once been represented through the interaction of pantheistic gods, might then have been absorbed into the character of the one God. But this is no easy matter. So that the one God as he developed, was to be free of shadow. Instead, a universal Devil, akin to that found in Zoroastrianism, came to account for all shadow. The figure of Lucifer, as a result of his rebellion, came to be the bearer of all sin and suffering in the universe, leaving God's hands clean.
"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things."
(Isaiah 45:7)
"God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."
(1 John 1:5)
Operating in parallel with this tradition of nuanceless absolutism, and largely in secret for their own protection, have been various mystical traditions seeking to find a way to meaningfully integrate the light and shadow of God's universe, in a process known in some circles as "individuation". These efforts tend to be seen by the absolutists as tendencies to alloy evil with good, while these same absolutists are casually blind to the irony of their own countless acts of unspeakable cruelty committed to keep good pure of evil. Projecting their own evil instead out into the environment in the form of lurking devils and dire threats to society, justifying the need for a kind of spiritual, if not also a physical martial law.
For those who praise their own purity like the Pharisees of old, who are unwilling to see any evil in themselves are usually all too willing to see evil in everyone else. That is why investigating your own shadow (the plank in your own eye), treating sceptically your own virtue so that you may learn of your own true impulses is so important, so that in your zeal to destroy the world's demons you are not merely acting out your own.
The process of reconciliation and integration of opposites is meant to illicit higher states of understanding and constitutes an expanding embrace of the universe. The effort is speculative and may include attempts to redeem symbols and mythologies of the past. Though the pursuit of this ideal might lead to many blind alleys, as in the case of science, understanding is sought through a process of trial and error, in an effort to solve a profound puzzle, the search for meanings.
Human beings aspire to reach heaven, and for some this striving defines their lives. At the same time, heaven reaches down to assist them with a kind of divine outflow that develops and elevates the willing creature. This common endeavour forms a bond and a bridge between heaven and earth, the proverbial stairway to heaven.
"This tradition is represented in the famous 'Dance of the Four Directions', performed by five male voladores, or flyers. Five men climb to the top of a thirty-meter pole. One of them remains at the top playing a drum, while the other four, tied by an ankle, jump and rotate thirteen times as they come down. The fifth, or central element of the quincunx, is associated with the tree of life, an important concept in all world religions, stemming from agrarian societies and representing the Great Mother archetype."
("The Return to Coatlicue: Goddesses and Warladies in Mexican Folklore"
1 May (May Day) is a traditional spring festival. The "May Pole" is a long standing and widespread practice in European culture. It is thought to be of Germanic origin. If it originally had a meaning it has been lost.
May Day celebrations (set roughly mid-way between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice) are a somewhat toned-down version of the ancient Roman "Floralia", a spring festival in honour of the goddess Flora (Greek Chloris).
"I was about to ask why these games are marked by greater wantonness and broader jests; but it occurred to me that the divinity is not strait-laced, and that the gifts she brings lend themselves to delights.... A rakish stage fits Flora well; she is not, believe me she is not, to be counted among your buskined goddesses. The reason why a crowd of drabs frequents these games is not hard to discover. She is none of your glum, none of your high-flown ones: she wishes her rites to be open to the common herd; and she warns us to use life’s flower, while it still blooms: for the thorn, she reminds us, is flouted when the roses have fallen away."
A variation on the May Pole is the "May tree". In Hungary the Májusfa ("May tree", or májfa "liver tree") is "the symbol of the rebirth of nature.... The mulberry trees with ribbons, handkerchiefs, flowers, full glass wine, eggs, etc." (Hungarian ethnographical lexicon III. (K-NE). Főszerk. Gyula Ortutay. Budapest.)
Another example of a pole with cords hanging from it is the Tibetan khaṭvāṅga (the name means "bed post"), derived from the Hindu kapalikas ("skull-bearers").
"It consists of a long eight-sided white sandalwood shaft, which is sealed at its base with a single-pointed or half-vajra, and crowned at its top with a crossed-vajra, a golden vase, a freshly severed head, a decaying head, a dry skull, and a surmounting vajra or flaming trident. From the crossed-vajra and vase hang a long silk ribbon and usually one or two hanging threads, which bear emblems of a sun and moon, a triple banderole [banner], and a damaru [drum] and bell.
"As a symbol of the consort, the khatvanga is held in the crook of the left arm.... In its outer symbolism the khatvanga represents the physical universe of Mt Meru.... The vase represents Mt Meru itself, and its four leaf-shaped pendants, the four faces of Mt Meru. The open top of the vase represents Indra's palace at the summit of Mt Meru, which has a visualized wish-granting tree at its center.... The flowing white silk ribbon, which is tied around the vase, represents Mt Meru's encicling moutains and the great salt ocean. The triple banderole represents the victory banner on Mt Meru's summit; the sun and moon emblems represent these planets circling Mt Meru's summit; and the damaru and bell symbolise the union of method and wisdom.
"In its inner symbolism the ... billowing white silk ribbon represents the various Buddhist teachings adapted to the needs of different disciples. The triple banderole, colored yellow, red, and blue, represents the union of the three vehicles, Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The hanging damaru and bell represent the teachings of method and wisdom, and the 'auspicious conjunction' of the crescent moon and sun signifies the full realization of method and wisdom."
("The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols", by Robert Beer, pp. 102-104)
The streamers flow down from on high from Mount Meru like rivers out of Eden, carrying the divine teachings that lead us on the ascent.
"Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell."
"Many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.' The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.... The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever."
(Micah 4:2-7)
"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
(Hebrews 12:22)
"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God."
For the Tantric Buddhist, the "tree of life" might refer to the wish-granting tree (Parijata) on Mount Meru, over which the Hindu gods fight, or it might refer to the "Refuge tree", consisting of the "Three Jewels": the Buddha, the Buddhist teachings (Dharma), and the monastic order of Buddhist monks and nuns (Sangha), which are referred to collectively as "refuge". The refuge tree may be visualised as part of some meditation practices.
The Djed of ancient Egypt "represents four pillars, i.e., the four quarters of heaven, or the whole universe. As a religious emblem it symbolizes the god Osiris." ("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 357, footnote 2.) As a hieroglyph 𓊽 it has the meaning: "stability".
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Djed
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In the Kabbalistic creation myth, in the beginning is "Ein Sof Ohr" ("endless light"). At the commencement of creation 10 Sephirot ("emanations", attributes of God or psychological faculties of the soul) appeared or separated out of the endless light. The first to appear was Adam Kadmon ("Primordial Man"), the realm of Divine Will. From Adam Kadmon came the four spiritual worlds.
The notion of emanation is also found in Neoplatonism.
"All existences, as long as they retain their character, produce - about themselves, from their essence, in virtue of the power which must be in them - some necessary, outward-facing hypostasis continuously attached to them and representing in image the engendering archetypes: thus fire gives out its heat; snow is cold not merely to itself; fragrant substances are a notable instance; for, as long as they last, something is diffused from them and perceived wherever they are present."
Instead of an evolutionary procession considered from sub-atomic particles to atoms, to molecules, to organisms; we have an evolutionary process from a single substance or being containing all potential forms, separating into two distinct substances or beings, each containing half of all potential forms, etc.
It is a hierarchy reaching out from the highest to the lowest, like the roots of a tree, so that the simplest elements are arrived at finally through a process of subtraction of characteristics, like passing through a series of filters. The simplest elements are governed by a few simple rules. Whereas god may be and do anything, matter is completely bound by its few rules.
"The Way conceals itself in being nameless. The Way begets the one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures"
Mōdraniht ("Night of the Mothers") was an event held by the Anglo-Saxon pagans at what is now called Christmas Eve. Yuletide ("Yule time") was and is a festival observed by the Germanic peoples at the Winter solstice (about December 21).
"The modern Christmas tree, though, originated in western Germany. The main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a 'paradise tree,' a fir tree hung with apples, that represented the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung wafers on it (symbolizing the Eucharistic host, the Christian sign of redemption); in a later tradition the wafers were replaced by cookies of various shapes. Candles, symbolic of Christ as the light of the world, were often added."
The modern Christmas tree can stand in for the traditional world tree / axis mundi / Mount Meru, joining Earth to Heaven. A star or angel at the apex of the tree can stand for Heaven itself.
Emanation is also a form of separation and division. Part of the original radiates out, and each time it divides there is less of the original, so that there is a descent from highest to lowest forms and entity. This descending hierarchy constitutes a kind of ladder. The role of the adept is to climb this hierarchy. We learned about "Jacob's Ladder" in the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1.
“Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
(John 1:51)
"Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay."
(Daniel 2:31-33)
The Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis were frequently represented with the headdress of a sun disk resting between two horns. Hathor sometimes also appeared in the form of a cow, again with horns and a sun disk between them. The sun disk was Ra (Re), the sun god, Hathor's brother and consort. As Isis rose to prominence, she inherited some of the older Hathor's iconography.
The god Thoth was sometimes represented with a moon disk on his head, and this moon disk rested on an upturned crescent moon so that the crescent moon appeared like a pair of horns. Khonsu (the Egyptian god of the moon) likewise was depicted with a moon disk resting on an upturned crescent moon on his head. So that the crescent moon was treated interchangeably with a pair of horns.
In other contexts, instead of horns, the disk might be enclosed by a pair of wings forming a crescent.
Or the crescent itself forming a disk.
This usage of the crescent moon as a pair of horns seems to appear again in the case of Astarte (Astoreth), a form of Ishtar, and definitely in the case of the lunar deities Selene and the virgin huntress Diana.
In the flag of the Ottoman empire, the symbol has fallen on its side, losing its symmetry and its horn associations, acquiring instead a Pac-Man effect.
For an early representation of a star within a crescent moon see the Ur-Nammu stela (c. 2112 - 2094 BC) (for instance, see figure 1 in: A Monumental Puzzle: Reconstructing the Ur-Nammu Stela). For a representation of a 5-pointed star within a crescent moon, see a boundary stone of Nebuchadnezzar I (c. 1146 - 1123 BC), found at Nippur, Iraq. Now at the Penn Museum (object 29-20-1). The star (Venus) represents the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, and the crescent moon the god Nanna/Sin. See an example of a winged star on a crescent moon from a Syrian cylinder seal (c. 1820 – 1730 BC.) here (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). A star under a downturned crescent moon was the Egyptian Hieroglyph for the word "month".
"Keel enumerated over 100 depictions of the Near Eastern god represented by the crescent moon affixed atop a pole in his exhaustive work 'Goddesses and Trees, New Moon and Yahweh.' Nearly exact copies of the Bethsaida stele have been found at sites in Syria and Southern Turkey - a staff topped by a bull's head whose horns form the crescent moon. Scholars point to a lengthy tradition of theriomorphic - generally bovine - depictions of the moon god Sin-Nanna in Mesopotamian cultures. To the ancient Mesopotamians, the 'horns of a bull or cow were seen to match the pointed curve of the waxing and waning crescents so exactly that the powers of the one were attributed to the other, each gaining the other's potency as well as their own,' writes Jules Cashford in her book 'The Moon: Myth and Image.'"
("New moon takes the bull by the horns", by Ilan Ben Zion,
In Catholic iconography, the virgin Mary is frequently depicted as standing on a crescent moon, presumably to demonstrate her superiority over these other gods and goddesses.
Before moving on to the next section (The Earth Diver) I want to indulge another speculative flight. The plausibility of what we have considered so far in this section can be treated independently of what now follows.
We speak of being on the "horns of a dilemma" when confronted with a choice between only two options that are equally unpleasant. A pair of horns, like a fork in the road, or a fork in a tree branch, offer a natural metaphor for a pair of options and (we may speculate) duality in general. If we treat the crescent moon as interchangeable with a pair of horns it inherits the same associations. The form of the crescent moon is also akin to the torc, having two ends (see the Ouroboros section of The Scientific Creation Myth). In the transition from the full moon to the crescent moon, we therefore have a nice illustration of unity (1) evolving into duality (2), and back again, with the waxing and waning of the moon. Duality is obtained by hiding some of the unity. It therefore represents the very first fork in the road out of formless chaos, the first bifurcation in the ever branching tree of creation.
As the lunar disk becomes the crescent it also implies the ring, reminding us of the ouroboros, but with a bulge on one side. We might speculate that the crescent shaped tiara and the wedding ring served as lunar symbols.
The ancients early on gave their gods and goddesses horns to symbolise their power, and it is easy to imagine the ancients using horns for this simple purpose, but symbols are not limited to a single meaning, this is part of their value. If I dream about X and X has a similar shape to Y, then this superficial association is enough to cause me to dream about Y, even if the two have nothing else in common. So a crescent moon may also become a symbol of power simply because it looks like a pair of horns. These associations form bridges and a unifying principle between the disparate objects we find in the world around us, bringing order and unity to the universe. Which is the essence of the scientific and philosophical impulse. Giving goddesses cow horns eventually fell out of fashion, the more dainty crescent Moon preferred instead. If questions about unity and duality seem overly sophisticated for the ancients, consider that they early discovered the pairs of opposites: male and female, sun and moon, hot and cold, light and dark, good and evil, and were much preoccupied with organising the elements of the universe according to these dualities. Today some languages classify nouns by gender (in French for instance "dusk" (une aube), "summer" (l’été) and "the rocket" (la fusée) are all feminine nouns, while "water" (l’eau), "the garden" (le jardin) and "the beach" (la plage) are all masculine nouns). The same principle is at work when Earth and sky are treated as opposites with one being associated with a male god, while the other is associated with a goddess (though which is which varies from one culture to another). It is why Chinese traditional medicine is so preoccupied with hot and cold. That the ancients were concerned with unifying these opposites is implied by the circle surrounding the yin/yang, or treating the Sun and Moon as a pair of eyes in a single face, or in a sexual union between Earth and sky, or having a single object standing between a pair of objects that are mirror images or opposites of each other, or by entwining a pair of serpents. The ancients had minds much like our own, just a lot less history to draw on. A sun between a pair of bull's horns, a full moon or star between the horns of a crescent moon, or indeed if the two arms of the crescent themselves form the outline of a circle, a staff or a column or a penis/omphalos/egg/lingam or a man or a woman or a god or a goddess between a pair of snakes might all bear related meanings concerned with unity and duality, harkening back to the caduceus inspired considerations in The Scientific Creation Myth. The human body itself consists of two halves that are mirror images of each other yet form a single whole, but we take this image so much for granted that we fail to see its significance. So these contrived symbols serve as reminders and material for speculation and meditation in the search for balance, wisdom and grace.
"Many witches [Wiccans] and other neo-pagans believe in the 'Triple Goddess' of maiden, mother, and crone that originated with the first neo-pagans in mid-twentieth-century England." ("Teaching New Religious Movements", edited by David G. Bromley, p.214. See also "New Age and Neopagan Religions in America", by Sarah M. Pike, p.131.) The full moon represents woman in her fullness (mother), the waxing moon (maiden) prior to acquiring her fullness, and the waning moon (crone) as fading from her fullness. But the crone also represents the wise old woman, so that the dissolution of the physical also represents a transition into a spiritual state and a return to the source. This stands as a general model of emergence, being and dissolution. We might also see this represented in the 19th century German painting of "The Three Fates" by Paul Thumann that appeared in: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1.
If we relate this back to our duality-unity-duality model, where the full moon represents unity and the crescent moon duality, this symbol represents a knitting together of the creature from multiplicity, via duality to unity, only to dissolve, via duality back into multiplicity. Which seems to imply disintegration and destruction into its constituent atoms. The cyclic symbol shows the evolution of the material body, where the individual life of the person appears to be represented by only a single instance of the cycle, replaced by the next generation and a new cycle. The same model applies to everything that comes and goes in the course of a single life, and that life itself is part of a larger coming and going. This interpretation of the symbol may suggest in turn the double helix. Two strands come together. Two strands come apart. The axis DNA spirals around is a void. So too, particle/antiparticle pairs emerge from and return to the void. The human being encompasses all three: left, right and the void between, forming a new unity. The two strands of DNA in turn suggest the image we are familiar with from The Scientific Creation Myth article: the pair of entwined serpents.
We need not seek sophisticated explanations for symbols. They are arrived at naively. One thing reminds us of another thing. Today, due to our scientific knowledge, we have lost the ability to see the crescent Moon as anything but the Moon lit from a certain angle. It might at most represent incompleteness in relation to the full Moon. Our literal waking minds have lost some of the imaginative flexibility they once had, where superficial associations inspire deep thoughts. Symbols of power are those connected to deep-seated concerns, conscious or not. What is more fundamental to our universe than the commingling of opposites? What more fascinating and powerful than their union.
It is not difficult to imagine that the first metaphysical speculations of prehistoric humans was on the mystical significance of the first three natural numbers: 1, 2 and 3, and that they sought support for these in familiar concrete examples. That is not to suggest the popular motifs had these or any other meaning for the many who used them for decoration.
"Turtle was gone a long time. He was gone six years; and when he came up, he was covered with green slime, he had been down so long. When he reached the top of the water, the only earth he had was a very little under his nails; the rest had all washed away. Earth-Inititae took with his right hand a stone knife from under his left armpit, and carefully scraped the earth out from under Turtle's nails. He put the earth in the palm of his hand, and rolled it about till it was round; it was as large as a small pebble. He laid it on the stern of the raft. By and by he went to look at it: it had not grown at all. The third time that he went to look at it, it had grown so that it could be spanned by the arms. The fourth time he looked, it was as big as the world, the raft was aground, and all around were mountains as far as he could see. The raft came ashore at Ta'doiko, and the place can be seen to-day."
("Maidu Myths" by Roland B. Dixon,
American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XVII, Part II, 1902, p.40,
Maidu tribe, Native American)
A supernatural being bringing earth up from beneath the water, is a common enough theme in creation stories that, like the "axis mundi", there is a technical term in the study of mythology to refer to it. It is called the "earth diver". A few more examples follow. The creation story of the Blood tribe of North American Blackfoot Indians proceeds in the following way.
"Napioa, the Old Man, floated upon a log in the waters, and had with him four animals: Mameo, the fish; Matcekupis, the frog; Maniskeo, the lizard; and Spopeo, the turtle. He sent them down into the waters in the order named, to see what they could find. The first three descended, but never returned; the turtle, however, arose with his mouth full of mud. Napioa took the mud from the mouth of the turtle, rolled it around in the hollow of his hand, and in this manner made the earth, which fell into the waters, and afterward grew to its present size."
("Blackfoot Mythology" by J. MacLean, from The Journal of American Folklore, 1883, p.165)
The Huron are a Canadian nation of Indians.
"The tortoise directed them all to dive to the bottom of the sea and endeavour to bring up some earth. Many attempted it,--the beaver, the musk-rat, the diver, and others,--but without success. Some remained so long below that when they rose they were dead. The tortoise searched their mouths, but could find no trace of earth. At last the toad went down, and after remaining a long time rose, exhausted and nearly dead. On searching his mouth the tortoise found in it some earth, which he gave to the woman. She took it and placed it carefully around the edge of the tortoise's shell. When thus placed, it became the beginning of dry land. The land grew and extended on every side, forming at last a great country, fit for vegetation. All was sustained by the tortoise, which still supports the earth."
("Huron Folklore" by Horatio Hale in The Journal of American Folklore
The "Negritos" are natives of the Malay peninsula.
"[A]t first only Pedn and Manoid his wife existed. The sun was already there, but not the earth. Then Tahobn, the dung-beetle, made the earth by pulling it out of the mud. The sun dried it and made it firm. When Pedn and Manoid saw the earth they descended to it."
("The Negritos of Malaya" by Ivor N. Evans, 1937, p.160)
The Altai Tartar live in Siberia.
"When there was no earth and no Heaven, but only water, Ulgen ('the Great'), according to an Altai Tartar tale, descended upon the water to create the earth. He thought and thought but could not conceive how to begin. Then 'Man' came to him. Ulgen asked: 'Who art thou?' 'I also came to create land,' answered Man. God became angry and said: 'Even I cannot create, how couldst then thou?' Man remarked: 'But I know where to get earth-matter from.' God urged him to get some, whereupon Man dived immediately into the water, finding at the bottom of the ocean a mountain, from which he wrenched a piece and put it in his mouth. Arriving again on the surface Man gave God a part of it. The other part remained in his mouth between his teeth. When at last he spat it out, the swamps and bogs appeared on the face of the earth."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.314-5)
The Yakuts, also of Siberia, have the following tales.
"In the beginning there was nothing but water, God and the 'First Man' moved about in the shape of two black geese over the waters of the primordial ocean. The devil, however, could not hide his nature, but endeavoured ever to rise higher, until he finally sank down into the depths. Nearly suffocating, he was forced to call to God for help, and God raised him again into the air with the power of his word. God then spoke: 'Let a stone rise from the bottom of the ocean!' When the stone appeared, 'Man' seated himself upon it, but God asked him to dive under the water and bring land. Man brought earth in his hand and God scattered it on the surface of the water saying: 'Let the world take shape!' Once more God asked Man to fetch earth. But Man then decided to take some for himself and brought a morsel in each hand. One handful he gave to God but the other he hid in his mouth, intending to create a world of his own. God threw the earth which the devil had brought him beside the rest on the water, and the world at once began to expand and grow harder, but with the growing of the world the piece of earth in Man's mouth also swelled until he was about to suffocate so that he again was compelled to seek God's help. God inquired: 'What was thy intention? Didst thou think thou couldst hide earth from me in thy mouth?' Man now told his secret intentions and at God's request spat the earth out of his mouth. Thus were formed the boggy places upon the earth."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.317-8)
"When the great Yryn-Ajy-Tojon ('White Creator Lord'), so runs a Yakut tale, moved in the beginning above the boundless ocean, he saw a bladder floating on the waters and inquired: 'Who and whence?' The bladder replied that it was Satan and lived on the earth hidden under the water. God said: 'If there really is earth under the water, then bring me a piece of it.' Satan dived under the water and returned after a while with a morsel of earth. Having received it, God blessed it, placed it on the surface of the water and seated himself on it. Then Satan resolved to drown God by stretching out the land but the more he stretched, the stronger it grew, covering soon a great part of the ocean's surface."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.313)
In this Hindu myth, Brahma, in the form of a giant boar, lifts the earth up out of the waters with his tusks.
"Lord Kurma said: Formerly, there was nothing but one single vast sheet of water, a terrible ocean full of darkness, without any division and devoid of wind. Nothing was known at that time. When all living beings, the mobile and the immobile had perished in that vast sheet of water, there appeared Brahma of thousand eyes and thousand feet, the Purusa [cosmic man] of thousand heads and of golden colour. He was beyond the scope of sense-organs. Brahma called Narayana lay asleep on the cosmic waters at that time. They cite this verse in this context, regarding Narayana, the very embodiment of Brahman (or the Veda) and who is the Lord and the origin of the world and the cause of dissolution of the universe! The waters are called Narah since the waters are born of Nara (The cosmic Man) and since waters constitute his abode (Ayana), he is called as Narayana. After spending the nocturnal period equal to a thousand Yugas and at the end of that night, he assumes the functions of Brahma for the purose of creation. By inference, he understood that the earth was submerged under water. The Lord of creation (Prajapati) then became desirous of lifting it up. He assumed the refulgent form of the divine Boar for sports within the waters. It was unthwartable, even mentally, by others. He then becomes known by the term vanmaya Brahman (Brahman in the form of speech or the Vedas). In order to lift up the earth, he entered the nether-world. The upholder of the earth, the self-supporting God, lifted up the earth by means of his tusks."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 6 "The Uplift of the Earth by Visnu-Varaha", p.52-4, Hindu)
The Babylonians also had their version of the earth diver myth.
"The holy house, the house of the gods in the holy place had not yet been made. No reed had sprung up, no tree had been made. No brick had been laid, no structure of brick had been erected. No house had been made, no city had been built. No city had been made, no creature had been constituted.... The Deep (or Abyss) had not been made, Eridu had not been built.... All the lands were sea.... Marduk laid a rush mat upon the face of the waters, He mixed up earth and moulded it upon the rush mat, To enable the gods to dwell in the place where they fain would be. He fashioned man. The goddess Aruru with him created the seed of mankind. He created the beasts of the field and [all] the living things in the field."
The initial story of separation gives air above, water in the middle, and earth below, in descending order of increasing density. So that the appearance of earth above the surface of the water must be accounted for, which is naively suggested by means of someone or something raising it up. We can apply a more subtle interpretation to these stories; specifically that they treat of the idea of a "threshold of detectability". While the earth exists submerged beneath the surface of the water, it is undetectable and therefore effectively does not exist. By raising the earth above the surface of the water (the threshold of detectability), the earth becomes detectable and therefore is perceived as coming into being. Before virtual positrons and electrons pop into existence out of the vacuum, they presumably have some kind of undetectable existence within the vacuum. But something "raises them up" into a detectable state. Prior to being raised up, there is only the vacuum, void, in which they cannot be said to exist.
The idea of the earth resting on the body of a giant animal (as on the tusks of Brahma in the form of a giant boar) is a common mythological theme. In Siberia it was thought that a giant bull supported the earth on its horns.
"In tales of the Kirghis, and among the West Siberian, Volga, and Caucasian Tatars, it is related that the world is supported by a great bull. This idea has spread even among the Finnish tribes along the Volga. Under this bull there is often a support on which the bull stands. The Crimean Tatars say that in the world-ocean there is a great fish, and on the fish a bull which carries the earth on its horns. A similar belief is found among the Votiaks of the Jelabuga District."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.311)
In Sulawesi (formerly known as Celebes) an island in Indonesia, the world was thought to be supported on the back of a hog ("Primitive Culture" by Edward B. Tylor, p,364).
The earth is sometimes said to be supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
"Among the Indians of North America, it is said that earthquakes come of the
movement of the great world-bearing Tortoise."
("Primitive Culture" by Edward B. Tylor, p,364)
The Hindu Ramayana describes the earth resting on the heads of the four "Diggajas" ("the elephants that are supporting the directions"): Virṅpākṣa (East), Mahāpadma (South), Sumanā (West), Bhadra (North). Below the four elephants is Vishnu.
"The sixty thousand chiefs obeyed: deep through the earth their way they made. Deep as they dug and deeper yet the immortal elephant they met, famed Virúpáksha vast of size, upon whose head the broad earth lies: the mighty beast who earth sustains with shaggy hills and wooded plains. When, with the changing moon, distressed, and longing for a moment's rest, his mighty head the monster shakes, earth to the bottom reels and quakes. Around that warder strong and vast with reverential steps they passed. Nor, when the honour due was paid, their downward search through earth delayed. But turning from the east aside southward again their task they plied. There Mahápadma held his place, the best of all his mighty race, like some huge hill, of monstrous girth, upholding on his head the earth. When the vast beast the princes saw, they marvelled and were tilled with awe. The sons of high-souled Sagar round that elephant in reverence wound. Then in the western region they with might unwearied cleft their way. There saw they with astonisht eyes Saumanas, beast of mountain size. Round him with circling steps they went with greetings kind and reverent. On, on--no thought of rest or stay--they reached the seat of Soma's [the moon's] sway. There saw they Bhadra, white as snow, with lucky marks that fortune show, bearing the earth upon his head. Round him they paced with solemn tread, and honoured him with greetings kind, then downward yet their way they mined. They gained the tract 'twixt east and north whose fame is ever blazoned forth, and by a storm of rage impelled, digging through earth their course they held. Then all the princes, lofty-souled, of wondrous vigour, strong and bold, saw Vásudeva [Vishnu] standing there...."
("The Ramayana of Valmiki", Book I - Canto XLI: Kapil (my emphasis))
Some reports have the elephants standing on the back of a giant tortoise.
"Others dissented, and said, that the Earth was borne up by seven Elephants: the Elephants feet stood on Tortoises, and they were borne by they know not what."
("A Treatise on Hindu Cosmography from the Seventeenth Century" by Jarl Charpentier,
from "Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution - Volume III: 1923-25", p.321)
In the episode of the churning of the milk-ocean, the mountain Mandara (the axis mundi at the centre for the universe) was supporting by the god Vishnu in the form of a giant tortoise (Kurma).
"In days of yore, the gods in co-operation with Daityas and Danavas [both a kind of asura, demigod], made the mountain Mandara their churning rod and churned the milk-ocean, for obtaining nectar. While it was being churned, Lord Janardana [Vishnu] assumed the form of a divine Tortoise and bore the mountain Mandara on his back with the desire for the welfare of the gods. On seeing the imperishable Visnu, the cosmic witness (Saksin) assuming the form of a Tortoise, Narada and other great sages along with the gods eulogised the Lord."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 1 "Salvation of Indradyumma", p.9)
The Tungousians of Eastern Siberia and Northeast Asia "suppose that the earth is supported by an immense frog" (The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies, Volume 17, 1824, p.596).
"And unto Tiamat, whom he had conquered, he returned. And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts, and with his merciless club he smashed her skull. He cut through the channels of her blood, and he made the North wind bear it away into secret places. His fathers beheld, and they rejoiced and were glad; presents and gifts they brought unto him. Then the lord rested, gazing upon her dead body, while he divided the flesh of the ..., and devised a cunning plan. He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; one half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven. He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman, and bade them not to let her waters come forth. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions thereof, and over against the Deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud [Enki, a water god]. And the lord measured the structure of the Deep, and he founded E-sara, a mansion like unto it. The mansion E-sara which he created as heaven, he caused Anu [sky god], Bel ["lord" would come to be identified with Marduk himself], and Ea [Enki again] in their districts to inhabit."
In Genesis 1:6: "Let there be an expanse [of the sky] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters [below the expanse] from the waters [above the expanse]" (AMP), the word rakía (רקיע) may be translated variously as: "expanse", "space", "vault" or "firmament". The firmament was a solid dome serving as a dam holding back the "waters above the skies" (Psalm 148:4). So that rain required that "the floodgates of the heavens were opened" (Genesis 7:11), the bolt set by Marduk released. So that the biblical flood ceased when "the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky" (Genesis 8:2). So that for the ancients: "The sky is falling!" posed a real threat. The book of 3 Baruch (also called the "Greek Apocalypse of Baruch"), a visionary Jewish text thought to have been written sometime in the first to third centuries AD, makes reference to the building of the Tower of Babel.
"And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty-three cubits. And they took a gimlet, and sought to pierce the heaven, saying, Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron."
(3 Baruch 3:6-8)
"Many people, you see, insist that these waters by their very nature cannot be above the heaven of the constellations, because their specific gravity dictates that they must either flow and float over the earth, or be carried up as vapor into the air that is nearest the earth. Nor should anybody try to refute them by appealing to the omnipotence of God, for whom all things are possible...."
("On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees" or "The Literal Meaning of Genesis"
by Saint Augustine (354 - 430 AD), Book II, paragraph 2, p.190)
A universe made from the body of god is another common theme in creation stories.
"'At the beginning there was nothing', the Chinese philosophers taught their pupils. 'Long ages passed by. Then nothing became something.' The something had unity. Long ages passed by, and the something divided itself into two parts — a male part and a female part. These two somethings produced two lesser somethings, and the two pairs, working together, produced the first being, who was named P'an Ku [盘古]. Another version of the myth is that P'an Ku emerged from the cosmic egg. It is not difficult to recognize in P'an Ku a giant god or world-god. He was furnished with an adze, or, as is found in some Chinese prints, with a hammer and a chisel.... Another version of the P'an Ku myth represents him as the Primeval World-giant, who is destroyed so that the material universe may be formed. From his flesh comes the soil, from his bones the rocks; his blood is the waters of rivers and the ocean; his hair is vegetation; while the wind is his breath, the thunder his voice, the rain his sweat, the dew his tears, the firmament his skull, his right eye the moon, and his left eye the sun. P'an Ku's body was covered with vermin, and the vermin became the races of mankind."
("Myths of China and Japan" by Donald Alexander Mackenzie, 1873-1936, pp.260-1)
We saw earlier the birth of the Norse god Ymir. He was later slain (superseded) by a trinity of other gods and the universe created from his parts.
"And Hárr answered: 'The sons of Borr slew Ymir the giant; lo, where he fell there gushed forth so much blood out of his wounds that with it they drowned all the race of the Rime-Giants, save that one, whom giants call Bergelmir, escaped with his household; he went upon his ship, and his wife with him, and they were safe there. And from them are come the races of the Rime-Giants....'
"Then said Gangleri: 'What was done then by Borr's sons, if thou believe that they be gods?'
"Hárr replied: 'In this matter there is no little to be said. They took Ymir and bore him into the middle of the Yawning Void, and made of him the earth: of his blood the sea and the waters; the land was made of his flesh, and the crags of his bones; gravel and stones they fashioned from his teeth and his grinders and from those bones that were broken.'
"And Jafnhárr said: 'Of the blood, which ran and welled forth freely out of his wounds, they made the sea, when they had formed and made firm the earth together, and laid the sea in a ring round about her; and it may well seem a hard thing to most men to cross over it.'
"Then said Thridi: 'They took his skull also, and made of it the heaven, and set it up over the earth with four corners; and under each corner they set a dwarf: the names of these are East, West, North, and South....'
"Then said Gangleri: '... How was the earth contrived?'
"And Hárr answered: 'She is ring-shaped without, and round about her without lieth the deep sea; and along the strand of that sea they gave lands to the races of giants for habitation. But on the inner earth they made a citadel round about the world against the hostility of the giants, and for their citadel they raised up the brows of Ymir the giant, and called that place Midgard. They took also his brain and cast it in the air, and made from it the clouds....'"
("The Prose Edda" by Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, c.1220, Norse)
The world as a whole might be created from the body of a god, or small pieces of the world could be created from the dismembered body of lesser deities or supernatural beings. For instance, in Indonesia, Hainuwele ("The Coconut Girl") born from a coconut tree and able to shit valuable objects, was murdered. When her body was cut up and buried, new kinds of plants, good for eating, grew up. Jesus too created these kinds of associations at the Last Supper, emphasising, typically, that it was spiritual food that he was offering.
"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my body.' Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'"
(Matthew 26:26-28)
In bottom up explanation, such as in The Scientific Creation Myth, complex objects are created from arrangements of simple elements. In Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1 and Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 2 we saw how bottom up explanation gives rise to the problem of unities. We have therefore posited unities as somehow fundamental and pre-existent. Although the gods may make man out of clay, there is usually a second step where they imbue the clay with life. Although "the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground" this is immediately followed by: "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Iapetus "first fashioned men from clay" and Minerva "gave it life." Earth Maker "took some clay in his hands, mixed it with his own sweat, and formed it into two figures" and then he "breathed life into them". We now understand "living" to mean the qualia of consciousness.
In the mythological "Chaos" we have a universal substance from which can be made all things; from clay, to gods and consciousness; and is in some sense already all these things. God and whatever He is made of (the primeval waters) must be co-existent. If God is the only thing that exists in the beginning, He is all that can serve as the raw material for creation. The death and dismemberment of God is the dividing off of elements and aspects; and of the transformation of the spiritual into the material and inanimate, as our own bodies create fingernails and hair that are not living. Positing a "Chaos" pregnant with all creation doesn't really solve the problem of explanation, because it doesn't really explain anything. We are likely to continue to depend upon the approximations and contrivances of bottom up explanation for that. Rather, it fills the role proper to myth, pointing us into the unknown and showing us semblances of its unfathomable and wondrous mysteries.
We should not be overly troubled by the unscientific nature of religious creation myths. We should not be critical that in fact, the Goddess Eurynome probably did not dance naked upon the waves at the beginning of the universe. These ideas bubble up naturally out of the mind when human beings seek profundity. Relics of half-remembered intuition of dumb people seeking to understand clever ideas. With nothing but a vague compulsion like the main character in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977): "I can't describe it, what I'm feeling ... and what I'm thinking. This means something. This is important." These myths are only trivially about physics. They are not about the being of rocks and trees. They are about being conscious entities in a world of rocks and trees.
As the male creator god is born out of the primeval waters, Nu, Brahman/Shakti, mother night, so the baby Jesus emerges from out of Mary, the Mother of God. Mary represents a precursor and more primal state of being, and the creator god a new order.
"I am the Queen, the gatherer-up of treasures, most thoughtful, first of those who merit worship. Thus Gods have stablished me in many places with many homes to enter and abide in. Through me alone all eat the food that feeds them,—each man who sees, brewhes, hears the word outspoken they know it not, but yet they dwell beside me. Hear, one and all, the truth as I declare it. I, verily, myself announce and utter the word that Gods and men alike shall welcome. I make the man I love exceeding mighty, make him a sage, a Ṛṣi, and a Brahman. I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion. I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven. On the world's summit I bring forth the Father: my home is in the waters, in the ocean. Thence I extend o’er all existing creatures, and touch even yonder heaven with my forehead. I breathe a strong breath like the wind and tempest, the while I hold together all existence. Beyond this wide earth and beyond the heavens I have become so mighty in my grandeur."
(Hymn 125, Book 10, Rigveda (also known as "Devīsūkta" (the Devi Sukta, "Goddess Hymn"),
While Marduk literally slew Tiamat, Jesus asserts himself and the new spirituality with gentle reprimands in the face of parental presumptions and a new budding mother goddess cult.
"His mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.' 'Why were you searching for me?' he asked. 'Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?'"
(Luke 2:48-49)
"When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, 'They have no more wine.' 'Woman, why do you involve me?' Jesus replied. 'My hour has not yet come.'"
(John 2:3-4)
"Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.' He replied, 'My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.'"
(Luke 8:19-21)
"Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind.' ... Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, 'Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.' 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.'"
(Mark 3:20-35)
"As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, 'Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.' He replied, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.'"
(Luke 11:27-28)
For some other representations of Yashoda and the infant Krishna see here and here.
"The first sound of Lord Brahma is "Om", the origin of all creation" (Hinduism)
"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth." (Psalm 33:6)
"by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water." (2 Peter 3:5)
"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word" (Hebrews 1:3).
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:1-3. Here, "the Word" refers to "the Son".)
The spoken word, voice or breath we can interpret as just another form of activation, like stirring the primeval waters with a pole or spear.
"Everything—and I mean everything—is just a consequence of many infinitely-large fields vibrating. The entire universe is made of fields playing a vast, subatomic symphony."
But as concepts, qualia, words are also a form of separation. We saw in Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1 and Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 2 that it is the business of consciousness to draw lines around things, not only to make wholes, but to make distinctions.
"The way that can be told is not the eternal way. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnameable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things."
(The Tao Te Ching (道德经))
Drawing a perimeter is the very essence of finitude. Naming is the source of forming distinctions within the original unbounded unity (Dharmakaya), the source of the inner division or separating out. Naming transforms the unity into a hierarchical organisation of parts, sub-unities ad infinitum. One tortoise becomes four elephants becomes the world. Out of unity (the circle) comes the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, West: the square) or three dimensions of space, within which form the ten-thousand things. From the single source, in Eden, come the four rivers that flow through all the lands.
"The terrace is round. The table is square. Representing.... That Heaven is round and the earth is square. The law of the Heavens dictates the rule of earthly life ... under the circle, within the square, everyone has his proper placement."
(From "Curse of the Golden Flower", movie by Zhang Yimou (2006))
Tibetan Buddhism has the following. The four empowerments are specifically: buddha-body, buddha-speech, buddha-mind, and the unification of all three.
"Anoint [us] now with the river of the four pure empowerments!"
(from: "Peaceful and Wrathful Deities: Natural Liberation of Enlightened Intention")
As taught in the various mystical traditions, we can follow that hierarchy back to its source, in Eden, where kindly El has his abode on the mountain at the edge of the world, at the source of the two rivers or two oceans (Heaven and Earth). Concepts are the bridge between the infinite and the finite.
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
(John 14:6)
"Then from that Light, a certain Holy Word joined itself to Nature, and out flew the pure and unmixed Fire from the moist Nature upward on high...."
"Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud:... 'The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.'"
(Proverbs 8)
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
(Matthew 24:35)
"A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.' The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?' 'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down!'"
("A Brief History of Time" by Stephen W. Hawking, p.1)
The problem of: "What is supporting the earth?" was resolved when it was realised that in the absence of an outside gravitational field, stationary matter in space is not inclined to move in any direction, but will happily float in the same place forever. In other words, it doesn't fall because it just doesn't.
"[I]n the void things must be at rest; for there is no place to which things can move more or less than to another; since the void in so far as it is void admits no difference."
("Physics" by Aristotle, Book IV, section 8)
But while the problem of an infinite recession of supports, in this sense, in cosmology was resolved simply in this way; the problem of the infinite recession of causes was not; that is, the problem of first causes. So in this sense, "turtles all the way down" is as much a part of the cosmology of modern science as it was for the myth makers in the days when people thought that the earth was flat and the sky was a dome. Because this is the essential problem of all creation stories: "Where did the Big Bang come from?" People were not morons four thousand years ago. The brain has not materially changed in that time. They were trying to find answers to profound questions using what they had to work with at the time. The primeval waters are the age-old answer to the question: "Where did God come from?" and as an answer, still has much to recommend it.
"In attempting to portray the origin and nature of universal reality, we are forced to employ the technique of time-space reasoning in order to reach the level of the finite mind. Therefore must many of the simultaneous events of eternity be presented as sequential transactions. As a time-space creature would view the origin and differentiation of Reality, the eternal and infinite I AM achieved Deity liberation from the fetters of unqualified infinity through the exercise of inherent and eternal free will, and this divorcement from unqualified infinity produced the first absolute divinity-tension."
"The concept of the I AM connotes unqualified infinity, the undifferentiated reality of all that could ever be in all of an infinite eternity. As an existential concept the I AM is neither deified nor undeified, neither actual nor potential, neither personal nor impersonal, neither static nor dynamic. No qualification can be applied to the Infinite except to state that the I AM is."
This concludes our examination of creation myths. In the next article we consider the tricky subject of: Suffering.
Any comments welcome.
In the Beginning: Water:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."
(Genesis 1:1-2)
The universe begins as a formless and empty darkness. The Hebrew תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (תֹהוּ (tóhu, “nothingness, void”) + בֹּהוּ (bóhu, “emptiness, desolation”), occurring together as תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tóhu vavóhu)) might be translated as either "void" or "chaos". In the last part of the sentence this void is described as deep waters. Should we interpret the above passage to mean the empty void exists after "God created the heavens and the earth", and that it was specifically "the earth" that was formless and empty? That this was not a void in the sense of a vacuum as we now conceive it, but rather it was void of form and order, thus "chaos"? Or should we take the first sentence as a preview of what is to come after the second? Perhaps the "earth was formless" in the second sentence because the creation of the earth described in the first sentence has not taken place yet. But the phrase "hovering over the waters" rather than within them seems to suggest a separation of heaven and earth has already taken place and that the earth is formless in the sense that it is only water with no dry land yet. Though heaven and earth have already been separated, the earth is yet to be given form. It is still in some kind of subtle, embryonic state. A Hindu creation myth, the Vayu Purana, begins with the following words.
"In the beginning, there was nothing in the universe. The brahman alone was everywhere. The brahman had neither color nor scent, it could not be felt or touched. It had no origin, no beginning or no end. The brahman was constant and it was the origin of everything that was destined to be in the universe and the universe was shrouded in darkness. When it was time for creation to begin, the brahman divided itself into three. The first part became Brahma, the creator of the universe. The second part was Vishnu, the preserver of the universe. And the third part was Shiva, the destroyer. At the time of creation, water appeared in the universe and the water was everywhere. In the water was created a golden egg that floated like a gigantic bubble. Brahma was born inside the egg. Since garbha means womb, Brahma came to be known as Hiranyagarbha ['golden womb' or 'golden egg']. Since he effectively created himself, he is also referred to as Svayambhu ['self-manifested']. Brahma had four faces. Also inside the egg were all the worlds that would be created, in embryonic form. The earth was there, with its land, mountains, oceans and rivers. The moon, the sun, the stars and the planets were there. Also present were gods, demons, humans and other living beings who would be created. This was the original creation of the universe"
("Vayu Purana", Hindu)
The word "brahman" (ब्रह्मन्) can refer to a kind of universal principle, ultimate reality, cosmic soul, or as the name of a god. In the beginning there was nothing in the universe ... except for brahman who was everywhere. So that brahman himself constituted a kind of universal medium. Again, before further creation can take place, water must appear throughout the universe. Water is the raw material for substance. It is notable that brahman initially has no characteristics: "neither color nor scent, it could not be felt or touched" so that he was void of form, forms dissolved into formlessness. The first real object to come into being out of the waters is the egg, the symbol of the universe, of unity and wholeness. It represents the unit: 1. The unit emerges not from the zero (0), but from a state that is neither 1 nor 0, something or nothing. Within the egg, the vague and impersonal brahman becomes the definite and personal Brahma, who will be the instrument of further creation. There is, if you'll forgive it, a chicken-and-egg relationship between brahman/Brahma and the golden egg; where the egg emerges out of brahman and Brahma emerges out of the egg. Within the egg, and by implication the waters that preceded it, are the potential forms of everything that is to exist. The Hindu Rigveda tells a similar story: of when "the mighty waters came, containing the universal germ", "the floods containing productive force", the "lucid waters". But here the creator god is Prajāpati.
"In the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha ['golden womb' or 'golden egg'], born only Lord of all created beings. He fixed and holdeth up this earth and heaven.... Giver of vital breath, of power and vigour, he whose commandments all the Gods acknowledge - the Lord of death, whose shade is life immortal.... Who by his grandeur hath become Sole Ruler of all the moving world that breathes and slumbers; he who is Lord of men and Lord of cattle.... His, through his might, are these snow-covered mountains, and men call sea and Rasā [a river, a tributary of the Indus] his possession: his arms are these, his are these heavenly regions.... By him the heavens are strong and earth is stedfast, by him light's realm and sky-vault are supported: by him the regions in mid-air were measured.... To him, supported by his help, two armies embattled look while trembling in their spirit, when over them the risen Sun is shining.... What time the mighty waters came, containing the universal germ, producing Agni [the fire god], thence sprang the Gods’ one spirit into being.... He in his might surveyed the floods containing productive force and generating Worship. He is the God of gods, and none beside him.... Neer may he harm us who is earth's Begetter, nor he whose laws are sure, the heavens' Creator, he who brought forth the great and lucid waters.... Prajāpati! thou only comprehendest all these created things, and none beside thee. Grant us our hearts' desire when we invoke thee: may we have store of riches in possession."
(Rigveda 10:121, Hindu)
The Vishnu Purana describes cycles of creation and destruction. The universe is born from an egg, "resting on the waters". The universe exists for a time and is then dissolved "into one vast ocean" upon which eventually the egg forms anew. The word translated here as indiscrete (अव्यक्त avyakta), is usually translated as "not manifest" or "devoid of form". The word translated here as "discrete" (व्यक्त vyakta), is usually translated as "manifest".
"Having combined, therefore, with one another, they assumed, through their mutual association, the character of one mass of entire unity; and from the direction of spirit, with the acquiescence of the indiscrete Principle, Intellect and the rest, to the gross elements inclusive, formed an egg, which gradually expanded like a bubble of water. This vast egg, O sage, compounded of the elements, and resting on the waters, was the excellent natural abode of Vishńu in the form of Brahmá; and there Vishńu, the lord of the universe, whose essence is inscrutable, assumed a perceptible form, and even he himself abided in it in the character of Brahmá. Its womb, vast as the mountain Meru, was composed of the mountains; and the mighty oceans were the waters that filled its cavity. In that egg, O Brahman, were the continents and seas and mountains, the planets and divisions of the universe, the gods, the demons, and mankind. And this egg was externally invested by seven natural envelopes, or by water, air, fire, ether, and Ahankára [अहंकार "ego"] the origin of the elements, each tenfold the extent of that which it invested; next came the principle of Intelligence; and, finally, the whole was surrounded by the indiscrete Principle: resembling thus the cocoa-nut, filled interiorly with pulp, and exteriorly covered by husk and rind. Affecting then the quality of activity, Hari [Vishnu], the lord of all, himself becoming Brahmá, engaged in the creation of the universe. Vishńu with the quality of goodness, and of immeasurable power, preserves created things through successive ages, until the close of the period termed a Kalpa; when the same mighty deity, Janárddana, invested with the quality of darkness, assumes the awful form of Rudra [Shiva], and swallows up the universe. Having thus devoured all things, and converted the world into one vast ocean, the Supreme reposes upon his mighty serpent couch [Shesha] amidst the deep: he awakes after a season, and again, as Brahmá, becomes the author of creation. Thus the one only god, Janárddana, takes the designation of Brahmá, Vishńu, and Śiva, accordingly as he creates, preserves, or destroys.
("The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, pp.93-4, Hindu)
We have seen previously (in the "Ouroboros" section of The Scientific Creation Myth) that between universes, Vishnu sleeps on the serpent Sesa that floats on the endless ocean.
"At the close of the previous Kalpa, the three worlds [Loka], Bhu [Earth], Bhuvar and Svar sank into complete darkness. There was one great terrible vast sheet of water. There were neither Devas and others nor the sages. There is that isolated place free from disturbance and trouble, Lord Narayana, the Supreme Person, resorted to the Couch of Sesa and slumbered. He assumed the form of one with thousand heads, thousand eyes, thousand feet, and thousand arms.... Once, when he was asleep, a divine and wonderful lotus that was the quintessence of the three worlds, shone in his umbilical region, for the sake of his diversion. It extended to a hundred Yojanas (1 Yojana = 12 Kilometres). It resembled the morning sun. It had divine fragrance.... While Sarngin (god Vishnu) was staying like this for a long time, Lord Hiranyagarbha (Brahma) came to that place.... Thereafter Visnu, the deity with the Lord of serpents, Sesa as his abode, ... spoke to Pitamaha (god Brahma, the grand-sire of the world). O excellent Purusa, ... enter my eternal abdomen and see all these wonderful worlds. After hearing the pleasing words of the Lord of Laksmi (i.e. Visnu) and approving of them, Kusadhvaja (i.e. Brahma) entered his belly.... Brahma, of truthful exploit, saw the self-same worlds stationed in the womb of the Lord. Ranging about, he did not see any limit of Hari. Then all the other openings were closed by the noble-souled Janardana and Brahma found an opening in the umbilical region. The deity born of Golden Egg entered it through his Yogic power. The four-faced Lord manifested himself out of the lotus."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 9 "Manifestation of the Lotus-Born Deity--Brahma",
p.68-70, Hindu)
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"Brahma emerges from a lotus risen from Vishnu's navel while he rests on the serpent Shesha with Lakshmi".
Illustration from a Hindi edition of the Mahabharata by Ramanarayanadatta Sastri, Volume 5
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"Obeisance to the all-pervading Lord Visnu who, enveloping and deluding the universe by Maya, reposes on the couch of Serpent Sesa and experiences the bliss of his soul through Yoga. Obeisance to that form of Sesa, who is the support of all and who always holds on his head the whole of the universe consisting of fourteen worlds."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 10 "The Creation by Rudra", p.82, Hindu)
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"Brahma gives a boon to Shesha and orders him to bear the Earth (Prithvi)".
Illustration from a Hindi edition of the Mahabharata by Geeta Press, p.148
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shesha
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Orphism was an ancient Greek religion.
"In the beginning time created the silver egg of the cosmos. Out of this egg burst Phanes-Dionysus.... For them [the Orphics] he was the first god to appear, the firstborn, whence he early became known as Protogonos ["first-born"]. He was bisexual and bore within him the seeds of all gods and men. He was also the creator of heaven and earth, of the sun, the stars, and the dwelling of the gods"
("The Orphic Mysteries and the Greek Spirit" by Walter Wili,
in "The Mysteries", edited by Joseph Campbell, p.71, Greece)
in "The Mysteries", edited by Joseph Campbell, p.71, Greece)
The following creation myth is from Ancient Egypt.
"The Book of knowing the evolutions of Ra, [and] of overthrowing Apep. The words of Neb-er-tcher [which] he spake after he had come into being. I am he who came into being in the form of Khepera, I was (or, became) the creator of what came into being, the creator of what came into being all; after my coming into being many [were] the things which came into being coming forth from my mouth. Not existed heaven, not existed earth, not had been created the things of the earth (i.e., plants), and creeping things in place that; I raised them up from out of Nu (i.e., the primeval abyss of water) from a state of inactivity. Not found I a place I could stand wherein. I worked a charm upon (or, with) my heart. I laid a foundation in Maa [and] I made attribute every. I was alone, [for] not had I spit in the form of Shu [air], not had I emitted Tefnut [moisture], not existed another who worked with me. I made a foundation in my heart my own (or, by means of my own will), [and] there came into being the multitude of things which came into being of the things which came into being from out of the things which came into being of births, from out of the things which came into being of their births. I, even I, had union with my clenched hand, I joined myself in an embrace with my shadow, I poured seed into my mouth my own, I sent forth issue in the form of Shu, I sent forth moisture in the form of Tefnut. Saith my father Nu, 'They make to be weak my eye behind them, because for double henti periods they proceeded from me after I became from god one gods three, that is from out of myself, [and after] I came into being in earth this. Were raised up therefore Shu [and] Tefnut in the inert watery mass wherein they were, brought they to me my eye in their train. After therefore I had united my members I wept over them, [and] came into being men and women from the tears [which] came forth from my eye, [and] it raged against me after it came [and] found [that] I had made another in its place. [I] endowed it with the power (or, splendor) which I had made. Having made to approach therefore its place in my face, afterwards therefore it ruleth earth this to its whole extent. Fall their moments (or, seasons) upon their plants, I endowed it with what it hath taken possession of in it. I came forth from (or, in the form of) the plants, creeping things all, [and] things which came into being all [are] in them. Give birth Shu [and] Tefnut [Seb] and Nut. Give birth Seb and Nut to Osiris, Horus-Khent-an-maati, Set, Isis, Nephthys from the womb, one after the other of them, they give birth [and] they multiply in earth this."
("The History of the Creation of the Gods and of the World. Version A" from
"The Gods of the Egyptians" Volume 1, by E. A. Wallis Budge, 1904, pp.308-13.)
Ra is the sun god, serving as creator in this myth, in the form of Khepera, his "rising sun" form. Apep is the chaos serpent Apophis. E. A. Wallis Budge has the following to say about the god "Neb-er-tcher".
"The story of the Creation is supposed to be told by the god Neb-er-tcher. This name means the 'Lord to the uttermost limit,' and the character of the god suggests that the word 'limit' refers to time and space, and that he was, in fact, the Everlasting God of the Universe. This god's name occurs in Coptic texts, and then he appears as one who possesses all the attributes which are associated by modern nations with God Almighty."
("Legends Of The Gods" by E. A. Wallis Budge)
Ra describes his act of creating all that is; heaven and earth, things of the earth, and creeping things; as "I raised them up from out of Nu from a state of inactivity." Nu is the male personification of the primeval waters, so things come into being by being "activated" out of a previously inert state within the waters. "Maa" appears to mean "truth". The Eye of Ra was the disk of the sun and could act as an independent deity, in the form of one of Ra's consorts: Hathor, Sekhmet or Bastet. Previous versions of this myth had the god Atum in the role played here by Ra.
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| The creation. The god Nu rising out of the primeval water and bearing in his hands the boat of Ra, the Sun-god. Ra is represented by the disk supported by the scarab beetle. Ra is accompanied by a number of other deities.
The goddess Isis stands immediately to the right of the scarab beetle,
and her sister Nephthys stands immediately to the right of it.
In the upper portion of the scene is the region of the underworld which is enclosed by the body of Osiris,on whose head stands Nut, the goddess of the sky, with arms stretched out to receive the disk of the sun. Illustration from the book "Egyptian ideas of the future life", by E. A. Wallis Budge (1908), p.25. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nun_budge.gif
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Poetic Edda records Norse legends (that is, legends of the Vikings). The first giant Ymir lives in a void (yawning gap). Ymir was created by the river Elivagar ("ice waves") that was in the yawning gap.
"Of old was the age when Ymir lived; sea nor cool waves nor sand there were; Earth had not been, nor heaven above, but a yawning gap [Ginnungagap], and grass nowhere"
("The Poetic Edda", Voluspo, 3, Iceland)
"Othin spake: '... whence did Aurgelmir [Ymir] come with the giants' kin, long since, thou giant sage?'
"Vafthruthnir spake: 'Down from [the river] Elivagar did venom drop. And waxed till a giant it was; and thence arose our giants' race, and thus so fierce are we found.'"
("The Poetic Edda", Vafthruthnismol, 30-1, Iceland)
The Prose Edda (also called "The Younger Edda" or "Snorre's Edda" (written by Snorri Sturluson c. 1220)) is the other main source for Norse mythology. It explains that Ginungagap was a "mild" region between a frozen region (Niflheim) to the north, and a fiery region (Muspelheim) to the south. The Vikings lived in a place where if you travelled north there was nothing but ice, but if you travelled south, the climate became progressively warmer, and they seem to have theorised at some point that if you kept going south you would eventually reach a realm of fire. As heat from the south warms ice in the north, it melts and rivers flow south from Niflheim into Ginungagap.
"Many ages before the earth was made, Niflheim had existed [to the north], in the midst of which is the well called Hvergelmer, whence flow the ... streams [that are called the Elivogs] .... Still there was before a world to the south which [is called] Muspelheim. It is light and hot, and so bright and dazzling that no stranger, who is not a native there, can stand it.... All that part of Ginungagap that turns toward the north was filled with thick and heavy ice and rime, and everywhere within were drizzling rains and gusts. But the south part of Ginungagap was lighted up by the glowing sparks that flew out of Muspelheim.... As cold and all things grim proceeded from Niflheim, so that which bordered on Muspelheim was hot and bright, and Ginungagap was as warm and mild as windless air. And when the heated blasts from Muspelheim met the rime, so that it melted into drops, then, by the might of him who sent the heat, the drops quickened into life and took the likeness of a man, who got the name Ymer. But the Frost giants call him Aurgelmer."
("The Prose Edda", Chapter IV, Norse)
Within the waters of the rivers was also "venomous yeast which flowed with them", which "hardened" into "rime" in the Ginungagap. From this rime arose Ymir. So creation proceeded through the hardening and softening of substances in the waters. For the Vikings, freezing and thawing, melting and solidifying were the principles accounting for creation. Also created from the rime was a cow called "Audhumbla" (or "Audumla") whose milk (in "four milk-streams") nourished Ymir. Audhumbla survived by licking "salt-stones that were covered with rime". But Audhumbla's licking also formed the stones into the shape of a man, called "Bure", who begat Bor, whose son was Odin.
Ymir gave birth to a pair of giants from his armpits.
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| An illustration of the cow Auðumbla licking Búri out of a salty ice-block. From an Icelandic 18th century manuscript (Ólafur Brynjúlfsson: Sæmundar og Snorra Edda). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Auðumbla
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Ymir gave birth to a pair of giants from his armpits.
"Othin spake: '... How begat he children, the giant grim, who never a giantess knew?'
"Vafthruthnir spake: 'They say 'neath the arms of the giant of ice grew man-child and maid together; and foot with foot did the wise one fashion a son that six heads bore.'"
("The Poetic Edda", Vafthruthnismol, 32-3, Iceland)
Why water?
When a primitive person walks to the end of the land, they reach the sea, and the sea seems to extend forever. The horizon separates the universe into an above and a below, by a perfect horizontal line. The land emerges out of the sea, as if derived from it, as an island in the centre of the universe.Now consider the muddy water you get in a river. You scoop out some of the muddy water with a jar, and then you let the jar stand. You come back later and you see the top part of the jar contains pure clear water, and the bottom part of the jar contains opaque silt. Between these two halves you see a thin cloudy region of translucent, suspended silt particles. You look again at the distant horizon and imagine the division of the universe into sea and sky, with a thin layer of vaporous clouds between, emerging in a similar fashion, from the chaos of uniform muddy water, the waters are ordered, the different kinds are separated out from one another, the finer waters rising, the heavier waters subsiding. With clear waters came visibility, and light.
"When on high the heaven had not been named, firm ground below had not been called by name, when primordial Apsu (sweet primeval waters), their begetter, and Mummu-Tiamat (salt primeval waters), she who bore them all, their waters mingled as a single body, no reed hut had sprung forth, no marshland had appeared, None of the gods had been brought into being, And none bore a name, and no destinies determined - then it was that the gods were formed in the midst of heaven. Lahmu ("slime," "mud") and Lahamu ("silt") were brought forth, by name they were called."
("Enuma Elish", originating before 2000 BC, Babylon)
The ancient Mesopotamians defined two kinds of water: the bitter (or salt) waters were those of the ocean. The sweet waters were fresh water that emerged from springs of fell as rain. They thought the fresh water from springs came from a realm beneath the ocean, so that the land and the sea that encircled it, resided in a middle realm between a layer of fresh water below, and a layer of fresh water above, so that the universe was enveloped in fresh water with an air-filled space within; that is, the sky; separating the waters below from the waters above. Air, fresh water, salt water, silt, mud, earth; show increasing gradations of solidity. In the Egyptian creation myth, Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture) are the first entities created by Khepera from the primeval waters: air, moisture, water; showing a similar gradient of more or less wet.
A clear liquid solution may give rise to what is called a "precipitate". We are familiar with the term "precipitation" in reference to invisible water vapour collecting into visible raindrops in the air because of a drop in temperature. Solids can also emerge out of liquid solutions for a variety of reasons, and such solids are referred to as precipitates. For instance, two clear liquids of different chemical composition may form an opaque liquid, or a solid when they meet and mix. The solid particles then settle to the bottom. In Mysteries of Light - Part 1 and Mysteries of Light - Part 2 we learned about aether and the four primary elements of the ancients: fire, air, water, earth; and how these four corresponded to our ideas of solid, liquid, gas and radiant energy. "Aether" or "Akasha" may be described as a medium, or simply translated as "void" or "space". With these elements we have again gradations from more subtle (aether, radiant energy and air) to the less subtle and more solid (water and earth).
When natural philosophy (the precursor to science) began in ancient Greece, the philosophers argued over what was the fundamental medium of the universe out of which everything in the universe was made.
"Of the first philosophers, then, most thought the principles which were of the nature of matter were the only principles of all things. That of which all things that are consist, the first from which they come to be, the last into which they are resolved (the substance remaining, but changing in its modifications), this they say is the element and this the principle of things, and therefore they think nothing is either generated or destroyed, since this sort of entity is always conserved, as we say Socrates neither comes to be absolutely when he comes to be beautiful or musical, nor ceases to be when loses these characteristics, because the substratum, Socrates himself remains. just so they say nothing else comes to be or ceases to be; for there must be some entity-either one or more than one-from which all other things come to be, it being conserved. Yet they do not all agree as to the number and the nature of these principles."
("Metaphysics" by Aristotle, 350 BC, Book 1, Part 3)
One of the earliest, Thales (c.624 – c.546 BC), who has been referred to as the "father of science" and the "father of western philosophy" proposed that the fundamental medium was water.
"Thales, the founder of this type of philosophy, says the principle is water (for which reason he declared that the earth rests on water)...."
("Metaphysics" by Aristotle, 350 BC, Book 1, Part 3)
Anaximenes (c.585 – c.528 BC) and Diogenes (412 - 323 BC) "make air prior to water", while Hippasus of Metapontium (5th century BC) and Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.535 – c.475 BC) "say this of fire". ("Metaphysics" by Aristotle, 350 BC, Book 1, Part 3) The ancient gods were personifications of natural elements and phenomena. The cosmologies of early science stripped these myths of their personification of the natural elements and phenomena involved. Like the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians and Hebrews, the early ancient Greek philosophers such as Thales (c.624 – c.546 BC), believed the earth was flat; which raised the question: "What is supporting it from below?" Thales apparently suggested the land was floating on the ocean, so the bottom half of the universe was ocean, presumably ocean "all the way down".
Later ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plato (427 - 347 BC) and Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) believed the Earth was a sphere located at the centre of the universe. The Sun, Moon and stars revolved around it. So they believed the heavier elements, such as water and earth, had a natural inclination to move to the centre of the universe, while the lighter elements, such as fire and aether, had a natural tendency to move away from the centre of the universe. The philosopher Eratosthenes (c.276 BC - c.194 BC) had ingeniously calculated the circumference of the Earth to be about 44,450 kilometres, by comparing the lengths of the noonday shadows at Syene and Alexandria. The true figure is 40,075 kilometres. So all-in-all his estimation was quite accurate.
Water is continuous, and therefore represents well a universal medium, a continuum that can be more rarefied and subtle, or dense and solid. Water takes the shape of whatever is its container, so that it is a nice model for something that can take on any form, or from which any form can emerge. It is clear, colourless, tasteless, odourless and lacks solidity. So it is a good model for substance void of characteristics. Nowadays we treat density as how many discrete atoms are packed into a space, or how few. "Creation" of something is only a rearrangement of atoms previously constituting something else. So there is no real creation, just rearrangement. But the ancient creation myths describe matter as emerging out of the universal medium where previously there was no matter.
We have something comparable to this in modern physics. It is only quite recently that physics has begun to explore where the particles themselves actually come from. Nowadays in physics the "vacuum" is pregnant with particles. They pop into existence out of the void, disappearing back into it a moment later.
"[I]n quantum electrodynamics the vacuum itself behaves like a dielectric; it sprouts positron-electron pairs...."
Creation of something out of nothing occurs in pairs of opposites: earth and sky, male and female, yin and yang, hot and cold, wet and dry, hard and soft, positive and negative, so that the net result of combining the opposites is zero. The positive charge of the positron, and the negative charge of equal magnitude of the electron, cancel each other out, giving a net electric charge of zero. The matter comprising the electron, and the antimatter comprising the positron cancel each other. If the two particles come into contact, they annihilate each other, giving a mass of zero. Comparisons such as this of modern physics to the yin, yang and Tao of Taoism has prompted the writing of books such as "The Tao of Physics" and "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", but we can see that the comparison is much broader than Taoism. It is universal.
The universal medium contains within it deity and the seeds of creation. "Chaos" is a presence. It fills space, so that the act of creation is rather the ordering of disorder. From the amorphous deep water come defined shapes. We might compare this to a medium consisting of dipoles oriented randomly, giving no net field macroscopically. But if some influence orders the dipoles, aligning them in a common direction, a net field is detectible. Something appears out of the chaos. From an apparent vacuum that "had neither color nor scent, it could not be felt or touched", something tangible appears. "Chaos and Cosmos differed, not in content, but in their organization" ("Atum" in "Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible" by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst; p.121).
"[I]n quantum electrodynamics the vacuum itself behaves like a dielectric; it sprouts positron-electron pairs...."
("Introduction to Elementary Particles: Second, Revised Edition" by David Griffiths, 2009, p.69)
Creation of something out of nothing occurs in pairs of opposites: earth and sky, male and female, yin and yang, hot and cold, wet and dry, hard and soft, positive and negative, so that the net result of combining the opposites is zero. The positive charge of the positron, and the negative charge of equal magnitude of the electron, cancel each other out, giving a net electric charge of zero. The matter comprising the electron, and the antimatter comprising the positron cancel each other. If the two particles come into contact, they annihilate each other, giving a mass of zero. Comparisons such as this of modern physics to the yin, yang and Tao of Taoism has prompted the writing of books such as "The Tao of Physics" and "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", but we can see that the comparison is much broader than Taoism. It is universal.
The universal medium contains within it deity and the seeds of creation. "Chaos" is a presence. It fills space, so that the act of creation is rather the ordering of disorder. From the amorphous deep water come defined shapes. We might compare this to a medium consisting of dipoles oriented randomly, giving no net field macroscopically. But if some influence orders the dipoles, aligning them in a common direction, a net field is detectible. Something appears out of the chaos. From an apparent vacuum that "had neither color nor scent, it could not be felt or touched", something tangible appears. "Chaos and Cosmos differed, not in content, but in their organization" ("Atum" in "Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible" by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst; p.121).
Agitation and Aggregation
In Genesis the Spirit of God hovers over the waters. In the Pelasgian creation myth from ancient Greece, the lone goddess Eurynome danced upon the waters, after emerging from Chaos.
"In the beginning, Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things, rose naked from Chaos, but found nothing substantial for her feet to rest upon, and therefore divided the sea from the sky, dancing lonely upon its waves. She danced towards the south, and the wind set in motion behind her seemed something new and apart with which to begin a work of creation. Wheeling about, she caught hold of this north wind, rubbed it between her hands, and behold! the great serpent Ophion. Eurynome dances to warm herself, wildly and more wildly, until Ophion grown lustful, coiled about those divine limbs and was moved to couple with her. Now, the North Wind, who is also called Boreas, fertilizes; which is why mares often turn their hind-quarters to the wind and breed foals without aid of a stallion. So Eurynome was likewise got with child.
"Next she assumed the form of a dove, brooding on the waves and in due process of time, laid the Universal Egg. At her bidding, Ophion coiled seven times about this egg, until it hatched and split in two. Out tumbled all the things that exist, her children: sun, moon, planets, stars, the earth with its mountains and rivers, its trees, herbs and living creatures."
"Next she assumed the form of a dove, brooding on the waves and in due process of time, laid the Universal Egg. At her bidding, Ophion coiled seven times about this egg, until it hatched and split in two. Out tumbled all the things that exist, her children: sun, moon, planets, stars, the earth with its mountains and rivers, its trees, herbs and living creatures."
("The Pelasgian Creation Myth" from "Greek Myths" Volume 1,
by Robert Graves, 1955, p.27, Greece).
by Robert Graves, 1955, p.27, Greece).
Eurynome is the daughter of the titans Oceanus and Tethys, and one of the elder Oceanides (sea nymphs). She was also Zeus' third wife and mother of the Charites. Oceanides were salt water nymphs, while Naiads were fresh water nymphs.
Something stimulates the medium to bring forth solid form. It could be that "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" or a goddess was "dancing lonely upon its waves", or perhaps a Mongolian Lama stirring the water with an iron rod.
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| "The Oceanides (The Naiads of the Sea)", by Gustave Doré (1832–1883) |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Oceanides_Les_Naiades_de_la_mer.jpg
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Something stimulates the medium to bring forth solid form. It could be that "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" or a goddess was "dancing lonely upon its waves", or perhaps a Mongolian Lama stirring the water with an iron rod.
"In the beginning, when there was yet no earth, but water covered everything, a Lama came down from Heaven, and began to stir the water with an iron rod. By the influence of the wind and fire thus brought about, the water on the surface in the middle of the ocean thickened and coagulated into land."
("The Mythology of All Races", Volume 4: "Finno-Ugric, Siberian", by Uno Holmberg, p.328)
- Amenominakanushi (天之御中主神, Deity Master-of-the-August-Centre-of-Heaven)
- Takamimusubi (高御産巣日神, High-August-Producing-Wondrous Deity)
- Kamimusubi (神産巣日神, Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity)
- Umashiashikabihikoji (宇摩志阿斯訶備比古遅神, Pleasant-Reed-Shoot-Prince-Elder Deity)
- Amenotokotachi (天之常立神, Heavenly-Eternally-Standing-Deity)
- Kuni-no-tokotachi-no-kami (国之常立神, Earthly-Eternally-Standing-Deity)
- Toyo-kumo-no-no-kami (豊雲野神, Luxuriant-Integrating-Master-Deity)
- U-hiji-ni (宇比邇神, Luxuriant-Integrating-Master-Deity) and his younger sister
Su-hiji-ni (須比智邇神, Deity Mud-Earth-Lady) - Tsunu-guhi (角杙神, Germ-Integrating-Deity) and his younger sister
Iku-guhi (活杙神, Life-Integrating-Deity) - Ō-to-no-ji (意富斗能地神, Deity Elder-of-the-Great-Place) and his younger sister
Ō-to-no-be (大斗乃弁神, Deity Elder-Lady-of-the-Great-Place) - Omo-daru (淤母陀琉神, Deity Perfect-Exterior) and his younger sister
Aya-kashiko-ne (阿夜訶志古泥神, Deity Oh-Awful-Lady) - Izanagi (伊邪那岐神, Deity the Male-Who-Invites) and his younger sister
Izanami (伊邪那美神, Deity the Female-Who-Invites)
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Izanami (left) and Izanagi (right) consolidating the earth with the spear Ama-no-Nuboko.
Painting by Eitaku Kobayashi (1843 – 1890)
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuniumi
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The creation of the world typically occurs at the centre of the world, so that the spear descending into the ocean also serves as an "axis mundi" ("world axis" or "universe axis"). The tree Yggdrasil in Norse mythology also serves as an axis mundi. So too the sacred Mount Meru in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology, "Shumisen" (須弥山, しゅみせん) in Japan (a "Shumisen stone" (須弥山石) is a feature of traditional Japanese gardens); and the mythical mount Kunlun (昆仑), source of the Yellow River in China and also called: "pillar of the sky" (and realm of the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu, 西王母)), and many other mountains. Temples and holy places in general can also serve as an axis mundi, connecting Earth to heaven. The axis mundi is likely derived from the axis of the Earth that the sun, moon and stars appear to revolve around (marked in the northern hemisphere by the pole star). The Chinese referred to this axis variously as Tianxin (天心, "heart of heaven"), Zhong Gong (中宮, "Central Palace"), and "Pivot of Heaven" (see also Buzhou Mountain (不周山) and Sun-and-Moon Mountain ("it is the pivot of Heaven")). In the Urantia Book the Isle of Paradise serves the purpose of axis mundi.
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| 101 feet tall depiction of Mount Meru, in the centre of a representation of Jambudvipa. At Jambudweep, a Jain temple in Uttar Pradesh, India. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Jainvaibhav1307. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jambudvipa
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Depiction of Mount Sumeru. In the Ajmer Jain temple, Rajasthan, northern India. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mount_Meru_(mythology)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Sculpture of Mount Meru in the Yonghe Lama Monastery, Beijing, China. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Gerd Eichmann. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Yonghe_Temple
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Once they had created Onogoro island the two deities descended onto the island and "saw to the erection of a heavenly august pillar ["amanomihashira" (天の御柱, あまのみはしら)], they saw to the erection of a hall of eight fathoms. Then Izanagi, the Male-Who-Invites, said to Izanami, the Female-Who-Invites, 'We should create children'; and he said, 'Let us go around the heavenly august pillar, and when we meet on the other side let us be united....'" ("The Kojiki or Records of Ancient Matters" in "The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East: Volume XIII Japan", translation by B. H. Chamberlain, p.16, Japan) The Kojiki then proceeds to describe the creation of all the islands of Japan. The idea of creation through churning the ocean appears in the following colourful excerpt from the Hindu "Mahābhārata". The gods seek to obtain ambrosia by churning the ocean with the giant serpent Ananta (Vāsuki), and a mountain (Mandara) fastened to a giant tortoise. They obtain the ambrosia, as well as poison and several other things.
"The gods then said to Brahmā, the giver of boons, ‘We are terribly tired, O Brahmā, all of us, and all the demons and supreme snakes, all except for the god Nārāyaņa, but no ambrosia has come forth. We have been churning this ocean for a long time.’ Then Brahmā said to the god Nārāyaņa, ‘Give them the strength, Viṣņu. You are our last resort.’ Viṣņu replied, ‘I grant strength to all who are engaged in this action. Churn the ocean-pot all together; twirl Mount Mandara.’ When they heard the words of Nārāyaņa they became strong, and all together violently stirred the milk of the great ocean once more. Then from the ocean there arose Soma, the calm moon, with its cool rays, and the sun of a hundred thousand rays. And immediately after this the goddess Śrī, dressed in white, appeared from the clarified butter; then the goddess of wine; then Uccaiḥśravas, the white horse of the sun; and then came the divine, shining Kaustubha gem for the chest of the blessed Nārāyaņa, blooming with rays, born of the ambrosia. And the great elephant Airāvata, with his enormous body and his four white tusks, came forth and was taken by the Wielder of the Thunderbolt. But as they continued to churn excessively, the terrible Kālakūta poison came forth and immediately enveloped the universe, blazing like a smoky fire; the poison paralysed the triple world with the smell of its fumes. The lord Śiva took the form of a sacred chant and held that poison in his throat, and from that time forth he has been known as Blue-throated; thus it is traditionally told. At the request of Brahmā and for the sake of protecting all people, Śiva swallowed the poison, and from it there arose the Eldest, her dark form adorned with every kind of gem. When, Śrī, Wine, the moon, and the horse swift as thought had come forth, the gods went on the path of the sun, the path that leads to immortality. And then the magic tree and magic cow that grant the fruits of all desires were born. At last, the god Dhanvantari came forth incarnate, holding a white pot in which the ambrosia was contained. When the demons saw this marvel they let out a great roar for the ambrosia, each crying, ‘It is mine!’ Then the lord Nārāyaņa took the form of Mohinī, a magic illusion of the marvellous body of a woman, and he went to the demons. As their minds were bewitched, they gave the ambrosia to him in his female form, for all the demons had their hearts set on her. The goddess who was made of the illusion wrought by Nārāyaņa held the bowl and gave it to the gods to drink, but although the demons were seated in a row she did not give it to them to drink."
(Excerpt from the "Mahābhārata" in "Hindu Myths:
A Sourcebook translated from The Sanskrit" by Wendy Doniger, Hindu)
There are also references to this episode of the churning of the "milk-ocean" and the emergence of Sri in the Kurma Purana. This scene is reminiscent of the birth of Venus. The "goddess Sri [Lakshmi], the beloved of Narayana, emerged (out of the sea) there while churning." ("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 1 "Salvation of Indradyumma", p.9)
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From a manuscript depicting samudra manthana ("churning of the ocean").
Vasuki, king of the serpents (nagaraja), is wrapped around Mount Meru (Mandara). Visnu in the form of a divine tortoise (Kurma), is just visible beneath Mount Meru (the world axis), supporting it on his back. Visnu in human form also sits on top of Mount Meru. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"This is the account of when all is still silent and placid. All is silent and calm. Hushed and empty is the womb of the sky. These, then, are the first words, the first speech. There is not yet one person, one animal, bird, fish, crab, tree, rock, hollow, canyon, meadow, or forest. All alone the sky exists. The face of the earth has not yet appeared. Alone lies the expanse of the sea, along with the womb of all the sky. There is not yet anything gathered together. All is at rest. Nothing stirs. All is languid, at rest in the sky. There is not yet anything standing erect. Only the expanse of the water, only the tranquil sea lies alone. There is not yet anything that might exist. All lies placid and silent in the darkness in the night. All alone are the Framer and the Shaper, Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent, They Who Have Borne Children and They Who Have Begotten Sons. Luminous they are in the water, wrapped in quetzal feathers and cotinga feathers."
(The Maya (Popol Vuh), Central America)
Separation
The creation story of Genesis in the Judeo-Christian Bible continues in the following way."And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.' And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good."
(Genesis 1:3-11)
The theme of aggregation is here again with the waters "gathered together", but we also have the theme of separation: "God separated the light from the darkness" and "separated the waters". Here, a layer of air separates a layer of water above, from a layer of water below, or a bubble of air forms within the waters, like a bubble in lemonade. Moses likewise possessed the power of separating the waters when he parted the Red Sea to set free the Israelites. The waters were separating into distinct layers possessing different characteristics: aether, fire, air, water, earth; or light and darkness. The Quran (Koran) of Islam speaks of "separating" things out of water that serves as the raw material for creation.
"the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing"
(The Quran, 21:30, Moslem)
In the creation myth of the Māori of New Zealand, Rangi (or Ranginui, "sky father") and Papa (or Papatuanuku, "earth mother") we locked in a loving embrace, so that their children lived in cramped darkness, trapped between the two bodies. One of their children, Tane, forced them apart by laying on his back pushing with his legs against Rangi. Their parents were torn apart. Their father, distant, high up into the sky, their mother supporting them. There was now space and light for their children, but their parents were saddened over their separation. Rangi's tears falling as rain, and Papa's body sometimes shaking in seismic tremors.
The Kojiki opens "when chaos had begun to condense" and "Heaven and Earth first parted".
"Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were not yet manifest, and there was nought named, nought done, who could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first parted, and the Three Deities performed the commencement of creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things. Therefore did he enter obscurity and emerge into light, and the Sun and Moon were revealed by the washing of his eyes; he floated on and plunged into the sea-water, and Heavenly and Earthly Deities appeared through the ablutions of his person. "
(Kojiki (古事記), Japan)
We saw above that the creator god Khepera who emerged out of Nu (the primeval waters) gave birth to Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). Shu and Tefnut give birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). Though they were brother and sister, Geb and Nut were also husband and wife. Shu (air) was often depicted standing on his son Geb (earth), with arms raised, holding up his daughter Nut (sky). Nut's naked body was sometimes depicted covered in stars.
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Shu, god of the air, supports Nut, goddess of the sky, with the assistance of some ram-headed "Heh" deities;
while Geb, god of the earth, reclines beneath.
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(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nut_(goddess)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
A Chinese Taoist (Daoist) creation myth in the Huáinánzǐ (淮南子) describes the separation of what is "clear and light" and therefore "drifted up" from what "was heavy and turbid" to become Heaven and Earth. The masculine cosmic principle "yang" was associated with fire and the sun. The feminine principle "yin" was associated with water and the moon.
"Before Heaven and Earth had taken form all was vague and amorphous. Therefore it was called the Great Beginning. The Great Beginning produced emptiness, and emptiness produced the universe. The universe produced material force, which had limits. That which was clear and light drifted up to become Heaven, while that which was heavy and turbid solidified to become Earth. It was very easy for the pure, fine material to come together but extremely difficult for the heavy, turbid material to solidify. Therefore Heaven was completed first and Earth assumed shape after. The combined essences of Heaven and Earth became the yin and yang; the concentrated essences of the yin and yang became the four seasons; and the scattered essences of the four seasons became the myriad creatures of the world. After a long time the hot force of the accumulated yang produced fire, and the essence of the fire force became the sun; the cold force of the accumulated yin became water, and the essence of the water force became the moon. The essence of the excess force of the sun and moon became the stars, while Earth received water and soil."
(Huáinánzǐ (淮南子), China)
A native American creation myth of the Joshua tribe describes a familiar three layer transition of sky, fog, water; the coming of light and appearance of land in the water, as well as the theme of pairs.
"In the beginning there was no land. There was nothing but the sky, some fog, and water. The water was still; there were no breakers. A sweat-house stood on the water, and in it there lived two men,- Xowalaci (The Giver) and his companion. Xowalaci's companion had tobacco. He usually stayed outside watching, while Xowalaci remained in the sweat-house. One day it seemed to the watcher as if daylight were coming. He went inside and told Xowalaci that he saw something strange coming. Soon there appeared something that looked like land, and on it two trees were growing."
("Shasta and Athapascan Myths from Oregon"
collected by Livingston Farrand and edited by Leo J. Frachtenberg;
from "The Journal of American Folk-Lore", Vol. XXVIII, No. CIX, 1915, p.224,
Joshua tribe, Native American)
The creation myth of the Maidu tribe of North America incorporates an "axis mundi", a rope let down from heaven, down which a sun god climbs who would create dry land where "there was only water".
"In the beginning there was no sun, no moon, no stars. All was dark and everywhere there was only water. A raft came floating on water. It came from the north, and in it were two persons Turtle (A'noshma) and Father-of-the-Secret-Society (Pehe'ipe). The stream flowed very rapidly. Then from the sky a rope of feathers, called Po'kelma, was let down, and down it came Earth Initiate. When reached the end of the rope, he tied it to the bow of the raft, and stepped in. His face was covered and was never seen, but his body shone like the sun. He sat down, and for a long time said nothing. At last Turtle said, 'Where do you come from?' and Earth-Initiate answered, 'I come from above.' Then Turtle said, 'Brother, can not make for me some good dry land, so that I may sometimes come up out of the water?'"
("Maidu Myths" by Roland B. Dixon,
American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XVII, Part II, 1902, p.39,
Maidu tribe, Native American)
In the creation myth of the Jicarilla Apache, out of the initial chaos of "Darkness, Water, and Cyclone" 3 layers are created: sky, earth and underworld. These were created by "Hactcin", spirits who already existed in the darkness. The Earth was a living woman and called "Mother", who faces upwards; the sky a man called Father, who faces downwards.
"In the beginning nothing was here where the world now stands: no earth - nothing but Darkness, Water, and Cyclone. There were no people living. Only the Hactcin existed. It was a lonely place. There were no fishes, no living things. But all the Hactcin were here from the beginning. They had material out of which everything was created. They made the world first, the earth, the underworld, and then they made the sky. They made Earth in the form of a living woman and called her Mother. They made Sky in the form of a man and called him father. He faces downward, and the woman faces up. He is our father and the woman is our mother."
("Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians" by Edward Morris Opler, 1938, p.1,
Apache tribe, Native American)
Water in the religious creation myths, as a representative of primordial substance, encompasses both the material aspects of creation accounted for by elementary particles, forces and laws, light and dark; but also is a storehouse of all the "forms", the arrangements to come; arrangements like "galaxy", "carbon", "fish", "plant", "human being", "male", "female", "goodness", "mercy", "intelligence", trades such as "engineering", "agriculture", "war" or "kingship", "civilization". It is therefore a mystical substance, a union of substance, form, idea and personality. Simple material elements may appear out of the source, like a precipitate forming from a liquid solution, or silt settling out of cloudy water, leaving "earth" below and pure water above. More complex forms precipitate out of the source, forming the simple elements into complex forms, so that by stages, the original form is recreated in its offspring. Material forms may be equated with spiritual qualities, so that light and dark are equated to good and evil.
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| "Time Clipping Cupid's Wings" (1694) by Pierre Mignard (1610-1695) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In Greek mythology, Zeus and his siblings were the children of the Titans Cronus (Cronos, Kronos, "god of the harvest") and Rhea. The Titans were the children of Uranus (god of the sky) and Gaia (goddess of the Earth). Gaia, who gave birth to her husband Uranus, came from Chaos. In the Greek religion of Orphism, Chronos was the unaging god of time. He was "engendered" by "earth and water" (that is, he was the offspring of Hydros (the primordial waters) and Gaia), and he produced Aether, Chaos and the egg from which the god Phanes emerged. It is easy to confuse the god Chronos (Khronos, Chronus) with Cronos, not least because they both carry a sicle or sythe. Chronos' consort was his sister Ananke, personification of necessity and inevitability or compulsion. In this creation story the first 3 entities are Hydros (the primordial waters), Thesis (goddess of creation, sometimes identified with the goddess Metis or the Titan Tethys) and Mud, which solidifies to become Gaia.
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| Ananke the personification of Necessity |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananke_(mythology)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In Hinduism, Kala is time.
"Thus, Brahma, the elements (or all living beings) and even Vasudeva [Krishna] and Sankara [Shiva] are created by Kala (time). He alone devours them again. This Lord Kala is beginningless, endless, free from old age or decay and immortal. He is the Supreme Ruler because of his omnipresence, independence and his state of being the soul of all. There have been many Brahmas, Rudras, Narayanas and others, but there is one Lord controller of all viz. Kala. He is omniscient."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 5 "Calculation of Time", p.51, Hindu)
"By becoming Kala (Time), this absolute, unsullied great god Siva creates the entire Universe, protects it and destroys it. This eternal one created you Brahma and gave the Vedas unto you. It is that Sankara who comes here. O great-grand-sire of the universe, understand me to be only another form of his--the form that is eternal, the source of origin of the universe and is designated as Vasudeva."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 9 "Manifestation of the Lotus-Born Deity--Brahma",
p.73, Hindu)
"It is Kala (Time) that creates the living beings. It is he who annihilates the subjects. Everything is subservient to Kala, but Kala is not subordinate to any one.... Kala, the wielder of Maya [illusion], is the Lord of all these potencies, the lord of destruction (and creation). Kala does everything. It is Kala alone that annihilates everything. Kala establishes the Universe. This whole Universe is dependent on Kala."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 12 "The glory of the Goddess Parvati", p.88-89, Hindu)
In Zoroastrianism Time is the uncreated eternal Creator. Time produced fire and water and these "intermingled" to produce the god Ohrmazd, who was "bright, pure, of a fragrant smell, beneficent and powerful in connection with all goodness". But when Ohrmazd "looked into the lowest abyss, he saw Ahriman ..., black, filthy, stinking, and maleficent."
"It is thus manifest in the religion of Zoroaster: except Time all other things have been created and Time is the Creator. Time is without bounds; its top is undiscoverable; its bottom is undiscoverable; it has always existed and it shall ever be. He who is endowed with wisdom will not say whence came Time and on account of all its greatness, there was no one who could call it the Creator: Why? because, it had not made the creation. Then it produced fire and water and when these intermingled, Ohrmazd came into existence. Time is as will the Creator as the Master in relation to the creation produced by him. Now Ohrmazd was bright, pure, of a fragrant smell, beneficent and powerful in connection with all goodness. And when he looked into the lowest abyss, he saw Ahriman at 96,000 farsangs, black, filthy, stinking, and maleficent. It appeared very strange to Ohrmazd that this was a terrible enemy. When Ohrmazd saw that enemy, He thought that He must remove this enemy from the midst and thought of the various means. He thought out all this and began. What Ohrmazd does, He does with the assistance of time. All good indispensable in Ohrmazd was established in Him. Ohrmazd created the Time of Long Endurance, which is reckoned to be of 12,000 years. He connected therewith the celestial sphere, its chart and the heavens. As to the twelve constellations which are fixed in the sphere, every one of them has its duration for 1000 years. The spiritual work was accomplished in the period of 3000 years. Aries, Taurus, and Gemini completed this work — each in one constellation of 1000 years. Then Ahriman lifted up his head so that he might fight with Ohrmazd. He saw an army formed in battle array and rushed to hell. Thereafter he formed an army of the filth, darkness and stench which were in him. How was this possible? There is much to be said about its import. The drift of it is that he had not the power to do anything and even rushed forth to hell. On account of the truthfulness he saw on Ohrmazd, he could not move about for 3000 years, so that during these 3000 years, the work of this world was accomplished. The promotion of the world devolved on Cancer, Leo, and Virgo, and there is much to be said on this subject.
"However, we shall say a few words about its import. As regards the creation of the world, He first created the heavens which reached, to the extent of 576,000,000 farsangs, upwards to Garothman (heaven) which was over the heavens. After 45 days, the sky was created. After 60 days, water; after 75 days, the earth; and after 30 days, large and small vegetation was produced; and after 80 days, cattle and Gayomard (the first human) were created and after 75 days, Adam and Eve were created; in one year of 365 days, the aggregate of all these was made and when the arrangement had devolved on Cancer, Adam and Eve had been created. When these 3000 years which have been mentioned elapsed, men, the earth, and the other creatures which have been mentioned had come into existence. Again the wicked Ahriman began to stir and perforated the sky, the mountain, and the earth, and rushed forth into the world, and whatever there was in the world, he polluted with his own wickedness and filth, and he had no control over the spiritual substances, he made warfare in the world for 90 days and nights. The heavens rent asunder and the spirits came to the assistance of the world. They seized seven worst demons, carried them to the celestial sphere and bound them there with a spiritual chain. Ahriman inflicted a thousand diseases on Gayomard so that he dies and several things came into existence from him. There is much to be said as to the import of this."
(Ulama-I Islam: 8-19)
Zoroastrianism influenced Gnosticism, a religion that appeared during the early days of Christianity. It continued the theme of light versus dark.
"Then I said, 'Who are you?' 'I am,' he said, 'Poemander, the mind of the Great Lord, the most Mighty and absolute Emperor: I know what you would have, and I am always present with you.' Then I said, 'I would Learn the Things that are, and Understand the Nature of them, and know God.' 'How?' said he. I answered, 'That I would gladly hear.' Then he, 'Have me again in your mind, and whatever you would learn, I will teach you.' When he had thus said, he was changed in his Idea or Form and straightaway in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me: and I saw an infinite Sight, all things were become light, both sweet and exceedingly pleasant; and I was wonderfully delighted in the beholding it. But after a little while, there was a darkness made in part, coming down obliquely, fearful and hideous, which seemed to me to be changed into a Certain Moist Nature, unspeakably troubled, which yielded a smoke as from fire; and from where proceeded a voice unutterable, and very mournful, but inarticulate, insomuch that it seemed to have come from the Light. Then from that Light, a certain Holy Word joined itself to Nature, and out flew the pure and unmixed Fire from the moist Nature upward on high; it is exceedingly Light, and Sharp, and Operative withall. And the Air which was also light, followed the Spirit and mounted up to Fire (from the Earth and the Water) insomuch that it seemed to hang and depend upon it. And the Earth and the Water stayed by themselves so mingled together, that the Earth could not be seen for the Water, but they were moved, because of the Spiritual Word that was carried upon them. Then said Poemander to me, 'Do you understand this Vision, and what it means?' 'I would know,' I said. Then he said, 'I am that Light, the Mind, your God, who is before that Moist Nature that appeared out of Darkness, and that Bright and Lightful Word from the Mind is the Son of God.'"
(Corpus Hermeticum: Poimandres)
The Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah seeks to reconcile the existence of evil with a divine plan which is good. In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life:
"The Central Pillar is Shekinah. It is the peace in particular between the light of the right side and that which in another place is called the darkness of the left [Zohar: Bo 16].... The Middle Pillar is otherwise the Master of the House. It is said of the right arm that it draws the immensity of space in love, like the arm of the male drawing the female. The law of faith is on the right side. The left arm draws the immensity of space in rigour. The serpent constitutes the left arm and thence emanates the impure spirit. It is the side of water and the side of sadness.... A day will come when the left side shall disappear and good will obtain only.... [T]he Middle Pillar draws the right and left sides, the good and evil together, in which union evil dissolves as such and the good obtains entirely under the name of Benignity--which is that of the Middle Pillar. It is a question of transmutation."
("The Holy Kabbalah" by A. E. Waite, pp.201-3)
"Come and behold, 'Now there was a day when the sons of Elohim came to present themselves before Hashem' [Job 1:6], as explained that it was on Rosh Hashanah. For on that day, two sides are before the world. All those who come before the Holy One, blessed be He, with repentance and good deeds, merit to be written on that side which is Life, which brings out the effects of life. And whoever is from its side is recorded for Life. All those who come with evil actions are written on the Other Side, which is Death. It is called 'death', and in it death dwells, to kill people."
(Zohar: Bo 21)
"Hashem" (השם) means "the name" and is used in place of the name of God. "Rosh Hashanah" (ראש השנה "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. In this model, instead of light above and dark below we have darkness and light side by side, but in a progress in which the dark is gradually shed. In The Scientific Creation Myth we saw that there was a good serpent (from the Tree of Life), and a bad serpent (from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). If we wrap these around a central pillar (representing Shekinah, the primeval ocean and Mother goddess), in an evolutionary progress, we have a caduceus.
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From a 1516 Latin translation by Paulus Ricius of
"Portae Lucis" by Joseph Gikatilla (1248 -1325).
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"The Eden story contains one snake and two trees. In Greek myth the God Hermes (the Western Kabbalah tradition is called 'hermetic') creates a magical healing staff of two serpents wound around one stick. This 'caduceus,' as the Greeks called it, still appears as the symbol of the medical profession. So, mythologically, a snake can poison us, but snakes also can heal us. The human body itself is a kind of caduceus. The tradition of yoga describes the basic life energy, called kundalini, as a snake coiled at the base of the spine. But when the energy awakens, the description changes to two streams of snakelike energy, called ida and pingala, that wind around the spine like Hermes' caduceus."
("The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth" by Rachel Pollack, pp. 24-25)
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| The seven chakra in the body. Nepalese painting, 18th century. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Chakras_(Subtle_bodies)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
For the meditator, his own body serves as the axis mundi. It may internally represent a microcosm of the universe and contain gods within it. The chakras and sephirot represent spiritual achievements in a wholistic balance. "Spiritual development", for the meditator, corresponds to a process of visualising that you are working your way up through the various energy centres toward divinity. As the Hindu serpent Sesa "upholds the golden egg of the universe", and as the serpent is coiled around the base of the tree of life or the universe tree, so in Tantric meditation the Kundalini serpent is coiled around the base of the spine and the meditator seeks to elevate and transform it. By exiting the top of the head at the crown chakra, the meditator transcends physicality and becomes a Buddha. Beyond the crown sephirot of the Kabbalistic tree awaits endless light.
"And in the pyramid of Pepi I. we read.... 'Thou hast given him the Ladder of God, and thou hast given him the Ladder of Set, whereon this Pepi hath gone forth into heaven.... Every khu and every god stretcheth out his hand unto this Pepi when he cometh forth into heaven by the Ladder of God... that which he seeth and that which he heareth make him wise, and serve as food for him when he cometh forth into heaven by the Ladder of God.... Pepi hath gathered together his bones, he hath collected his flesh, and Pepi hath gone straightway into heaven by means of the two fingers of the god who is the Lord of the Ladder....' His bones are the gods and goddesses of heaven; his right side belongs to Horus, and his left side to Set."
("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, pp. lxxi-lxxii)
"That the heavens, or the skies, were considered to be a Face is evident from many allusions. Thus the Sun is frequently called 'Eye of Horus,' and the Moon is also an 'Eye of Horus,' the Sun being the right eye, and the Moon the left...."
("The Gods of the Egyptians" by E. A. Wallis Budge, Volume I, p. 467)
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| "Theosophie & Alchemie & Hermetik", Azoth (Basil Valentine), woodcut on paper, 1613 AD. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_about_alchemy
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In their efforts to bring order to their religious symbolism, light and dark came to represent good and evil respectively. Men had claimed the sun as their own symbol, giving the moon (the lesser light) to women. At first, night and day, black and white, light and dark had both represented legitimate and largely benign principles, either of which might hold dangers, and forming harmonious complements. But in the simplistic moral absolutism that was to develop, the queen of the night came to resemble Lilith, handmaid of Satan. This trend predates Christianity. It was already present in the gradual demonization of the Egyptian Set, god of the night. In monotheism there is room for only one god, thus the god of light. Relationships that had once been represented through the interaction of pantheistic gods, might then have been absorbed into the character of the one God. But this is no easy matter. So that the one God as he developed, was to be free of shadow. Instead, a universal Devil, akin to that found in Zoroastrianism, came to account for all shadow. The figure of Lucifer, as a result of his rebellion, came to be the bearer of all sin and suffering in the universe, leaving God's hands clean.
"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things."
(Isaiah 45:7)
"God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."
(1 John 1:5)
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| Taijitu or "Yīn and yáng" symbol of Taoism. Unicode glyph U+262F. |
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| Celtic gold-plated bronze disc from Auvers-sur-Oise, Val-d'Oise, dated to early 4th century BC; on display at the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Gun Powder Ma. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_art
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Celtic collar, dated 2nd or 3rd century AD. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_art
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Operating in parallel with this tradition of nuanceless absolutism, and largely in secret for their own protection, have been various mystical traditions seeking to find a way to meaningfully integrate the light and shadow of God's universe, in a process known in some circles as "individuation". These efforts tend to be seen by the absolutists as tendencies to alloy evil with good, while these same absolutists are casually blind to the irony of their own countless acts of unspeakable cruelty committed to keep good pure of evil. Projecting their own evil instead out into the environment in the form of lurking devils and dire threats to society, justifying the need for a kind of spiritual, if not also a physical martial law.
For those who praise their own purity like the Pharisees of old, who are unwilling to see any evil in themselves are usually all too willing to see evil in everyone else. That is why investigating your own shadow (the plank in your own eye), treating sceptically your own virtue so that you may learn of your own true impulses is so important, so that in your zeal to destroy the world's demons you are not merely acting out your own.
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| Alchemical illustration in the "Basilica Philosophica" section of Opus Medico-Chymicum, page 273, 1618 AD. |
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| Details from an Alchemical illustration in the "Basilica Philosophica" section of Opus Medico-Chymicum. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_about_alchemy
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The process of reconciliation and integration of opposites is meant to illicit higher states of understanding and constitutes an expanding embrace of the universe. The effort is speculative and may include attempts to redeem symbols and mythologies of the past. Though the pursuit of this ideal might lead to many blind alleys, as in the case of science, understanding is sought through a process of trial and error, in an effort to solve a profound puzzle, the search for meanings.
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| Chemical marriage between Sun and Moon, by Jaroš Griemiller, translation into Czech of the Rosarium Philosophorum, published in 1578 AD. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_about_alchemy
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Human beings aspire to reach heaven, and for some this striving defines their lives. At the same time, heaven reaches down to assist them with a kind of divine outflow that develops and elevates the willing creature. This common endeavour forms a bond and a bridge between heaven and earth, the proverbial stairway to heaven.
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| Voladores in Mexico Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Tony Hisgett. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Voladores
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
"This tradition is represented in the famous 'Dance of the Four Directions', performed by five male voladores, or flyers. Five men climb to the top of a thirty-meter pole. One of them remains at the top playing a drum, while the other four, tied by an ankle, jump and rotate thirteen times as they come down. The fifth, or central element of the quincunx, is associated with the tree of life, an important concept in all world religions, stemming from agrarian societies and representing the Great Mother archetype."
("The Return to Coatlicue: Goddesses and Warladies in Mexican Folklore"
by Grisel Gomez Cano, p.79)
1 May (May Day) is a traditional spring festival. The "May Pole" is a long standing and widespread practice in European culture. It is thought to be of Germanic origin. If it originally had a meaning it has been lost.
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| Dancing the May Pole before Wedding Party, Builth Wells, Wales, 1909. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Maypoles
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
May Day celebrations (set roughly mid-way between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice) are a somewhat toned-down version of the ancient Roman "Floralia", a spring festival in honour of the goddess Flora (Greek Chloris).
"I was about to ask why these games are marked by greater wantonness and broader jests; but it occurred to me that the divinity is not strait-laced, and that the gifts she brings lend themselves to delights.... A rakish stage fits Flora well; she is not, believe me she is not, to be counted among your buskined goddesses. The reason why a crowd of drabs frequents these games is not hard to discover. She is none of your glum, none of your high-flown ones: she wishes her rites to be open to the common herd; and she warns us to use life’s flower, while it still blooms: for the thorn, she reminds us, is flouted when the roses have fallen away."
("Fasti", by Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD), Book 5)
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| "The Empire of Flora", by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (c. 1743) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floralia
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
A variation on the May Pole is the "May tree". In Hungary the Májusfa ("May tree", or májfa "liver tree") is "the symbol of the rebirth of nature.... The mulberry trees with ribbons, handkerchiefs, flowers, full glass wine, eggs, etc." (Hungarian ethnographical lexicon III. (K-NE). Főszerk. Gyula Ortutay. Budapest.)
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| Maytree, Eskü Square, Erzsébettelep, Gyömrő, Pest County, Hungary, 2016. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Globetrotter19. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Maypoles
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
Another example of a pole with cords hanging from it is the Tibetan khaṭvāṅga (the name means "bed post"), derived from the Hindu kapalikas ("skull-bearers").
"It consists of a long eight-sided white sandalwood shaft, which is sealed at its base with a single-pointed or half-vajra, and crowned at its top with a crossed-vajra, a golden vase, a freshly severed head, a decaying head, a dry skull, and a surmounting vajra or flaming trident. From the crossed-vajra and vase hang a long silk ribbon and usually one or two hanging threads, which bear emblems of a sun and moon, a triple banderole [banner], and a damaru [drum] and bell.
"As a symbol of the consort, the khatvanga is held in the crook of the left arm.... In its outer symbolism the khatvanga represents the physical universe of Mt Meru.... The vase represents Mt Meru itself, and its four leaf-shaped pendants, the four faces of Mt Meru. The open top of the vase represents Indra's palace at the summit of Mt Meru, which has a visualized wish-granting tree at its center.... The flowing white silk ribbon, which is tied around the vase, represents Mt Meru's encicling moutains and the great salt ocean. The triple banderole represents the victory banner on Mt Meru's summit; the sun and moon emblems represent these planets circling Mt Meru's summit; and the damaru and bell symbolise the union of method and wisdom.
"In its inner symbolism the ... billowing white silk ribbon represents the various Buddhist teachings adapted to the needs of different disciples. The triple banderole, colored yellow, red, and blue, represents the union of the three vehicles, Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The hanging damaru and bell represent the teachings of method and wisdom, and the 'auspicious conjunction' of the crescent moon and sun signifies the full realization of method and wisdom."
("The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols", by Robert Beer, pp. 102-104)
The streamers flow down from on high from Mount Meru like rivers out of Eden, carrying the divine teachings that lead us on the ascent.
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| Statue of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), holding a khatvanga in the crook of his left arm. Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery, Scotland. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Secretlondon. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Padmasambhava
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
"Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell."
(Psalm 43:3)
"Many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.' The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.... The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever."
(Micah 4:2-7)
"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
(Hebrews 12:22)
"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God."
(Revelation 21:10)
For the Tantric Buddhist, the "tree of life" might refer to the wish-granting tree (Parijata) on Mount Meru, over which the Hindu gods fight, or it might refer to the "Refuge tree", consisting of the "Three Jewels": the Buddha, the Buddhist teachings (Dharma), and the monastic order of Buddhist monks and nuns (Sangha), which are referred to collectively as "refuge". The refuge tree may be visualised as part of some meditation practices.
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| Thangka painting depicting the Refuge Tree of the Karma Kagyu Lineage, by Sherab Palden Beru, c. 1972. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Barry Stott (from http://users.iafrica.com/b/bs/bscases/refugetree/refugetree.htm). |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refuge_tree
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The Djed of ancient Egypt "represents four pillars, i.e., the four quarters of heaven, or the whole universe. As a religious emblem it symbolizes the god Osiris." ("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 357, footnote 2.) As a hieroglyph 𓊽 it has the meaning: "stability".
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| Djed Column amulet, 664-332 BC. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Djed
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In the Kabbalistic creation myth, in the beginning is "Ein Sof Ohr" ("endless light"). At the commencement of creation 10 Sephirot ("emanations", attributes of God or psychological faculties of the soul) appeared or separated out of the endless light. The first to appear was Adam Kadmon ("Primordial Man"), the realm of Divine Will. From Adam Kadmon came the four spiritual worlds.
- Atziluth ("the World of Emanation" - Divine Wisdom), the highest of the four celestial worlds.
- Beri'ah ("the World of Creation" - Divine Intellect), the second of the four celestial worlds.
- Yetzirah ("the World of Formation" - Divine Emotions), the third of the four celestial worlds.
- Assiah ("the World of Action" - Divine Realisation), the last of the four celestial worlds.
The notion of emanation is also found in Neoplatonism.
"All existences, as long as they retain their character, produce - about themselves, from their essence, in virtue of the power which must be in them - some necessary, outward-facing hypostasis continuously attached to them and representing in image the engendering archetypes: thus fire gives out its heat; snow is cold not merely to itself; fragrant substances are a notable instance; for, as long as they last, something is diffused from them and perceived wherever they are present."
(Ennead 5.1.6 by Plotinus, 250 AD)
Instead of an evolutionary procession considered from sub-atomic particles to atoms, to molecules, to organisms; we have an evolutionary process from a single substance or being containing all potential forms, separating into two distinct substances or beings, each containing half of all potential forms, etc.
It is a hierarchy reaching out from the highest to the lowest, like the roots of a tree, so that the simplest elements are arrived at finally through a process of subtraction of characteristics, like passing through a series of filters. The simplest elements are governed by a few simple rules. Whereas god may be and do anything, matter is completely bound by its few rules.
"The Way conceals itself in being nameless. The Way begets the one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures"
(Tao Te Ching (道德经)).
Mōdraniht ("Night of the Mothers") was an event held by the Anglo-Saxon pagans at what is now called Christmas Eve. Yuletide ("Yule time") was and is a festival observed by the Germanic peoples at the Winter solstice (about December 21).
"The modern Christmas tree, though, originated in western Germany. The main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a 'paradise tree,' a fir tree hung with apples, that represented the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung wafers on it (symbolizing the Eucharistic host, the Christian sign of redemption); in a later tradition the wafers were replaced by cookies of various shapes. Candles, symbolic of Christ as the light of the world, were often added."
The modern Christmas tree can stand in for the traditional world tree / axis mundi / Mount Meru, joining Earth to Heaven. A star or angel at the apex of the tree can stand for Heaven itself.
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| Christmas Tree, Singapore, 2016. Glowing reindeer race along a spiral path toward the apex of the tree. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Tony Hisgett. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Christmas_trees
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
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| "Jacob's Dream", by William Blake, 1805. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
Emanation is also a form of separation and division. Part of the original radiates out, and each time it divides there is less of the original, so that there is a descent from highest to lowest forms and entity. This descending hierarchy constitutes a kind of ladder. The role of the adept is to climb this hierarchy. We learned about "Jacob's Ladder" in the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1.
“Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
(John 1:51)
"Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay."
(Daniel 2:31-33)
The Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis were frequently represented with the headdress of a sun disk resting between two horns. Hathor sometimes also appeared in the form of a cow, again with horns and a sun disk between them. The sun disk was Ra (Re), the sun god, Hathor's brother and consort. As Isis rose to prominence, she inherited some of the older Hathor's iconography.
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| Hathor, Brooklyn Museum. From "Panthéon égyptien" (1823) by Jean-François Champollion. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The god Thoth was sometimes represented with a moon disk on his head, and this moon disk rested on an upturned crescent moon so that the crescent moon appeared like a pair of horns. Khonsu (the Egyptian god of the moon) likewise was depicted with a moon disk resting on an upturned crescent moon on his head. So that the crescent moon was treated interchangeably with a pair of horns.
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| Ramses III in front of the god Thoth. Thoth has a full moon resting on a crescent moon on his head. From the tomb of Khaemwaset. Painted 12th century BC. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Thoth
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Ptah, Brooklyn Museum. From "Panthéon égyptien" (1823) by Jean-François Champollion. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptah
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In other contexts, instead of horns, the disk might be enclosed by a pair of wings forming a crescent.
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| Jewelled falcon of Tutankhamun, holding a shen ring in each talon, and with an "ankh", the sign for life, on each talon. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jewellery_of_the_Egyptian_18th_dynasty
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Or the crescent itself forming a disk.
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| Ancient Egyptian royal vulture pectoral, 18th Dynasty. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Ulises Muñiz. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jewellery_of_the_Egyptian_18th_dynasty
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Crescentic bronze plaque with triskele decoration, from Llyn Cerrig Bach lake, Wales (200 BC - 100 AD). National Museum of Wales (Cardiff). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wolfgang Sauber. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celtic_art
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Someone being led into the presence of the Babylonian moon god Sin (Nanna), whose symbol was the crescent moon. From a cylinder seal from Ur, c. 2400 BC, in the British Museum. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nanna_(god)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Tanit, Carthage, Tunisia. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Neil Rickards. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tanit
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
This usage of the crescent moon as a pair of horns seems to appear again in the case of Astarte (Astoreth), a form of Ishtar, and definitely in the case of the lunar deities Selene and the virgin huntress Diana.
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| Figurine of Astarte with a horned or crescent moon headdress. From the Louvre Museum. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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Statue of Greek goddess Selene ("Moon", Roman Luna),
shown wearing the crescent moon on her head
and holding a torch in her right hand.Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selene
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
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| Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon and hunting (Greek Artemis). Painted by Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836 – 1911). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Diana
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Byzantine coin. Late 1st century BC - 1st century AD. Draped bust of Artemis (Roman Diana), bow and quiver over her shoulder, and an eight-rayed star within a crescent moon on the reverse side. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Odysses from CNG. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_and_crescent
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Diana-Artemis with an upturned crescent moon behind her shoulders and a radiant halo. Roman period limestone pediment from Perge, Turkey (Antalya Museum). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Dominator1453. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_and_crescent
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Coin showing King Khosrau II of Persia (c. 590 – 628 AD) |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Coins_of_Khosrau_II
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
In the flag of the Ottoman empire, the symbol has fallen on its side, losing its symmetry and its horn associations, acquiring instead a Pac-Man effect.
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| Flag of the Ottoman Empire. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_and_crescent
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
For an early representation of a star within a crescent moon see the Ur-Nammu stela (c. 2112 - 2094 BC) (for instance, see figure 1 in: A Monumental Puzzle: Reconstructing the Ur-Nammu Stela). For a representation of a 5-pointed star within a crescent moon, see a boundary stone of Nebuchadnezzar I (c. 1146 - 1123 BC), found at Nippur, Iraq. Now at the Penn Museum (object 29-20-1). The star (Venus) represents the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, and the crescent moon the god Nanna/Sin. See an example of a winged star on a crescent moon from a Syrian cylinder seal (c. 1820 – 1730 BC.) here (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). A star under a downturned crescent moon was the Egyptian Hieroglyph for the word "month".
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| Tug Süld ("banner of the soul") of the Central Asian religion of Tengrism. Outside the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan. Dongsheng district, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Popolon. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bunchuk
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Buńczuk of Poland, from between 1931 and 1939. A "tug" (Mongolian and Ottoman Turkish) or "sulde" (Mongolian) is a pole with horse or yak tail hairs attached, carried as a cermonian standard. In Ukrainian and Polish they go by the name "bunchuk". Sometimes, as in this case, topped with a crescent moon. Photograph by Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński (1898 - 1943). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bunchuk
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Turkish Horse-tail standards. From "Flags: Some Account of their History and Uses", by Andrew Macgeorge, p.19 (at Project Gutenberg). |
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| Basalt Stele decorated with a bull's head, from Bethsaida, 9th - 8th c. BC, height 115 cm (from the Israel Museum). |
"Keel enumerated over 100 depictions of the Near Eastern god represented by the crescent moon affixed atop a pole in his exhaustive work 'Goddesses and Trees, New Moon and Yahweh.' Nearly exact copies of the Bethsaida stele have been found at sites in Syria and Southern Turkey - a staff topped by a bull's head whose horns form the crescent moon. Scholars point to a lengthy tradition of theriomorphic - generally bovine - depictions of the moon god Sin-Nanna in Mesopotamian cultures. To the ancient Mesopotamians, the 'horns of a bull or cow were seen to match the pointed curve of the waxing and waning crescents so exactly that the powers of the one were attributed to the other, each gaining the other's potency as well as their own,' writes Jules Cashford in her book 'The Moon: Myth and Image.'"
("New moon takes the bull by the horns", by Ilan Ben Zion,
from The Times of Israel, 16 November 2013.)
In Catholic iconography, the virgin Mary is frequently depicted as standing on a crescent moon, presumably to demonstrate her superiority over these other gods and goddesses.
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| "The lmmaculate Conception", by Baltasar de Echave Ibía (ca. 1585 - 1644). Showing the virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:17th-century_paintings_of_Immaculata
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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Baal.
Picture from the Popular Bible Encyclopedia of Archimandrite Nicephorus (1891).
|
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ваал_(БЭАН).png
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Hindu god Shiva and his followers. Shiva was frequently depicted with the crescent moon in his hair. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Himalayan Academy Publications, Hawaii. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_Shiva
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
Before moving on to the next section (The Earth Diver) I want to indulge another speculative flight. The plausibility of what we have considered so far in this section can be treated independently of what now follows.
We speak of being on the "horns of a dilemma" when confronted with a choice between only two options that are equally unpleasant. A pair of horns, like a fork in the road, or a fork in a tree branch, offer a natural metaphor for a pair of options and (we may speculate) duality in general. If we treat the crescent moon as interchangeable with a pair of horns it inherits the same associations. The form of the crescent moon is also akin to the torc, having two ends (see the Ouroboros section of The Scientific Creation Myth). In the transition from the full moon to the crescent moon, we therefore have a nice illustration of unity (1) evolving into duality (2), and back again, with the waxing and waning of the moon. Duality is obtained by hiding some of the unity. It therefore represents the very first fork in the road out of formless chaos, the first bifurcation in the ever branching tree of creation.
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| Crescent moon over Sarıçam, Adana, Turkey. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Zeynel Cebeci. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Crescent_moon
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
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| Gold lunula from Blessington, Ireland. Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age, c. 2400 – 2000 BC. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_lunula
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Scythian golden pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla in southern Ukraine. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Pectoral_from_Tovsta_Mohyla
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Broad collar of Senebtisi, Middle Kingdom, c. 1850 – 1775 BC. |
(This image is taken from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jewellery_of_the_Egyptian_12th_dynasty
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jewellery_of_the_Egyptian_12th_dynasty
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Princess Neferuptah's "Usekh" Necklace, 12th Dynasty. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by woodsboy2011. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Usekh_collars
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Golden Egyptian-style pectoral ornamented with royal falcons. A shen ring is held in each talon of the central falcon, and a tyet ("Knot of Isis" or "Girdle of Isis" (Unicode character 𓎬 U+133AC)) stretches from each talon. Middle Bronze Age (2000 - 1600 BC), found at the royal necropolis of Byblos. Department of Near Eastern Antiquities of the Louvre. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Rama. |
(This image is taken from
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Dacian bracelet found at Brasov, Romania (Transylvania). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by CristianChirita. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Dacian_bracelets
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Silver chape with an animal head at each end. St Ninian's Isle Treasure, Shetland, Scotland (c. 800 AD). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Johnbod. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ninian%27s_Isle_Treasure?uselang=pl
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Gold griffin-headed armlet, Achaemenid Persian, 5th - 4th century BC. From the British Museum collection online. |
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| Lusitanian lunula made of embossed silver. 2nd century BC. National Archaeological Museum of Spain. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Ángel M. Felicísimo. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lusitanian_lunula_of_Chão_de_Lamas
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| La Tène culture fitting. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Johnbod (cropped). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lunulae
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Silver bracelet, Arabian desert, Egypt. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Roger Culos. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Art_of_Siwa
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Bronze Age torc in striated gold, northern France (c. 1200 – 1000 BC). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Siren-Com. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torc
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
As the lunar disk becomes the crescent it also implies the ring, reminding us of the ouroboros, but with a bulge on one side. We might speculate that the crescent shaped tiara and the wedding ring served as lunar symbols.
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Celtic torc ("Neck ring"),
of the La Tène culture (450 BC - 1st century BC), found at Erstfeld in Switzerland.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Adrian Michael. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Goldschatz_von_Erstfeld
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Pectoral as part of horse equipment (1st century AD). Museum Carnuntinum (Lower Austria). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Wolfgang Sauber. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lunulae
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Roman lamp. National Museum of Underwater Archaeology of Cartagena. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lunulae
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Roman necklace with "lunula", gold and agate. 1st century AD. Walters Art Museum. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lunulae
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
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| Byzantine golden earring, archaeological zone Cologne. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Archäologische Zone Köln. |
(This image is taken from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kölner_Ohrring
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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| Silver ear ring, Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Roger Culos. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Art_of_Siwa
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
The ancients early on gave their gods and goddesses horns to symbolise their power, and it is easy to imagine the ancients using horns for this simple purpose, but symbols are not limited to a single meaning, this is part of their value. If I dream about X and X has a similar shape to Y, then this superficial association is enough to cause me to dream about Y, even if the two have nothing else in common. So a crescent moon may also become a symbol of power simply because it looks like a pair of horns. These associations form bridges and a unifying principle between the disparate objects we find in the world around us, bringing order and unity to the universe. Which is the essence of the scientific and philosophical impulse. Giving goddesses cow horns eventually fell out of fashion, the more dainty crescent Moon preferred instead. If questions about unity and duality seem overly sophisticated for the ancients, consider that they early discovered the pairs of opposites: male and female, sun and moon, hot and cold, light and dark, good and evil, and were much preoccupied with organising the elements of the universe according to these dualities. Today some languages classify nouns by gender (in French for instance "dusk" (une aube), "summer" (l’été) and "the rocket" (la fusée) are all feminine nouns, while "water" (l’eau), "the garden" (le jardin) and "the beach" (la plage) are all masculine nouns). The same principle is at work when Earth and sky are treated as opposites with one being associated with a male god, while the other is associated with a goddess (though which is which varies from one culture to another). It is why Chinese traditional medicine is so preoccupied with hot and cold. That the ancients were concerned with unifying these opposites is implied by the circle surrounding the yin/yang, or treating the Sun and Moon as a pair of eyes in a single face, or in a sexual union between Earth and sky, or having a single object standing between a pair of objects that are mirror images or opposites of each other, or by entwining a pair of serpents. The ancients had minds much like our own, just a lot less history to draw on. A sun between a pair of bull's horns, a full moon or star between the horns of a crescent moon, or indeed if the two arms of the crescent themselves form the outline of a circle, a staff or a column or a penis/omphalos/egg/lingam or a man or a woman or a god or a goddess between a pair of snakes might all bear related meanings concerned with unity and duality, harkening back to the caduceus inspired considerations in The Scientific Creation Myth. The human body itself consists of two halves that are mirror images of each other yet form a single whole, but we take this image so much for granted that we fail to see its significance. So these contrived symbols serve as reminders and material for speculation and meditation in the search for balance, wisdom and grace.
"Many witches [Wiccans] and other neo-pagans believe in the 'Triple Goddess' of maiden, mother, and crone that originated with the first neo-pagans in mid-twentieth-century England." ("Teaching New Religious Movements", edited by David G. Bromley, p.214. See also "New Age and Neopagan Religions in America", by Sarah M. Pike, p.131.) The full moon represents woman in her fullness (mother), the waxing moon (maiden) prior to acquiring her fullness, and the waning moon (crone) as fading from her fullness. But the crone also represents the wise old woman, so that the dissolution of the physical also represents a transition into a spiritual state and a return to the source. This stands as a general model of emergence, being and dissolution. We might also see this represented in the 19th century German painting of "The Three Fates" by Paul Thumann that appeared in: In the Beginning: Water - Part 1.
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The "Triple Goddess" symbol of the waxing, full and waning moon.
Representing the aspects of Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
|
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Goddess_(Neopaganism)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
If we relate this back to our duality-unity-duality model, where the full moon represents unity and the crescent moon duality, this symbol represents a knitting together of the creature from multiplicity, via duality to unity, only to dissolve, via duality back into multiplicity. Which seems to imply disintegration and destruction into its constituent atoms. The cyclic symbol shows the evolution of the material body, where the individual life of the person appears to be represented by only a single instance of the cycle, replaced by the next generation and a new cycle. The same model applies to everything that comes and goes in the course of a single life, and that life itself is part of a larger coming and going. This interpretation of the symbol may suggest in turn the double helix. Two strands come together. Two strands come apart. The axis DNA spirals around is a void. So too, particle/antiparticle pairs emerge from and return to the void. The human being encompasses all three: left, right and the void between, forming a new unity. The two strands of DNA in turn suggest the image we are familiar with from The Scientific Creation Myth article: the pair of entwined serpents.
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| The altar where Jory Goddess is worshipped. The main temple in Belur Karnataka, India. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Pratheepps. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_worship
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
We need not seek sophisticated explanations for symbols. They are arrived at naively. One thing reminds us of another thing. Today, due to our scientific knowledge, we have lost the ability to see the crescent Moon as anything but the Moon lit from a certain angle. It might at most represent incompleteness in relation to the full Moon. Our literal waking minds have lost some of the imaginative flexibility they once had, where superficial associations inspire deep thoughts. Symbols of power are those connected to deep-seated concerns, conscious or not. What is more fundamental to our universe than the commingling of opposites? What more fascinating and powerful than their union.
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| Nagas at Kaadu Malleshwara Temple, Bengaluru, Karnataka. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Arunsbhat. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nāga_in_Karnataka
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
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Nagashila, a stone cut carving representing the snake Gods
are typically found under a Peepal tree outside most (South) Indian temples.
Typically it is a set of three idols containing: first one as Adi seshu,
second one Naga raja with snakes in his hands as ammunition, and a third one has a pair of snakes.
This detail shows only the third carving.Photograph provided to Wikipedia by రహ్మానుద్దీన్ (detail). |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nagashila.JPG
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
It is not difficult to imagine that the first metaphysical speculations of prehistoric humans was on the mystical significance of the first three natural numbers: 1, 2 and 3, and that they sought support for these in familiar concrete examples. That is not to suggest the popular motifs had these or any other meaning for the many who used them for decoration.
The Earth Diver
The Myth of the Maidu Native American tribe we encountered above, where the sun god "Earth Initiate" climbs down a rope onto the raft with Turtle and Father-of-the-Secret-Society, whereupon Turtle asks: "make for me some good dry land" continues with Earth Initiate tying a rope to Turtle and lowering him down into the water."Turtle was gone a long time. He was gone six years; and when he came up, he was covered with green slime, he had been down so long. When he reached the top of the water, the only earth he had was a very little under his nails; the rest had all washed away. Earth-Inititae took with his right hand a stone knife from under his left armpit, and carefully scraped the earth out from under Turtle's nails. He put the earth in the palm of his hand, and rolled it about till it was round; it was as large as a small pebble. He laid it on the stern of the raft. By and by he went to look at it: it had not grown at all. The third time that he went to look at it, it had grown so that it could be spanned by the arms. The fourth time he looked, it was as big as the world, the raft was aground, and all around were mountains as far as he could see. The raft came ashore at Ta'doiko, and the place can be seen to-day."
("Maidu Myths" by Roland B. Dixon,
American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XVII, Part II, 1902, p.40,
Maidu tribe, Native American)
A supernatural being bringing earth up from beneath the water, is a common enough theme in creation stories that, like the "axis mundi", there is a technical term in the study of mythology to refer to it. It is called the "earth diver". A few more examples follow. The creation story of the Blood tribe of North American Blackfoot Indians proceeds in the following way.
"Napioa, the Old Man, floated upon a log in the waters, and had with him four animals: Mameo, the fish; Matcekupis, the frog; Maniskeo, the lizard; and Spopeo, the turtle. He sent them down into the waters in the order named, to see what they could find. The first three descended, but never returned; the turtle, however, arose with his mouth full of mud. Napioa took the mud from the mouth of the turtle, rolled it around in the hollow of his hand, and in this manner made the earth, which fell into the waters, and afterward grew to its present size."
("Blackfoot Mythology" by J. MacLean, from The Journal of American Folklore, 1883, p.165)
The Huron are a Canadian nation of Indians.
"The tortoise directed them all to dive to the bottom of the sea and endeavour to bring up some earth. Many attempted it,--the beaver, the musk-rat, the diver, and others,--but without success. Some remained so long below that when they rose they were dead. The tortoise searched their mouths, but could find no trace of earth. At last the toad went down, and after remaining a long time rose, exhausted and nearly dead. On searching his mouth the tortoise found in it some earth, which he gave to the woman. She took it and placed it carefully around the edge of the tortoise's shell. When thus placed, it became the beginning of dry land. The land grew and extended on every side, forming at last a great country, fit for vegetation. All was sustained by the tortoise, which still supports the earth."
("Huron Folklore" by Horatio Hale in The Journal of American Folklore
- Vol I - No III, 1888, p.180)
The "Negritos" are natives of the Malay peninsula.
"[A]t first only Pedn and Manoid his wife existed. The sun was already there, but not the earth. Then Tahobn, the dung-beetle, made the earth by pulling it out of the mud. The sun dried it and made it firm. When Pedn and Manoid saw the earth they descended to it."
("The Negritos of Malaya" by Ivor N. Evans, 1937, p.160)
The Altai Tartar live in Siberia.
"When there was no earth and no Heaven, but only water, Ulgen ('the Great'), according to an Altai Tartar tale, descended upon the water to create the earth. He thought and thought but could not conceive how to begin. Then 'Man' came to him. Ulgen asked: 'Who art thou?' 'I also came to create land,' answered Man. God became angry and said: 'Even I cannot create, how couldst then thou?' Man remarked: 'But I know where to get earth-matter from.' God urged him to get some, whereupon Man dived immediately into the water, finding at the bottom of the ocean a mountain, from which he wrenched a piece and put it in his mouth. Arriving again on the surface Man gave God a part of it. The other part remained in his mouth between his teeth. When at last he spat it out, the swamps and bogs appeared on the face of the earth."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.314-5)
The Yakuts, also of Siberia, have the following tales.
"In the beginning there was nothing but water, God and the 'First Man' moved about in the shape of two black geese over the waters of the primordial ocean. The devil, however, could not hide his nature, but endeavoured ever to rise higher, until he finally sank down into the depths. Nearly suffocating, he was forced to call to God for help, and God raised him again into the air with the power of his word. God then spoke: 'Let a stone rise from the bottom of the ocean!' When the stone appeared, 'Man' seated himself upon it, but God asked him to dive under the water and bring land. Man brought earth in his hand and God scattered it on the surface of the water saying: 'Let the world take shape!' Once more God asked Man to fetch earth. But Man then decided to take some for himself and brought a morsel in each hand. One handful he gave to God but the other he hid in his mouth, intending to create a world of his own. God threw the earth which the devil had brought him beside the rest on the water, and the world at once began to expand and grow harder, but with the growing of the world the piece of earth in Man's mouth also swelled until he was about to suffocate so that he again was compelled to seek God's help. God inquired: 'What was thy intention? Didst thou think thou couldst hide earth from me in thy mouth?' Man now told his secret intentions and at God's request spat the earth out of his mouth. Thus were formed the boggy places upon the earth."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.317-8)
"When the great Yryn-Ajy-Tojon ('White Creator Lord'), so runs a Yakut tale, moved in the beginning above the boundless ocean, he saw a bladder floating on the waters and inquired: 'Who and whence?' The bladder replied that it was Satan and lived on the earth hidden under the water. God said: 'If there really is earth under the water, then bring me a piece of it.' Satan dived under the water and returned after a while with a morsel of earth. Having received it, God blessed it, placed it on the surface of the water and seated himself on it. Then Satan resolved to drown God by stretching out the land but the more he stretched, the stronger it grew, covering soon a great part of the ocean's surface."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.313)
In this Hindu myth, Brahma, in the form of a giant boar, lifts the earth up out of the waters with his tusks.
"Lord Kurma said: Formerly, there was nothing but one single vast sheet of water, a terrible ocean full of darkness, without any division and devoid of wind. Nothing was known at that time. When all living beings, the mobile and the immobile had perished in that vast sheet of water, there appeared Brahma of thousand eyes and thousand feet, the Purusa [cosmic man] of thousand heads and of golden colour. He was beyond the scope of sense-organs. Brahma called Narayana lay asleep on the cosmic waters at that time. They cite this verse in this context, regarding Narayana, the very embodiment of Brahman (or the Veda) and who is the Lord and the origin of the world and the cause of dissolution of the universe! The waters are called Narah since the waters are born of Nara (The cosmic Man) and since waters constitute his abode (Ayana), he is called as Narayana. After spending the nocturnal period equal to a thousand Yugas and at the end of that night, he assumes the functions of Brahma for the purose of creation. By inference, he understood that the earth was submerged under water. The Lord of creation (Prajapati) then became desirous of lifting it up. He assumed the refulgent form of the divine Boar for sports within the waters. It was unthwartable, even mentally, by others. He then becomes known by the term vanmaya Brahman (Brahman in the form of speech or the Vedas). In order to lift up the earth, he entered the nether-world. The upholder of the earth, the self-supporting God, lifted up the earth by means of his tusks."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 6 "The Uplift of the Earth by Visnu-Varaha", p.52-4, Hindu)
The Babylonians also had their version of the earth diver myth.
"The holy house, the house of the gods in the holy place had not yet been made. No reed had sprung up, no tree had been made. No brick had been laid, no structure of brick had been erected. No house had been made, no city had been built. No city had been made, no creature had been constituted.... The Deep (or Abyss) had not been made, Eridu had not been built.... All the lands were sea.... Marduk laid a rush mat upon the face of the waters, He mixed up earth and moulded it upon the rush mat, To enable the gods to dwell in the place where they fain would be. He fashioned man. The goddess Aruru with him created the seed of mankind. He created the beasts of the field and [all] the living things in the field."
("The 'Bilingual' Version of the Creation Legend" from "The Babylonian Legends of Creation",
by E. A. Wallis Budge, 1921)
The initial story of separation gives air above, water in the middle, and earth below, in descending order of increasing density. So that the appearance of earth above the surface of the water must be accounted for, which is naively suggested by means of someone or something raising it up. We can apply a more subtle interpretation to these stories; specifically that they treat of the idea of a "threshold of detectability". While the earth exists submerged beneath the surface of the water, it is undetectable and therefore effectively does not exist. By raising the earth above the surface of the water (the threshold of detectability), the earth becomes detectable and therefore is perceived as coming into being. Before virtual positrons and electrons pop into existence out of the vacuum, they presumably have some kind of undetectable existence within the vacuum. But something "raises them up" into a detectable state. Prior to being raised up, there is only the vacuum, void, in which they cannot be said to exist.
The idea of the earth resting on the body of a giant animal (as on the tusks of Brahma in the form of a giant boar) is a common mythological theme. In Siberia it was thought that a giant bull supported the earth on its horns.
"In tales of the Kirghis, and among the West Siberian, Volga, and Caucasian Tatars, it is related that the world is supported by a great bull. This idea has spread even among the Finnish tribes along the Volga. Under this bull there is often a support on which the bull stands. The Crimean Tatars say that in the world-ocean there is a great fish, and on the fish a bull which carries the earth on its horns. A similar belief is found among the Votiaks of the Jelabuga District."
("The Mythology of all Races", Volume IV: Finno-Ugric Siberian, by Uno Holmberg, pp.311)
In Sulawesi (formerly known as Celebes) an island in Indonesia, the world was thought to be supported on the back of a hog ("Primitive Culture" by Edward B. Tylor, p,364).
The earth is sometimes said to be supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
"Among the Indians of North America, it is said that earthquakes come of the
movement of the great world-bearing Tortoise."
("Primitive Culture" by Edward B. Tylor, p,364)
The Hindu Ramayana describes the earth resting on the heads of the four "Diggajas" ("the elephants that are supporting the directions"): Virṅpākṣa (East), Mahāpadma (South), Sumanā (West), Bhadra (North). Below the four elephants is Vishnu.
"The sixty thousand chiefs obeyed: deep through the earth their way they made. Deep as they dug and deeper yet the immortal elephant they met, famed Virúpáksha vast of size, upon whose head the broad earth lies: the mighty beast who earth sustains with shaggy hills and wooded plains. When, with the changing moon, distressed, and longing for a moment's rest, his mighty head the monster shakes, earth to the bottom reels and quakes. Around that warder strong and vast with reverential steps they passed. Nor, when the honour due was paid, their downward search through earth delayed. But turning from the east aside southward again their task they plied. There Mahápadma held his place, the best of all his mighty race, like some huge hill, of monstrous girth, upholding on his head the earth. When the vast beast the princes saw, they marvelled and were tilled with awe. The sons of high-souled Sagar round that elephant in reverence wound. Then in the western region they with might unwearied cleft their way. There saw they with astonisht eyes Saumanas, beast of mountain size. Round him with circling steps they went with greetings kind and reverent. On, on--no thought of rest or stay--they reached the seat of Soma's [the moon's] sway. There saw they Bhadra, white as snow, with lucky marks that fortune show, bearing the earth upon his head. Round him they paced with solemn tread, and honoured him with greetings kind, then downward yet their way they mined. They gained the tract 'twixt east and north whose fame is ever blazoned forth, and by a storm of rage impelled, digging through earth their course they held. Then all the princes, lofty-souled, of wondrous vigour, strong and bold, saw Vásudeva [Vishnu] standing there...."
("The Ramayana of Valmiki", Book I - Canto XLI: Kapil (my emphasis))
Some reports have the elephants standing on the back of a giant tortoise.
"Others dissented, and said, that the Earth was borne up by seven Elephants: the Elephants feet stood on Tortoises, and they were borne by they know not what."
("A Treatise on Hindu Cosmography from the Seventeenth Century" by Jarl Charpentier,
from "Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution - Volume III: 1923-25", p.321)
In the episode of the churning of the milk-ocean, the mountain Mandara (the axis mundi at the centre for the universe) was supporting by the god Vishnu in the form of a giant tortoise (Kurma).
"In days of yore, the gods in co-operation with Daityas and Danavas [both a kind of asura, demigod], made the mountain Mandara their churning rod and churned the milk-ocean, for obtaining nectar. While it was being churned, Lord Janardana [Vishnu] assumed the form of a divine Tortoise and bore the mountain Mandara on his back with the desire for the welfare of the gods. On seeing the imperishable Visnu, the cosmic witness (Saksin) assuming the form of a Tortoise, Narada and other great sages along with the gods eulogised the Lord."
("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 1 "Salvation of Indradyumma", p.9)
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| "The Hindu Earth", from Popular Science Monthly, Volume 10 (1876) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Turtle
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
 |
| An attempt to depict the cosmology of the Puranas, and Mount Meru, a steel engraving, 1850's, with modern hand colouring. (See here for the original black and white version that comes from an atlas by Thunot Duvotenay (1843).) |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hindu_mythology
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The Tungousians of Eastern Siberia and Northeast Asia "suppose that the earth is supported by an immense frog" (The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies, Volume 17, 1824, p.596).
From the Body of (a) God
After the storm god Marduk had conquered Tiamat, the monstrous ocean goddess, he cut up her body and used the parts to create the world. "He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; one half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven." The covering for heaven (the firmament, a solid dome) would hold back the waters above, to "not let her waters come forth"."And unto Tiamat, whom he had conquered, he returned. And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts, and with his merciless club he smashed her skull. He cut through the channels of her blood, and he made the North wind bear it away into secret places. His fathers beheld, and they rejoiced and were glad; presents and gifts they brought unto him. Then the lord rested, gazing upon her dead body, while he divided the flesh of the ..., and devised a cunning plan. He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; one half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven. He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman, and bade them not to let her waters come forth. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions thereof, and over against the Deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud [Enki, a water god]. And the lord measured the structure of the Deep, and he founded E-sara, a mansion like unto it. The mansion E-sara which he created as heaven, he caused Anu [sky god], Bel ["lord" would come to be identified with Marduk himself], and Ea [Enki again] in their districts to inhabit."
("Enuma Elish", originating before 2000 BC, Babylon)
In Genesis 1:6: "Let there be an expanse [of the sky] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters [below the expanse] from the waters [above the expanse]" (AMP), the word rakía (רקיע) may be translated variously as: "expanse", "space", "vault" or "firmament". The firmament was a solid dome serving as a dam holding back the "waters above the skies" (Psalm 148:4). So that rain required that "the floodgates of the heavens were opened" (Genesis 7:11), the bolt set by Marduk released. So that the biblical flood ceased when "the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky" (Genesis 8:2). So that for the ancients: "The sky is falling!" posed a real threat. The book of 3 Baruch (also called the "Greek Apocalypse of Baruch"), a visionary Jewish text thought to have been written sometime in the first to third centuries AD, makes reference to the building of the Tower of Babel.
"And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty-three cubits. And they took a gimlet, and sought to pierce the heaven, saying, Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron."
(3 Baruch 3:6-8)
The belief that the sky was a solid dome was widespread.
"Many people, you see, insist that these waters by their very nature cannot be above the heaven of the constellations, because their specific gravity dictates that they must either flow and float over the earth, or be carried up as vapor into the air that is nearest the earth. Nor should anybody try to refute them by appealing to the omnipotence of God, for whom all things are possible...."
("On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees" or "The Literal Meaning of Genesis"
by Saint Augustine (354 - 430 AD), Book II, paragraph 2, p.190)
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| "Saint Augustine in His Study" by Vittore Carpaccio (1502) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
A universe made from the body of god is another common theme in creation stories.
"'At the beginning there was nothing', the Chinese philosophers taught their pupils. 'Long ages passed by. Then nothing became something.' The something had unity. Long ages passed by, and the something divided itself into two parts — a male part and a female part. These two somethings produced two lesser somethings, and the two pairs, working together, produced the first being, who was named P'an Ku [盘古]. Another version of the myth is that P'an Ku emerged from the cosmic egg. It is not difficult to recognize in P'an Ku a giant god or world-god. He was furnished with an adze, or, as is found in some Chinese prints, with a hammer and a chisel.... Another version of the P'an Ku myth represents him as the Primeval World-giant, who is destroyed so that the material universe may be formed. From his flesh comes the soil, from his bones the rocks; his blood is the waters of rivers and the ocean; his hair is vegetation; while the wind is his breath, the thunder his voice, the rain his sweat, the dew his tears, the firmament his skull, his right eye the moon, and his left eye the sun. P'an Ku's body was covered with vermin, and the vermin became the races of mankind."
("Myths of China and Japan" by Donald Alexander Mackenzie, 1873-1936, pp.260-1)
We saw earlier the birth of the Norse god Ymir. He was later slain (superseded) by a trinity of other gods and the universe created from his parts.
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| "Ymir is killed by Odin and his two brothers (Vili and Vé)", by Lorenz Frølich (1820 - 1908) |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ymir_gets_killed_by_Froelich.jpg
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
"And Hárr answered: 'The sons of Borr slew Ymir the giant; lo, where he fell there gushed forth so much blood out of his wounds that with it they drowned all the race of the Rime-Giants, save that one, whom giants call Bergelmir, escaped with his household; he went upon his ship, and his wife with him, and they were safe there. And from them are come the races of the Rime-Giants....'
"Then said Gangleri: 'What was done then by Borr's sons, if thou believe that they be gods?'
"Hárr replied: 'In this matter there is no little to be said. They took Ymir and bore him into the middle of the Yawning Void, and made of him the earth: of his blood the sea and the waters; the land was made of his flesh, and the crags of his bones; gravel and stones they fashioned from his teeth and his grinders and from those bones that were broken.'
"And Jafnhárr said: 'Of the blood, which ran and welled forth freely out of his wounds, they made the sea, when they had formed and made firm the earth together, and laid the sea in a ring round about her; and it may well seem a hard thing to most men to cross over it.'
"Then said Thridi: 'They took his skull also, and made of it the heaven, and set it up over the earth with four corners; and under each corner they set a dwarf: the names of these are East, West, North, and South....'
"Then said Gangleri: '... How was the earth contrived?'
"And Hárr answered: 'She is ring-shaped without, and round about her without lieth the deep sea; and along the strand of that sea they gave lands to the races of giants for habitation. But on the inner earth they made a citadel round about the world against the hostility of the giants, and for their citadel they raised up the brows of Ymir the giant, and called that place Midgard. They took also his brain and cast it in the air, and made from it the clouds....'"
("The Prose Edda" by Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, c.1220, Norse)
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"Odin and his two brothers (Vili and Vé) create the world out of the body of Ymir",
by Lorenz Frølich (1820 - 1908)
|
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odin_and_his_brothers_create_the_world.jpg
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
The world as a whole might be created from the body of a god, or small pieces of the world could be created from the dismembered body of lesser deities or supernatural beings. For instance, in Indonesia, Hainuwele ("The Coconut Girl") born from a coconut tree and able to shit valuable objects, was murdered. When her body was cut up and buried, new kinds of plants, good for eating, grew up. Jesus too created these kinds of associations at the Last Supper, emphasising, typically, that it was spiritual food that he was offering.
"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my body.' Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'"
(Matthew 26:26-28)
In bottom up explanation, such as in The Scientific Creation Myth, complex objects are created from arrangements of simple elements. In Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1 and Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 2 we saw how bottom up explanation gives rise to the problem of unities. We have therefore posited unities as somehow fundamental and pre-existent. Although the gods may make man out of clay, there is usually a second step where they imbue the clay with life. Although "the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground" this is immediately followed by: "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Iapetus "first fashioned men from clay" and Minerva "gave it life." Earth Maker "took some clay in his hands, mixed it with his own sweat, and formed it into two figures" and then he "breathed life into them". We now understand "living" to mean the qualia of consciousness.
In the mythological "Chaos" we have a universal substance from which can be made all things; from clay, to gods and consciousness; and is in some sense already all these things. God and whatever He is made of (the primeval waters) must be co-existent. If God is the only thing that exists in the beginning, He is all that can serve as the raw material for creation. The death and dismemberment of God is the dividing off of elements and aspects; and of the transformation of the spiritual into the material and inanimate, as our own bodies create fingernails and hair that are not living. Positing a "Chaos" pregnant with all creation doesn't really solve the problem of explanation, because it doesn't really explain anything. We are likely to continue to depend upon the approximations and contrivances of bottom up explanation for that. Rather, it fills the role proper to myth, pointing us into the unknown and showing us semblances of its unfathomable and wondrous mysteries.
We should not be overly troubled by the unscientific nature of religious creation myths. We should not be critical that in fact, the Goddess Eurynome probably did not dance naked upon the waves at the beginning of the universe. These ideas bubble up naturally out of the mind when human beings seek profundity. Relics of half-remembered intuition of dumb people seeking to understand clever ideas. With nothing but a vague compulsion like the main character in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977): "I can't describe it, what I'm feeling ... and what I'm thinking. This means something. This is important." These myths are only trivially about physics. They are not about the being of rocks and trees. They are about being conscious entities in a world of rocks and trees.
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| "The Virgin of the Lilies" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1899) |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_(art)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
As the male creator god is born out of the primeval waters, Nu, Brahman/Shakti, mother night, so the baby Jesus emerges from out of Mary, the Mother of God. Mary represents a precursor and more primal state of being, and the creator god a new order.
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| Egyptian god of the primeval waters Nu (Nun) right, and his consort Naunet (Nunet) left. From the ruins of the village of Deir el-Medina. New Kingdom (c. 1550 - 1080 BC). The ancient name of the village was "Set maat" ("The Place of Truth"). Photograph provided to Wikipedia by S F-E-Cameron. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_(mythology)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)
"I am the Queen, the gatherer-up of treasures, most thoughtful, first of those who merit worship. Thus Gods have stablished me in many places with many homes to enter and abide in. Through me alone all eat the food that feeds them,—each man who sees, brewhes, hears the word outspoken they know it not, but yet they dwell beside me. Hear, one and all, the truth as I declare it. I, verily, myself announce and utter the word that Gods and men alike shall welcome. I make the man I love exceeding mighty, make him a sage, a Ṛṣi, and a Brahman. I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion. I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven. On the world's summit I bring forth the Father: my home is in the waters, in the ocean. Thence I extend o’er all existing creatures, and touch even yonder heaven with my forehead. I breathe a strong breath like the wind and tempest, the while I hold together all existence. Beyond this wide earth and beyond the heavens I have become so mighty in my grandeur."
(Hymn 125, Book 10, Rigveda (also known as "Devīsūkta" (the Devi Sukta, "Goddess Hymn"),
Hinduism, India, c. 1200–900 BC)
While Marduk literally slew Tiamat, Jesus asserts himself and the new spirituality with gentle reprimands in the face of parental presumptions and a new budding mother goddess cult.
"His mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.' 'Why were you searching for me?' he asked. 'Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?'"
(Luke 2:48-49)
"When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, 'They have no more wine.' 'Woman, why do you involve me?' Jesus replied. 'My hour has not yet come.'"
(John 2:3-4)
"Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.' He replied, 'My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.'"
(Luke 8:19-21)
"Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind.' ... Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, 'Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.' 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.'"
(Mark 3:20-35)
"As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, 'Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.' He replied, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.'"
(Luke 11:27-28)
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| "Krishna's Foster-Mother, Yashoda, with the Infant Krishna", early 12th century, India. Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Claire H. |
(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yashoda
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)
For some other representations of Yashoda and the infant Krishna see here and here.
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| Isis in the Papyrus Swamps suckling Horus. From "The Gods of the Egyptians", by E. A. Wallis Budge, Volume II, 1904, p. 208. |
(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Isis_Lactans
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
where it is available as "in the public domain".)
By the Word
Another popular religious creation theme is the word or voice."The first sound of Lord Brahma is "Om", the origin of all creation" (Hinduism)
"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth." (Psalm 33:6)
"by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water." (2 Peter 3:5)
"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word" (Hebrews 1:3).
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:1-3. Here, "the Word" refers to "the Son".)
The spoken word, voice or breath we can interpret as just another form of activation, like stirring the primeval waters with a pole or spear.
"Everything—and I mean everything—is just a consequence of many infinitely-large fields vibrating. The entire universe is made of fields playing a vast, subatomic symphony."
(Don Lincoln: senior experimental particle physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)
But as concepts, qualia, words are also a form of separation. We saw in Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1 and Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 2 that it is the business of consciousness to draw lines around things, not only to make wholes, but to make distinctions.
"The way that can be told is not the eternal way. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnameable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things."
(The Tao Te Ching (道德经))
Drawing a perimeter is the very essence of finitude. Naming is the source of forming distinctions within the original unbounded unity (Dharmakaya), the source of the inner division or separating out. Naming transforms the unity into a hierarchical organisation of parts, sub-unities ad infinitum. One tortoise becomes four elephants becomes the world. Out of unity (the circle) comes the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, West: the square) or three dimensions of space, within which form the ten-thousand things. From the single source, in Eden, come the four rivers that flow through all the lands.
"The terrace is round. The table is square. Representing.... That Heaven is round and the earth is square. The law of the Heavens dictates the rule of earthly life ... under the circle, within the square, everyone has his proper placement."
(From "Curse of the Golden Flower", movie by Zhang Yimou (2006))
Tibetan Buddhism has the following. The four empowerments are specifically: buddha-body, buddha-speech, buddha-mind, and the unification of all three.
"Anoint [us] now with the river of the four pure empowerments!"
(from: "Peaceful and Wrathful Deities: Natural Liberation of Enlightened Intention")
As taught in the various mystical traditions, we can follow that hierarchy back to its source, in Eden, where kindly El has his abode on the mountain at the edge of the world, at the source of the two rivers or two oceans (Heaven and Earth). Concepts are the bridge between the infinite and the finite.
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
(John 14:6)
"Then from that Light, a certain Holy Word joined itself to Nature, and out flew the pure and unmixed Fire from the moist Nature upward on high...."
(Corpus Hermeticum: Poimandres)
"Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud:... 'The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.'"
(Proverbs 8)
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
(Matthew 24:35)
This article is intended to serve as an antidote to creation myths as they sometimes appear in popular science books.
"A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.' The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?' 'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down!'"
("A Brief History of Time" by Stephen W. Hawking, p.1)
The problem of: "What is supporting the earth?" was resolved when it was realised that in the absence of an outside gravitational field, stationary matter in space is not inclined to move in any direction, but will happily float in the same place forever. In other words, it doesn't fall because it just doesn't.
"[I]n the void things must be at rest; for there is no place to which things can move more or less than to another; since the void in so far as it is void admits no difference."
("Physics" by Aristotle, Book IV, section 8)
But while the problem of an infinite recession of supports, in this sense, in cosmology was resolved simply in this way; the problem of the infinite recession of causes was not; that is, the problem of first causes. So in this sense, "turtles all the way down" is as much a part of the cosmology of modern science as it was for the myth makers in the days when people thought that the earth was flat and the sky was a dome. Because this is the essential problem of all creation stories: "Where did the Big Bang come from?" People were not morons four thousand years ago. The brain has not materially changed in that time. They were trying to find answers to profound questions using what they had to work with at the time. The primeval waters are the age-old answer to the question: "Where did God come from?" and as an answer, still has much to recommend it.
"In attempting to portray the origin and nature of universal reality, we are forced to employ the technique of time-space reasoning in order to reach the level of the finite mind. Therefore must many of the simultaneous events of eternity be presented as sequential transactions. As a time-space creature would view the origin and differentiation of Reality, the eternal and infinite I AM achieved Deity liberation from the fetters of unqualified infinity through the exercise of inherent and eternal free will, and this divorcement from unqualified infinity produced the first absolute divinity-tension."
(The Urantia Book, 0:3.20-21)
"The concept of the I AM connotes unqualified infinity, the undifferentiated reality of all that could ever be in all of an infinite eternity. As an existential concept the I AM is neither deified nor undeified, neither actual nor potential, neither personal nor impersonal, neither static nor dynamic. No qualification can be applied to the Infinite except to state that the I AM is."
(The Urantia Book, 105:1.3-4)
Any comments welcome.
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