Tag: cosmogony

My version of the Dogon Cosmic Egg Cosmogony

On By MaryIn cosmic egg, cosmogonyLeave a comment

In the beginning, before there were things, before there was time, Amma came to be. Amma began to pulse and shake, and she took upon herself the shape of an egg. Amma became the great cosmic egg, with four collarbones that were fused, dividing her into earth and air, fire and water, the materials and structure of all the universe. The egg continued to pulse and shake. Seven times it shook until it began to spin. As it spun, it broke open into a spiral, and the shell expanded to fill the universe, and so creation was born. This very birthing brought forth the Dogon people of Mali in the west of Africa.

Amma made the sun and the moon from discs of clay, and the stars from pebbles of clay thrown out into the vastness of the heavens. Amma planted a seed inside herself and created two sets of male and female twins. But something went wrong with the first set of twins. The male would not wait, and rushed his birth before time, and without his female twin. As he broke from the egg, a bit of his placenta few off into space and became the Earth Mother. This first male was called Yurugu, Pale Fox. He became a rogue and a trickster, jealous of Amma’s creativity and creation. Yurugu claimed the earth for himself and determined to make it even better that Amma’s heaven. He strode across the earth, but everywhere he went, everything was dark and dusty and dry. Yurugu planted seeds, and called forth animals, but nothing could flourish there. Hard as Yurugu tried, the dark dryness prevailed. Yurugu walked and thought. He sat and looked at the detritus of his efforts, and saw that he needed his soulmate, his female twin, to bring balance and completion to his efforts. So, he went back to the cosmic egg in search of his other half.

But Yurugu angered Amma with his interference with her creation. Amma banished Yurugu back to earth, where he has forever roamed in the darkness, in the dry desert places, in search of his female twin.

Amma called the second set of twins that she made Nommo. They became the creative spirits of all twinned things of the universe: male/female; left/right; order/disorder; good/evil.

The twins Nommo looked down from the sky and beheld the Earth Mother, naked, and beset with chaos and turmoil. The twins gathered together cosmic fibers that were filled with life forces. Together, the Nommo twins wove those fibers into a garment of green, swaddling the Earth Mother in the finest raiment befitting a most elegant woman. In gratitude for the gifts of the Nommo, Earth Mother spoke the first words heard in the world, words of graciousness and gratitude.

But Yurugu learned of Earth Mother’s powers, he opened his mouth imitating her way of speaking, but no meaningful sound issued from him. He tried, and he tried. He looked up to the moon, and breathed through his mouth, and . . . nothing. Yurugu wanted the power to be heard and understood for himself. Tired of his failed efforts, the next morning, Yurugu hid himself in the shadows, sneaked up on Earth Mother, and stole her skirt of cosmic fibers, which held the power of the word. From that day forward, Yurugu captured the power of language, and has been able to disclose the plans of Amma, the Creator of all.

When Amma saw her son recklessly cavorting, spoiling the bounties of the Earth, Amma decided to create more sets of twins, male and female, male and male, female and female, who would become the ancestor spirits of humanity and would live on Earth according to Amma’s plans. Amma worked to restore balance, countervailing the evil that Yurugu’s deeds evoked.

When the ancestor spirits were born, they traveled up to Heaven to receive instructions for their lives on Earth. Amma welcomed and blessed each of the twins with their own particular wisdom and skill: agriculture, healing, divining, iron-working, woodcarving, weaving and the like.. Amma gave each of the twins one of the eight grain seeds that the Dogon peoples grow to this day. To the eldest ancestor, Amma gave a storehouse for the harvests, a granary made from a clay-lined basket in the shape of the universe.

Amma looked on the workings of creation and was well pleased with its progress. She was about to claim her day of rest when she observed the eldest ancestor making his way to the celestial smithy. There, the eldest stole a piece of the sun and hid the glowing coal inside a bellow. Amma sent the Nommo to retrieve the stolen fire. The Female Nommo threw a lightning bolt at the Eldest Ancestor, but the Eldest held up the bellows, and deflected the bolt. The Male Nommo hurled a thunderbolt, but the Eldest escaped by sliding down a rainbow. At the end of the rainbow, the treasure of fire came to the Earth. As the Eldest tumbled to the Earth, the granary followed, smashing as it hit the ground, spewing out every kind of plant, animal, and human being — all of those beings spreading across the earth.

And that is how the world began.  

A Myth-Smithed version of the Huron Earth Diver Story

On By MaryIn cosmogony, cosmology, Earth Diver, persistenceLeave a comment

(Smith: to work with something by heating, hammering, and forging. Myth-Smith: to work with myths by combining, revising, and reshaping.)

Once, before the world as we know it, there was water, wide, deep and vast. The water was populated with fish that swam in its depths, and foul birds that danced on its surface. While the fish swam and the birds flew about and danced on the water, a woman fell through a rift in the sky, tumbling down from the upper world.

As two loons were flying over the waters, they happened to look up and noticed her falling. The loons decided that they could not let her drown, and so they flew beneath her and linked their wings together to form a cushion for her to rest on. While they held her, the loons yodeled and hooted, calling the other animals to aid in their rescue of the woman. All the sea creatures gathered together in response, but it was the great tortoise who consented to relieve the loons of their burden. The loons gently deposited the woman on the back of the tortoise, and the tortoise pledged to care for the woman.

A council of all the sea creatures was called to decide how best to care for the woman, and they decided that she should have earth to live on. The beaver was the first to dive to the bottom of the sea to bring up some earth, but he failed. Musk-rats were the next to dive, but stayed under water so long that when they rose to the surface of the water, they were dead. Each time the tortoise searched their mouths for bits of earth, but she could find none. Many other animals tried to gather a bit of earth for the woman to live on, but all to no avail. Finally, a toad went down to the bottom of the sea. The toad dove so deeply that when she rose, she was nearly dead. But on searching her mouth, the tortoise found a few grains of earth. She gave those to the woman, who took them and placed them carefully around the edge of the tortoise’s shell, and that became the beginning of dry land. The woman then walked from the center of the tortoise’s shell to the east and as she walked, the earth stretched in front of her. She walked to the west, and the earth stretched in front of her. She walked to the north and to the south, and as she walked the earth grew and extended, forming a vast land rich in vegetation and all forms of life. All of this was sustained by the tortoise, who still supports the earth.

This version of the earth diver creation story highlights primordial waters as the source of creation and life—life, which is protected and nurtured through the collaborative and cooperative community. It is also worth noting that not all attempts at finding grains of earth, the substance necessary for sustenance, are successful. Indeed, unsuccessful efforts result in death. This reminds me of the Jewish saying, “You are not required to finish the work, but neither are you permitted to desist from it.” Effort and responsibility are the cost of membership in an interdependent community. And, like planting the seeds of trees, the fruits of our efforts take time to grow and ripen.