Creation myth

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

A creation myth or creation story is a symbolic narrative of a culture, tradition or people that describes their earliest beginnings, how the world they know began and how they first came into it. They are stories expressing, usually through metaphor and imagery, how the world came to be and what humanity’s place and role is in it. Creation myths develop in oral traditions, and are the most common form of myth, found throughout human culture. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, although not necessarily in a historical or literal sense. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths--that is they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness. They are also commonly, although not always, considered sacred accounts, and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions.

Several features are found in all creation myths. They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human like figures or animals who often speak and transform easily. They are set in a dim and nonspecific past, what historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore. And all creation myths speak to deeply meaningful questions held by the society that shares them, revealing of their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context.

Common motifs include the fractionation of the things of the world from a primordial chaos; the separation of the mother and father gods; and land emerging from an infinite and timeless cosmic ocean.

Africa

Bakuba

In the Bakuba account of demiurge, the Earth was originally nothing but water and darkness, ruled by the giant Mbombo. This giant, after feeling an intense pain in his stomach one day, vomited up the sun, moon, and stars. The heat and light from the sun evaporated the water covering Earth, creating clouds, and after time, the dry hills emerged from the water. Mbombo vomited once more. Many things were contained in this second vomiting—people (the first man and the first woman), animals (the leopard, the eagle, and the monkey Fumu), trees, the falling star, the anvil, the firmament, the razor, medicine, and lighting. The woman of the waters, Nchienge, lived in the East, and her son, Woto, became the first king of the Bakuba.

Maasai

The Maasai of Kenya in their creation narrative recount the origin of humanity to be fashioned by the Creator Enkai. from a single tree or leg which split into three pieces. To the first father of the Maasai, he gave a stick. To the first father of the Kikuyu, he gave a hoe. To the first father of the Kamba, he gave a bow and arrow. Each son survived in the wild. The first father of the Maasai used his stick to herd animals. The first father of the Kikuyu used his hoe to cultivate the ground. The first father of the Kamba used his bow and arrow to hunt.

Mandé

The traditional creation narrative of the Mandé peoples of southern Mali begins with Mangala. In the beginning Mangala made the balaza seed but it did not work. Then he made two eleusine seeds of different kinds, which the people of Keita call "the egg of the world in two twin parts which were to procreate". Then Mangala made three more pairs of seeds, and each pair became the four elements, the four directions, as corners in the framework of the world's creation. This he folded into a hibiscus seed. The twin pairs of seeds, which are seen as having opposite sex, are referred to as the egg or placenta of the world. This egg held an additional two pairs of twins, one male and one female, who were the archetype of people.

Among them was Pemba who wished to dominate and so he left the egg early, ripping a piece of his placenta. Pemba fell through space and his torn placenta became the earth. Because he left the egg prematurely the earth formed from this piece was arid and barren and of no use to Pemba. So Pemba tried to return to the egg, to rejoin his twin and his place in the rest of the placenta. But it was not to be found-Mangala had changed the remaining placenta into the sun. So Pemba stole male seeds from Mangala's clavicle, and took them to the barren earth and planted them there. Only one of them could germinate in the dry earth, a male eleusine seed which grew in the blood of the placenta. But because Pemba had stolen the seed and it germinated in Pemba's own placenta, the earth became impure and the eleusine seed turned red.

Faro, the other male twin, who had assumed the form of twin fish, was sacrificed to atone for Pemba and purify the earth. Faro was cut into sixty pieces which fell to the earth where they became trees. Mangala restored Faro to life giving him now the form of a human, and sent him down to earth in an ark made from his placenta. With him came four pairs of male and four pairs of female twins who became the original ancestors of mankind, all made from Faro's placenta. The ark also held all the animals and plants, which also carried the male and female life force. Sourakata followed with the first sacred drum made of the sacrificed Faro's skull which he played to bring rain. When the rain did not come, the ancestral smith came to earth and with his hammer, he struck a rock and then the rain came.

Faro created all the world that mankind has come to know from the descendants of Mangala's original egg seeds. He caused the land to flood to wash away the impure seed of his brother, Pemba. From this flood, only the good were saved, sheltered by Faro's ark.

Fon

There are various versions of the creation story told among the Fon. In most the creator is either Mawu, the moon being and mother of all the gods and humanity, or Mawu-Lisa, the sun/moon being who is both male and female. In others, Nana Buluku is the ultimate creator, an androgynous deity who gave birth to the female Mawu and the male Lisa and passed the power over creation to them.

Many of the creation accounts tell of Mawu creating everything as she was carried from place to place on the back or in the mouth of Aido Hwedo, the rainbow serpent. The earth was created first, its curves, slopes and rises shaped by the winding, snaking motions of Aido Hwedo. Mountains formed from Aido Hwedo's excrement wherever they stopped to rest, leaving precious minerals inside. When Mawu finished, all of the mountains, trees, elephants and other creations left world too heavy, so she asked Aido Hwedo to coil, to encircle the earth and rest underneath to support its weight.

Aido Hwedo holds his own tail in his mouth to hold fast to the earth, and rests in the cool of the seas which Mawu made for him to protect him from the heat. Mawu's son, Agbe, now commands them. Whenever Aido Hwedo shifts or readjusts his position, he causes an earthquake or tidal wave.

Yoruba

Main article: Yoruba religion

In the beginning, there was only water and Olurun, the creator, sent Obatala to bring from it land. Obatala descended on a long chain and brought with him a rooster, some earth, and some iron. He then stacked the iron in the water, the earth on the iron, and the chicken atop the earth. The chicken kicked and scattered the earth, creating land. Some of the lesser gods descended upon it to live with Obatala. One of them, Chameleon, came first to judge if the earth was dry. When it was, Olurun called this land Ife for "wide". Obatala then created humans out of earth and called Olurun to blow life into them. Some say Obatala was jealous and wished to give life alone, but Olurun put him to sleep as he worked. But they say it is Obatala who shapes life while it is still in the womb.

Zulu

The Ancient One, known as Unkulunkulu, is the Zulu creator. He came from the reeds and from them he brought forth the people and the cattle. He created everything from land and water to animals. He is considered the first man as well as the parent of all people. He taught the Zulu how to hunt, how to make fire, and how to grow food.

Asia

Ainu

The myths of the Ainu people of Hokkaidō share characteristics in common with the Japanese, and their creation myths contain earth diver motifs. In one story the Creator sends down a water wagtail to create habitable land in the watery world below. The little bird fluttered over the waters, splashing water aside and then he packed patches of the earth firm by stomping them with his feet and beating them with his tail. In this way islands where the Ainu were later to live were raised to float upon the ocean.

Because they think of themselves as hairy, many Ainu say their first ancestor was a bear. However, another myth tells of Kamui sending a heavenly couple to earth called Okikurumi and Turesh. This couple had a son, whom some consider the first Ainu, and he is believed to have given the people the necessary skills to survive.

Korea

In a Korean version of the Tan'gun myth, Hwan-Ung, who was the son of Hwan-In, god of the heavens, came with 3,000 followers to a sandalwood tree on Taebaek Mountain. He established the City of God and gave himself the title Heaven King. In a cave near the sandalwood tree lived a bear and a tiger who came to the tree every to pray to Hwan-Ung. One day Hwang-Ung gave the bear and the tiger twenty bulbs of garlic and some divine mugwort, and said to them, "Eat only these and stay out of the light of day for one hundred days. If you do this, I'll make you human."

The tiger and the bear went back to the cave, but tiger was too hungry and impatient to wait, and left the cave before the 100 days were done. But the bear remained, and on the 101st day was transformed into a beautiful woman, who gratefully honored Hwan-Ung with offerings. But with time she grew lonely, and prayed to Hwan-Ung that she might have a child. So Hwan-Ung made her his wife and gave her a son called Tan-gun, a name which has two meanings: "Altar Prince" and sandalwood. Tan-gun eventually came to P'yongyang and founded Gojoseon.

Mansi

The traditional account of creation by the Mansi people of Siberia involved two loons which dove to the bottom of primeval waters to retrieve a piece of the bottom and placed it on top of the water. From there the Earth grew. After a time, at the behest of his daughter, the spirit of the sky ordered his brother, the spirit of the lower world to create humanity. His brother made seven earthy, clay figures and which were quickened by the gods' sister, Mother Earth.

Mongol

There is no singular Mongol account of the creation and the beginning of the world. In one, the creation of the world is attributed to a Lama. In the beginning there was only water, and from the heavens Lama came down to it holding an iron rod from which he began to stir the water. The stirring brought about a wind and fire which caused a thickening at the center of the waters to form earth. Another narrative also attributes the creation of heaven and earth to a lama who is called Udan. Udan began by separating earth from heaven, and then dividing heaven and earth both into nine stories, and creating nine rivers. After the creation of the earth itself, the first male and female couple were created out of clay. They would become the progenitors of all humanity.

In another example the world began as an agitating gas which grew increasingly warm and damp, precipitating a heavy rain that created the oceans. Dust and sand emerged to the surface and became earth. Yet another account tells of the Buddha Sakyamuni searching the surface of the sea for a means to create the earth and spotted a golden frog. From its east side, Buddha pierced the frog through, causing it to spin and face north. From its mouth burst fire and from its rump streamed water. Buddha tossed golden sand on his back which became land. And this was the origin of the five earthly elements, wood and metal from the arrow, and fire, water and sand.

Tungus

File:Shamans Drum.jpg

The Shaman's drum depicts the Tungus cosmology with the World Tree at the center joining the underworld, earth and heaven together.

In the Tungus creation myth there was once only water everywhere. Buga, the central deity, issued forth the fire against this water. Following a long struggle much of the water was consumed and thus land emerged. Then Buga created the light and separated it from darkness, and descended to the newly created land. There he confronted Buninka, the devil, and a dispute arose between them over who had created the world. Buninka was spiteful and tried to injure Buga's creation. He broke Buga's twelve-stringed lyre, and Buga angrily challenged Buninka to make a fir-tree and raise it to stand fast and firm in the middle of the sea. Buga agreed he would bow to Buninka's powers if he could do so, but if he failed then Buga would subject himself to the same challenge. If Buga were then to succeed, Buninka must concede to Buga that he was the most powerful creator.

Buninka agreed to the challenge and commanded a fir-tree to rise from the sea. The tree grew, but it was weak and bobbed to and fro. Buga then created a second tree but it thrived and grew into a stately tree. Buninka was forced to acknowledge Buga's greater power and bowed in homage. Buga put his hand to Buninka's head and turned it to iron. This caused so much pain in Buninka that he begged Buga for release, and Buga relented—Buninka was then allowed to roam the earth.

Buga collected materials to make mankind. From the east he gathered iron; from the south fire; the west, water; and from the north, earth. From the earth he made flesh and bone; from the iron he made heart; from the water he made blood; and from the fire he gave them vitality, and thus he made two beings, a man and a woman. Buninka was strictly forbidden to do mankind any injury, but after they had increased in numbers, he wanted to claim half as his own. Buga refused to give him any of the living. But Buninka was granted the vicious men and women after they had died, Buga keeping the virtuous to himself. So after death, the evil join Buninka in hell, which is in the center of the earth, where they are punished.

Chinese

See also: Chinese creation myth

Chinese cosmogonic myths diversely range from philosophical to folkloric.

Sancai Tuhui portrait of Pangu

In Chinese philosophy, the (ca. 4th century BCE) Daodejing has some of the earliest allusions to creation.

There was something featureless yet complete, born before heaven and earth; Silent – amorphous – it stood alone and unchanging. We may regard it as the mother of heaven and earth. Not knowing its name, I style it the "Way."

The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality, Duality gave birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures bear yin on their back and embrace yang in their bosoms. They neutralize these vapors and thereby achieve harmony.

Later Daoists interpreted this sequence to mean the Dao "Way", formless Wuji "Without Ultimate", unitary Taiji "Great Ultimate", and binary yin and yang or Heaven and Earth. In Chinese mythology and folklore, the principal creation myth concerns Pangu separating the world egg-like Hundun "primordial chaos" into Heaven and Earth. However, none of the ancient Chinese classics mentions the Pangu myth, which was first recorded in the (3rd century CE) Sanwu Liji 三五歴記 "Record of Cycles in Threes and Fives", written by the Daoist author Xu Zheng. Most scholars believe the Pangu myth has non-Chinese origins from the ancestral mythologies of the Miao and Yao peoples. According to Derk Bodde,

It is rather striking that, aside from this one myth, China – perhaps alone among the major civilizations of antiquity – has no real story of creation. This situation is paralleled by what we find in Chinese philosophy, where, from the very start, there is a keen interest in the relationship of man to man and in the adjustment of man to the physical universe, but relatively little interest in cosmic origins.

Europe

Finnish

The Finnish national epic, Kalevala contains a creation story in its opening sections. This myth displays elements of creation from chaos and from a cosmic egg, as well as earth diver creation.

At first there were only primal waters and Sky. But Sky also had a daughter named Ilmatar. One day, seeking a resting place Ilmatar descended to the waters. There she swam and floated for 700 years until she noticed a beautiful bird also searching for a resting place. Ilmatar raised her knee towards the bird so it could land, which it did. The bird then laid six eggs made of gold and one made of iron. As the bird incubated her eggs Ilmatar's knee grew warmer and warmer until finally she was burned by the heat and reacted by jerking her leg. This motion dislodged the eggs, which then fell and shattered in the waters. Land was formed from the lower part of one of the eggshells while sky formed from the top. The egg whites turned into the moon and stars, and the yolk became the sun.

Ilmatar spent another few hundred years floating in the waters, admiring the results of these broken eggs until she could not resist the urge growing inside her to continue creation. Her foot prints became pools for fish and simply by pointing she created contours in the land. In this way she made all that is. Then one day she gave birth to Väinämöinen, the first man, whose father was the sea. Väinämöinen swam off until he found land, but the land was barren so he asked the Great Bear in the sky for help. A boy carrying seeds was sent down to him, and this boy spread flora across the land.

Greek (Classical)

Main article: Greek mythology

Hesiod, in his Theogony, says that Chaos existed in the beginning, and then gave birth to Gaea (the Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), Eros (desire), Nyx (the darkness of the night) and Erebus (the darkness of the Underworld). Gaea brought forth out of her own self Uranus, the starry sky, her equal, to cover her, the hills and the fruitless depth of the Sea, Pontus. Afterward, she lay with Heaven and bore the World-Ocean Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and the Titans Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and Phoebe of the golden crown and lovely Tethys. "After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire." Cronos, at Gaea's urging, castrated Uranus. Cronos married Rhea who bore him Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Zeus and his brothers overthrew Cronos and the other Titans, then drew lots to determine what each of them would rule. Zeus drew the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld.

Norse & Germanic

Odin and his brothers create the world out of the body of Ymir, by Lorenz Frølich

The Völuspá opens with the Norse account of the creation of the present universe :

Old tales I remember2|2of men long ago.

I remember yet2|2the giants of lore [...]

Of old was the age2|2when Ymir lived;

No Sea nor cool waves2|2nor sand there were;

Earth had not been2|2nor heaven above,

Only a yawning gap2|2and grass nowhere.

In the beginning there was nothing except for the ice of Niflheim, to the north, and the fire of Muspelheim, to the south. Between them was a yawning gap called Ginnungagap where a few pieces of ice melted by a few sparks of fire created the moisture initiating life. Ymir, the evil frost giant, was to first to appear. As Ymir slept, the sweat from under his arms became two more giants, one male and one female, and one of his legs mated with the other to create a third, a son Thrudgelmir. These were the forebearers of the family of frost giants. They were nursed by the cow giant Auohumbla who, like Ymir, was created from the melting ice in Ginnungagap. Auohumbla herself fed on a block of salty ice, and her licking sculpted it into the shape of a man and it became the frost giant Buri.

Buri fathered Borr, and Borr fathered three sons, the gods Vili, Ve, and Odin. These brothers killed the giant Ymir, and unleashed a vast flood with Ymir's blood killing all the frost giants but the son of Thrudgelmir, Bergelmir and Bergelmir's family who all took safety in a hollow tree. Odin and his brothers used Ymir's lifeless body to create the universe. They carried it to the center of Ginnungagap and there they ground his flesh into dirt. The maggots that appeared in his flesh became the dwarves that live under the earth. His bones became the mountains, his teeth rocks and pebbles. Odin strewed Ymir's brains into the sky to create the clouds, and took sparks and embers from Muspelheim for the sun, moon and stars. The gods placed four dwarves—Norðri (North), Suðri (South), Austri (East), and Vestri (West)—to hold up Ymir's skull and create the heavens.

The three gods created the first human beings, Ask from a fallen ash tree and Embla from a fallen elm. Odin breathed life into them; Villi granted them intelligence; and Ve gave them vision and hearing. They dwelled in the realm the gods created from Ymir's eyebrows, Midgard, where the human race could live safe from Bergelmir and his descendants.

The gods regulated the passage of the days and nights, as well as the seasons. Sól is the personified sun, a daughter of Mundilfari, and wife of Glen. Every day, she rides through the sky on her chariot, pulled by two horses named Árvakr and Alsviðr. Sól is chased during the day by Sköll, a wolf that wants to devour her. It is foretold that Sköll will eventually catch Sol and eat her during Ragnarök; however, she will first give birth to a daughter as fair as she. Sól's brother Máni, the personified moon, is chased by Hati Hróðvitnisson, another wolf. The earth is protected from the full heat of the sun by the shield Svalinn, which is placed before Sól.

India

Buddhist

Buddhism itself generally ignores the question regarding the origin of life. The Buddha regarding the origin of life has said "Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.", and in regard to ignoring the question of the origin of life the Buddha has said "And why are they undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are undeclared by me.". The Buddha also compared the question of the origin of life - as well as many other metaphysical questions - to the parable of the poison arrow: a man is shot with a poison arrow, but before the doctor pulls it out, he wants to know who shot it (arguing the existence of God), where the arrow came from (where the universe and/or God came from) why that person shot it (why God created the universe), etc. If the man keeps asking these questions before the arrow is pulled out, the Buddha reasoned, he will die before he gets the answers. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions like the origin of life, and more concerned with the goal of saving oneself and other beings from suffering by attaining Nirvana (Enlightenment). However, the Kalachakra Tantra, a scripture of Tibetan Buddhism, deals with the formation and functioning of reality. Modern day Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama don't perceive a conflict between Buddhism and science and consider they are complementary means of understanding the world around us.

In the Buddhist scriptures, there is a story in the Dīgha Nikāya about the beginnings of the current world cycle. It is in the 27th Sutta, the Aggañña Sutta, and the Buddha uses it to provide an explanation of the caste system, and to show why one caste is not really any better than the other. According to Richard Gombrich, the sutta gives strong evidence that it was conceived entirely as a satire of pre-existing beliefs.

According to this text, at a point in time, this world contracts. When it expands again, beings are being reincarnated in it. All is water, and it is dark, but the beings are luminous. Later, earth is formed on the surface of the water. The beings start to eat from it, because this is tasty earth. Doing this, however, their own light disappears, and sun, moon, days and nights and seasons come into existence. The beings continue eating from the earth. They degenerate further: ugly ones and handsome ones come into existence. On top of that, the handsome ones get a bit arrogant. All of this makes the tasty earth disappear. Nice mushrooms take its place. The degeneration continues: beings become coarser, arrogant, and mushrooms are replaced by plants, and, then, good, ready-to-eat rice. Beings do still get coarser. They also become male or female. Sex is frowned upon, so people build shelter to be discrete. The next step is when people start to gather rice for a few meals at a time. Now, the rice's quality starts to deteriorate, and it does not grow back immediately. Later, people create rice fields with boundaries. This is the origin of theft and crime. To combat this crime, they offer a share of the rice to one of them to be their leader. In the end, all the different castes come about, originating from the same kind of beings.

Some scholars have stated that the primary intent of this text is to satirize and debunk the brahminical claims regarding the divine nature of the caste system, showing that it is nothing but a human convention. In this text, the Buddha also pokes fun at the Vedic "Hymn of the Cosmic Man" (discussed below) and etymologizes "reciter of the Veda" so as to make it mean "non-meditator" instead.

Hindu

Main article: Hindu cosmology

In Hindu philosophy, the existence of the universe is governed by the Trimurti of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer) and Shiva (the Destroyer). The sequence of Avatars of Vishnu - the Dasavatara (Sanskrit: Dasa—ten, Avatara—divine descents) i.e. the first Avatar generating from the environment of water. Hindus believe that the universe was created from the Word (Aum/OM : ॐ) - the sacred sound uttered by every human being at the time of birth. The first five great elements or Panchamahabhuta (Sanskrit: Pancha—five + Maha—great + Bhuta—elements) are: Akasha, Vayu, Agni, Ap, and Prithvi.

Hindus believe that the cycle of creation, preservation, and destruction has no beginning, Anadi. Another reason for this could also be the Hindu concept of cyclic time, such as yugas, or days of Brahma. A Day of Brahma lasts 4.32 billion years and the night of Brahma also lasts for 4.32 billion years. Days and nights follow in cycles (unlike the concept of linear time in many other religions). In fact, time is represented as Kālá Chakra, the wheel of time.

In earlier Vedic thinking, the universe emanated from a cosmic egg, Hiranyagarbha (literally, 'the golden embryo'). Prajapati was born from the Hiranyagarbha world egg. Prajapati was later identified in the Puranas with the Demiurge Brahma. Various devas are credited with certain acts of the process of creation, as personified entities representing the laws governing the universe. For instance, the act of propping apart the Sky and the Earth suggests early ideas of an expanding universe. The Purusha Sukta hymn of Rigveda further personifies and describes the story of the creation of the universe from the remains of a gigantic primaeval Cosmic Man, Purusha,or Viswakarma sacrificed at the Purushamedha yajna.

In Hinduism, nature and all of God's creations are manifestations of him and he pervades and observes the entire universe. Hence all animals and humans have a divine element in them that is obscured by avidya - ignorance from illusions of material, mundane existence.

Several scholars have attempted breaking the code of cosmogenesis of the Rigveda. According to the Rigveda, creation happened gradually. The universe in its primitive form was made up of Ishwar Tattva, which primarily spread homogeneously throughout the universe. The complete equilibrium and homogeneity, when broke, arose an inhomogenous state of the primordial fluid, Ap. With the transformation of undifferentiated primordial fluid into differentiated fluid through polarization of opposites, the universe moved from a homogenous to inhomogenous state when particles were formed first.

But Hindu philosophy also contains a less literal response. One of the hymns in the Rigveda speculates on various cosmic forces which might have fashioned the universe. It concludes with a passage of scepticism, beginning: "But, after all, who knows, and who can say whence it all came, and how creation happened."

Sikhism

See also: Sikhism

As per Sikhism, all that existed before creation took place was God and God's Will.[4].The creation took place at the Will of God, through God's word(Shabad).[5].It is through God's word that the expanse of Universe came into existence with God's word permeating and pervading everywhere. First came air and then came water from air. From water came lifeforms.[6].As per Sikhism, creation and destruction are both Divine sport of God, all happening through the word(Shabad)of God.[7]. It is a continuous process of creating and destroying. Out of this creation,God fostered enticement and attachment of Maya, Human perception of reality.[8]. Onkaar is the word through which the all of creation took place.[9]. Sikhsim don't see much conflict with the idea of evolution and creation.

Though the above mentioned paragraph describe the creation of universe as understood by the followers of Sikhism but within Sikhism, there is no such curiosity or organised view about the origin or end of universe rather focus is more on the remembrance of God and teachings of Sikh Gurus.

Surat Shabda Yoga

Surat Shabda Yoga cosmology depicts the whole of creation (the macrocosm) as being emanated and arranged in a spiritually differentiated hierarchy, often referred to as eggs, regions, or planes. Typically, eight spiritual levels are described above the physical plane, although names and subdivisions within these levels will vary to some extent by mission and Master. (One version of the creation from a Surat Shabda Yoga perspective is depicted at the Sant Ajaib Singh Ji Memorial Site in “The Grand Scheme of All Creation”.) All planes below the purely spiritual regions are subject to cycles of creation and dissolution (pralya) or grand dissolution (maha pralya).

The constitution of the individual (the microcosm) is an exact replica of the macrocosm. Consequently, the microcosm consists of a number of bodies, each one suited to interact with its corresponding plane or region in the macrocosm. These bodies developed over the yugas through involution (emanating from higher planes to lower planes) and evolution (returning from lower planes to higher planes), including by karma and reincarnation in various states of consciousness.

Middle East

Sumerian

The Sumerian creation myth, the oldest known, was found on a fragmentary clay tablet known as the "Eridu Genesis", datable to ca. the 18th century BC. It also includes a flood myth.

Where the tablet picks up, the gods An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursanga create the Sumerians (the "black-headed people") and the animals. Then kings descend from the sky and the first cities are founded - Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, and Shuruppak.

After a missing section in the tablet, we learn that the gods have decided to send a flood to destroy humankind. Zi-ud-sura, the king and gudug priest, learns of this. (In the later Akkadian version, Ea, or Enki in Sumerian, the god of the waters, warns the hero (Atra-hasis in this case) and gives him instructions for the ark. This is missing in the Sumerian fragment, but a mention of Enki taking counsel with himself suggests that this is Enki's role in the Sumerian version as well.)

When the tablet resumes it is describing the flood. A terrible storm rocks the huge boat for seven days and seven nights, then Utu (the Sun god) appears and Zi-ud-sura creates an opening in the boat, prostrates himself, and sacrifices oxen and sheep.

After another break the text resumes, the flood is apparently over, the animals disembark and Zi-ud-sura prostrates himself before An (sky-god) and Enlil (chief of the gods), who give him eternal life and take him to dwell in Dilmun for "preserving the animals and the seed of mankind". The remainder of the poem is lost. (translation of the text)

Babylonian

The Babylonian creation myth is recounted in the "Epic of Creation" also known as the Enûma Elish. The Mesopotamian "Epic of Creation" dates to the late second millennium B.C.E.

In the creation myth, the god Marduk (or Assur in the Assyrian versions of the poem) is created to defend the other gods from an attack plotted by the ocean goddess Tiamat. The god Marduk offers to save the gods if he is appointed as their leader and is allowed to remain so even after the threat passes. The gods agree to Marduks conditions. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat and destroys her. He then rips her corpse into two halves with which he fashions the earth and the skies. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets, stars and regulates the moon, sun, and weather. The gods pledge their allegiance to Marduk and he creates Babylon as the terrestrial counterpart to the realm of the gods. Marduk then destroys Tiamat's husband, Kingu using his blood to create humankind so that they can do the work of the gods.

Egyptian

There were at least three separate cosmogenies in Egyptian mythology, corresponding to at least three separate groups of worshippers.

• The Ennead, in which Atum arose from the primordial waters (Neith), and masturbated to relieve his loneliness. His vomitus and saliva became Tefnut (moisture) and Shu (dryness), respectively. From Shu and Tefnut, were born Geb (earth), and Nut (sky), who were born in a state of permanent copulation. Shu separated them, and their children were Ausare (Osiris; death), Set (desert), Aset (Isis; life), and Nebet Het (Nephthys; fertile land). Osiris and Isis were a couple, as were Nepthys and Set.
• The Ogdoad, in which Ra arose, either in an egg, or a blue lotus, as a result of the creative interaction between the primordial forces of Nu/Naunet (water), Amun/Amunet (air), Kuk/Kauket (darkness), and Huh/Hauhet (eternity). Ra then created Hathor, his wife, with whom they had a son, Hor (Horus; in the form known as Horus the Elder), who was married to Isis. This cosmogeny also includes Anupu (Anubis) as lord of the dead, amongst others.
• The third group, for whom Ptah was eternal and everlasting, and he spake the world and all the gods into existence, in a similar manner to Judaeo-Christian belief about their concept of God.

Over time, the rival groups gradually merged, Ra and Atum were identified as the same god, making Atum's mysterious creation actually due to the Ogdoad, and Ra having the children Shu and Tefnut, etc. In consequence, Anubis was identified as a son of Osiris, as was Horus. Amun's role was later thought much greater, and for a time, he became chief god, although he eventually became considered a manifestation of Ra.

For a time, Ra and Horus were identified as one another, and when the Aten monotheism was unsuccessfully introduced, it was Ra-Horus who was thought of as the Aten, and the consequent cosmogony this inspired. Later, Osiris' cult became more popular, and he became the main god, being identified as a form of Ptah. Eventually, all the gods were thought of as aspects of Osiris, Isis, Horus, or Set (who was by now a villain), indeed, Horus and Osiris had started to become thought of as the same god. Ptah eventually was identified as Osiris.

A late version of the narrative has it that the Supreme Being (God) was Atum-Raa and he uttered the words of creation to create the Primordial water of Nu (The celestial Ocean) Naunet. Naunet contained everything in embrionic form. From this, Atum-Raa uttered the words of creation to bring life into the world. This life took the form of an egg. From this egg came Raa, the light of God who caused all life to come into existence. Raa was represented by the Egyptian solar disk. Raa, the light of God in nature, later became manifest on earth through the disc of the sun (eten) & appeared in the form of Dosher - the sunrise at the beginning of life on earth.

Hermeticism

In Hermeticism an attempt is made to understand the origin belief metaphorically. Not all Hermeticists understand it in the same way, and it is mainly up to personal understanding. The tale is given in the first book of the Corpus Hermeticum by God's Nous to Hermes Trismegistus after much meditation. Also, not all Hermeticists put much weight on the symbolic texts, and may be unaware of the story.

It begins as God creates the elements after seeing the Cosmos and creating one just like it (our Cosmos) from its own constituent elements and souls. From there, God, being both male and female, holding the Word, gave birth to a second Nous, creator of the world. This second Nous created seven powers (often seen as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and the Moon) to travel in circles and govern destiny.

The Word then leaps forth from the materializing elements, which made them unintelligent. Nous then made the governors spin, and from their matter sprang forth creatures without speech. Earth then was separated from Water and the animals (other than Man) were brought forth from the Earth.

The Supreme Nous then created Man, hermaphroditic, in his own image and handed over his creation. Man carefully observed the creation of his brother, the lesser Nous, and received his and his Father's authority over it all. Man then rose up above the spheres' paths to better view the creation, and then showed the form of God to Nature. Nature fell in love with it, and Man, seeing a similar form to his own reflecting in the water fell in love with Nature and wished to dwell in it. Immediately Man became one with Nature and became a slave to its limitations such as gender and sleep. Man thus became speechless (for it lost the Word) and became double, being mortal in body but immortal in spirit, having authority of all but subject to destiny.

Islam

The creation narrative of Islam is split among many verses in the Qur'an. This narrative is similar to the Judeo-Christian accounts of creation. According to the Qur'an, the skies and the earth were joined together as one "unit of creation", after which they were "cloved asunder". After the parting of both, they simultaneously came into their present shape after going through a phase when they were smoke-like.

Some parts of the Qur'an state that the process of creation took 6 days. While other parts claim that the process took 8 days: 2 days to create the Earth, 4 days to create the mountains, to bless the Earth and to measure its sustenance, and then 2 more days to create the heavens and the stars.

However, the consensus among Muslim scholars is that the process of creation took 6 days, not 8; They claim that the 4 days for creating the mountains, blessing the Earth and measuring its sustenance implicitly include the 2 days for creating the Earth. Moreover, many modern interpretations, in light of modern scientific knowledge about the origins of the earth and the universe, prefer to view the word "day" (Arabic: يوم) as used in the Qur'an to mean an arbitrary period of time or epoch; They justify this view by explaining that the usage of the word "day" to mean an arbitrary period of time is not uncommon.

The Qur'an states that God created the world and the cosmos, made all the creatures that walk, swim, crawl, and fly on the face of the earth from water . He made the angels, and the sun, moon and the stars to dwell in the universe. He poured down the rain in torrents, and broke up the soil to bring forth the corn, the grapes and other vegetation; the olive and the palm, the fruit trees and the grass.

God molded clay, earth, sand and water into a model of a man. He breathed life and power into it, and it immediately sprang to life. And this first man was called Adam. God took Adam to live in Paradise. God taught Adam the names of all the creatures, and then commanded all the angels to bow down before Adam. All of them bowed but Iblis (Lucifer) denied to obey.

God placed the couple in a beautiful garden in Paradise, telling them that they could eat whatever they wanted except the fruit of a forbidden tree. But Iblis (the Serpent) tempted them to disobey God, and eat the fruit. When God knew that Adam and Eve had disobeyed him, he cast them out of Paradise and sent them to the earth.

Judaism and Christianity

Creation of Light, by Gustave Doré. The engraving depicts a literal representation of Genesis 1:3 ("Let there be light").

Main article: Genesis creation narrative

In the Judeo-Christian traditions, there are two creation stories which appear in the opening passages of The Book of Genesis. In the first account (Genesis 1:1–2:3), God progressively creates the different features of the world over a series of six days. Creation is by divine command: God says "Let there be light!" and light is created. On the second and third days, God separates the waters, sky and dry land, and fills the earth with vegetation. God then puts lights in the sky to separate day from night to mark the seasons. On the fifth day, God creates sea creatures and birds of every kind and commands them to multiply their numbers. On the sixth day, God's creates land creatures of every kind. Man and woman are created last, after the entire world is prepared for them; they are created in the "image" of God, and given dominion and care over all other created things. God rested on the seventh and final day of creation, which he marked as holy.

In the second story (Genesis 2:4–2:25) the creation of man follows the creation of the heavens and earth, but occurs before the creation of other plants and animals. He is formed from the dust of the ground, and God breathes life into him. God prepares a garden in Eden for man and fills it with trees bearing fruit for him to eat. The man is invited to eat the fruit of any tree but one: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God commands not to eat of that one tree "for when you eat of it you will surely die."(Genesis 2:17) Birds and animals are then created as man's companions and helpers, and God presents them to the man. The first man gives names to each one, but finds none suitable to be his helper, so God puts him to sleep and removes one of his ribs, which he uses to make the first woman. For this reason, the text reads, the man will leave his father and mother for his wife, and they shall be joined as one flesh.

Mandaeism

According to the traditions of Mandaeism creation proceeds from a supreme formless Entity, the expression of which in time and space is creation of spiritual, etheric, and material worlds and beings. Production of these is delegated by It to a creator or creators who originated in It. The cosmos is created by Archetypal Man, who produces it in similitude to his own shape. Inherent to this creation is Dualism, taking the forms of a cosmic Father and Mother, Light and Darkness, Right and Left, syzygy in cosmic and microcosmic form. Instead of a large pleroma, the Mandaeans believe in a discrete division between light and darkness. The ruler of darkness is called Ptahil (similar to the Gnostic Demiurge), and the originator of the light (i.e. God) is only known as "the great first Life from the worlds of light, the sublime one that stands above all works". When this being emanated, other spiritual beings became increasingly corrupted, and they and their ruler Ptahil created our world.

Zoroastrianism

The Zoroastrian story of creation states that Ahura Mazda created 16 lands, one by one. These lands were made in consideration of the people's happiness. As he completed each one, Angra Mainyu applied a counter-creation, which introduced plague and sin, among other evil traits. The dualistic idea of two primordial spirits, called twins by Zoroaster, goes back to an Indo-European prototype. Although the idea of dualism came from the idea that "god" could not create evil so both evil and good pre-existed before time.

North America

Kiowa Apache

In the beginning there was only darkness. Into it came a small and thin disc with yellow and white on its alternate sides, and inside it sat a small bearded man no larger than a frog, Kuterastan, the One Who Lives Above. Awakening, he rubbed his eyes and peered above him into the darkness, and it all became light, bathing the darkness below in its glow. He looked east, and the light became tinged with the yellow of dawn. He looked west, and the light became shaded with amber tones of dusk. And as he glanced about himself clouds appeared in different colors. Again Kuterastan rubbed his eyes and face, and as he flung the sweat from his hands another cloud appeared, and atop it sat a tiny little girl Stenatliha, the Woman Without Parents. They puzzled where the other had come from, and where were the Earth and Sky. After thinking for some time, Kuterastan again rubbed his eyes and face, then his hands together, and from the sweat flying as he opened hands first Chuganaai, the Sun, and then Hadintin Skhin, or Pollen Boy, appeared. The four sat a long time in silence on a single cloud. Finally Kuterastan broke the silence to say, "What shall we do?" and started the creation.

First Kuterastan made Nacholecho, the Tarantula. He followed by making the Big Dipper, the wind, lightening, and thunder, each given their characteristic tasks. Finding the cloud a poor home, he then turned his attention to making the earth. With the sweat of the four gods mixed together in Kuterastan's palms there emerged a small brown ball no bigger than a bean. This was expanded as the gods kicked the small brown ball. Then the wind went inside the ball and to inflate it. Tarantula attached to the ball a spun black cord and stretched it far to the east. Tarantula also attached one cord each of blue, yellow and white to the ball pulling one far to the south, another west, and the last to the north. When Tarantula was finished, the earth was vast expanse of smooth brown plain. Poles were placed at each corner to hold the earth in place. And at this Kuterastan sang a repeating refrain, "The world is now made and it sits still."

Aztec

See also: Aztec mythology

Quetzalcoatl in human form, from the Codex Borbonicus.

The Aztec narrative describing creation proceeds with an Earth mother, "Coatlique", the Lady of the Skirt of Snakes. She was decorated with skulls, snakes, and lacerated hands. At first she was whole without cracks in her body—a perfect monolith (a totality of intensity and self-containment, yet her features were square and decapitated). Coatlique was first impregnated by an obsidian knife and gave birth to Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, and to a group of male offspring, who became the stars.

Then one day Coatlique found a ball of feathers, which she tucked into her bosom. When she looked for it later, it was gone, at which time she realized that she was again pregnant. Her children, the moon and stars did not believe her story. Ashamed of their mother, they resolved to kill her. A goddess can only give birth to a litter of divinity once. During the time that they were plotting her demise, Coatlique gave birth to the fiery god of war, Huitzilopochtli. With the help of a fire serpent, he destroyed his brothers and sister, murdering them in a rage. He beheaded Coyolxauhqui and threw her body into a deep gorge in a mountain, where it lies dismembered forever.

This precipitated a great civil war in heaven which crumbled to pieces. Coatlique fell and was fertilized, while her children were torn apart by fratricide and then scattered and disjointed throughout the universe. Who remained were Ometecutli and his wife Omecihuatl that created life. Their children were: Xipe Totec the god of spring, Huitzilopochtli the Sun god, Quetzalcoatl the "light one" and "plumed serpent", and Tezcatlipoca, the "dark one" and god of night and sorcery.

Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca saw that whatever they created was eaten by Coatlique who floated in the abyss eating everything with her many mouths. To stop her, they changed into two serpents and descended into the water. One grabbed the goddess by the arms while the other grabbed her by the legs, and before she could resist they pulled her apart into different pieces. Her head and shoulders became the earth and the lower part of her body the sky.

The other deities were angry at what the two had done and decided, as compensation for her dismemberment, to allow her to provide the necessities for people to survive; so from her hair they created trees, grass, and flowers; caves, fountains, and wells from her eyes; rivers from her mouth; hills and valleys from her nose; and mountains from her shoulders.

Still the goddess was often unhappy and the people could hear her crying in the night. They knew she wept because of her thirst for human blood, and that she would not provide food from the soil until she drank. So the gift of human hearts is given her. She who provides sustenance for human lives demands human lives for her own sustenance.

Cherokee

In the beginning, there was just water. All the animals lived above it and the sky was overcrowded. They were all curious about what was beneath the water and one day Dayuni'si, the water beetle, volunteered to explore it. He explored the surface but could not find any solid ground. He explored below the surface to the bottom and all he found was mud which he brought back to the surface. After collecting the mud, it began to grow in size and spread outwards until it became the Earth as we know it.

After all this had happened, one of the animals attached this new land to the sky with four strings. The land was still too wet so they sent the great buzzard from Galun'lati to prepare it for them. The buzzard flew down and by the time that he reached the Cherokee land he was so tired that his wings began to hit the ground. Wherever they hit the ground a mountain or valley formed.

The animals then decided that it was too dark, so they made the sun and put it on the path in which it still runs today.

Choctaw

The Choctaw who remain in Mississippi recount a narrative explanation of how they came to the land where they live now and of how Nanih Waiya Mound came to be. Chata and Chicksah, two brothers, led the original people from a land in the far west that had ceased to prosper. The people traveled for a long time, guided by a magical pole. Each night, when the people stopped to camp, the pole was placed in the ground and in the morning the people would travel in the direction in which the pole leaned.

After traveling for an extremely long time, they finally came to a place where the pole remained upright. In this place, they laid to rest the bones of their ancestors, which they had carried in buffalo sacks from the original land in the west. The mound grew out of that great burial. After the burial, the brothers discovered that the land could not support all the people. Chicksah took half the people and departed to the North and eventually became the Chickasaw tribe. Chatah and the others remained near the mound and are now known as the Choctaw.

Creek

The Creek believe that the world was originally entirely underwater. The only land was a hill, called Nunne Chaha, and on the hill was a house, wherein lived Esaugetuh Emissee ("master of breath"). After thousands upon thousands of years he got lonely and decided he would create humanity out of clay.

Digueno

The Digueno creation narrative tells of the beginning of creation with the male sky coming down upon the female Earth. The extant deities were weighed down by the sky being so close to the ground and all walked with a stoop. To combat this problem, a creator deity, Tu-chai-pai, separated the Earth from the heavens by blowing on rubbed tobacco three times. He had his brother, Yo-ko-mat-is, do the same, and then the two brothers placed the four cardinal directions at the ends of the Earth. Tu-chai-pai then proceeded to create hills, valleys, forests and lakes for the benefit of humanity. The brothers made men easily but had trouble making women. Initially, human beings were not subject to fatigue, but to prevent them from hurting themselves in the dark they were made to sleep at night. Tu-chai-pai then made the Sun and Yo-ko-mat-is made the moon to help humanity find the light they were instructed to race towards.

Hopi

See also: Hopi mythology

The Elders say that the first Hopi had chosen to live in the barren desert so that they would always need to pray for rain. Thus, they would not lose faith in their ceremonies, which maintain their bond with the Mother Nature and creator. They said that the True Hopi people represent the Red race through the authority vested in them by the Creator, Maasaw.

Haida

Bill Reid's sculpture Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies. The work is in the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

The Haida have a story of a raven who, both bored and well fed, found and freed some creatures trapped in a clam. These scared and timid beings were the first men of the world, and they were coaxed out of the clam shell by the raven. Soon the raven was bored with these creatures and planned to return them to their shell. Instead, the raven decided to search for the female counterparts of these male beings. The raven found some female humans trapped in a chiton, freed them, and was entertained as the two sexes met and began to interact. The raven, always known as a trickster, was responsible for the pairing of humans and felt very protective of them. With the Raven perceived as the creator, many Haida myths and legends often suggest the raven as a provider to mankind.

Inuit

The traditional account of the Inuit people is that the trickster in the form of Raven created the world. When the waters forced the ground up from the deep Raven stabbed it with his beak and fixed it into place. This first land was just big enough for a single house occupied by a single family: a man, his wife and their son, Raven who had fixed the land. The father had a bladder hanging over his bed. After much pleading by Raven the father allowed the boy to play with it. While playing Raven damaged the bladder and light appeared. The father, not wanting to have light always shining, took the bladder from the boy before he could damage it further. This struggle is the origin of day and night.

Iroquois

The Iroquois account of demiurge is that in the beginning there was no earth to live on, only a watery abyss, but up above, in the Great Blue, there was a community called the Sky World including a woman who dreamed dreams.

One night she dreamed about the tree that was the source of light. The dream frightened her, so she went and asked the men in the Sky World to pull up the tree. They dug around the trees roots to make space for more light, and the tree fell through the hole and disappeared. After that there was only darkness. Distraught, they pushed the woman through the hole as well. The woman would have been lost in the abyss had not a fish hawk come to her aid using his feathers to pillow her.

The fish hawk could not keep her up all on his own, so he asked for help to create some firm ground for the woman to rest upon. A helldiver went down to the bottom of the sea and brought back mud in his beak. He found a turtle, smeared the mud onto its back, and dove down again for more. Ducks also brought beaksful of the ocean floor and to spread over the turtle's shell. The beavers helped build terrain, making the shell bigger. The birds and the animals built the continents until they had made the whole round earth, while the woman was safely sitting on the turtle's back. The turtle continues to hold the earth on its back.

After this, one of the Spirits of the Sky World came down and looked at the earth. As he traveled over it, he found it beautiful, and so he created people to live on it and gave them special skills; each tribe of the Iroquois nation was given special gifts to share with the rest of humanity. {{citation}}: Empty citation (help)

Lakota

The Lakota recount in their version of demiurge that the gods lived in the underworld with mankind as their servants. Emergence from the underworld was initiated by Iktomi ("spider"), the trickster, who conspired to cause a rift in the heavens between the sun god Wi and his wife, Hanwi the moon. Their separation marked the creation of time. Some of Iktomi's co-conspirators were exiled to the Earth where the gods of the four winds were scattered and created space.

To populate the Earth, Iktomi struck a deal with the wolves saying that he would no longer cause them trouble. One wolf was sent into the underworld with meat, and convinced a man named Tokahe ("the first") to travel to the surface for a brief visit, telling them about a paradisical world aboveground.. When Tokahe emerged through a cave (Wind Cave in the Black Hills), he found the world to be strikingly beautiful. Returning to the underworld, Tokahe persuaded other families to accompany him to the surface, but upon arrival they discovered that the Earth was full of hardship. Iktomi had by this time prevented humanity from returning below ground, so the families had no choice but to scatter and eke out their livelihoods.

Navajo

See also: Navajo mythology

"Holy Supreme Wind" being created by the mists of lights arose through the darkness to animate and bring purpose to the myriad Holy People, supernatural and sacred in the different three lower worlds. All these things were spiritually created in the time before the earth existed and the physical aspect of man did not exist yet, but the spiritual did. In the first world the insect people started fighting with one another and were instructed by the Holy People to depart. They journeyed to the second world and lived for a time in peace. Eventually they fought with each other and were instructed to depart. In the third world the same thing happens again and they are forced to journey to the fourth world. In the fourth world, they found the Hopi living there and succeeded in not fighting with one another or their neighbors, and their bodies were transformed from the insect forms to human forms. First man and First woman physically appear in the narrative here by being formed from ears of white and yellow corn, but they were also created back in the beginning. There is a separation of male and female humans because each did not appreciate the contributions of the other, and this laid the ground work for the appearance of the Monsters that would start to kill off the people in the next world. Coyote, the trickster, also appears and steals the baby of water monster, who brings a great flood in the third world which primarily forces the humans as well as Holy People to journey to the surface of the fifth world through a hollow reed. Some things are left behind and some things are brought to help the people re-create the world each time they entered a new one. Death and the Monsters are born into this world as is Changing Woman who gives birth to the Hero Twins, called "Monster Slayer" and "Child of the Waters" who had many adventures in which they helped to rid the world of much evil. Earth Surface People, mortals, were created in the fourth world, and the gods gave them ceremonies, which are still practiced today.

Seminole

The Seminole recount that when the Creator, the Grandfather of all things, created the earth, he made all animals and birds and put them in a large shell. When the earth was ready, he set the shell along the backbone (mountains) of the earth. "When the timing is right," he told the animals, "the shell will open and you will all crawl out. Someone or something will crack the shell and you must all take your respective places on the face of the earth." The Creator then sealed up the shell and left, hoping the Panther (his favorite animal) would be first to emerge.

Time went along, and nothing happened. Alongside the shell stood a great tree. As time passed, the tree grew so large that its roots started encircling the shell. Eventually a root cracked the shell. The Wind started enlarging the crack and the Creator reached down to help the Panther take its place on earth. Next to crawl out was the Bird. The Bird had picked and picked around the hole, and, when the time was right, stepped outside the shell. Bird took flight immediately. After that, other animals emerged in different sequences: Bear, Deer, Snake, Frog, Otter. There were thousands of others, so many that no one besides the Creator could even begin to count them all. All went out to seek their proper places on earth.

Tlingit

According to Tlingit tradition, creation proceeded with help from the trickster figure of the raven. At the time there was no light or water. Raven had to steal light from where it was hoarded in the house of a rich man far up the Nass River, which was dry at the time. He accomplished this by making himself small and getting the daughter of the house to swallow him and become pregnant. When the child was born, it cried for the bundles of light hanging on the wall of the house. Finally, the family gave the raven the bundles of stars and moons to soothe him each of which he let escape through the chimney and which scattered across the heavens. He left with a box of daylight which was the last bit of light the family owned.

Raven then proceeded to trick the man who owned the everlasting spring of water into giving him a drink, but before he could escape through the chimney, the man made a fire and blackened raven to his current color. First, he spit out water creating the Nass Stikine, Taku, Chilkat, the Alsek, and all the other large rivers. Smaller drops created the salmon creeks.

Raven then proceeded to a town that had never seen daylight. The people of the town quarreled with him, so raven decided to scare them by opening his box of daylight. Upon seeing the Sun, the villagers scattered, some to the ocean where they became sea creatures and some to the forest where they became forest creatures.

Raven made the winds, the races, and dogs who were human beings that Raven cursed to walk on all fours.

Maya

See also: Maya mythology

The Maya of Mesoamerica creation story is recounted in the book "Popol Vuh". Tepeu and Gucamatz came together to create the world. Whatever was thought of by Tepeu and Gucamatz came into being. Next for creation are the creatures of the forest: birds, deer, jaguars and snakes. They are told to multiply and scatter, and then to speak and "pray to us". But the animals just squawk and howl. So Tepeu and Gucumatz try to make some respectful creatures from mud. But the results are not great, and they allow the new race to be washed away. They call upon their grandparents, who suggest wood as an appropriate medium. But the wooden people are just mindless robots, so Tepeu and Gucumatz set about the destruction of this new race by means of a rain-storm. This causes the animals to turn against the wooden people; even their pots and querns rebel, and crush the peoples' faces. The wooden people escape to the forests and are turned into monkeys. Heart-of-Sky then make yet another attempt at creating a suitably respectful race, and finally succeed by fashioning humans out of maize-corn dough.

South America

Incan

See also: Inca mythology

Hand drawn image of Manco Capac, founder of the Incan empire and, according to Incan custom, created along with the world.

The Incan account of creation is known based on what was recorded by priests, from the iconography on Incan pottery and architecture, and the myths and legends which survived amongst the native peoples. According to these accounts, in the most ancient of times the earth was covered in darkness. Then, out of a lake called Collasuyu (modern Titicaca), the god Con Tiqui Viracocha emerged, bringing some human beings with him. Then Con Tiqui created the sun (Inti), the moon and the stars to light the world. It is from Inti that the Sapa Inca, emperor of Tawantin Suyu, is descended. Out of great rocks Con Tiqui fashioned more human beings, including women who were already pregnant. Then he sent these people off into every corner of the world. He kept a male and female with him at Cusco, the "navel of the world".

Con, the Creator; was in the form of a man without bones. He filled the earth with good things to supply the needs of the first humans. The people, however, forgot Con's goodness to them and rebelled. So he punished them by stopping the rainfall. The miserable people were forced to work hard, drawing what little water they could find from stinking, drying riverbeds. Then a new god, Pachacamac, came and drove Con out, changing his people into monkeys. Pachacamac then took earth and made the ancestors of human beings.

The founder of the first dynasty of the kingdom of Cuzco was Manco Capac. In one legend he was brought up from the depths of Lake Titicaca by the sun god Inti. In another he was the son of Tici Viracocha. However commoners were not allowed to speak the name of Viracocha, which is possibly an explanation for the need for two foundation legends.

In one myth Manco Capac was the brother of Pachacamac, both were sons of the sun god Inti who is also known as Apu Punchau. Manco Capac himself was worshiped as a fire and sun god. According to the Inti legend, Manco Capac and his siblings were sent up to the earth by the sun god and emerged from the cave of Pacaritambo carrying a golden staff, called ‘tapac-yauri’. They were instructed to create a Temple of the Sun in the spot where the staff sank into the earth, they traveled to Cusco via underground caves, and built a temple in honor of the sun god Inti, their father. During the journey to Cuzco, one of Manco’s brothers, and possibly one of his sisters, were turned to stone (huaca). In another version of this legend, instead of emerging from a cave in Cuzco, the siblings instead emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca.

In the Tici Virachocha legend, Manco Capac was the son of Tici Viracocha of Pacari-Tampu (today Pacaritambo, 25 km south of Cuzco). He and his brothers (Ayar Anca, Ayar Cachi and Ayar Uchu) and sisters (Mama Ocllo, Mama Huaco, Mama Raua and Mama Cura) lived near Cuzco at Paccari-Tampu, and united their people and ten ayllu they encountered in their travels to conquer the tribes of the Cuzco Valley. This legend also incorporates the golden staff, which is thought to have been given to Manco Capac by his father. Accounts vary, but according to some versions of the legend, the young Manco jealously betrayed his older brothers, killed them, and became the sole ruler of Cuzco.

Pirahã

Perhaps unique among cultures, the Pirahã people of the Amazon rainforest seem to have no creation myth. They also possess no concept of time, history, mathematics, and almost no art. Despite this, linguist Daniel Everett reports that the Pirahã have "the most complex verbal morphology I am aware of [and] are some of the brightest, pleasantest, most fun-loving people that I know." Everett suggests a Sapir–Whorf hypothesis-like cause for this, "Pirahã culture constrains communication to non-abstract subjects which fall within the immediate experience of [the speaker]."

Pacific

Australian Aboriginal

See also: Dreamtime and Dreaming (spirituality)

There is no single creation story among Aboriginal peoples, who have a diverse mythology. Some traditions hold that the Earth was created by one of the gods of the Dreamtime (see Dreaming), others that particular creatures were created by particular gods or spirit ancestors. More common is the view that although unformed, the Earth itself was eternal.

Hawaiian

Main articles: Māui (mythology) and Kumulipo

For many months Pele followed a star from the northeast, which shone brighter than the rest, and migrated toward it. One morning, Pele awoke to the smell of something familiar in the air. In the distance could be seen a high mountain with a smoky haze hiding its peak. Pele knew she had found her new home. She named the island Hawai'i.

Pele, carrying her magic stick Pa'oa, went up to the mountain where a part of the earth collapsed into the ground. She placed the stick into the ground. Pele called this place Kilauea. Inside the Kilauea Crater was a large pit. She named it Halema'uma'u, maumau being the fern jungle surround the volcano. Halema'uma'u would be her new home.

There was a fire god living on Kilauea named ‘Ailaau. He and Pele both wanted Kilauea for their home. They started throwing fire balls at each other, causing considerable damage. 'Ailaau fled and still hides in the caverns under the earth. Pele alone would rule the Island of Hawai'i. The people of the island loved and respected the goddess Pele. The egg her mother gave Pele hatched into a beautiful girl. Pele named her new sister, Hi'iaka'i-ka-poli-o-Pele. Kamohoali'i, the shark god, taught Hi'iaka the art of surfing.

Pele fell in love with a man she saw in a dream. His name was Lohi'au, a chief of the island of Kaua'i. Pele sent her sister Hi'iaka to fetch Lohi'au on Kaua'i to bring him back to Hawai'i to live with Pele. Hi'iaka would have forty days to bring Lohi'au back or Pele would punish the girl by hurting Hi'iaka's girl friend Hopoe. Upon reaching Kaua'i, Hi'iaka found Lohi'au dead. She quickly rubbed his body with herbs and chanted to the gods for help; bringing the young chief of Kaua'i back to life. Grateful for Hi'iaka's help, Lohi'au agreed to return with her to the Big Island.

The forty days had passed. Pele suspected that Hi'iaka and Lohi'au had fallen in love and were not coming back. In her fury, Pele caused an eruption which turned Hopoe into stone. On her return to Hawai'i with Lohi'au, Hi'iaka found Hopoe, a statue in stone. Hi'iaka, filled with sadness and anger decided to take revenge. Leading Lohi'au to the edge of the Halema'uma'u crater where Pele could see them, Hi'iaka put her arms around Lohi'au and embraced him. Furious, Pele covered Lohi'au with lava and flames.

The two sisters, anger subsided, were remorseful. One lost a friend, the other a lover. Pele decided to bring Lohi'au back to life to let him choose which sister he would love. Pele was sure Lohi'au would choose her. Lohi'au chose Hi'iaka. Pele, with aloha, gave the two lovers her blessing and Hi'iaka and Lohi'au sailed back to Kaua'i.

Pele still lives on Hawai'i where she rules as the fire goddess of the volcanoes. The smell of sulphur reminds the natives that she is still there in her home, Halema'uma'u, her fiery lava building a new island to the south, still submerged, named Loahi.

Māori

The Māori creation myth tells how heaven and earth were once joined as Ranginui, the Sky Father and Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother, lay together in a tight embrace. They had many children who lived in the darkness between them. The children wished to live in the light and so attempted to separate their unwilling parents. Many of them tried including Tumatauenga who later become the God of War in Maori Mythology. It would be left to Tane Mahuta the God of the Forest. He lay down on his back and used his legs to push his father, Ranginui up into the sky. Ranginui and Papatuanuku were separated and continue to grieve for each other to this day. Rangi's tears fall as rain towards Papatuanuku to show how much he loves her. When mist rises from the forests, these are Papa's sighs as the warmth of her body yearns for him and continues to nurture mankind.

Tagalog

The traditional belief of the Tagalog people is that three deities were created from the collision of the Sky (Langit) and the Sea (Linaw). They were Bathala, who reigned over the Sky, Aman Sinaya, who reigned over the Sea, and Amihan, the North Wind, who took over the realm in between.

Bathala and Aman Sinaya then became fierce rivals that led them to fight each other. In one of their battles, Aman Sinaya sent a tempest into the Sky to cause a commotion. Bathala threw giant boulders to stop her. This caused thousands of islands to be created onto the surface of the Sea (which became to be the Philippine archipelago). As the situation worsened, Amihan decided to intervene. In a form of a bird, Amihan flew back and forth between them causing the Sky and the Sea to become closer than it was before. Soon, the two realms met and both gods agreed to end the fight and become friends.

As a sign of friendship, Bathala planted a seed underneath the ocean floor. It soon grew into a bamboo reed, sticking out of the edge of the Sea. One day, Amihan flew by and heard voices, coming from inside the reed. "Oh, North Wind! North Wind! Please let us out.", the voices said. Amihan pecked the reed once, then twice, and all of a sudden, it cracked open. Inside were two human beings; a male and a female. Amihan named the man, Malakas ("strong"), and the woman, Maganda ("beautiful"). Both were flown then onto one of the islands where they settled, built a house, and had millions of offsprings that populated the Earth.

Modern

Evolutionary Spirituality

Main article: The Great Story

"The Great Story", "the Story of the Universe", or "the Epic of Evolution" are titles for the core belief of a social movement that tells the history of the universe in a way that is simultaneously scientific and sacred. It articulates the understandings of modern science – especially the evolutionary sciences ranging from stellar evolution to biological evolution and cultural evolution – as a sacred creation story, much like the traditional creation myths passed down through oral cultures and sacred texts.

Mormonism

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as Mormons) have their own interpretation of the Genesis creation myth; they believe that physical reality (space, matter and/or energy) is eternal, and therefore does not have an absolute origin. The Creator is an architect and organizer of pre-mortal matter and energy, who constructed the present universe out of the raw material. In addition to the pre-mortal organization of the earth from existing matter, Joseph Smith taught that "there is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; we cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7,8)

Furthermore, Latter-day Saint scripture also includes two other accounts of the creation myth: the first, found in the Book of Moses (in the Pearl of Great Price), is an expansion of the account found in Genesis with emphasis given to the notion of "spiritual creation" (Book of Moses 3:5ff.) by which the week-long creation and the Edenic narratives of Genesis are fused into one longer narrative; the second, found in the Book of Abraham (also in the Pearl of Great Price), emphasizes the role of a divine council held before the creation of the earth (Book of Abraham 3-5).

Raëlism

Raëlism is a modern UFO religion founded by former motor racing journalist Claude Vorilhon, in 1974. Raëlians believe that humanoid aliens called Elohim created both life on earth and the conditions necessary to support it, through use of terraforming, genetic engineering and nanotechnology.

Urantia

Main article: Urantia Book

The Urantia Book puts forth a creation story of Urantia (Earth), in which the Earth develops over billions of years from meteor captures, the gradual changes leading to the development of life, and the long evolution of life that started with microscopic marine life and led to plant and animal life in the oceans, later on land. Mankind emerged, according to Urantia mythology, a million years ago from a superior line of primates founded by a lemur.

Evolution in Urantia myth is orderly and controlled. Primordial life was intelligently planned, implanted, and monitored by "Life Carriers," instead of arising spontaneously, and evolution has a purpose: the production of creatures of "will dignity" that can develop spiritual natures and survive material existence, going on to have eternal spiritual careers. This process is fostered and administered by various orders of celestial beings who are less than perfect. Through mistakes or deliberate rebellion, the plan can be wrecked, requiring long spans of time to recoup lost progress. Urantia is said to be a markedly "dark and confused" planet that is "greatly retarded in all phases of intellectual progress and spiritual attainment" compared to more typical inhabited worlds, due to an unusually severe history of rebellion and default by its spiritual supervisors.

Randomness

Some philosophers like Hakim Bey and occultists like Peter J. Carroll think randomness, chaos or the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics is the prime mover according to science, and should accordingly be treated as divine.

Scientology

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard in his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. While views on the origin/creation of the universe as a whole are unclear, the creation of the modern man is laid out in a highly secretive creation myth. 75 million years ago, Xenu was the leader of the Galactic Federation, a federation of 76 planets that had already existed for 20 million years. Many of the planets at the time suffered from massive overpopulation. As leader of the Galactic Federation, Xenu implemented a policy in which trillions of people were either frozen or killed and then sent to a planet known as Teegeeack (now Earth). Xenu placed the frozen souls near volcanoes and then bombed the volcanoes, destroying the remaining souls. These dead souls were later reactivated by electric forces from the Earth, in which they returned to life and entered the bodies of humans and remain there today.

See also

• Abiogenesis
• Allegorical interpretations of Genesis
• Creationism
• Big bang
• Book of Genesis
• Creation science
• Cosmogony
• Great flood
• Elohim
• Enuma Elish
• Evolutionary origin of religions
• Flying Spaghetti Monster
• Formation and evolution of the Solar System
• Intelligent Design
• Poimandres
• Origin myth
• World egg

References

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• Barbour, Ian G. (1997). Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues (first revised ed.). HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 58, 65. ISBN 0060609389. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bodde, Derk (1961). "Myths of Ancient China". In Samuel Noah Kramer (ed.). Mythologies of the Ancient World. Anchor. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Courlander, Harold (2002). A Treasury of African Folklore: The Oral Literature, Traditions, Myths, Legends, Epics, Tales, Recollections, Wisdom, Sayings, and Humor of Africa. Marlowe & Company. ISBN 9781569245361. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Doty, William (2007). Myth: A Handbook. University Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0817354374. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Eliade, Mircea (1963). Patterns in comparative religion. The New American Library-Meridian Books. ISBN 9780529019158. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Encyclopædia Britannica (2009). "myth". Encyclopædia Britannica Online http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9108748. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Giddens, Sandra; Giddens, Owen (2006). African Mythology. The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 1404207686. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Honko, Lauri (1984). "The Problem of Defining Myth". In Alan Dundes (ed.). Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520051928. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Johnston, Susan A. (2009). Religion, Myth, and Magic: The Anthropology of Religion-a Course Guide. Recorded Books, LLC. ISBN 978-1-4407-2603-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kimball, Charles (2008). "Creation Myths and Sacred Stories". Comparative Religion. The Teaching Company. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Knappert, Jan (1977). Bantu Myths and Other Tales. Brill Archive. ISBN 9004054235. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leeming, David A. (2009). Creation Myths of the World (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1598841749. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leeming, David Adams; Leeming, Margaret Adams (2009). A Dictionary of Creation Myths (Oxford Reference Online ed.). Oxford University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leeming, David Adams; Leeming, Margaret Adams (1994). A Dictionary of Creation Myths. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195102758. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leeming, David Adams; Leeming, Margaret Adams (1994). Encyclopedia of Creation Myths (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0874367393. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leeming, David A. (2001). Myth: A Biography of Belief. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195142884. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leeming, David A. (2005). The Oxford companion to world mythology (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195156690. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leonard, Scott A; McClure, Michael (2004). Myth and Knowing (illustrated ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780767419574. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Littleton, C. Scott (2005). Gods, goddesses, and mythology. Vol. 1. Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 9780761475590. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Long, Charles H. (1963). Alpha: The Myths of Creation. New York: George Braziller. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mair, Victor H. (1990). Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way, by Lao Tzu. Bantam Books. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• MacClaglan, David (1977). Creation Myths: Man's Introduction to the World. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0500810101. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Nassen-Bayer; Stuart, Kevin (1992-10). "Mongol creation stories: man, Mongol tribes, the natural world and Mongol deities". 2. 51. Asian Folklore Studies: 323–334. Retrieved 2010-05-06. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Segal, Robert (2004). Myth: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192803474. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sproul, Barbara C. (1979). Primal Myths. HarperOne HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 9780060675011. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stocker, Terry (2009). The Paeolithic Paradigm. AuthorHouse. ISBN 1449022928. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Thomas, Cullen (2008). Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons. Penguin. ISBN 0143113119. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Weigle, Marta (1987). "Creation and Procreation, Cosmogony and Childbirth: Reflections on Ex Nihilo Earth Diver, and Emergence Mythology". Journal of American Folklore. 100 (398). {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Winzeler, Robert L. (2008). Anthropology and religion: what we know, think, and question. AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7591-1046-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Womack, Mari (2005). Symbols and Meaning: A Concise Introduction. AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0759103221. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Y.Z. (1824). "Asiatic journal and monthly miscellany". 17. Wm. H. Allen & Co. {{cite journal}}: |chapter= ignored (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Japanese Creation Myth
• Mayan Creation Myth
• Egyptian Creation Myth
• Norse Creation Myth
• Native American Creation Myth