I stated that I would offer ideas concerning how to live off-grid, conserve water, and otherwise live in a world of dwindling resources on this page and add links to my blog. Today I will describe three very easy ways to decrease energy consumption, conserve fresh water, deal with waste water, and take the first steps to living in a changing world by going off-grid. As an added bonus, you can give the middle finger to the petroleum industry, who through their greed and lies have sacrificed the security, standard of living, and most of all- the birthright to live in a better world than their parents of future generations. In this blog post, I describe how I built (and you can build) 1- a rain-fed bucket solar shower with a waste-water treatment area; 2- a way to make soil from composted poop; and 3- a simple, cheap solar system.
One of the many dire consequences of climate change/global warming is the inevitable drying of many global ecosystems and wide-spread, long term drought. If you study the maps included, you will see the alarming forecast of drought for much of the planet. Below I will describe how to make a rain-capture shower using a 5 gallon bucket, a waste water treatment/catchment area, a dry-composting poop bucket, and describe a basic solar energy system.
Solar rain-capture bucket shower- I started with a simple 5 gallon bucket. If you want, you can cover it with black tape to assist in heating the water in the sun. I connected a regular shower head by drilling and hole and inserting pvc tube, then simply added a male end and screwed on the shower head. I built a simple stand outside and positioned it under a rain spout with a screen filter tied to it to catch rain water. Below it, I planted cattails (Typha latifolia), which drink the waste water and grow like crazy.
I also made a dry- compost bucket for poop as another way to save water. I simply use a 5 gallon bucket in which I place a toilet seat on top, poop in it, cover my offering with a mix of soil and sawdust, then replace the top securely. When it is full, I dump it in an area where I have three holes dug in which I rotate my waste. In three months (I live in the tropics- expect slower composting in colder-dryer climes) I have excellent soil. With this soil I have created gardens in an area of pure clay soil in which I grow tomatoes, peppers, papaya, sugar cane and various herbs and flowers. I use a toilet brush and dish gloves to clean the bucket.
Solar system- I spent less than $400 to buy a Panel, inverter, charge controler, battery, and cables cables. I set it up in about an hour. The panel can be attached to your roof or on a ground stand. I also built a box to hold and protect the components. I am able to run a internet satellite and modem, my laptop, a lamp, and a fan. With another panel and battery, I could run a small refrigerator.
We need to be doing things, not just posting crap on social media. I hope these small easy projects help you see some alternatives to continuing to feed the beast which is destroying our world and sacrificing the future of out descendants.
Around noon, I catch a moto from the outskirts of a small Peruvian city where I am constructing a little house for myself and my señora, to get some lunch and take a siesta. The way to the parilla is choked with a multitude of motorcycles jockeying for position on the horribly overcrowded streets. There is not a bike or pedestrian to be seen. At the small parilla where my señora works I eat a plate of lomo saltado (a mix of beef and vegetables) red beans, rice, and a couple glasses of refresco made from fresh maracuya, a local fruit. A couple sits down next to me. They are both overweight, the young woman is horribly obese. They order fried food, juanes (a delicious item made from rice and chicken broth, cooked in a banana leaf), white rice, boiled plantains and Inka Kola. I decided to write a new post.
“We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN. The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.”
“Given current concentrations and on-going emissions of greenhouse gases, it is likely that by the end of this century, the increase in global temperature will exceed 1.5°C compared to 1850 to 1900 for all but one scenario. The world’s oceans will warm and ice melt will continue. Average sea level rise is predicted as 24 – 30cm by 2065 and 40-63cm by 2100. Most aspects of climate change will persist for many centuries even if emissions are stopped.There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed. Ecosystems as diverse as the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic tundra, may be approaching thresholds of dramatic change through warming and drying. Mountain glaciers are in alarming retreat and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months will have repercussions that transcend generations.”
“The world population is projected to increase by more than one billion people within the next 15 years, reaching 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.”
“The latest available estimates indicate that about 821 million people in the world were undernourished in 2017. That means one in nine people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. For the third year in a row, there has been a rise in world hunger. The absolute number of undernourished people, i.e. those facing chronic food deprivation, has increased to nearly 821 million in 2017, from around 804 million in 2016.” “The prevalence of anaemia among women of reproductive age has risen incrementally from 30.3 percent in 2012 to 32.8 percent in 2016 with no region showing a decline. Shamefully, one in three women of reproductive age globally is still affected by anaemia, with significant health and development consequences for both women and their children.”
Different types of anemia and their causes include: Iron deficiency anemia. This is the most common type of anemia worldwide. Iron deficiency anemia is caused by a shortage of iron in your body. Your bone marrow needs iron to make hemoglobin. Without adequate iron, your body can’t produce enough hemoglobin for red blood cells. Vitamin deficiency anemia. In addition to iron, your body needs folate and vitamin B-12 to produce enough healthy red blood cells. A diet lacking in these and other key nutrients can cause decreased red blood cell production. A diet lacking in certain vitamins. Having a diet that is consistently low in iron, vitamin B-12 and folate increases your risk of anemia. Iron-rich foods include beef and other meats, beans, lentils, iron-fortified cereals, dark green leafy vegetables, and dried fruit. Folate is a nutrient found in fruits and fruit juices, dark green leafy vegetables, green peas, kidney beans, peanuts, and enriched grain products, such as bread, cereal, pasta and rice. Foods rich in vitamin B-12 include meat, dairy products, and fortified cereal and soy products. Foods rich in vitamin C include citrus fruits and juices, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, melons and strawberries. These items help increase iron absorption.
That’s it people. Reduce consumption. QUIT using fossil fuels. STOP having babies. START eating good food. It’s pretty fucking simple. Oh yeah millennials- PUT DOWN THE GODDAMN PHONE!
When the sons of Borr were walking along the sea-strand, they found two trees, and took up the trees and shaped men of them: the first gave them spirit and life; the second, wit and feeling; the third, form, speech, hearing, and sight. They gave them clothing and names: the male was called Askr, and the female Embla, and of them was mankind begotten, which received a dwelling-place under Midgard. Sturluson, Snorri. Prose Edda
Ask and Embla (1919) by Robert Engels
http://www.native-americans-online.com/native-american-seven-philosophies.html First Philosophy: The cycle of life for the woman is the baby, girl, woman, and grandmother. These are the four directions of life. She has been given by natural laws, the ability to reproduce life. The most sacred of all things is life. Therefore, all men should treat her with dignity and respect. Never was it our way to harm her mentally or physically. Indian men were never abusers. We always treated our women with respect and understanding. So from now on: I will treat women in a sacred manner. The Creator gave women the responsibility for bringing new life into the world. Life is sacred, so I will look upon the women in a sacred manner. In our traditional ways, the woman is the foundation of the family. I will work with her to create a home atmosphere of respect, security and harmony. I will refrain from any form of emotional or physical abuse. If I have these feelings, I will talk to the Creator for guidance. I will treat all women as if they were my own female relatives. This is my vow. From the Gathering of Native American Men in June 1996 at Colorado.
In 2018, contestants of the Miss Peru Pageant gave domestic violence statistics of Peru instead of their bra sizes.
Definition of machismo: 1 : a strong sense of masculine pride : an exaggerated masculinity. 2 : an exaggerated or exhilarating sense of power or strength.
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/vaw/ https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women United Nations Statistics Division Violence against Women data portal (unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/vaw/index.html). Proportion of women subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner, in the last 12 months: Bangladesh 50.7, Afghanistan 46.1, Uganda 45, Rwanda 44.3, Colombia 37.4, D.R. Congo 36.8, Tanzania 36.8, Liberia 36.3, Zimbabwe 30.5, Kenya 25.5, India 23.9, Haiti 20.7, Cambodia 15.2, Peru 14.9, Turkey 13.7, Philippines 10.3, Nicaragua 9.3, Honduras 8.9, Guatemala 8.5, El Salvador 7.7, Jamaica 7.7, Mexico 6.6, Norway 6, Greece 6, Hungary 6, UK 5, Finland 5, Austria 3, Germany 3, Ireland 3, Spain 2, Sweden 2.2, Netherlands 2, Italy 1.9, Iceland 1.8, Canada 1.3, France 1, Denmark 1.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women. Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths. More than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is concentrated (1). FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15. FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women. Female genital mutilation is classified into 4 major types: Type 1: Often referred to as clitoridectomy, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals), and in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris). Type 2: Often referred to as excision, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (the inner folds of the vulva), with or without excision of the labia majora (the outer folds of skin of the vulva ). Type 3: Often referred to as infibulation, this is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the labia minora, or labia majora, sometimes through stitching, with or without removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy). Type 4: This includes all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area. Deinfibulation refers to the practice of cutting open the sealed vaginal opening in a woman who has been infibulated, which is often necessary for improving health and well-being as well as to allow intercourse or to facilitate childbirth. FGM has no health benefits, and it harms girls and women in many ways. It involves removing and damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue, and interferes with the natural functions of girls’ and women’s bodies. Generally speaking, risks increase with increasing severity of the procedure. Immediate complications can include: severe pain, excessive bleeding (haemorrhage), genital tissue swelling, fever infections e.g., tetanus, urinary problems, wound healing problems, injury to surrounding genital tissue, shock, death. Long-term consequences can include: urinary problems (painful urination, urinary tract infections); vaginal problems (discharge, itching, bacterial vaginosis and other infections); menstrual problems (painful menstruations, difficulty in passing menstrual blood, etc.); scar tissue and keloid; sexual problems (pain during intercourse, decreased satisfaction, etc.); increased risk of childbirth complications (difficult delivery, excessive bleeding, caesarean section, need to resuscitate the baby, etc.) and newborn deaths; need for later surgeries: for example, the FGM procedure that seals or narrows a vaginal opening (type 3) needs to be cut open later to allow for sexual intercourse and childbirth (deinfibulation). Sometimes genital tissue is stitched again several times, including after childbirth, hence the woman goes through repeated opening and closing procedures, further increasing both immediate and long-term risks; psychological problems (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, low self-esteem, etc.)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/warren-jeffs-child-bride-horrors-mormon-sect-leader-elissa-wall-a8219246.html “A former child bride who fled a fundamentalist Mormon cult has told how the sect’s leader reminded her she was “the property” of her husband after she begged him to free her from the forced marriage. Elissa Wall suffered multiple miscarriages after being made to marry her cousin at the age of 14 under the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Now 31, she shed new light on life inside the isolated sect in a documentary about its domineering leader Warren Jeffs, who controlled all most every aspect of his 15,000 followers’ lives. Jeffs, said to have had 78 wives and more than 50 children in the Utah church, was jailed for life in 2011 after being convicted of sexually assaulting two girls aged 12 and 15. He is believed to continue to preside over the church from behind bars.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia Sharia (/ʃəˈriːə/, Arabic: شريعة [ʃaˈriːʕa]), Islamic law or Sharia law is a religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God’s immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim fundamentalists and modernists.Traditional Islamic law assumes a patriarchal society with a man at the head of the household. Different legal schools formulated a variety of legal norms which could be manipulated to the advantage of men or women, but women were generally at a disadvantage with respect to the rules of inheritance, blood money (diya), and witness testimony, where a woman’s value is effectively treated as half of that of a man. Many claim sharia law encourages domestic violence against women, when a husband suspects nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife. Other scholars claim wife beating, for nashizah, is not consistent with modern perspectives of the Quran. One of the verses of the Quran relating to permissibility of domestic violence is Surah 4:34. Sharia has been criticized for ignoring women’s rights in domestic abuse cases. Musawah, CEDAW, KAFA and other organizations have proposed ways to modify sharia-inspired laws to improve women’s rights in Muslim-majority nations, including women’s rights in domestic abuse cases. Shari’a is the basis for personal status laws in most Islamic-majority nations. These personal status laws determine rights of women in matters of marriage, divorce and child custody. A 2011 UNICEF report concludes that sharia law provisions are discriminatory against women from a human rights perspective. In legal proceedings under sharia law, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s before a court. Except for Iran, Lebanon, and Bahrain, which allow child marriages, the civil codes in Islamic majority countries do not allow child marriage of girls. However, with sharia personal status laws, sharia courts in all these nations have the power to override the civil code. The religious courts permit girls less than 18 years old to marry. As of 2011, child marriages are common in a few Middle Eastern countries, accounting for 1 in 6 of all marriages in Egypt and 1 in 3 marriages in Yemen. UNICEF and other studies state that the top five nations in the world with highest observed child marriage rates- Niger (75%), Chad (72%), Mali (71%), Bangladesh (64%), Guinea (63%)- are Islamic-majority countries where the personal laws for Muslims are sharia-based. Rape is considered a crime in all countries, but sharia courts in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia in some cases allow a rapist to escape punishment by marrying his victim, while in other cases the victim who complains is often prosecuted with the crime of Zina (adultery). http://concit.org/on-hijabs-rape-and-shariah-law/ A hijab is a covering that creates a separation or partition for the woman from the outside world. The Word hijab is translated as head covering, veil or screen. Despite the protests of many Muslim women that it is their choice to wear a head covering, the truth of the matter is that according to Sharia —the “Sacred Path of Islam”, the wearing of head coverings for women is now regarded as “Obligatory” in most of the Muslim world. Reliance of the Traveller—the sharia manual for the Shafi’i sect of Muslims one of the largest sects of Islam states- “A woman must not reveal anything except her hands and her face when outside the home and on the street.” The severe Salafist doctrine in Afghanistan demands women wear the burqa, a head to toe covering where visability is only through a mesh panel in the garment in front of the eyes. Wahhabism in the Saudi Arabia has women wearing the black niqab, however only the eyes are visible and women often are required to also wear gloves. Chador is the dress of Iran (Shia) and increasingly Pakistan which exposes the face. The Al Amira often worn as a starter Hijab, is widely used like the shayla style hijab that we in the west recognise as the most common form of hijab (scarf over a headband). A female must wear a Hijib because to Muslim men her entire body is a “SEX ORGAN” This means if any part of her body is exposed, then it is her fault if she is raped. Hijabs in the nation of Islam are to be worn from the age of 11. However recent calls from Saudi clerics are now suggesting hijabs should be worn by girls over two years of age also, in order to safeguard the child from being raped. When an unmarried girl is raped, even if it is proven she was raped, the family’s honour in being compromised by the event could lead to the family then killing the girl to preserve that “honour”—even in war times.
Haredi burqa sect, Wikipedia
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/opium-brides/transcript/ “The government came and destroyed the opium fields. The smugglers came after us to get their money back. We didn’t have any money. I had a girl. She was 8 years old. They took her with them. We don’t know where.” “If they take me, I will kill myself. What else can I do? Death is better than sorrow and sadness. If we give them money, they will let me go. We don’t have any money for living. How can we pay their money?”
https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/article/2018/11/29/dowry-divorce-and-desertion-women-victims-dowry-abuse-speak-out “At the time of marriage it was decided that we would pay them Rs 20 lakh ($40,000 AUD), but immediately after everything had been fixed up, even the [marriage] date had been fixed, they increased their demand to Rs 30 lakh ($60,000 AUD).” “So we even gave that amount. But when I went to my husband’s house, his family literally said, ‘she’s come from a very poor household. She’s brought nothing with her’.” Ritu claims things got worse for her after she and her husband moved to Australia with their child. “After 7-8 eight months, he really bashed me up terribly one day. I was pregnant again at the time, and I ended up having a miscarriage. At that moment I felt horrible, I felt like I had lost everything,” she says in a quivering voice. https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2018/05/30/how-shame-divorce-keeps-indian-women-violent-marriages Battered and bruised, 26-year-old Pia Jain* barricaded herself behind the bedroom door of her home and dialed the number for the police. Moments before she had been pinned to the floor by her husband’s foot, struggling to breathe and, for what wasn’t the first time, thinking he might be about to kill her. This was almost four months into the marriage that was arranged by Ms Jain’s parents. The abuse had started on her wedding night. “[I had] bruises on my face because he kept smashing it against the bathroom shelf. [He would] choke my neck to take my phone away and lock me in a room so I [couldn’t] call anyone for help,” Ms Jain said. “He would pull my hair and punch me so badly my contacts would fall out.” Despite this, Ms Jain didn’t want to shame her family with a divorce. She was well-educated, well-travelled and had grown up in Australia but Hinduism was the centrepiece of her life. “As a cultured woman, I couldn’t let my marriage break,” she said. “I always wanted to be with one man for the rest of my life”.
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 3:1-19
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” …
Genesis 3:6
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. https://margmowczko.com/women-eve-and-deception/
According to Genesis 2:21-22, Eve was the first woman created. In Genesis 3:1, she is seemingly targeted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden who successfully persuades her to eat the forbidden fruit. She then shares the fruit with Adam who was with her. By eating the forbidden fruit, Eve and Adam disobeyed God’s explicit command in Genesis 2:16-17. This act of disobedience had catastrophic consequences. The scriptures simply do not tell us why the serpent spoke to Eve and not to Adam. Many people assume it was Eve because she was easier to deceive. The scriptures, however, neither state or imply that she was easier to tempt or deceive than Adam. Furthermore, while we know Eve’s excuse for eating the fruit—she was deceived—we are not told what Adam’s excuse was. So Adam, and all men, have escaped from being branded with the stigma that Eve, and all women, have suffered with. Eve, however, readily acknowledged and confessed her deception to God (Gen 3:13). She didn’t stay in a duped state. So it is utterly unjust to use Eve, in her short-lived deceived state, as a type for all women for all time. Eve’s deception is never mentioned again in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), nor is it mentioned in the Gospels. None of the writers of the Hebrew Bible or of the Gospels felt it necessary to bring up Eve’s momentary failure. Moreover, none of the writers of the Hebrew Bible or of the Gospels ever mention or hint that women are more gullible or more easily deceived than men.
Michelangelo Buonarroti; Adam And Eve 1512
https://www.crystalinks.com/buffalocalfwoman.html One summer, long ago, the seven sacred council fires of the Lakota Oyate, the nation, came together and camped. Every day they sent scouts to look for game, but the scouts found nothing, and the people were starving. Among the bands assembled were the Itazipcho, the Without-Bows, who had their own camp circle under their chief, Standing Hollow Horn. Early one morning the chief sent two of his young men to hunt for game. They searched everywhere but could find nothing. Seeing a high hill, they decided to climb it in order to look over the whole country. Halfway up, they saw something coming toward them from far off, but the figure was floating instead of walking. From this they knew that the person was wakan, holy. At first they could make out only a small moving speck and had to squint to see that it was a human form. But as it came nearer, they realized that it was a beautiful young woman, more beautiful than any they had ever seen. She wore a wonderful white buckskin outfit, tanned until it shone a long way in the sun. It was embroidered with sacred and marvelous designs of porcupine quill, in radiant colors no ordinary woman could have made. This wakan stranger was Ptesan-Wi, White Buffalo Calf Woman. In her hands she carried a large bundle and a fan of sage leaves. She wore her hair loose except for a strand at the left side, which was tied up with buffalo fur. Her eyes shone dark and sparkling, with great power in them. The two young men looked at her open-mouthed. One was overawed, but the other desired her and stretched his hand out to touch her. This woman was Lila wakan, very sacred, and could not be treated with disrespect. Lightning instantly struck the brash young man and burned him up, so that only a small heap of blackened bones was left. To the other scout who had behaved rightly, the White Buffalo Calf Woman said: “Good things I am bringing, something holy to your nation. A message I carry for your people from the buffalo nation. Go back to the camp and tell the people to prepare for my arrival. Tell your chief to put up a medicine lodge with twenty-four poles. Let it be made holy for my coming.” This young hunter returned to the camp. He told the chief, and the people, what the sacred woman had commanded. So the people put up the big medicine tipi and waited. After four days they saw the White Buffalo Calf Woman approaching, carrying her bundle before her. Her wonderful white buckskin dress shone from afar. The chief, Standing Hollow Horn, invited her to enter the medicine lodge. She went in and circled the interior sunrise. The chief addressed her respectfully, saying: “Sister, we are glad you have come to instruct us.” She told him what she wanted done. In the center of the tipi they were to put up an owanka wakan, a sacred altar, made of red earth, with a buffalo skull and a three-stick rack for a holy thing she was bringing. They did what she directed, and she traced a design with her finger on the smoothed earth of the altar. She showed them how to do all this, then circled the lodge again sunwise. Halting before the chief, she now opened the bundle. The holy thing it contained was the chanunpa, the sacred pipe. She held it out to the people and let them look at it. She was grasping the stem with her right hand and the bowl with her left, and thus the pipe has been held ever since. Again the chief spoke, saying: “Sister, we are glad. We have had no meat for some time. All we can give you is water.” They dipped some wacanga, sweet grass, into a skin bag of water and gave it to her, and to this day the people dip sweet grass or an eagle wing in water and sprinkle it on a person to be purified. The White Buffalo Calf Woman showed the people how to use the pipe. She filled it with chan-shasha, red willow-bark tobacco. She walked around the lodge four times after the manner of Anpetu-Wi, the great sun. This represented the circle without end, the sacred hoop, the road of life. The woman placed a dry buffalo chip on the fire and lit the pipe with it. This was peta-owihankeshni, the fire without end, the flame to be passed on from generation to generation. She told them that the smoke rising from the bowl was Tunkashila’s breath, the living breath of the great Grandfather Mystery. The White Buffalo Calf Woman showed the people the right way to pray, the right words and the right gestures. She taught them how to sing the pipe-filling song and how to lift the pipe up to the sky, toward Grandfather, and down toward Grandmother Earth, to Unci, and then to the four directions of the universe. “With this holy pipe,” she said, “you will walk like a living prayer. With your feet resting upon the earth and the pipe stem reaching into the sky, your body forms a living bridge between the Sacred Beneath and the Sacred Above. Wakan Tanka smiles upon us, because now we are as one: earth, sky, all living things, the two-legged, the four-legged, the winged ones, the trees, the grasses. Together with the people, they are all related, one family. The pipe holds them all together. “Look at this bowl,” said the White Buffalo Calf Woman. “Its stone represents the buffalo, but also the flesh and blood of the red man. The buffalo represents the universe and the four directions, because he stands on four legs, for the four ages of creation. The buffalo was put in the west by Wakan Tanka at the making of the world, to hold back the waters. Every year he loses one hair, and in every one of the four ages he loses a leg. The sacred hoop will end when all the hair and legs of the great buffalo are gone, and the water comes back to cover Mother Earth. The wooden stem of this chanunpa stands for all that grows on the Earth. Twelve feathers hanging from where the stem – the backbone – joins the bowl – the skull – are from Wanblee Galeshka, the spotted eagle, the very sacred bird who is the Great Spirit’s messenger and the wisest of all flying ones. You are joined to all things of the universe, for they all cry out to Tunkashila. Look at the bowl: engraved in it are seven circles of various sizes. They stand for the seven sacred ceremonies you will practice with this pipe, and for the Oceti Shakowin, the seven sacred campfires of our Lakota nation.” The White Buffalo Calf Woman then spoke to the women, telling them that it was the work of their hands and the fruit of their bodies which kept the people alive. “You are from Mother Earth,” she told them. “What you are doing is as great as what the warriors do.” And therefore the sacred pipe is also something that binds men and women together in a circle of love. It is the one holy object in the making of which both men and women have a hand. The men carve the bowl and make the stem; the women decorate it with bands of colored porcupine quills. When a man takes a wife, they both hold the pipe at the same time and red trade cloth is wound around their hands, thus tying them together for life. The White Buffalo Calf Woman also talked to the children, because they have an understanding beyond their years. She told them that what their fathers and mothers did was for them, that their parents could remember being little once, and that they, the children, would grow up to have little ones of their own. She told them: “You are the coming generation, that’s why you are the most important and precious ones. Some day you will hold this pipe and smoke it. Some day you will pray with it.” She spoke once more to all the people: “The pipe is alive; it is a red being showing you a red life and a red road. And this is the first ceremony for which you will use the pipe. You will use it to keep the soul of a dead person, because through it you can talk to Wakan Tanka, the Great Mysterious. The day a human dies is always a sacred day. The day when the soul is released to the Great Spirit is another.” She spoke one last time to Standing Hollow Horn, the chief, saying, “Remember: this pipe is very sacred. Respect it and it will take you to the end of the road. The four ages of creation are in me. I will come to see you in every generation cycle. I shall come back to you.” The sacred woman then took leave of the people, saying: “Toksha ake wacinyanktin ktelo — I shall see you again.” The people saw her walking off in the same direction from which she had come, outlined against the red ball of the setting sun. As she went, she stopped and rolled over four times. The first time, she turned into a black buffalo; the second into a brown one; the third into a red one; and finally, the fourth time she rolled over, she turned into a white buffalo calf. A white buffalo is the most sacred living thing you could ever encounter. The White Buffalo Calf Woman disappeared over the horizon. As soon as she had vanished, buffalo in great herds appeared, allowing themselves to be killed so that the people might survive. And from that day on, our relations, the buffalo, furnished the people with everything they need — meat for their food, skins for their clothes and tipi1s, and bones for their many tools.
In response to the mistreatment of animals I have seen throughout Latin America
“It is scarcely possible to doubt that the love of man has become instinctive in the dog.” Charles Darwin “When the Man waked up he said, ‘What is Wild Dog doing here?’ And the Woman said, ‘His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.’” Rudyard Kipling
“Whatever you do unto the least of my brothers, you do it unto me.”
Matthew 25:40
“When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things. When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things. That' God told Noah,is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.”
Genesis 9: 14-17
“…And who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.”
Psalm 136:25
“A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal.”
Proverbs 12:10
“A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast.”
Proverbs 12:10
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
Job 12:7-10
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”
St. Francis of Assisi
“Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2416
“Animals are God’s creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in God’s sight…Christians whose eyes are fixed on the awfulness of crucifixion are in a special position to understand the awfulness of innocent suffering. The Cross of Christ is God’s absolute identification with the weak, the powerless, and the vulnerable, but most of all with unprotected, undefended, innocent suffering.” Reverend Andrew Linzey
“Animals have done us no harm and they have no power of resistance.…There is something so very dreadful…in tormenting those who have never harmed us, who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power.”
Cardinal John Henry Newman
“Animals, as part of God’s creation, have rights which must be respected. It behooves us always to be sensitive to their needs and to the reality of their pain.”
Dr. Donald Coggan, former Archbishop of Canterbury
“They too, are created by the same loving hand of God which Created us…It is our duty to Protect Them and to promote their well-being.”
Mother Teresa.
“Animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren…the fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect…as near to God as men are.” He reminded people that all living beings came into being because of the “breath” of God. He spoke of St. Francis’s love for animals declaring, “We, too, are called to a similar attitude.”
His Holiness Pope John Paul II.
“It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer and die needlessly.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2418
“We may pretend to what religion we please, but cruelty is atheism. We may make our boast of Christianity; but cruelty is infidelity. We may trust our orthodoxy, but cruelty is the worst of heresies.”
Humphry Primatt. Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals
“Compassion is most important for happiness. We must treat fellow human beings as equal, that is very important, but also all beings who have capacity for feeling. So the innate desire for happiness that is the basis of human rights extends to all sentient beings, including animals and insects.”
His Holiness The Dalai Lama
“Because he has pity on every living creature, therefore is a man called ‘holy’”
Buddhism Dhammapada
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated…I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by [people] from the cruelty of [human kind]”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Life is life—whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man’s own advantage.”
Sri Aurobindo
“What is religion? Compassion for all things, which have life.”
Hitopadesa
“A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is a bad as an act of cruelty to a human being.”
Prophet Mohammed
“There is not an animal on the earth, nor a flying creature on two wings, but they are people like unto you.”
Qur’an
“Every animal knows more than you do.”
Native American Proverb
“What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die form great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man.”
“The Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
Chief Seattle
“Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children?; Hear me, four quarters of the world…a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft Earth, a relative to all that is,…all over the Earth, the faces of living things are all alike.”
John G. Neihardt in Black Elk Speaks
“We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can’t speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.”
Qwatsinas
“I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.”
Abraham Lincoln
“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”
Jack London
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
Will Rogers
“You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.”
James Thurber
“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”
Mark Twain
“If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.”
Woodrow Wilson
Both the Australian Aboriginal creation story (from the Murrawarri people) and the Hopi story feature male and female deities who work together. In the Murrawarri story, a male/father deity urges the female deity to create life. The story also emphasizes the difference between humans and the other creatures, focusing on the power of the human mind. In the Hopi (Hopis call themselves Hopitu – The Peaceful People), not only do the gods create the worlds, animals, and humans, they also define different roles for each. I also find it interesting that the Plumed Serpent is referred to in the Hopitu story, as it also is featured prominantly in Latin American creation stories.
From the Murrawarri : There was a time when everything was still. All the spirits of the earth were asleep – or almost all. The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he awoke the Sun Mother. As she opened her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth. The Father of All Spirits said to the Sun Mother, “Mother, I have work for you. Go down to the Earth and awake the sleeping spirits. Give them forms.” The Sun Mother glided down to Earth, which was bare at the time and began to walk in all directions and everywhere she walked plants grew. After returning to the field where she had begun her work the Mother rested, well pleased with herself. The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go into the caves and wake the spirits. This time she ventured into the dark caves on the mountainsides. The bright light that radiated from her awoke the spirits and after she left, insects of all kinds flew out of the caves. The Sun Mother sat down and watched the glorious sight of her insects mingling with her flowers. However, once again the Father urged her on. The Mother ventured into a very deep cave, spreading her light around her. Her heat melted the ice and the rivers and streams of the world were created. Then she created fish and small snakes, lizards and frogs. Next she awoke the spirits of the birds and animals and they burst into the sunshine in a glorious array of colors. Seeing this, the Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Sun Mother’s work. She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth and to live peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and became the sun. The living creatures watched the Sun in awe as she crept across the sky, towards the west. However when she finally sunk beneath the horizon they were panic-stricken, thinking she had deserted them. All night they stood frozen in their places, thinking that the end of time had come. After what seemed to them like a lifetime, the Sun Mother peeked her head above the horizon in the East. The earth’s children learned to expect her coming and going and were no longer afraid. At first the children lived together peacefully, but eventually envy crept into their hearts. They began to argue. The Sun Mother was forced to come down from her home in the sky to mediate their bickering. She gave each creature the power to change their form to whatever they chose. However she was not pleased with the end result. The rats she had made had changed into bats; there were giant lizards and fish with blue tongues and feet. However the oddest of the new animals was an animal with a bill like a duck, teeth for chewing, a tail like a beavers and the ability to lay egg. It was called the platypus. The Sun Mother looked down upon the Earth and thought to herself that she must create new creatures, less the Father of All Spirits be angered by what she now saw. She gave birth to two children. The god was the Morning Star and the goddess was the moon. Two children were born to them and these she sent to Earth. They became our ancestors. She made them superior to the animals because they had part of her mind and would never want to change their shape. https://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_13.html
From the Hopitu: In the beginning there were only two: Tawa, the Sun God, and Spider Woman, the Earth Goddess. All the mysteries and power in the Above belonged to Tawa, while Spider Woman controlled the magic of the Below. In the Underworld, abode of the Gods, they dwelt and they were All. There was neither man nor woman, bird nor beast, no living thing until these Two willed it to be. In time it came to them that there should be other Gods to share their labors. So Tawa divided himself and there came Muiyinwuh, God of All Life Germs; Spider Woman also divided herself so that there was Huzruiwuhti, Woman of the Hard Substances, the Goddess of all hard ornaments of wealth such as coral, turquoise, silver and shell. Huzruiwuhti became the always-bride of Tawa. They were the First Lovers, and of their union there came into being those marvelous ones, the Magic Twins — Puukonhoya, the Youth, and Palunhoya, the Echo. As time unrolled there followed Hicanavaiya, Ancient of Six (the Four World Quarters, the Above and Below), Man-Eagle, the Great Plumed Serpent and many others. But Masauwhu, the Death God, did not come of these Two but was bad magic, who appeared only after the making of creatures. And then it came about that these Two had one Thought and it was a might Thought — that they would make the Earth to be between the Above and the Below where now lay shimmering only the Endless Waters. So they sat them side by side, swaying their beautiful bronze bodies to the pulsing music of their own great voices, making the First Magic Song, a song of rushing winds and flowing waters, a song of light and sound and life. “I am Tawa,” sang the Sun God. “I am Light. I am Life. I am Father of all that shall ever come.” “I am Kokyanwuhti,” the Spider Woman crooned. “I receive Light and nourish Life. I am Mother of all that shall ever come.” “Many strange thoughts are forming in my mind — beautiful forms of birds to float in the Above, of beasts to move upon the Earth and fish to swim in the Waters,” intoned Tawa. “Now let these things that move in the Thought of Tawa appear,” chanted Spider Woman, while with her slender fingers she caught up clay from beside her and made the Thoughts of Tawa take form. One by one she shaped them and laid them aside — but they breathed not nor moved. “We must do something about this,” said Tawa. “It is not good that they lie thus still and quiet. Each thing that has a form must also have a spirit. So now, my beloved, we must make a mighty Magic.” They laid a white blanket over the many figures, a cunningly woven woolen blanket, fleecy as a cloud, and made a mighty incantation over it, and soon the figures stirred and breathed. “Now, let us make ones like unto you and me, so that they may rule over and enjoy these lesser creatures,” sang Tawa, and Spider Woman shaped the Thoughts into woman and man figures like unto their own. But after the blanket magic had been made, the figures remained inert. So Spider Woman gathered them all in her arms and cradled them, while Tawa bent his glowing eyes upon them. The two now sang the magic Song of Life over them, and at last each human figure breathed and lived. “Now that was a good thing and a mighty thing,” said Tawa. “So now all this is finished, and there shall be no new things made by us. Those things we have made shall multiply. I will make a journey across the Above each day to shed my light upon them and return each night to Huzruiwuhti. And now I shall go to turn my blazing shield upon the Endless Waters, so that the Dry Land may appear. And this day will be the first day upon Earth.” “Now I shall lead all these created beings to the land that you shall cause to appear above the waters,” said Spider Woman. Then Tawa took down his burnished shield from the turquoise wall of the kiva and swiftly mounted to the Above. After Spider Woman had bent her wise, all-seeing eyes upon the thronging creatures about her, she wound her way among them, separating them into groups. “Thus and thus shall you be and thus shall you remain, each one in her own tribe forever. You are Zunis, you are Kohoninos, you are Pah-Utes…” The Hopis, all, all people were named by Kokyanwuhti then. Placing her Magic Twins beside her, Spider Woman called all the people to follow where she led. Through all the Four Great Caverns of the Underworld she led them until they finally came to an opening, a sipapu, which led above. This came out at the lowest depth of the Pisisbaiya (the Colorado River) and was the place where the people were to come to gather salt. So lately had the Endless Waters gone down that the Turkey, Koyona, pushing early ahead, dragged its tail feathers in the black mud where the dark bands were to remain forever. Mourning Dove flew overhead, calling to some to follow, and those who followed where his sharp eyes had spied out springs and built beside them were called “Huwinyamu” after him. So Spider Woman chose a creature to lead each clan to a place to build their house. The Puma, the Snake, the Antelope, the Deer, and other Horn creatures, each led a clan to a place to build their house. Each clan henceforth bore the name of the creature who had led them. The Spider Woman spoke to them thus: “The woman of the clan shall build the house, and the family name shall descend through her. She shall be house builder and homemaker. She shall mold the jars for the storing of food and water. She shall grind the grain for food and tenderly rear and teach the young. The man of the clan shall build kivas of stone under the ground. In these kivas the man shall make sand pictures as altars. Of colored sand shall he make them, and they shall be called ‘ponya.’ The man too shall weave the clan blankets with their proper symbols. The man shall fashion himself weapons and furnish his family with game.” Stooping down, she gathered some sand in her hand, letting it run out in a thin, continuous stream. “See the movement of the sand? That is the life that will cause all things therein to grow. The Great Plumed Serpent, Lightning, will rear and strike the earth to fertilize it; Rain Cloud will pour down waters, and Tawa will smile upon it so that green things will spring up to feed my children.” Her eyes now sought the Above where Tawa was descending toward his western kiva in all the glory of red and gold. “I go now, but have no fear, for we Two will be watching over you. Look upon me now, my children, ere I leave. Obey the words I have given you, and all will be well. If you are in need of help, call upon me, and I will send my sons to your aid.” The people gazed wide-eyed upon her shining beauty. Her woven upper garment of soft white wool hung tunic-wise over a blue skirt. On its left side was woven a band bearing the Butterfly and Squash Blossom, in designs of red and yellow and green with bands of black appearing in between. Her neck was hung with heavy necklaces of turquoise, shell and coral, and pendants of the same hung from her ears. Her face was fair, with warm eyes and tender lips, and her form most graceful. Upon her feet were skin boots of gleaming white, and they now turned toward where the sand spun about in whirlpool fashion. She held up her right hand and smiled upon them, then stepped upon the whirling sand. Wonder of wonders, before their eyes the sands seemed to suck her swiftly down until she disappeared entirely from their sight. http://www.bigorrin.org/archive97.htm
Before offering more creation stories for your perusal, I would like to shift gears a little. A recent article by Tracy B. Henley of Texas A&M University about the archaeological site, Göbekli Tepe, raises some interesting ideas about the birth of organized religion and the shift from a hunter/gatherer lifestyle to sedentary agriculture. Below I have included excerpts from the article. As we more forward with more creation stories, we can think about how the lifestyles of modern humans were changing around the planet as these creation stories were being told and preserved.
Göbekli Tepe is a late Stone Age archaeological site in southeastern Turkey, just below the Anti-Taurus Mountains and between the Tigris and Euphrates. This places it on the upper edge of the famed “Fertile Crescent”—the region long associated with the origins of civilization (e.g., urbanization, social stratification, writing). Situated on a sizable plateau, it is a large site, with over 200 limestone “T-shaped” pillars placed within at least 20 enclosures—mostly stone circles, spanning up to 30 yards in diameter.
Extant evidence suggests that Göbekli Tepe was not a settlement (that is, a people did not carry out their everyday lives there) but a “temple.” The site is roughly 12,000 years old. (It) would have been an impressive visible landmark. Presumptively, it would have afforded an equally impressive view of valuable flora and fauna—a wooded steppe with pistachios, cereal grains, and gazelle herds.
Research from an array of nearby sites, dated to around 500–2,000 years later, shows that Göbekli Tepe was built on the eve of established farming and sedentism (e.g., Kuijt, 2000). Soon, this region would feature the first ever domesticated wheat, would have corralled animals, and would see the rise of Jericho—once assumed to be the first “city.” Traditionally however, theory holds that such organized sedentary activities predate the building of temples. But, as Schmidt (2000) asserts based on his work at Göbekli Tepe—first came the temple, then the city.
Both Schmidt and Norenzayan assume the construction of Göbekli Tepe marks a revolutionary change in human psychology (see also Watkins, 2017), one that would have advanced these hunter-gatherers beyond some sort of shamanism and into an ideology of “supernatural watchers.”
(Research) strongly suggests that the new stories being told were religious in nature, and Schmidt (2006/2012) is willing to imagine these emerging leaders as priests. Even then, not just any sort of religious story could achieve such an end. One could hypothesize that for a project as large and unique as Göbekli Tepe both a priestly class would be needed as well as a religious story that was particularly effective at facilitating large-scale cooperation.
Purzycki et al, (2016) have portrayed moralistic gods (e.g., punitive supernatural watchers) as just such a special story form, and one that arguably emerges in order to facilitate large-scale cooperation. Smith et al. (2017) on the other hand contends that evidence still favors the existence of large-scale cooperative acts in advance of moralistic gods. This invites a bit of a “chicken and egg” question that psychology might address: Was a certain type of religious ideology and storytelling a prerequisite for hunter-gatherers to ever build Göbekli Tepe, or was Göbekli Tepe a site for social feasting, ritual, and storytelling that over time facilitated the emergence of religion?
Conclusion
Göbekli Tepe may well mark the moment in human history when there was a shift from the shamanistic and egalitarian world view of traditional hunter-gatherers into a more behaviorally proscriptive and hierarchical world view that allowed for the social coordination and control of larger numbers of people. Storytelling has been offered here as a plausible mechanism to facilitate such a shift. Storytellers had to first legitimize the transition to ever more social stratification, as well as to then assure compliance with this new order. The sorts of stories seemingly best suited for such a task are religious and involve supernatural watchers. Presumptively rituals reinforced such doctrine, and the inscribed pillars at Göbekli Tepe surely facilitated a “high-fidelity” transmission of ideas. A physically permanent symbol system serves just such a purpose—it anchors the messages that have to be reliably propagated to assure continued social coordination.
Henley, T. B. (2018). Introducing Göbekli Tepe to Psychology. Review of General Psychology, 22(4), 477–484.
Here is the third offering of creation stories. Before you read these stories from the Maya and Bribri, I would like to prompt your thinking. Are you noticing a theme? Here are some questions to ponder.
Do stories relate the creation of the universe/world? The creation of the Earth? The creation of humans? Both/all? Do different stories relate to place? Ancestors? Civilization? Agriculture? In the Mayan and Bribri stories below, how do you reconcile the fact that humans had already existed almost 200,000 years before corn?
I will be offering more creation stories and also discuss the current understanding of the creation/beginning of the universe from astrophysics. Then, we will discuss more concerning exactly what these stories mean and why they are important to us.
Sibö brought the seeds from a place called SuLa’kaska, which means the “Place of Destiny.” At the time the earth was only rock, and Sibö knew he had to create soil in order to plant his corn seeds. On another planet, there lived a tapir family. Sibö asked a bat to fly to that place and suck the blood of a little girl tapir. The bat did as he was told and, when he returned to the earth, he defecated on the rocks. A few days later the first trees began to sprout from that place. Sibö realized that his experiment to make soil was working, so he sent the bat again to suck the blood of the little girl tapir. The bat returned and again defecated upon the rocks and grew more trees. Sibö then made more soil from the flesh and blood of the little girl tapir. Sibö then planted corn seeds of all different colors to create the indigenous people of the earth; this is why indigenous people have different skin colors and tones. Sibö brought the seeds to the earth during the nighttime; that is why the awapa (healers) chant and do their curing ceremonies at night. He named the people dtsö, which means corn seeds. One of Sibö’s relatives, Plekeköl (the king of the leaf-cutter ants) created the white people of the earth, which he named síkua.
Bribri creation myth, adapted by the author.
Google images, by Gorgoncult
Now it still ripples, now it still murmurs, still sighs, and is empty under the sky. There is not yet one person, not one animal, bird, fish or tree. There is only the sky alone; the face of earth is not clear, only the sea alone is pooled under all the sky. Whatever might be is simply not there.
There were makers in the sea, together called the Plumed Serpent. There were makers in the sky, together called the Heart of Sky. Together these makers planned the dawn of life.
The earth arose because of them. It was simply their word that brought it forth. It arose suddenly, like a cloud unfolding. Then the mountains were separated from the water. All at once great mountains came forth. The sky was set apart, and the earth was set apart in the midst of the waters.
Then the makers in the sky planned the animals of the mountains — the deer, pumas, jaguars, rattlesnakes, and guardians of the bushes. Then they established the nests of the birds, great and small. “You precious birds; your nests are in the trees and bushes.” Then the deer and birds were told to talk to praise their makers, to pray to them. But the birds and animals did not talk; they just squawked and howled. So they had to accept that their flesh would be eaten by others.
The makers tried again to form a giver of respect, a creature who would nurture and provide. They made a body from mud, but it didn’t look good. It talked at first but then crumbled and disintegrated into the water.
Then the Heart of Sky called on the wise ones, the diviners, the Grandfather Xpiyacoc and the Grandmother Xmucane, to help decide how to form a person. The Grandparents said it is well to make wooden carvings, human in looks and speech. So wooden humans came into being; they talked and multiplied, but there was nothing in their minds and hearts, no memory of their builder, no memory of Heart of Sky.
Then there came a great destruction. The wooden carvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. It rained all day and all night. The animals came into the homes of the wooden carvings and ate them. The people were overthrown. The monkeys in the forest are a sign of this. They look like the previous people — mere wooden carvings.
The story continues with the final people being made from corn, an important crop that enabled the Mayan people to move from being a hunting-and-gathering society to a more complex civilization.
[1] In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. [3] And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. [4] And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. [5] And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. [6] And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. [7] And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. [8] And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. [9] And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. [10] And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. [11] And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. [12] And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [13] And the evening and the morning were the third day. [14] And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: [15] And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. [16] And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. [17] And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, [18] And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. [19] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. [20] And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. [21] And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [22] And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. [23] And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. [24] And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. [25] And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [28] And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. [29] And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. [30] And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. [31] And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Gen.2
[1]Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
This is the first of a series of posts of different creation stories drawn from a variety of sources, cultures and religious traditions. I may or may not offer commentary until the end. Stay tuned.
Before the beginning there was nothing—no earth, no heavens, no stars, no sky: only the mist world, formless and shapeless, and the fire world, always burning. To the north was Niflheim, the dark world. Here eleven poisonous rivers cut through the mist, each springing from the same well at the center of it all, the roaring maelstrom called Hvergelmir. Niflheim was colder than cold, and the murky mist that cloaked everything hung heavily. The skies were hidden by mist and the ground was clouded by the chilly fog. To the south was Muspell. Muspell was fire. Everything there glowed and burned. Muspell was light where Niflheim was gray, molten lava where the mist world was frozen. The land was aflame with the roaring heat of a blacksmith’s fire; there was no solid earth, no sky. Nothing but sparks and spurting heat, molten rocks and burning embers. In Muspell, at the edge of the flame, where the mist burns into light, where the land ends, stood Surtr, who existed before the gods. He stands there now. He holds a flaming sword, and the bubbling lava and the freezing mist are as one to him. It is said that at Ragnarok, which is the end of the world, and only then, Surtr will leave his station. He will go forth from Muspell with his flaming sword and burn the world with fire, and one by one the gods will fall before him. II Between Muspell and Niflheim was a void, an empty place of nothingness, without form. The rivers of the mist world flowed into the void, which was called Ginnungagap, the “yawning gap.” Over time beyond measure, these poisoned rivers, in the region between fire and mist, slowly solidified into huge glaciers. The ice in the north of the void was covered in frozen fog and pellets of hail, but to the south, where the glaciers reached the land of fire, the embers and the sparks from Muspell met the ice, and warm winds from the flame lands made the air above the ice as gentle and as comfortable as a spring day. Where the ice and the fire met the ice melted, and in the melting waters life appeared: the likeness of a person bigger than worlds, huger than any giant there will be or has ever been. This was neither male, nor was it female, but was both at the same time. This creature was the ancestor of all the giants, and it called itself Ymir. Ymir was not the only living thing to be formed by the melting of the ice: there was also a hornless cow, more enormous than the mind could hold. She licked the salty blocks of ice for food and for drink, and the milk that ran from her four udders flowed like rivers. It was this milk that nourished Ymir. The giant drank the milk, and grew. Ymir called the cow Audhumla. The cow’s pink tongue licked people from the blocks of ice: the first day only a man’s hair, the second his head, and the third day the shape of a whole man was revealed. This was Buri, the ancestor of the gods. Ymir slept, and while it slept, it gave birth: a male and a female giant were born from beneath Ymir’s left arm, a six-headed giant born from its legs. From these, Ymir’s children, all giants are descended. Buri took a wife from among these giants, and they had a son, whom they called Bor. Bor married Bestla, daughter of a giant, and together they had three sons: Odin, Vili, and Ve. Odin and Vili and Ve, the three sons of Bor, grew into manhood. They saw as they grew, far off, the flames of Muspell and the darkness of Niflheim, but they knew that each place would be death to them. The brothers were trapped forever in Ginnungagap, the vast gap between the fire and the mist. They might as well have been nowhere. There was no sea and no sand, no grass nor rocks, no soil, no trees, no sky, no stars. There was no world, no heaven and no earth, at that time. The gap was nowhere: only an empty place waiting to be filled with life and with existence. It was time for the creation of everything. Ve and Vili and Odin looked at each other and spoke of what was needful to do, there in the void of Ginnungagap. They spoke of the universe, and of life, and of the future. Odin and Vili and Ve killed the giant Ymir. It had to be done. There was no other way to make the worlds. This was the beginning of all things, the death that made all life possible. They stabbed the great giant. Blood gushed out from Ymir’s corpse in unimaginable quantities; fountains of blood as salt as the sea and gray as the oceans gushed out in a flood so sudden, so powerful, and so deep that it swept away and drowned all the giants. (Only one giant, Bergelmir, Ymir’s grandson, and his wife survived, by clambering onto a wooden box, which bore them like a boat. All the giants we see and we fear today are descended from them.) Odin and his brothers made the soil from Ymir’s flesh. Ymir’s bones they piled up into mountains and cliffs. Our rocks and pebbles, the sand and gravel you see: these were Ymir’s teeth, and the fragments of bones that were broken and crushed by Odin and Vili and Ve in their battle with Ymir. The seas that girdle the worlds: these were Ymir’s blood and his sweat. Look up into the sky: you are looking at the inside of Ymir’s skull. The stars you see at night, the planets, all the comets and the shooting stars, these are the sparks that flew from the fires of Muspell. And the clouds you see by day? These were once Ymir’s brains, and who knows what thoughts they are thinking, even now. Norse Mythology, Gaiman, Neil. 2017
Audhumla, from the title page of an 18th century Icelandic manuscript of the Prose Edda
I have been thinking about respect and love shared between parents and their children. I have also been thinking about how often I see the lack of discipline and teaching that many parents give their children nowadays. I am blessed with a son who has grown to be a wise, strong, intelligent, sensitive and caring man. I am also quite disgusted when I see parents’ lack of discipline and fortitude in imparting lessons to their charges. In this situation, both the children and the parents lose. We are left with a generation who has no idea how to show respect to their elders, think they know everything, and have no idea about anything that took place before they were born.
Children- look your elders in the eyes, greet them by title, shake their hand, defer to them. They have seen and know more than you can possibly imagine. Parents, earn the respect of your children- pay attention, use teachable moments, be firm, set an example.
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou My being gav’st me; whom should I obey But thee? whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon To that new world of light and bliss, among The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems Thy daughter and thy darling, without end. Milton, John. Paradise Lost , 1667
Sin, daughter of Satan, expressing her love for her father.
Satan, Sin and Death (Paradise Lost, Book II) Samuel Ireland, 1788
Idunn said: “I pray thee, Bragi! let avail the bond of children, and of all adopted sons, and to Loki speak not in reproachful words, in Ægir’s hall.” Poetic Edda, 1270ish
In Norse mythology, Iðunn is a goddess who is the keeper of apples and granter of eternal youthfulness.
Idun and the Apples, illustration from ‘Teutonic Myths and Legends’ by Donald A. Makenzie, 1890
Iðunn appears in the Poetic Edda poem “Lokasenna” and in the late poem “Hrafnagaldr Óðins.” Hrafnagaldr Óðins is an Icelandic poem in the style of the Poetic Edda. It is preserved only in late paper manuscripts. Iðunn was Bragi’s wife and keeper of an eski (a wooden box made of ash wood and often used for carrying personal possessions) within which she keeps apples. The apples are bitten into by the gods when they begin to grow old and they then become young again, which is described as occurring up until Ragnarök.
In the dales dwells, the prescient Dís, from Yggdrasil’s ash sunk down, of alfen race, Idun by name, the youngest of Ivaldi’s elder children.
The Milk of Audhumla 