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    In the Beginning: Creation Myths Across Cultures
    In the Beginning: Creation Myths Across Cultures
    In the Beginning: Creation Myths Across Cultures
    Ebook144 pages2 hours

    In the Beginning: Creation Myths Across Cultures

    By Isabella Price

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    About this ebook

    Throughout the ages we’ve asked: What is the nature of the universe? How did it originate? Where do we humans come from and what is our place in this universe? Both science and religion provide some answers to these fundamental questions that continue to haunt us.

    In the Beginning: Creation Myths Across Cultures takes you on a journey through time and introduces you to a fascinating and broad array of cosmologies and creation mythologies. From the creative processes that were at work billions of years ago when the first nuclei of our solar system were formed, to the emergence of the human species on planet Earth, in every culture we humans have invented myriad of ways in which our primal creativity can be accessed for the collective journey of humankind.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIsabella Price
    Release dateSep 16, 2014
    ISBN9781311379122
    In the Beginning: Creation Myths Across Cultures
    Author

    Isabella Price

    Isabella Price grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, and moved to the SF Bay area in early 2001 where she lives with her beloved husband and two remarkable felines. She is a well-traveled international speaker and author who has been highly successful with her presentations, workshops, and classes at universities, colleges, and various adult education venues. Isabella has participated in many rituals and celebrations across cultures and religions. She is a certified SQ21 Spiritual Intelligence coach and teaches meditation to veterans suffering from PTSD and other community members. Isabella holds an MA in the humanities (global history and comparative religion) from the University of Zurich.

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      Book preview

      In the Beginning - Isabella Price

      VOLUME iV

      in the beginning:

      Creation Myths Across Cultures

      by Isabella Price

      © Copyright 2014 Isabella Price

      All Rights Reserved

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. This work may be not excerpted or reposted except for short passages used for the purposes of review. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Art Citations

      Crab Nebula, credit NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

      Agni, public domain

      Sundenfall by Hugo van der Goes, public domain (Wikimedia Commons)

      Coyote in a canoe, public domain: F. N. Wilson - Curtis, Edward S. Indian Days of the Long Ago. Yonkers-on-Hudson: World Book Company, 1915.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      PART ONE: An Overview of Creation Mythology

      The Origins of the Universe and the Evolution of Life on Earth

      Conceptions of a Gender Neutral Supreme Being

      From Single-Cell Organism to Homo Sapiens Sapiens

      The Origins of Human Religious Consciousness and Symbolic Thinking

      Religious Consciousness during the Neolithic Period

      Evolution versus Creationism

      Similarities and Differences within Various Creation Mythologies

      The New Physics and Various Creation Narratives

      Humans – Created from the Stars?

      The Tree of Life and its Energetic Manifestations across Cultures

      Quantum Entanglement and the Concept of Akasha in Indian Thought

      Synchronicities in Nature and Beyond

      The Convergence of Science and the World’s Wisdom Traditions

      A Typology of Creation Myths

      Part One Bibliography

      PART TWO: The Hindu Vision of an Ever-New Yet Eternal Cosmos

      From Darkness Wrapped in Darkness

      The Sacred Sound of OM

      The Sacrifice of a Primordial Giant

      The Primeval Golden Egg Origin Myth

      Cosmic Cycles and the Bull of Dharma

      The Ever-Recyclable Universe: Vishnu’s Cosmic Dream

      A Parade of Ants

      Shiva, the Auspicious Cosmic Dancer

      Androgynous Aspects of Shiva

      Summation of Hindu Creation Mythology

      Part Two Bibliography

      PART THREE: The Book of Genesis:

      The Origins of the Cosmos, Humanity, and the People of Israel

      Let There Be Light: The Power of the Word in Genesis 1

      Be Fruitful and Multiply: Creation as an Expression of Divine Abundance

      Creator and Creation: Not One but Two

      Genesis 2: The Creation of First Man and First Woman in Eden

      Woman – Not Made in God’s Image

      The Fall from Grace

      The Serpent: A Symbol of Evil or Catalyst for Evolution?

      Loss of Original Unity in a World of Duality

      Are Humans Still in the Garden?

      All Men Are Created Equal…

      Summation of the Genesis Creation Myth

      Part Three Bibliography

      PART FOUR: The Creation Narratives of the Indigenous Tribes of North America

      The Indigenous Universe: A Brief Overview

      In the Beginning…

      The Great Spirit of the North American Indigenous Universe

      An Overview of Native Creation Myths of First Man and First Woman

      The Woman Who Fell From the Sky

      Animals as Agents of Creation

      Emergence from the Earth

      Part Four Bibliography

      ENDNOTES

      PART ONE

      An Overview of Creation Mythology

      We tend to be fascinated by cosmology and creation mythology because hearing about the creation of the universe helps us to understand our own lives. We want to make sense of what we see around us. Throughout the ages we’ve asked: What is the nature of the universe? How did it originate? Where do we humans come from and what is our place in this universe? Both science and religion provide answers to these fundamental questions. Modern astrophysics speaks with authority on the questions of how the universe came into being and how the Earth was formed. But these questions – which were originally within the sole domain of religion – continue to haunt us.

      Although scientific exploration has explained much over the past century, new and profound mysteries appear. One of the most striking instances of this is seen with a phenomenon referred to by astrophysicists as dark matter. Although this dark energy accounts for an astonishing ninety-five percent of the universe, its essence and its purpose are unknown. We feel a tangible sense of humility at learning this. The fact is… we don’t have all the answers. In an attempt to explain the origins of the universe and the manifest world, and the evolution of life on earth, the world’s cultures have conceived of complex cosmologies that include a broad array of creation mythologies.

      The Origins of the Universe and the Evolution of Life on Earth

      Contemporary astrophysics provides plausible explanations for how the universe came into being and how the Earth was formed. In A Brief History of Time renowned physicist Stephen Hawking says,

      The Big Bang occurred about ten thousand million years ago; it takes about that long for intelligent beings to evolve … An early generation of stars first had to form. These stars converted some of the original hydrogen and helium into elements like carbon and oxygen, out of which we are made. The stars then exploded as supernovas, and their debris went to form other stars and planets, among them those of our Solar System, which is about five thousand million years old. The first one or two thousand million years of the earth’s existence were too hot for the development of anything complicated. The remaining three thousand million years or so have been taken up by the slow process of biological evolution, which has led from the simplest organisms to beings who are capable of measuring time back to the Big Bang.

      Today we know that our universe came into existence about 13.7 billion years ago in a great blaze of light from an infinitesimal point that rapidly expanded. The Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago, and the first life on Earth emerged less than a billion years after that. Life developed in the oceans with the formation of single-celled organisms. These microorganisms multiplied, reproducing themselves and becoming multi-cellular. This reproduction initiated a process of evolution that led to the development of increasingly complex and self-reproducing organisms. Primitive forms of life consumed various materials, including hydrogen sulfide, and released oxygen. This gradually changed the atmosphere to the composition that it has today and allowed for the development of even more sophisticated life forms such as fish, reptiles, mammals, and ultimately our human species.

      Creation myths throughout the world cultures mirror the idea that life began in the ocean. These stories recall the chaos, the watery abyss that existed at the beginning. So-called earth-diver myths tell how deities, aquatic birds and amphibious animals dove to the bottom of the primordial ocean to retrieve a particle from which the entire Earth grew. Earth diver myths are common in both the Native American traditions and in Hindu creation myths, and water has played a major role as the giver of life in all the great River Valley civilizations emerging c. 3000 BCE. Water is also a potent symbol in the religious traditions of the world as a facilitator of cleansing and purification. In pre-modern thought, great floods symbolized the purification of humankind from sin. Water and wells – a common motif in religious myth across the cultures – are a symbolic representation of the depths of our subconscious, according to the Jungian school of psychology. Finally, we humans are composed mostly of water. Water composes nearly three-quarters of our human bodies and three-quarters of the physical body of planet Earth.

      In this context, it is interesting to note that the Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto discovered that water molecules are greatly affected by our thoughts, words, sounds, and emotions. When he exposed water molecules to classical music, the water formed beautiful crystals. But when they were exposed to heavy-metal music and hateful lyrics, no crystals were formed or the formations displayed distorted patterns, lacking harmony. Based on numerous experiments with water as described in The Hidden Messages in Water, Emoto came to realize that the words love and gratitude formed the most perfect and harmonious crystal patterns. He concluded that our universe seems to be operating based on these principles. The story of water reaches from every individual cell to encompass the entire universe. One of the most precious substances on planet Earth, water sustains all life.

      Conceptions of a Gender Neutral Supreme Being

      When the first microorganisms developed in the oceans, they were gender neutral: they divided and became two based on asexual reproduction. This idea is also mirrored in most creation myths, which conceive of a single primeval creator who possesses a dual nature. The Aztecs believed that the world and all human beings originated from a supreme being called Ometeotl, who encompassed both male and female. Similarly Atum, the creator god of ancient Egyptian cosmology, was believed to be both male and female.

      Considering that the first microorganisms were gender-neutral, it becomes more than questionable to attribute a specific gender to the very source of all creation. The great Mystery pervading the manifest

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