Before there were people on earth, the Chief of the Sky Spirits grew tired of his home in the Above World, because the air was always brittle with an icy cold. So he carved a hole in the sky with a stone and pushed all the snow and ice down below until he made a great mound that reached from the earth almost to the sky. Today it is known as Mount Shasta.
Then the Sky Spirit took his walking stick, stepped from a cloud to the peak, and walked down to the mountain. When he was about halfway to the valley below, he began to put his finger to the ground here and there, here and there. Wherever his finger touched, a tree grew. The snow melted in his footsteps, and the water ran down in rivers.
The Sky Spirit broke off the small end of his giant stick and threw the pieces into the rivers. The longer pieces turned into beaver and otter; the smaller pieces became fish. When the leaves dropped from the trees, he
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They looked so fierce that the Sky Spirit sent them away from him to live in the forest at the base of the mountain.
Pleased with what he'd done, the Chief of the Sky Spirits decided to bring his family down and live on earth himself. The mountains of snow and ice became their lodge. He made a big fire in the center of the mountain and a hole in the top so that the smoke and sparks could fly out. When he put a big log on the fire, sparks would fly up and the earth would tremble.
Late one spring while the Sky Spirit and his family were sitting round the fire, the Wind
Spirit sent a great storm that shook the top of the mountain. It blew and blew and roared and roared. Smoke blown back into the lodge hurt their eyes, and finally the Sky Spirit said to his youngest daughter, "Climb up to the smoke hole and ask the Wind Spirit to blow more gently. Tell him I'm afraid he will blow the mountain
cold darkness. He then goes out in the cold and splits fire wood with which
Many Native Americans tell stories of the creation of earth that explain how they came to be before the Europeans entered North America. Creation myths vary among all cultures; however, they all have one thing in common; heaven and earth. One of the most popular creation myths was the Iroquois creation myth. The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee meaning “People of the Longhouse” (Iroquois Indian Museum, n.d.) consists of six Indian nations that include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. In the beginning, there was a belief that before the creation of earth, there were two realms, the sky, and the lower world that consisted of water and water creatures. From the sky, a young woman named the Sky Woman was married to the Sky Chief. He had a dream that his wife was to “become pregnant from inhaling the breath from her husband but this was unknown to him” (Quenzer, n.d.) The dream disturbed the Sky Chief and began to distrust his wife. A second dream occurred in which the Sky Chief was to uproot the Celestial Tree. He believed this dream to be a powerful message and proceeded to uproot the tree. The Sky Woman had no idea that the Chief was to punish her for her alleged dishonesty. He coerced her to the large hole and as she looked through the large hole, he pushed her through the hole. As she was falling from the sky, she grabbed pieces of plants growing on the floor of the Sky World as well as a handful of seeds from the branches of the Celestial Tree.
earth was without form and void. God said, "let there be light," and there was
It was just one regular day. Chitter chatter coming from the wave of children. Soccer moms picking up their kids from practice. The brightly shining gray color of the mini vans lined up. The husband's picking up hours at work. The usual day. Except for one large gap in the Earth's sky. Hovering at us. Staring us in the eye daily. Confusion rose upon us. Questioning what that thing in the sky was. We never knew it would be capable of such yet; until it held that power and used it.
The myth of the Earth Divers is a part of Native North American tribe depicting the creation of earth by animals. It is believed that before the existence of earth there were sky people who lived beyond the sky. One day, chief’s daughter became and ill and to cure her illness the sky people digs up the tree and lay her besides the hole. The tree fell down in the hole and drags the chief’s daughter with it. As the girl falls, she saw only water beneath her. The swan captures the falling girl and landed her on the back of the great turtle. Following, different animals dives into the body of water as ordered by the great turtle to bring back the earth from the fallen tree, but they died. Eventually, a toad brings earth and spit it on the back of the turtle. The swan sets the woman upon the
The one good thing in my life that I felt would be my bridge and my long life companion whose branches would intertwine with mine. All the winter tree’s trust was put into this so called “willow tree”, all his heart and soul, building his roots into the soil next to me. Many, many times the winter tree had expressed stories of the harsh storms he had to endure and I listened and all I could think was “I am a willow and I will nurture you back to health and we will be one”. Until the day came that the winter tree had found out some hidden burdens of my past buried deep inside the soil I rested my roots in. Everything changed from that moment because, the winter tree who was transforming into a maple tree began to writher slowly and painfully with questions left unanswered. Further along into this journey, the winter tree had found some, if not many contradicting stories that the willow had told regarding those
Since he couldn’t let go of the sky for it would fall back onto the earth, Pangu became the pillar of the world (object that separate heaven and earth or Yin and Yang).
Deep in the valley the Wood Sprites and the Fairies flocked together, trembling in their masses; when all were gathered they embraced each other in a fond farewell, then they began to sing such a melancholy song, dancing and swaying in a hypnotic rhythm; the song carried out across the wood, birds in the trees stopped to listen, their heads on one side, their eyes shining with sorrow and the animals crept from their dens and burrows to watch. The air in the wood was thick with sadness, a fox gave a low mewl, it's ears flattening against it's slender head, a magnificent stag threw back it's head and let out a long roar that rose and mingled with the notes of the song.
In this myth, a deity name Unkulunkulu created all of man, he gave them fire so that it can light their way. He taught them about the different animals that they can use for meat and cook it by dressing it in the fire, and he told them that they needed to marry and have children to increase the population on earth. Popol Vuh links creation to light, thought, and language itself. In this myth, the world was nothing; it was just silence and darkness. The only ones there were the Creator and the Maker, Tepeu and Gucumatz, also known as the Forefathers, the two gods with each other on how to bring the world from the darkness and into the light. They said, "Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth!" the formation started and then created humankind. The Native American Creation Tale, "How Man was Created" talks about the Good Spirit fashioned humankind in its diversity. In this myth, the Good Spirit, Sat-kon-se-ri-io, first created plants and animals to inhabit the earth, but while he was resting, he felt as if something was missing, he thought about the idea for awhile and he came up
In the story of The Earth On The Turtles Back, the story went that a god like women from Skyland leaned over a Great tree and slipped into earths ocean with. As the animals needed a place for her to stand, a Muskrat dove to the bottom of the ocean and got a handful of earth and they placed it on the Great Turtle's back. Thus life began on Earth. When The Grizzlies Walk Upright, legend went that the Sky Spirit made a snow mound called Mount Shasta. The Sky Spirit looses his daughter, and the daughter ends up falling in love with a grizzly bear. They had kids in which they were known to be the first Indians. The Navajo Origin Legend story goes that yellow and white corn made the first man and women. Each of these stories show the creation of the world, or traditions in
The Sun God accepted, but Amus became very angry because he believed that since he spent more time tending to the water and the plants on Earth that it was his duty to take care of the Earth not Ilius’. Three days later, Idea, their mother also became ill. The magnificent sky god died on the ninth day of his illness holding on to the hand of their mother the goddess of the stars as they both passed away. The care of Hyborth’s sky and all of their creations were at the hand of the Sun God. The Moon God was so angry that he began to throw big rocks down to the Earth, destroying his family’s work. The Sun God tried to stop the pelting of rocks by shining strong rays of light destroying the rocks as they came down. This battle between brothers went on for months as the Moon God, Amus, continued to hit the Earth with rocks and the Sun God, Ilius, shined his light to stop them from ever hitting the creations he so dearly
As my father and I went into town to fight off more misery for the mortals, there was a cloud that we have been fighting off for two days, but it still returns. Exhausted, I was ready to drop, but the cloud continued to grow. Covering town after town. When it seemed to me that it was hopeless, I saw a bright blue spot in the sky. From cloud to could, they were finally clearing up.
By noon we finished planting the seeds. We built a fence out of fallen branches and rapped it around the ground where we planted the seeds. Prometheus said it shall keep the animals out. We finished planting and walked to the stream to wash our hands. I strode into the cool water. Prometheus followed me, laughing and splashing his way into the water. Suddenly, I felt something rub against my ankles.
The sun continued to rise, painting the sky with blushes of pink and gold. The soul quickly made its way across the small forested park. Bright colors appeared though the trees. The soul continued flying onward into the brightly colored trees. A single female ran along a dirt trail, unaware to the
Then, slowly at first, but with ever increasing intensity, a small glimmer appeared on the glossy leaves. Through the whispering blades of grass, a brilliant fire arose from the depths turning the lingering water droplets into liquid silver that dripped from expectant leaves and flowed gurgling into shallow puddles, bathing the young trees with the succulent taste of a new day.