A Creation Myth

Preface: All cultures have creation myths. Their ambition is to set a people into the world and help explain their place in it. I have read many from the Native American tradition. They are a kind of verbal folk art to my mind. They do not set about being great literature but rather something more practical. A story to explain everything in a way that is memorable and teaches of the values of a culture. I decided to try a modest attempt at the form. It is yes a kind of imitation but one that seeks to flatter as well as reflect my thoughts on our conduct in the world and our place in the sacred.

Once the world was a shallow sea. Over this sea drifted cranes who would set down in the shallows to rest and eat the fish and snails that lived in this shallow sea. Occasionally they flew over cypress groves whose kneed feet knotted down the water and soft mud. There the cranes would converse with the trees and other birds that lived there.

On one such visit, the cranes began to complain about having to stand in the wet as they traveled the world. The cypress said they were too tired of having their feet always in the water and damp. The cypress huddled and then suggested to the cranes that they should weave mats from their branches. That these mats could then be flown out and spread over the shallow seas and create dry places for the cranes and for new young trees.

The cranes set about weaving great mats and recruited the raven and the eagle to help. Slowly over time they built up matted islands in the shallowest places. Here the earth was grateful too for the dry places and began to produce dirt and soil, rock and sand.

The love the cranes and cypress used to make the mats was powerful and soon small animals came out of the earth, first the mouse and voles, then gopher, pika, rabbit, marmot. As the dry earth grew so did the animals, coyote and bobcat and mountain lion and deer and elk and caribou and sheep and bear and wolf.

Because the cypress sacrificed their branches to make the world they all understood they would be asked to reciprocate to continue to make the world. Some would have to feed others, and all would eventually return themselves to the earth.

Soon young cypress trees sprouted and then the other trees followed. Fir, and beech, and oak and pine and larch and birch and spruce and aspen and willow. Then the smaller plants sheltered in their number under the refuge of the great forest.

The forest created the clouds, and the clouds created the rains which begat the rivers and the fish swam up the rivers. First the salmon and the trout. Many decided to stay in the new rivers and lakes and some like the salmon missed the sea and returned to the sea. The salmon in turn were so grateful they left their red bodies in the mountain streams to help feed the trees so far from the sea.

The world was growing and rocking along but soon the cranes noticed it getting hotter as the sun shown all the time. They elected one crane to fly up to the sun and see what could be done. But the sun said all I can do is shine. I cannot shine more or shine less. This is what sun does.

When the crane returned the cranes discussed this again and then another crane was elected to talk to the sun's companion the moon to see if anything could be done. The crane flew up high into the sky and found the moon and explained the dilemma. The moon said yes let me try and when the crane returned to the earth the moon drifted in front of the sun and perfectly covered it and soon the earth grew dark and the air cooled and the animals all shouted in glee.

Soon however the moon moved out of the path of the sun. The lone crane flew up to the moon again and asked what had happened. The moon replied that the sun did not like its view of the earth blocked and asked the moon to move which, because the moon is very polite, it agreed to do.

So again, a crane flew up to the sun to discuss what should be done. The sun suggested it could move to the other side of the earth for a while before coming back. And with this agreed it began its slow movement. And the sun found it liked this and the animals all agreed that it was better to have a cooler world. The sun found it liked looking over all the world as it was now changing and was much more interesting to look at. It also began to move north and south to see all the world. And now the world had seasons.

The plants and animals soon adapted to this change and began to understand how wise it was to have a time of the year to rest before growing again.

The cranes would weave the mats as pairs. As they did so they would step around to pick up another bough and together they would move and tuck the boughs until the mat was finished. Then they would fly it off to where they were creating the new world.

When they had finished, they had learned this complex dance and now they did it in the newly formed springtime. They did it to welcome and greet each other, to welcome the spring, to remember the world they created, and to acknowledge the life they were about to make.

The sun was blowing its strong winds to make the sky dance and glow and soon the moon‘s dust was stirred and began spreading the stars across the sky. Where it spread the most is the path of the Milky Way. The stars moved out across the sky, and some came to the world and these were humans. They were born of the sky but lived on earth. When a meteor flashes across the sky another human comes to earth. Where they landed decided what tribe they belonged to. In this way the world became populated with humans too.

Humans born of the sky and walking on two legs were possessed of gifts others of the world were not. They held not dominion over the world but bore a responsibility of care. In this care they were guided by the wisdom of the other denizens of the world. Some however came to the world not believing this and they set about to perform bad deeds of damaging and destroying for joy or gain.

And so, the world evolved and grew. Great ranges of mountains, forests, deserts, lakes, rivers, seas. It was populated by an immense bounty of life. The people lived in this and they felt the great power of the living world. They bore within themselves a great wonder at all that around them.

Life filled every crevice. They would stop at times to gaze upon it and were uplifted in spirit by the power, the beauty and the wonder. And it was from this power that the gods were manifested. The world was created and from its wonder begot the gods, so that to worship the gods was to worship the world. The gods gave a means to understand the infinite complexity around all of humanity and to transmit love for the wonder that is the world.