I have always found creation stories fascinating and when I began to study modern paganism I was disappointed by the obvious lack of creation stories from a religion I expected to be rich in myth. Most modern books on paganism focus on "how to" but not WHY. Only two commonly read and founding pagan authors offer creation accounts (given below). The Farrars perhaps best explain why myths do not play a primary role in modern books as the relate the function of myth to the human psyche via Jung's understanding of myth. That is, pagans don't actually think the world was formed as the following accounts describe; the myths are just a way of understanding the world and our place within it. I for one would still like to see more myths included in the "primary" texts of new pagans trying to learn about the tradition. I know where to find pagan stories and I have an extensive library including various myths from the world's cultures, but I think the neo-phyte pagan should be provided with these stories - or at least directed to them - in the new "Complete Grimoire of How to Be A Witch" books that fill the New Age shelves of bookstores.
***********************************
Alone, awesome, complete within Herself, the Goddess, She whose name cannot be spoken, floated in the abyss of the outer darkness, before the beginning of all things. And as She looked into the curved mirror of black space, She saw by her own light her radiant reflection, and fell in love with it. She drew it forth by the power that was in Her and made love to Herself, and called Her “Miria, the Wonderful.”
Their ecstasy burst forth on the single song of all this is, was, or ever shall be, and with the song came motion, waves that poured outward and became all the spheres and circles of the worlds. The Goddess became filled with love, swollen with love, and She gave birth to a rain of bright spirits that filled the worlds and became all beings.
But in that great movement, Miria was swept away, and as She moved out from the Goddess She became more masculine. First She became the Blue God, the gentle, laughing God of Love. Then She became the Green One, vine-covered, rooted in the earth, the spirit of all growing things. At last She became the Horned God, the Hunter whose face is the ruddy sun and yet dark as Death. But always desire draws Him back toward the Goddess, so that He circles Her eternally, seeking to return in love.
All began in love; all seeks to return to love. Love is the law, the teacher of wisdom, and the great revealer of mysteries.
-cited by Starhawk in The Spiral Dance as from the oral tradition of the Faery tradition of Witchcraft.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I am thy Goddess;
before the beginning of time was I.
I made the mountains into peaks,
and laid with soft grass the valley and the meadows,
Mine was the first foot which trod upon the Earth,
and where I walked there sprung forth flowers,
and mine was the voice that gave rise to the first song,
and the birds listened and heard and made return.
In the dawn of the world I taught the sea its song,
and mine were the tears that made the first rains.
Listen and hear me;
for none can escape me.
It was I who gave birth to you,
and in the depths of my earth,
You will find rest and rebirth,
and I will spring forth anew,
a fresh shoot to greenness.
-excerpt from Vivianne Crowley’s The Creation Charge in Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Millennium. (1996).
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
How Diana Made the Stars and the Rains.
Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all things; out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the Dawn.
But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which files into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat.
Then Diana went to the fathers of the Beginning, to the mothers, the spirits who were before the first spirit, and lamented unto them that she could not prevail with Lucifer. And they praised her for her courage, they told her that to rise she must fall; to become the chief of goddesses she must become a mortal.
And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world was made, Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who had fallen, and Diana taught magic and sorcery, whence came witches and fairies and goblins--all that is like man, yet not mortal.
And it came thus that Diana took the form of a cat. Her brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all creatures, and it slept every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures, a fairy: he did not know it.
Diana prevailed with the cat to change forms with her, so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness assumed her own form, and so by Lucifer became the mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found that he lay by his sister, and that light had been conquered by darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but Diana sang to him a spell, a song of power, and he was silent, the song of the night which soothes to sleep; he could say nothing. So Diana with her wiles of witchcraft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the first fascination, she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees (or a top spinning round), a spinning-wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men; all things were spun from the wheel of Diana. Lucifer turned the wheel.
Diana was not known to the witches and spirits, the fairies and elves who dwell in desert place, the goblins, as their mother; she hid herself in humility and was a mortal, but by her will she rose again above all. She had such passion for witchcraft, and became so powerful therein, that her greatness could not be hidden.
And thus it came to pass one night, at the meeting of all the sorceresses and fairies, she declared that she would darken the heavens and turn all the stars into mice.
All those who were present said--
"If thou canst do such a strange thing, having risen to such power, thou shalt be our queen."
Diana went into the street; she took the bladder of an ox and a piece of witch-money, which has an edge like a knife--with such money witches cut the earth from men's foot-tracks--and she cut the earth, and with it and many mice she filled the bladder, and blew into the bladder till it burst.
And there came a great marvel, for the earth which was in the bladder became the round heaven above, and for three days there was a great rain; the mice became stars or rain. And having made the heaven and the stars and the rain, Diana became Queen of the Witches; she was the cat who ruled the star-mice, the heaven and the rain.
-chapter III from Charles Leland’s Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Creation Mystery
The Lord, and the Lady (and the Fool) were lonely. The All was not complete; there was none to keep them company, and laugh with them. There was none to know them, and none to be Their Children. And the Lady said, "Let us go forth and make Life upon the many worlds, that We may have Children, and a Family of Life within the MultiVerse. And let Us make them in Our image, and love and be loved in return."
And the Fool laughed, and asked, "Shall it be so?"
"No," said the Sacred King.
And the Fool asked a second time, and said, "Shall it be so?"
"Maybe," smiled the Youth.
And the Fool asked a third time, saying, "Shall it be so?"
"Yes!" said the Child.
And the Fool smiled, and said, "If we do this thing, it shall be a wondrous thing indeed, for we shall make a Creature that shall have the Love of the Lady, and the Strength of the Lord, and a Curiousity to match Myself. It shall know Good and Evil, and Light and Darkness, and That which stands between them, and shall be very near and dear to us. It shall be arrogant, and willful, and cruel, but it shall also be kind, and gentle and loving. It shall be all things, and nothing at all."
And the Fool laughed, and asked, "Shall it be so?"
"No," said Chaos.
And the Fool asked a second time, and said, "Shall it be so?"
"Maybe," smiled Trickster.
And the Fool asked a third time, saying, "Shall it be so?"
"Yes!" said Prometheus.
The Fool took up the stuff of stars, that whispers thru the MultiVerse, and mixed it with the dry clay of earth, and mixed the substance thereby made with the waters of the sea, and the tears of the Maiden, and the birth-waters of the Mother, and the spittle of the Crone; wet it was with the blood of the Sacred King, and the sweat of the Youth, and the milk on the lips of the Child.
And the Fool laughed, and asked, "Shall it be so?"
"No," said the Crone.
And the Fool asked a second time, and said, "Shall it be so?"
"Maybe," smiled the Maiden.
And the Fool asked a third time, saying, "Shall it be so?"
"Yes!" said the Mother.
And the Fool smiled, and said, "Then let it be so, for I have asked three times, and three times three, and thus it is and so it ever shall be!"
The Holy Fool bent, and sank to His knees, and She took the wet clay, wet with the waters of the sea, and the tears of the Maiden, and the birth- waters of the Mother, and the spittle of the Crone; wet with the blood of the Sacred King, and the sweat of the Youth, and the milk on the lips of the Child.
And from that clay He made our Brothers and Sisters in Fur, Feather and Scale, and all the growing things.
And one thing made of that clay was taken up by the Fool, and placed aside.
And the Lady smiled upon Her Lord.
And the Fool turned, and It was Prometheus, and shaped the wet clay thing further.
Side by side, He made them, that none should stand above the other, but that all should walk as equals and partners, in joy and love.
And the Fool turned, and It was Trickster, who shaped us to be curious, and to doubt, and from our doubt and curiousity, to learn, and to laugh.
And the Fool turned, and She was Chaos, and placed a bit of Itself within us, that we may change and grow.
And the Lord smiled upon His Lady.
Man and Woman Prometheus made, and the making and the shaping was as years, and years upon years.
And the Fool began to dance.
And the Lady began to dance.
And the Lord began to dance.
They danced Life into the World, the Lady and the Lord, and the Fool.
They danced the moon, and stars, and Sun, and all that there is, they danced into being.
And they danced Death into the World, for we must close the Circle of our Being, and go forth unto newness.
They danced Life and Death, and still They dance, a never-ending, ever-spinning Circle, endlessly spiralling upon itself, and uncoiling to start anew; hand in hand They dance, to a Music They have made, endlessly creating, and endlessly destroying.
Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so!
-cited on The Internet Book of Shadows
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Cosmic Egg
In the beginning there was neither matter nor energy, neither was there space nor time, force and form were not. Yet there was Something. Poised between Spirit and Void, without form or qualities, pure potentiality, the first physical manifestation had existence. Scientists call it the Primordial Singularity, occultists call it the Cosmic Egg.
It changed, and the first moment of time came to be. It expanded, and space was born. Not the space we know, but one of many dimensions, and that space was filled with the first Force. So intense was that Force that space itself altered. Dimensions folded back on themselves, while others expanded mightily. The first Form came to be. As the infant universe expanded it changed subtly, and as naturally as snowflakes forming in the air, the first material manifestation precipitated out of nothingness. Neither matter nor energy as we know them, but yet both. The Element Fire was born. The universe continued to expand, and the one Force became two forces, then three and finally four. Matter and energy became distinguishable, and the Element Earth was born from Fire. A hundred thousand years went by, and the universe continued to expand and cool until, quite suddenly, the fire died, space became transparent to light, and there were great clouds of cool gas, moving freely. The Element Air was born. The clouds began to draw together, then break apart into smaller clouds, and smaller still, until a limit was reached, and a hundred thousand clouds collapsed inward upon themselves, swirling and twisting, flattening and smoothing, rippling, and organizing themselves. The Element Water was born.
One cloud, like many of its siblings, took on a structure like a great pinwheel, with spiral arms stretching out from its center. It was Galaxias, our Milky Way. Within its turbulent swirling, smaller eddies formed and contracted, tighter and tighter. At the center of one a spark grew bright then another and another. The first stars were lighted, and shown in a universe grown dark. Many of them burned prodigally for a time and then exploded, hurling the ashes of their burning outward, ashes such as oxygen and carbon and nitrogen; star stuff, life stuff. Generations of stars came and went over the billions of years, and out in one of the spiral arms a cloud of gas and dust began to collapse like so many others before. It contracted, and a new star lighted, with a disc of dust and gas circling it. The disc became lumpy as grains of dust and crystals of ice collided and stuck together. The lumps touched and merged, ever growing in the light of the young star. Finally, nine bodies circled the new star, which would one day be called Sol, or simply, the Sun. Third out from the sun a rare event had happened. Two young planets had collided and merged violently, forming a single planet. In the violence of that collision, part of the surfaces of both had been ripped off and hurled out to form a ring of molten rock which quickly drew together to form a giant satellite. The Earth and the Moon had been born in a passionate joining.
As the young Earth cooled, great volcanoes belched forth gases from its still hot interior. An atmosphere of steam and carbon dioxide formed and then clouds appeared. The first rains began, pouring down on the rocks and washing down into the low places. The oceans were born. Water evaporated from the oceans and fell again as rain, dissolving minerals from the rocks and carrying them into the sea. The early ocean became richer and richer in dissolved minerals and gases. Lightning in the young atmosphere formed new substances which added to the complexity of the mix. The dissolved substances in the oceans became more and more complex, until one day a complex molecule attracted simpler compounds to itself, and then there were two, then four. Life was born.
From its simple origins, Life grew in complexity, until one day a patch of green appeared, drawing energy from the Sun, and exuding oxygen. Within a short time the atmosphere changed radically. The sky became blue, the air clear and rich in oxygen. As the Earth had shaped Life, so Life began to shape the Earth. Delicately balancing and ever re-balancing between the furnace heat of her sister Venus, and the icy cold of her brother Mars, Gaia, the Living Earth, had come to be.
The first animals appeared and swam in the oceans. Then venturesome ones crawled onto the land. The forms taken by life changed. Fish appeared, and dragons walked the land. Tiny furred creatures supplanted the great dragons, whose descendants now flew through the skies, clothed in feathers. By and by some of the furred creatures came down from the trees and began to walk about on their hind legs, and then they started picking things up. Soon they were using the things they picked up. Then they started talking to each other. After they had been talking for a while, they started thinking. Some of them even started thinking about where they had come from and where they were going. And they began to wonder how everything had come to be - and why.
-cited on The Internet Book of Shadows
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That's all I have gathered for now. The thing that most strikes me about these creation stories is their similarity to the Gnostic creation stories I studied in 2002, especially On The Origin of the World and Trimorphic Protemmoia.