Parallel Myths (9 page)

NOTE
: The source of this story is the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.

I
lma was the goddess of the air. She had a virgin daughter named Luonnatar who lived in the stars. Luonnatar became lonely and came down to the great primordial sea, where she found no place to rest, floating for seven hundred years.

Then she met a male duck who flew about looking for a place to nest.
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Finding nothing on the great sea, he landed on Luonnatar’s knee and built a nest. The male duck laid eggs in the nest and sat on them for three days.

Luonnatar was in great pain; the duck’s nest burned the skin on her knee, so she turned over and the eggs fell into the sea. However, in the fertile primordial sea the eggs changed form. The yolk of the egg became the sun, and the white, the moon. The spots on the shell became the stars and the black flecks became clouds.

C
haos was like a hen’s egg. The parts of the egg separated into the Yin and the Yang, the male and female essences of all living things. The lighter parts rose to the top, becoming sky and heaven,
while the heavier parts sank to become the earth and sea. Out of this egg also came the giant Pangu.

Pangu grew at the rate of ten feet per day for eighteen thousand years until his height spanned the distance between earth and heaven. Then Pangu died.

Upon his death, his body decomposed and his stomach formed the central mountains; his eyes, the sun and the moon; his tears, rivers; his breath, the wind; and his bones, metals and stones. His semen became pearls, and his bone marrow, jade.

NOTE
: The source of this story is the Kojiki, the mythical history of Japan and the genealogy of the first emperors.

I
n the beginning there was nothing but a vast oily sea of Chaos that contained a mix of all the elements. There were three spirits or “kami” in heaven who looked out over this sea and decided that a world ought to be created. The spirits produced many gods and goddesses, including Izanagi (“male who invites”) and Izanami (“female who invites”). Izanagi was entrusted with a magic jeweled spear for this work.

Izanagi and Izanami descended from heaven and Izanagi stirred the spear around in the sea. When he pulled it out of the Chaos, some drops congealed on the tip of the spear. Then the drops fell back into the sea, where they formed an island.

Izanagi then asked Izanami what her body was like. She replied that it was very beautiful, but that there was a curious spot between her legs where the skin had not grown together. Izanagi found that interesting, as there was a place between his legs where the flesh protruded. They decided to join these parts together and when they did Izanami began to conceive many wonderful things.

The first thing they conceived was a disappointment—the leech. They placed it in a reed basket and cast it adrift. To this day, the leech still likes to live among the reeds. Then Izanami gave birth to an island—the Foam Island, which was useless. But, with a little practice, the couple produced the islands of Japan, waterfalls, mountains, and other natural wonders. Then Izanami gave birth to the Fire Spirit, which burned her body very badly, causing her to become seriously ill. While she was ill, her vomit became the Metal Mountain prince and princess, the source of all mines. Her feces became the clay, and her urine, the Fresh Water spirit.

But Izanami was dying. Izanagi wept bitter tears as she descended into the Land of Night. He begged her not to stay there, but she replied that she could not leave as she had eaten some of the food there. Izanagi then went into the Land of Night to fetch his wife. But when he arrived, he was horrified—she had begun to decay. When Izanagi finally took a good look at her, he was so horrified that he began to run away. Izanami sent the Ugly Night Spirit to retrieve him.

Izanagi continued to run in terror and disgust, leaving the horrible Land of Night behind him. As he was running away, he cast down the comb from the right side of his hair, and the comb miraculously became grapevines. Then he cast down the comb from the left side of his hair, and it became bamboo shoots. When the Ugly Night Spirit stopped to eat the grapes and bamboo shoots, Izanagi was able to escape toward the upper world.

Izanami was now more determined than ever to get her husband back. She now sent eight thunder-spirits and all the warriors of the Land of Night after him. But Izanagi outran them all. Out of breath, he stopped to rest beneath a peach tree at the border between the Land of Night and the upper world. When the forces sent by Izanami approached, Izanagi threw peaches at them. To his amazement, they ran in terror; to this day it is known that peaches dispel evil spirits.

Izanami was now furious. She called to her husband, “If you continue to flee, I will strangle one thousand of the people of earth every day.” Izanagi replied that if she did that, he would cause one thousand new people to be born every day. Thus, death entered the world
but the human race still survives. Izanagi then took a great rock and sealed off the Land of Night. Izanami’s spirit remains there, ruling over the dead.

Izanagi was tired after his flight from the terrible land and refreshed himself by bathing in a stream. He needed to wash away the defilements of the terrible land of the dead and, as he did, gods and goddesses were produced. As he washed his left eye, Amaterasu Omikami, the sun-goddess and ancestress of the emperor, was born. As he washed his right eye, it became Tsukiyomi-no-Mikoto, the moon. When he washed his nose, Susano-O, the storm god, was born.

NOTE
: The Polynesian cultural area extends from Easter Island, off the coast of Chile, to New Zealand, Tahiti, and Hawaii.

AO AND PO

T
he entire universe is dual in nature. There is Ao: light, day, sky, the male principle. Its opposite is Po: darkness, night, the earth, the female principle. The darkness of Po should not be confused with the use of the word
darkness
to mean “evil.” The darkness of Po is warm and nurturing like the earth or the womb.

In the Hawaiian Creation story, the Kumulipo, or “Genealogy of All Things,” there was only a great watery Chaos at the beginning until Ku, the Creator, began to chant, separating Ao from Po.

Of course this could be translated a number of ways, such as “things of darkness give birth to darkness” and “things of light give birth to
light.” But the great act of Creation was the work of separating Ao from Po, making the world possible and separating day from night.

Ku drew out Kanaloa, the squid, later the god of the sea. Then Ku drew out Kane (Tane, in New Zealand). Perhaps Kane was born out of the union of Ku, as Father Sky, with Hina, as Mother Earth.
Kane
means “man.” Kane had intercourse with a number of beings and thus produced grass, streams, and reptiles. But he wanted a child in his own image. So he took some soft red clay from Hawaiki, the mythical homeland of the Polynesians, and fashioned Hine-hau-ona, or “earth-formed woman.” Their first child was Hine-titama, or “dawn woman,” since dawn is the point when night meets day. But Kane became wicked and took Hine-titama, his own daughter, as a wife, concealing from her that he was her father.

This was a basic violation of the laws of nature, the great
kapu
, or taboo, against incest. Hina knew that Kane’s desires were wrong. When Hine-titama learned that Kane was also her father, she ran screaming into her mother’s domain, the Po world of the dead. Hine-titama cried, “You have broken the umbilical cord of the world!” So it was decreed that Kane could not touch his daughter. Hine-titama and her mother became co-rulers of the dead in the Po world beneath the earth. Kane was thenceforth confined to the Ao world above ground.

Because of Kane’s crime, his children reside here on earth during their lifetimes. But when they die, they go to live with their mother, who as Mother Earth forms a protective barrier between the wicked Kane and his children below ground in the Po world. We also know Po in life as the creative world of night, a place of dreams, lovemaking, and the appearance of spirits.

New Zealand

MOTHER EARTH AND FATHER SKY

T
he gods were born of the union of Rangi (Father Sky) and Papatuanuku, Mother Earth. Rangi is Ao, Papa is Po. Earth and sky
made love and they produced seventy children, the gods. But there was no space for these children to grow up, as the earth and sky were still pressed together.

One of the gods, Tu-matauenga, father of discord and war, horrified his siblings by suggesting that the gods slay their father. But Tu-matauenga is no different than any other violent being who believes that killing is the answer to everything.

Tane-mahuta, the gentle god of the forests, had a more sensible idea, as befits one who has the patience to watch tiny seeds grow into great trees that touch the sky. He suggested that the younger gods merely make space for themselves by pushing up Father Rangi away from Mother Papa. The other gods thought this idea very sensible, with the exception of Ta-whiri-matea, the wind god, who roared his disapproval. Rongo-matane,
*
the god of agriculture, tried to separate earth and sky, but he could only make a space as high as a taro plant, not enough room. Tangaroa (Kanaloa, in Hawaiian), the sea god, tried, but only could separate them the space of a high wave, not enough room. Humia-tikitiki, god of the wild food plants, also tried, making a space only as great as a banana tree.

Patient Tane-mahuta observed the futile attempts of his brothers. This time, he decided to push the earth and sky apart by standing on his head and pushing up with his legs, something like the way that a tree grows. His shoulders touched Papa and his feet touched Rangi, and slowly he pushed them apart. Trees still separate the earth and sky in the same way.