#Creation Story

[arthistoryanimalia]

#TurtleTuesday 🐢:

Wayne Skye (1949-2012, Six Nations Reserve, Ontario: Wolf clan, Cayuga)

Clan Animals on the Turtle’s Back, 1996

Moose antler, steel, adhesive

Carnegie Museum of Natural History display 36182-1

“The nine clan animals of the Cayuga nation stand on the back of the great turtle. Clockwise from the turtle's head, they are hawk, snipe, wolf, beaver, turtle, eel, deer, heron, and bear (center).

The turtle plays a major part in the Iroquois story of the Earth's origin. Long ago, according to the story, Sky Woman fell through a hole in the sky, down toward the vast waters below. The birds flew and caught her on their wings, but there was no place below for her to land. The turtle offered to support a world on his back, and Muskrat succeeded in bringing from the bottom of the sea some mud that he placed on the turtle's back. When Sky Woman landed, the Earth was ready for her on the back of the Great Turtle.”

[aowski]

"On one side of the world were people whose relationship with the living world was shaped by Skywoman, who created a garden for the well being of all. On the other side was another woman with a garden and a tree. But for tasting its fruit, she was banished from the garden and the gates clanged shut behind her. That mother of men was made to wander in the wilderness and earn her bread by the sweat of her brow, not by filling her mouth with the sweet juicy fruits that bend the branches low. In order to eat, she was instructed to subdue the wilderness into which she was cast.

Same species, same earth, different stories. Like Creation stories everywhere, cosmologies are a source of identity and orientation to the world. They tell us who we are. We are inevitably shaped by them no matter how distant they may be from our consciousness. One story leads to the generous embrace of the living world, the other to banishment.

One woman is our ancestral gardener, a cocreator of the good green world that would be the home of her descendants. The other was an exile, just passing through an alien world on a rough road to her real home in heaven.

And then they met—the offspring of Skywoman and the children of Eve—and the land around us bears the scars of that meeting, the echoes of our stories."

—Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

[zoesophiaspeaks]

[thelordismylightandmysalvation]

Verse of the Day - Genesis 2:2-3

[abwwia]

Harmonia Rosales, Creation Story, 2021, Oil on wood panel, 48" x 72"

Obatalá’s desire to create land and life on earth was granted permission by the Supreme God. Yet nobody bothered to ask or inform Yemayá who was there with her oceans from the beginning. As Obatalá swings down from the sky on a long chain made of gold donated by the other orishas, he pours out sand and seeds from his seashell to form land. The rooster claws at the ground, planting seeds for forestation and foliage. Meanwhile, Yemayá’s surprised expression indicates the abrupt intrusion upon her kingdom as the oceans were forced to subside to Obatalá’s new land masses. With the loss of territory and an increase in human population, Yemayá demonstrates her power and strength by creating the Great Flood. This painting reimagines frescoes from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.

[mascamaiorum]

The Creation of Hyrule (1991)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

[ccardinalart]

Hey. Been a while. Here’s me in the bog

[1five1two]

[rs-hawk]

Throwback to a comic I was working on a few years ago. I had to bench it due to not having the supplies to keep it up. I am thinking about starting it again.

TW: gore

[somethingclevermahogony]

WIP Excerpt: The Myth of Tilyua

This is a response to a question asked by @patternwelded-quill pertaining to myths within my WIP and actual events that they are based on.

Excerpt

"It is said that the first snow fell from the heavens to mourn the death of the great serpent, Tiluya.” As Jani paused his story the only sound was the soft sound of the snow as it crunched beneath his and Ninma's feet. “She was the first and greatest of the beasts, beloved by the gods. When Re first placed her on the surface of the world it was flat, without valley or hill, only lifeless stone. But as she grew her body carved mountains, her shining scales ground stone to sand, her breath birthed the winds, and from her spittle and blood was born water and from that all mortal life, which the gods sent the spirits to steward. First came the green grasses, the trees, and the flowers. Then came those things that crawl and creep, than those which run and fly, and finally there came those who walk and speak; the awakened peoples those that were gifted knowledge, and the promise of the rebirth.”

Ninma listened silently, she had heard the tale before, recited by tutors and poets, but it had been long long ago. Her belt clicked and jingled as she walked.

“These first people sailed on boats of skin and leaf and built towns from bone and mud. But in time they grew strong and wise, and numerous. The spirits were kind, and made their crops blossom and the game docile. They say that men could live to see a thousand years, women two thousand. There was no sickness or disease, death was kind and soft. All peoples could see and converse with the spirits.”

“The Age of Woolen Spears.” Ninma interjected.

“Woolen Spears?” Jani asked, eye-brow cocked.

“That’s what my father called it, no money, no war, no sickness, no one going hungry, there was no need for blades, so you know, woolen spears.”

“Huh, we called it the Age of Full Bellies in my village. In any case, where was I?”

“All people could talk with spirits.”

“Oh right. All peoples could see and converse with the spirits. One day a girl called Hadi, was walking in the forest when she found a man dressed in a robe woven from fig leaves.”

“I was always told she was named Daruni and the man was wearing cedar bark.”

“Really? Strange little differences, anyway, as I was saying, Hadi or Daruni, came upon a man dressed in robe of leaves or bark in the forest. They began to talk, talking with strangers in the forest back in that age wasn’t such a stupid idea back then I suppose. She soon fell deeply in love with the man who called himself, Ayush. She laid with him, and afterwards she fell asleep there in the moss. When she awoke he was gone, and all that was left of him was a single fig leaf and a hoopoe feather. What she didn’t know was that he was a spirit, the Hoopoe King.”

Ninma nodded, the Hoopoe King, a trickster spirit of sorts, was a common visitor in many a Kishic bedtime story.

“When she returned to her village, she soon became pregnant, and when she gave birth the baby girl had hair the color of a hoopoe’s crest. Hadi named her daughter Biya, and she was the first spiritblood. She grew tall and strong, and was beloved by the people of her village. But all was not peaceful. For though the great Serpent Tiluya was called the Mother of the People and had given the fields full of wheat and the seas full of fish, she was restless and in her rumblings and writhings her great body crushed many villages, and the people of Biya's village feared that Tiluya would crush them as well.” 

Ninma smiled, she had vague memories of men dressed in bites of shiny glass and stone, meany to imitate the scales of the serpent, rolling and stomping on little houses of mud and twigs. 

“And so Biya set forth from her village with a plan to stop the serpent. She spoke with many people but none knew how she could stop the serpent. One day she came to the top of a great mountain and wrapped round its peak she found the dragon Ilhumba, eldest and greatest of Tiluya’s children. Though Biya did not know it, the dragon was jealous of his mother, and so when the demigod pleaded that the dragon show her the way to stop the serpent, he pulled from sky, lightning and entrapped it in a stalk of fennel. He told Biya that should she strike the serpent with the lightning it would have no choice but to heed her words. And so, with many of the great sages of old at her back, she traveled on sea and land to the head of the serpent. There she threw the fennel, and only then did the Dragon’s deceit become evident. The lightning struck and killed the serpent, when it fell the oceans rose up and swallowed many villages.”

Ninma looked back towards the sea, and imagined a great wave that would swallowed up Nituru.

“From the body of the serpent came evil things; monsters and beasts, from its rotting stench came disease and sickness. And so today Biya is called the Plague-Bringer. When the Sun God saw that their favorite creature had died they wept. To both honor Tiluya and to enact revenge on the people, the gods of the sky and sea created water that falls like petals from the sky but whose chill, kills the green and good, and so was born snow. Beautiful but cruel.” Jani said as he lifted his hand to catch a single falling flake.

Ninma waited to see if would continue the story, to tell how in revenge the people had used the teeth of the serpent to craft great weapons, how they would use these weapons to enact their vengeance and rage on Biya, Mother of Disease, Hunger, and War.

Continues below the cut!

The Truth

Tiluya (This is strictly the Kishic name for this being, and all cultures have their own), was indeed a real being, and was indeed the first living thing placed on the surface of the then desolate planet by the Heavenly Deities. The purpose of the "Serpent" was both to mold the planet and to seed it with the components necessary for the establishment of life alongside the Dragon, Ilhumba. Of course the myth vastly simplifies this concept as the initial introduction of biological components and the genesis of the first single celled organisms all the way to the development of the humans and the other sapient beings, was a process which took billions of years. Biya (Once again this is merely a Kishic name for this individual) was most certainly not the first Spiritblood, as humans and the other awakened races had already existed for tens of thousands of years before that time, when agriculture and even basic metallurgy had already been discovered. Though Biya was a real individual, and their father was indeed the famed Hoopoe King. These people, now living a sedentary lifestyle in cities and with fields, could no longer move on a whim to accommodate the movements of the massive Serpent. Thus Tiluya, once praised, became an object of fear and resentment. Biya, likely a warlord, joined by a number of sages and perhaps other Spiritbloods, did confront the Dragon, Ilhumba, demanding a way to stop the Serpent's continued destruction. While Ilhumba did not give Biya lightning, he instead gave humans knowledge of a certain kind of metal, crafted from the scales shed by Tiluya herself. This metal had the capability of attracting, containing, and subsequently releasing massive amounts of magical energy.

Using this new technology, whether intentional or not, Biya and her companions would slay the massive creature.Disease, War, and Snow were certainly not new to Kobani. However the murder of Tiluya would have disastrous effects on the planet. New deadly pathogens were released from the decomposing body, wild magic exuded from the corpse was responsible for creation of many species of monster and forestfolk, and its thrashings caused untold seismic damage, completely destroying entire landmasses and triggering the hundred of volcanic eruptions. It was the second most destructive event in the history of Kobani, only topped by the Calamity. To further add to this destruction, the heavy concentration of smoke in the atmosphere, blotting out the sun, produced a miniature Ice Age, thus destroying most of the world's agricultural cultures and plunging the awakened races back into the Stone Age. The technology used to kill Tiluya was lost, though it would later be rediscovered during the age of Metal and Glass. During this era, the remains of the Serpent, the likely origin of the story about Tiluya’s teeth being used to craft weapons, were combined with a number of other substances and materials, to create Ekatsim, the same technology which would lead to the destruction of civilization during the Calamity at the hands of the God. A part of the process would be accidentally and unknowingly rediscovered yet again thousands of years after the Calamity in the furnaces of Arkodai, thus allowing for the creation of the magical metal, Arkodian Bronze. Arkodian Bronze retains the ability to harm spirits and to temporarily trap magical energies, however it differs from Ekatism in its inability to absorb magical energies of its own accord and to subsequently render magical energy or even souls into other forms of energy.

@patternwelded-quill @flaneurarbiter @skyderman @blackblooms @roach-pizza @illarian-rambling @dezerex @theocticscribe @axl-ul, @persnickety-peahen, @surroundedbypearls

[writingpencil]

Lonely God

I wrote a creation story and I can't remember what the story was :(

But it actually is pretty interesting! Little proud of it tbh

The god was lonely. They had created a beautiful world, with beautiful sights and foliage, yet no one to share it with. The god roamed the lonely world, frustrated and lost. When it became too much, the god decided enough was enough. Meddling in the affairs of the earth, the god created a creature to live with them. Thus, came to life a beautiful white and silver dragon, with eyes made of the largest diamonds the god could find. The dragon’s size outmatched the god’s own, being bigger then most mountains that erupted from the earth and pierced the sky, yet the god was simply overjoyed to have company.

However, the joy would not last long. The dragon was too big for the world the god created. Entire forests were being crushed, mountains collapsed like the stone was nothing but a hollow mound. The god loved the dragon, but couldn't bear to see their world destroyed, or the sadness in the dragon’s eyes when she saw the destruction she was causing. With the heaviest of hearts, the god took the dragon to the plane of existence where it was eternally night: the only light being the glow of the dragon’s and the god’s eyes.

“My daughter,” The god whispered in the darkness, setting their hand on the dragon’s snout. “To you, I leave this barren world to make your own… may happiness find you…”

They parted - said, in stories passed down - to never see the other again. And when the god returned to the world, a fit of rage and depression greeted them. They lashed out, sending fire upon the world they loved so much. Their daughter was grown, yet the god, in their rage, couldn’t help but to destroy it. The world became blackened ash, and in the new darkness, was the god crying out.

As their tears fell from their cheeks, hitting the ash, the god found themselves no longer alone. Rose came the People of the Ash - with black and grey skin, in a shape that mimicked the god’s own. The god leapt to their feet, surprised. While all gods can create life, there were no traces of the god being able to create life from their tears - much less ash.

The people created were curious. Some went to poke and prod at the god, jumping back when they moved away in discomfort. The god counted out seventeen individuals, finding some semblance of unique features in the dark skin - be it height, weight, or even what seemed like hair.

The god, now curious themself reached out and touched one of the people's faces. The person yielded back, letting out hisses of pain as half of their face turned white. Do not touch the god, the People of the Ash learned.

The god covered their hands, now able to touch the people without incident. However, the god looked around them, seeing the destruction their fit caused. They removed the glove to recreate the world, immediately covering their hand back up. The People of the Ash watched, amazed, as the world around them transformed. One particular people - the one with their face burned into white ash - approached the god when their work was done. The person’s hand burned when they set it against the god’s face. 

“Don’t be stupid!” The god shouted angrily, the person stepping back. “I -... I apologize… you don’t even have a name…”

The person listened, then patted their chest with their newly burned hand. They spoke gibberish to the god, but the god still listened. Something clicked -

“Wasn’t we supposed to learn about the Creation? Why are we hearing this?”

“Hush! I wanna hear the rest!”

The god recognized a few strings of sounds. It resembled a word they heard back when they were being created at the Lamellion.

“P-oo-mkin.” The person said.

“Pumpkin…” The god nodded. “You’ll be Pumpkin…”

The god ran with this type of name. Seventeen people, eight different families, all different earthly names. The god, with their Pumpkin, ruled the earth.

[wise-girl-official]

Hi everyone, I've been really busy with some stuff recently but I have some free time, so I thought I would do a retelling of an old Greek story now. I was thinking about which one I should do and I thought, I might as well start with the Greek creation story.

At the very start of it all, there was Chaos, and nothing else, but out of that nothingness came Gaia, the earth (and also beings like Eros, Erebus, and Abyss). Anyway Gaia is kind of our main girl, because she gave birth to Uranus, the sky, all by herself. And then proceeded to have kids with said sky. Her and Uranus brought the first titans into the world. Six guys (Coeus, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Oceanus, and Crius), and six gals (Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Themis, Tethys, and Theia). The youngest of these was Cronus (or Kronos, Cronus and Chronos because there's a LOT of ways to spell his name) and he's the dude who murdered and sliced up Uranus alongside the help of his mum Gaia. So Cronus and Gaia set up a plan where they lulled Uranus into a false sense of ease and then chopped his crown jewels off, threw them in the sea, and then probably exiled him to Italy. After this Cronus took over as the ruler of sort of everything, and married his sister Rhea, which is really super weird, but celestial beings don't seem to have a problem with incest. Anyway Cronus and Rhea started having some kids together (the gods), but Cronus was worried they were gonna overthrow him, because before they de-balled Uranus, he predicted that Cronus would be usurped by his own children, so to fix this Cronus had the amazing and probably consequenceless idea to eat all the kids his poor wife bore him. So the first kid he ate was Hestia, then Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, but then when Rhea had Zeus, the youngest of the Olympians, she took him and hid him away, and then presented Cronus with a boulder wrapped in a blanket, which he grabbed and ate right away, which was a bit stupid of him, but anyway, he didn't realise that the youngest of his spawn was actually being raised by some nymphs nearby. Fast foreword a bit and Zeus is all grown up and godly, he marched into Mount Othrys (which is like Mount Olympus but for the titans) and had a drink with his dad. Zeus spiked Cronus' drink to make him throw up, as all his siblings had been growing up, completely unharmed in Cronus' belly. I don't understand how this stuff works, but my mum came outta Zeus's forehead, so I can't really talk. Anywho, Cronus skulled the drink, and promptly regurgitated all of his kids, and then a really really long war ensues, which the gods eventually won, and Zeus became the new lord of the gods. So that's how the world was created.

The next story I'm gonna do is probably gonna be how the Olympians were decided and stuff

[zoesophiaspeaks]

[proseandpsalms]

Eve eating the apple 🍎

For so long I had such a complicated relationship with my faith as I had such big problems with the way in which the creation story was taught to me.

I wondered how a loving God could have such a severe and eternal punishment for one mistake. I wondered how Eve could truly be at fault for doing the wrong thing when she had not yet developed and understanding of what was wrong and right. God seemed to be an unloving and abusive parent. I would be told over and over again that God was forgiving... and yet he banished and cursed his own children.

I was finally introduced to an alternative understanding of this story; one that is not about the inherent evil of humanity OR of God as an abusive father.

This understanding of the story believes that is not a story of sin, but of the natural consequences of the development of human consciousness.

When Eve ate the apple she became aware of her nakedness and felt shame - this is a natural feeling the human's experience which is due to the consciousness that human's have unlike other animals.

Eve was not punished with painful periods, labour, and child birth (after all, this does not make sense as animals also experience painful periods, labour, and child birth) but she simply became aware of her pain.

This is a story of the natural consequence of human consciousness. It does not make us INHERENTLY evil but it makes us CAPABLE of evil.

On the other hand it allows us to perceive and feel beauty.

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Genesis 3:4-6 NIV

When the serpent says "you will be like God" I believed it was a lie because we would never be like God. I now know that it was a lie because we are already like God.

Many Christian's do not like this perspective I hold and they say to me "but it's so clear that God punished Adam and Eve!" and "but it is a story about how we must obey God!" and to that I say these things:

The bible is a complicated text that has been translated and mistranslation many times, it has had passages removed and added, reading it in English means that our understandings of words do not capture original meanings and original translations as hard as we may try, and we have a Western understanding of the world which influences everything in which we consume.

When I am studying the bible I ask myself if this understanding of the bible and story I've read make my relationship with God stronger? Does it make me feel inspired to better myself and grow in my spirituality? Or does it make me feel angry and resentful? I believe that God was meant for me to have an understanding of the text that makes me feel so close to Him.

If not for this understanding of the Bible I would not have such a beautiful and loving relationship with God today. I am so grateful for that. Why would you feel the need to argue with that?

[juliehowlin]

Adam and Eve

According to the biblical calculations of Archbishop James Ussher, it was on this date in 4004BC that Adam and Eve were created. 10 facts about Adam and Eve: