Creation myth

The myth of creation is a mythological-religious story that seeks to present the beginning of the universe, of the Earth, of life and of the first human, normally through the thesis that such a beginning would be possible from a deliberate act of creation carried out by one or more deities.

List of creation myths

Africa

Yoruba

The sky god asked his children to create a new kingdom in which their descendants would spread, but of course he was completely sure of what he was doing, so he gave it the name of an ecosystem. Being the first waters his objective, Oduduwa went down this chain, carrying a handful of earth in his pockets, a five-toed hen and a seed.

When he was ready, Oduduwa threw the handful of earth over the waters, thus forming his new kingdom, Ife. There, the hen tore the ground and buried the seed, from which grew a great tree with sixteen branches, which are the sixteen sons of Oduduwa, from whom the sixteen Yoruba tribes descend .

Zulu

For the Zulu ethnic group, Unkulunkulu emerged from the void and created the first man from two rocks and asked his fellow demigods and the gods to create two human beings: a man and a woman, with the help of herbs.

Egypt

According to the Heliopolitan myth , at the beginning of time there were only immense masses of murky waters covered by absolute darkness, a darkness that was not night, since it had not yet been created, it was the infinite ocean known by the Egyptians as the ocean. primordial Nun, which contained all the elements of the cosmos. But still neither Heaven nor Earth existed, both men and gods had not yet been created. There was no life or death. The spirit of the world was scattered in an immense chaos, until, becoming aware, it called itself; Thus the god Ra, the Sun god, was born .

Ra was alone; so he decided to create from his breath Shu (the wind), and from his saliva according to mythology he created Tefnut (Moisture), and ordered them to live at the other end of the Nun. Then Ra made a dry space emerge where he could rest; that dry space he called earth, and the Earth that emerged he called Egypt. And as he emerged from the waters, he would live thanks to them; so he caused the waters to be on the Earth; Thus the Nile River was born.

Ra was creating vegetation and living beings from the Nun to fill the emptiness of the Earth. Meanwhile, Shu and Tefnut had two children, whom they named Geb (The God of Earth) and Nut (The Goddess of Heaven). Geb and Nut got married; thus, the sky lay on the earth, copulating with him. Shu, jealous, cursed them and separated them holding the sky on his head and shoulders, and holding the earth with his feet. Other versions say that when Geb and Nut were together, heaven and earth were united without leaving room for the creation of the god Amun Ra, so he asked Shu to separate his children by holding Nut on his head and shoulders, from that moment the wind lay in the midst of heaven and earth; even so, Shu could not prevent Nut from having daughters, the stars, thus giving rise to the celestial vault.

Unaware of what had happened to Geb and Nut, Ra had sent one of his eyes to find Shu and Tefnut to tell him what had happened. But when the eye returned without getting what he was looking for, another eye had taken his place. The first eye began to cry, until Amun Ra placed it on his forehead, thus creating the Sun. From the tears of that eye that fell to earth, the first men and women were born, who populated the land of Egypt.

Every morning, Amun Ra traveled the sky in a boat that floated on Nut, which already covered the cosmos dividing itself into the waters above the firmament, and the waters of the abyss. That boat of Amun Ra traveled through the sky transporting the Sun, thus illuminating the Earth for a period of time of twelve hours made by the Egyptians. Every night, Nut swallowed the sun, but it would regenerate the next morning, and Ra continued his journey through the Duat, the equivalent of the Egyptian Hell, where he had to cross through twelve doors, one for each hour of the night, these were guarded by the enemy serpent of Amun Ra, Apep (or Apophis in Greek) the serpent, whose objective was to destroy the sun, Ho la Maat (The cosmic order) if it crossed the Duat, the sun would be born again from Nut, and Amun Ra carried him back across the sky for another twelve hours,

North America

Inuit

At the origin of the world, there was only one man and one woman, without any animals. The woman asked Kaila, the sky god, to populate the Earth. Kaila ordered him to make a hole in the ice to fish. Then, she was taking out of the hole, one by one, all the animals. The caribou was the last. Kaila told him that the caribou was her gift, the most beautiful thing she could give him, because it would feed her people. The caribou multiplied and the children of humans were able to hunt them, eat their meat, weave their clothes and make their tents.

However, humans always chose the largest caribou. One day, they were left with only the weak and sick, so the Inuit didn't want any more. The woman then complained to Kaila. He sent her back to the ice and she caught the wolf, sent by Amarok, the spirit of the wolf, to eat the weak and sick animals in order to keep the caribou in good health.

Azteca

The Aztecs had several creation myths, the result of the integration of different cultures. In one of them, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcóatl realize that the gods feel empty and need company. Therefore they need to create the earth. There was only one immense sea, where the earth monster lived. To attract it, Tezcatlipoca offers his foot as bait and the monster comes out and eats it. Before it can be submerged, the two gods take it, stretch it to give the earth its shape. His eyes become lagoons, his tears rivers and his orifices caves. After that, they give him the gift of vegetation to comfort his pain. And later they took on the task of creating the first men.

According to another myth known as "The Legend of the Fifth Sun", in the beginning, everything was black, lifeless, dead. The gods met in Teotihuacán asking themselves the question of who would have the burden of creating the world, for which one of them would have to be thrown into a bonfire. Two of them were selected as victims for this purpose.

Although the strongest and most vigorous, at the moment of throwing themselves into the bonfire, recoils before the fire; so the second, a small god, humble and poor (used as a metaphor for the Aztec people about their origins), throws himself into the fire without hesitation, becoming the Sun. Seeing this, the first god, feeling courage, decides to throw himself to the stake, becoming the Moon.

Maya

The Mayan creation myth is beautifully explained in their sacred book, the "Popol Vuh". In it, at first only the gods existed in a dormant state on a still sea, and then there were words and they decided to create the world for the human being to exist. Twice they tried to create humanity and both times they failed, calling on gods of lesser rank to help them. The first they tried to make them out of mud, but the humans couldn't emerge from the mud and they were also dumb and soulless. Then they tried wood, and these humans moved and talked, but they were lazy and had no will. And finally they created humans with corn dough mixed with the blood of the gods: Balam Quitzé, the second Balam Akab, the third Mahucutah and the fourth Iqui Balam were the 4 men and then another 4 women.​

South America

Inca

The peoples of the central Andes understood the origins of each people in isolation as divine apparitions from some natural event known as pacarina. The origin of man lies substantially in the two children of the Sun, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, who came out of Lake Titicaca and gave rise to the Incas of Cuzco, who -according to the legend of the Ayar brothers- believed that their people had emerged from the hill of Tampu Tocco

Mapuche

Before the present humanity other men lived. One day, the sea serpent Kai Kai Vilú decided to exterminate them by drowning them in sea water. The good serpent Treng Treng Vilú took pity on the humans and led them to the mountains to save them, likewise he made them grow in size as Kai Kai made the sea grow. The duel between these two spirits was long and meant the death of many men, whom Treng Treng turned into birds, fish and sea lions. Only a handful of men survived (the ancestors of the Mapuche) and after performing a Nguillatún or ceremony they managed to placate Kai Kai and then populate the earth. However, before their evil Treng Treng sent them eruptions of volcanoes,

Europa

Classic Greece

The "origin myths" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to make the universe understandable in human terms and to explain the origin of the world .

The most widely accepted account of the beginning of things as recorded in Hesiod's Theogony begins with Chaos, a deep void. From this emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primordial divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus) and the Erebus .

Without male help, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (Heaven), who then fertilized her. From this union were born, first, the Titans (Océanus, Ceo, Crío, Hyperion, Iapetus, Tea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Cronos), then the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Centimanos. Kronos ("the youngest, twisted-minded, most terrible of [Gaea's] sons")He castrated his father and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister and wife Rhea as his consort and the other Titans as his court. This theme of father-son conflict was repeated when Cronus clashed with his son, Zeus, who, persuaded by his mother, challenged him to a war for the throne of the gods. In the end, with the help of the Cyclops (whom he freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his brothers were victorious, condemning Cronus and the Titans to imprisonment in Tartarus .

Ancient Greek thought about poetry regarded theogony as the prototypical poetic genre - the prototypical mythos - and attributed almost magical powers to it. Orpheus, the archetypal poet, was also the archetypal singer of theogony, which he used to calm seas and storms in Apollonius's Argonautics , and to stir the stony hearts of the gods of the underworld on their descent into Hades. When Hermes invents the lyre in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes , the first thing he does is sing the birth of the gods .

Hesiod 's Theogony is not only the most complete surviving account of the gods, but also the most complete surviving account of the archaic role of the poets, with its long preliminary invocation of the Muses. The theogony was also the subject of many now-lost poems, including those attributed to Orpheus, Museo, Epimenides, Abaris, and other legendary prophets, which were used in private purification rituals and mystery rites. There are indications that Plato was familiar with some version of the Orphic theogony .

A few fragments of these works are preserved in quotes from Neoplatonic philosophers and recently unearthed papyrus fragments. One of these fragments, the Derveni Papyrus, now shows that at least in the 5th century BC. C. there was a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus. This poem tried to surpass Hesiod's Theogony and extended the genealogy of the gods with Nix (the Night) as a definitive beginning before Uranus, Kronos and Zeus .

The early cosmologists reacted against, or sometimes drew on, popular mythical conceptions that had existed in the Greek world for some time. Some of these popular conceptions can be deduced from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer, the Earth was seen as a flat disk floating on the river of Oceanus and dominated by a hemispherical sky with sun, moon, and stars. The Sun (Helios) crossed the heavens like a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in a golden cup at night. Prayers could be addressed and oaths sworn by the sun, the earth, the sky, the rivers and the winds. Natural fissures were popularly considered entrances to the subterranean abode of Hades, home of the dead .

Nordic countries

In the beginning, there was the ice world Niflheim, and the fire world Muspelheim, and between them was the Ginnungagap, a "deep hole", where nothing lived. In Niflheim there was a source of icy waters, called Hvergelmir ('roaring cauldron'), which bubbled, and what fell, did so in Ginnungagap. When making contact with the void, it was transformed into ice, until, in the end, the ice ended up filling it. The embers from Muspelheim fell on the ice, creating great clouds of water vapour, which upon reaching Niflheim again, created a block of ice, in one of which was a primitive giant, Ymir, and a giant cow, Auðumbla of the which Ymir fed by drinking her milk. She this she licked the ice, creating the first god, Buri, who fathered Bor, who in turn fathered the first Æsir, Odin, and his brothers Vili and Ve. Ymir was a hermaphrodite and his legs copulated with each other, creating the race of giants alone. Then the sons of Bor; Odin, Vili, and Ve; They killed Ymir and from his body they created the world.​

The gods regulated the passage of days and nights, as well as the seasons. The first human beings were Ask ( ash , ash) and Embla ( elm , elm), who were carved from wood and brought to life and given human attributes by Odin alongside his brothers Vili, and Ve according to Gylfaginning or alongside Hœnir and Lóðurr according to Völuspá. Sól is the sun goddess, a daughter of Mundilfari, and wife of Glen. Every day, she rides through the skies in her chariot, drawn by two horses named Alsvid and Arvak. This passage is known as Alfrodull, which means "glory of elves", a common kenning for sun. Sól is hunted during the day by Sköll, a wolf who wants to devour her. Solar eclipses mean Skoll almost caught her. It is destined that Skoll will eventually catch and devour Sól; she however she will be replaced by her sister. Sol's sister, the moon, Mani, is hunted by Hati, another wolf. The earth is protected from the full heat of the sun by Svalin, who stands between the sun and her. In Norse belief, the sun did not give light, which instead emanated from the manes of Alsvid and Arvak .

In Völuspá , the völva describes the great ash tree Yggdrasil and the three Norns (female symbols of inexorable fate; their names; Urðr (Urd), Verðandi (Verdandi), and Skuld; past, present, and future are related), who turned the strings of fate beneath him .

Asia Oriental

China

A unique feature of Chinese culture is the relatively late appearance of creation myths in literature, after the founding of Confucianism, Taoism, and popular religions. The stories have several versions, sometimes contradictory to each other. For example, the creation of the first beings is attributed to Shangdi, Tian (heaven), Nüwa, Pangu or the Jade Emperor.

Throughout the Far East and Oceania, there was a cosmological dualism opposing two loaves, on the one hand light, the sun and fire, on the other hand darkness, the moon and water. Generally, a bird represented the first principle. In China, it was a raven. The solar bird is one of the privileged themes of the Shang dynasty, the first Chinese dynasty whose existence is certified by archaeology. A snake, like an aquatic animal, represented the second principle. Shun's mother, one of China's mythical rulers, belonged to the snake clan, and her father belonged to the bird clan. Therefore, Shun was the result of the union of the two principles. This myth also illustrates the totemism of ancient Chinese society, according to which each clan had an animal ancestor, as well as exogamy,

Xiè was the ancestor of Shang and his mother was called Jiandi. One day, he went to bathe with his servants in the river on the dark hill. A black bird (probably a swallow or a raven) passed by carrying a multicolored egg in its beak. He dropped it. Jiandi took it and put it in her mouth, but she inadvertently swallowed it. After this, she conceived Xie. In this story, it is a question of a particular form of the union of the two cosmic principles, since this myth involves water and darkness on the one hand, and a bird on the other.

Shangdi appears in literature around 700 BC. C. or before (the date depends on the dating of the Shujing, the classic of history). Shangdi appears to have the attributes of a person, but he is not identified as the creator until the Han dynasty.

The appearance of Tian, ​​Heaven, in the literature presents the same problem as Shangdi, also depending on the date of the Shujing. The qualities of Heaven and Shangdi seem to be united in later literature until they are worshiped as a single entity, for example in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. The identification of the limits between one and the other has not yet been resolved.

Nüwa appears around the year 350 a. His partner is Fuxi and they are sometimes worshiped as the last ancestors of mankind.

Pangu appears in the literature no earlier than 200 AD. He was the first creator. In the beginning there was only a formless chaos from which an 18,000-year-old egg hatched. When the yin and yang forces were balanced, Pangu hatched from the egg and took on the task of creating the world. He split yin and yang with his axe. The heavy yin sank to form the earth, while the yang rose to form the heavens. Pangu remained between them raising the sky for 18,000 years, after which he rested. From his breath came the wind, from his voice the thunder, from the left eye the Sun and from the right the Moon. His body became the mountains, his blood the rivers, his muscles the fertile land, the hair on his face the stars and the Milky Way. His hair gave rise to forests, his bones to valuable minerals, the marrow to the sacred diamonds. His sweat fell as rain and the small creatures that populated his body (fleas in some versions), carried by the wind, became human beings.

The Jade Emperor appears in literature after the establishment of Taoism. He is also depicted as Yuanshi Tianzun or Huangtian Shangdi.

Japan

The first gods summoned two divine creatures into existence, the male Izanagi and the female Izanami, and tasked them with creating the first earth. To help them accomplish this, Izanagi and Izanami were given a spear decorated with jewels, called the Amenonuhoko (spear of the heavens). Then, the two deities went to the bridge between Heaven and Earth, Amenoukihashi (floating bridge of the heavens) and stirred up the ocean with the spear. When drops of salt water fell from the tip of the spear, they formed Onogoro Island (self-formed) .

They came down from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island. They wished to unite and so they built a pillar called Amenomihashira and around it they built a palace called Yahirodono (the room whose area is 8 arms). Izanagi and Izanami circled the pillar in opposite directions and when they met, Izanami, the female deity, spoke first with a greeting. Izanagi thought that this was not the proper way, however they joined anyway. They had two children, Hiruko (water infant) and Awashima (bubble island) but they were poorly made and did not consider themselves gods .

They put the children in a boat and put them out to sea, then asked the other gods for an answer as to what they did wrong. They replied that the male god must have initiated the conversation during the joining ceremony. So Izanagi and Izanami headed around the pillar once more, and this time when they met, Izanagi spoke first and their marriage was then successful .

From this union the Ohoyashima (the eight great islands of the Japanese chain) were born:

• Awaji
• Iyo (posteriormente Shikoku).
• Ogi
• Tsukushi (posteriormente Kyushu).
• Until
• Tsushima
• sado and
• Yamato (posteriormente Honshu) .

Note that in ancient times, Hokkaidō, Chishima, and Okinawa were not part of Japan .

They created six more islands and many deities. However, Izanami died giving birth to the infant Kagututi (incarnation of fire) or Ho-Masubi (causer of fire). She was buried on Mount Hiba, on the border of the old Izumo and Hōki provinces, near Yasugi in Shimane Prefecture. Enraged, Izanagi killed Kagututi. Her death also created dozens of deities .

The gods born to Izanagi and Izanami are symbolic of important aspects of nature and culture, but they are too many to mention here .

India

Buddhism

In Buddhism, the universe or concept of the world never had an origin, but neither does it have an end. Buddhists believe that the world has always existed. Buddhism itself ignores what refers to the origin of life. Buddha, referring to the origin of life, said: “Thinking about the (origin) of the world, O monks, is an unthinkable that should not be thought; thinking of this, one would experience affliction and madness. These four unthinkables, O monks, should not be thought; thinking of these, one would experience affliction and madness.” Regarding ignoring the question of the origin of life, the Buddha said: “And why don't I talk about this? Because it has nothing to do with the goal, it is not fundamental to holy living. It does not lead to disenchantment, lack of passion, cessation, calm, direct knowledge, awakening, freedom. That's why I don't talk about it." The Buddha also compares the question of the origin of life - as well as other metaphysical questions - with the parable of the poisoned arrow: a man is hit by a poisoned arrow but, before the doctor removes it, he wants to know who has killed him. shot (analogy with the existence of God), where did the arrow come from (that is, where did the universe and God come from), why did that person shoot it (why did God create the universe), etc. If the man continues to ask such questions before the arrow is removed, the Buddha reasons that he will die before he gets the answer. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions such as the origin of life and more with the goal of saving oneself and others from suffering by reaching nirvana. However the The Buddha also compares the question of the origin of life - as well as other metaphysical questions - with the parable of the poisoned arrow: a man is hit by a poisoned arrow but, before the doctor removes it, he wants to know who has killed him. shot (analogy with the existence of God), where did the arrow come from (that is, where did the universe and God come from), why did that person shoot it (why did God create the universe), etc. If the man continues to ask such questions before the arrow is removed, the Buddha reasons that he will die before he gets the answer. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions such as the origin of life and more with the goal of saving oneself and others from suffering by reaching nirvana. However the The Buddha also compares the question of the origin of life - as well as other metaphysical questions - with the parable of the poisoned arrow: a man is hit by a poisoned arrow but, before the doctor removes it, he wants to know who has killed him. shot (analogy with the existence of God), where did the arrow come from (that is, where did the universe and God come from), why did that person shoot it (why did God create the universe), etc. If the man continues to ask such questions before the arrow is removed, the Buddha reasons that he will die before he gets the answer. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions such as the origin of life and more with the goal of saving oneself and others from suffering by reaching nirvana. However the before the doctor takes it out, he wants to know who shot him (analogy with the existence of God), where the arrow came from (that is, where the universe and God came from), why that person shot him ( why God created the universe), etc. If the man continues to ask such questions before the arrow is removed, the Buddha reasons that he will die before he gets the answer. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions such as the origin of life and more with the goal of saving oneself and others from suffering by reaching nirvana. However the before the doctor takes it out, he wants to know who shot him (analogy with the existence of God), where the arrow came from (that is, where the universe and God came from), why that person shot him ( why God created the universe), etc. If the man continues to ask such questions before the arrow is removed, the Buddha reasons that he will die before he gets the answer. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions such as the origin of life and more with the goal of saving oneself and others from suffering by reaching nirvana. However the If the man continues to ask such questions before the arrow is removed, the Buddha reasons that he will die before he gets the answer. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions such as the origin of life and more with the goal of saving oneself and others from suffering by reaching nirvana. However the If the man continues to ask such questions before the arrow is removed, the Buddha reasons that he will die before he gets the answer. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions such as the origin of life and more with the goal of saving oneself and others from suffering by reaching nirvana. However theKalachakra tantra , a scripture from Tibetan Buddhism, deals with the formation and workings of reality. Modern Buddhists like the Dalai Lama try not to conflict between Buddhism and science and see them as complementary ways of understanding the world around us.

In the Digha Nikaia there is a story about the beginning of the current cycle of the world. In sutra  27 of the Aggañña sutra and the Buddha uses it to explain the caste system and show why one caste is not really better than another. According to Richard Gombrich, there is strong evidence that this sutra was intended as a satire against preexisting beliefs.

According to that text, at one point in time the world shrank. When it expanded again, beings reincarnated into it. Everything is water and darkness but the beginning is bright. Then land forms on the surface of the water. People start eating it because it is tasty. By doing this, however, his own light disappears and the Sun, the Moon, the days and the nights come into existence. People continue to eat the land. Then they degenerate and ugly and beautiful people appear. This causes the beautiful ones to become arrogant and the tasty earth to disappear. The degeneration continues: then beautiful mushrooms appear to eat. The degeneration continues: people become coarse and arrogant and mushrooms are replaced by plants and then by ready-to-eat rice. People continue to get rough. They begin to become male or female. Sex is frowned upon so people build shelters to be discreet. The next step is when people start picking rice for several meals at the same time. Then the quality of the rice starts to deteriorate and it doesn't grow back immediately. Then the people create the bordered rice fields. This causes the appearance of theft. To fight crime, they offer to pay rice to one of them to be their leader. In the end, all the original castes of the same type of people appear. Then the people create the bordered rice fields. This causes the appearance of theft. To fight crime, they offer to pay rice to one of them to be their leader. In the end, all the original castes of the same type of people appear. Then the people create the bordered rice fields. This causes the appearance of theft. To fight crime, they offer to pay rice to one of them to be their leader. In the end, all the original castes of the same type of people appear.

Some scholars have pointed out that the main intention of this text is to lampoon and discredit Brahminical claims about the divine nature of the caste system, showing that it is nothing but a human convention.

The Buddhist text Agama-sutra says that there is a reciprocal process, or co-evolution, where all things intervene in a network of bidirectional causality. An expansion produces the next contraction, where chaos reigns, followed by an expansion where order reigns, and so on endlessly. The world is infinite and uncreated, its basic elements are the soul, matter, time and space, and the principles of motion and rest. The universe is conceived as a human figure, and the whole is wrapped in three atmospheres, called Vata-valayas (wind shields), the center of the universe is crossed by the region of mobile souls, where all living beings dwell: gods , demons men, women, animals and plants, at the lowest point is the seventh hell. At the highest point are 16 heavens and 14 celestial regions and beyond the universe (Lokakasa) there is a crescent-shaped place (Siddhasila) where liberated souls reside after leaving their material bodies. Our humanity arose from another previous humanity that fell from the spiritual state in which it inhabited and passed to the material. The Agama sutraholds that the two sexes developed simultaneously. The badly carried desire attracts calamities, and creates the wheel of karma, which causes reincarnations until it ends in a maha yuga that ends with the collapse of the Universe on itself, returning to total emptiness.

Hinduism

the shattered god

The oldest legend is contained in the hymn "Púrusha sukta" (from the Rig-veda , the oldest text in India, from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC). It describes the creation of the universe from the remnants of a gigantic primeval god named Púrusha in a very ancient time when purusha medha ('human sacrifices') were performed.

the cosmic egg

It is unknown when human sacrifices were replaced by animal sacrifices. After the appearance of Buddhism (6th century BC) with its ajimsa ('non-violence') animal sacrifices also disappeared and new legends appeared that contradicted the original legend.

The universe emanated from a cosmic Hiranyagarbha ('womb of gold') egg. From the egg Prayapati was born. (This Prajapati was later - in Puranic times - identified as the demiurge Brahma).

The lotus flower of Brahma

The Puranas (composed in the first millennium of the vulgar era) present several processes of creation. First, in one corner of the infinite spiritual universe there exists an "ocean of [material] cause." There lies the greatest of the many forms of the god Vishnu: Mahavisnu. Universes emanate from his body (sometimes this myth is improved with the modern idea that each molecule of the air it breathes is a finite universe). Each spherical universe is half filled with liquid. On that ocean lies another form of Vishnu, called Garbhodakasai Vishnu ('the Vishnu lying [sayi] in the ocean [udaka] of cause [karana]'), lying on the divine serpent Ananta Shesha. At his navel a lake is formed, and on that lake a lotus flower is born. When the flower opens, the god Brahma is born from it.

Brahma with his mind creates the flat world (the Earth) and all the lokas ('locals' or 'places', visible and invisible planets and stars in the sky, where the gods and other beings live). The 'height' interval of the planets from Earth is always the same (1.3 million km). Their order of proximity to Earth is:

1. Sun (1.3 million km).
2. Moon (2.6 million km).
3. all stars (5.2 million km).
4. Venus (7.8 million km).
5. Mercury (10.4 million km).
6. Mars (13 million km).
7. Jupiter (15.6 million km).
8. Saturn (18.2 million km).
9. The Seven Rishis or Big Dipper (32.4 million km). In reality, the stars of this constellation are at different distances from each other, between 274,000,000 and 5,193,000,000 million km from Earth. In the constellation there are not 7 rishis but 35.

Judaism and Christianity

The book of Genesis tells how God created the whole world in 6 days and the first man Adam with clay in the Garden of Eden; then he created Eve from a "bone" of Adam; their fall from grace for eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the story of his first two childrenCain and Abel; the appearance of tribes and races and the development of peoples; the story of the Tower of Babel; the god Yahweh punishes humanity for his sins with a universal flood (saving Noah and a couple of each animal species).

Mesopotamia

The universe first appeared when Nammu, a formless abyss, opened itself and in an act of self-procreation gave birth to An (god of the sky), and Ki (goddess of the Earth), commonly referred to as Ninhursag.

The union of An and Ki produced Enlil, the lord of the wind, who eventually became the leader of the gods. After Enlil's banishment from Dilmun (the home of the gods) due to Ninlil's rape they had a child, Sin (god of the Moon), also known as Nannar.

Sin and Ningal gave birth to Inanna (goddess of love and war) and Utu or Shamash (god of the Sun). During Enlil's banishment, he fathered three underworld deities along with Ninlil, the most notable of them being Nergal.

Nammu also gave birth to Enki or Abzu, god of the watery abyss. Enki also controlled the Me, the sacred decrees that governed basic things such as physics and complex things such as social order and law. This considers the origin of most of the world.

A certain Mesopotamian myth states that man grew from the earth like a plant.

Southeast Asia

Filipinas

Due to intense cultural exchanges spanning millennia, many of the mythologies of a variety of ethnic groups in the Philippines have similarities, in one way or another. Some examples are: (1) the creation myths of the Bicolano people and the Visayan peoples, whose deity names are different but the activities recorded in their creation myths are extremely similar; (2) the presence of deities called Mayari/Malayari/Apûng Malyari, which is prevalent in Tagalog, Kapampangan, and Sambal mythologies; (3) the presence of lunar deities, called Bulan in Hiligaynon, Karay-a, Cebuano and Bicolano mythologies, and serpent deities called Bakunawa in Hiligaynon, Karay-a mythologies,(5) the presence of enemy deities called Gugurang and Asuang in Bicolano mythology and Agurang and Aswang in Hiligaynon mythology. and (6) the presence of deities called Kabunian in the mythologies of the Ibaloi or Bontoc peoples.

Despite being ethnic counterparts, the deities, heroes, and creatures are completely different from one another, and their stories should be respected as they are and not blended into a single narrative. It should also be noted that each ethnic story has a variety of versions. In many cases, the stories vary from village to village or village to village, even though the villages in the specified areas belong to the same ethnic group.

A Bontoc shaman performing a sacred wake ritual with a chair of death. The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands, but they are divided into three main island regions. These regions are: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao (which is subdivided here into North and South). There have been attempts to refer each region to specific pre-colonial mythologies, however the difference in mythologies and belief systems is not by region, but by ethnic groups, where some ethnic groups have influence over only a few towns, while others have influence - regional influences spanning several provinces. Buddhism and Hinduism in the Philippines influence the culture and myths of the people of the three main island regions. There is no unified mythology between the three regions, due to a wide range of diverse cultures that continue to flourish in different ways on the islands. These myths were passed down orally, which means that even myths within the same region will have some degree of change.

modern religions

Mormonism

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as Mormons) have their own interpretation of the Genesis myth; they believe that physical reality (space, matter and energy) is eternal and therefore has no origin. The Creator is an architect and organizer of pre-existing matter. In addition to the premortal organization of the earth from existing matter, Joseph Smith says that immaterial matter does not exist. All spirit is matter, but it is finer or purer, and can only be seen by the purest eyes; we cannot see it; but when the bodies are purified we can see that it is all matter.

On the other hand, the writings of the Latter Day Saints include two creation myths: the first found in the Book of Moses (found in The Pearl of Great Price ), is an expansion of the Genesis myth but emphasizing in the notion of "spiritual creation" ( Book of Moses 4:5ff.) according to which the creation during a week and the descriptions of Eden are merged into a longer narrative; the second is found in the Book of Abraham (also within The Pearl of Great Price ), emphasizing the role of a divine council before the creation of the Earth ( Book of Abraham 3-5).

scientology

According to the American science fiction writer, Ron Hubbard ―founder of the dianetics doctrine―, Xenu (also Xemu) was the dictator of the Galactic Confederation, which 75 million years ago brought billions of people to Earth in spaceships. space planes similar to DC-8 planes. He then landed them around volcanoes and annihilated them with hydrogen bombs. Their souls gathered in groups and stuck to the bodies of the living, and still continue to create chaos and havoc.

Scientologists know this legend as "Incident II", and traumatic memories are associated with these as the "Wall of Fire" or "The implantation of R6". The Xenu story is a small part of Scientology's larger range of beliefs about extraterrestrial civilizations and their interventions in earthly events, collectively described as a work of science fiction about space travel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder. of scientology.

Hubbard revealed this story in detail to OT III level members in 1967. The Xenu story introduced the use of the volcano as a common symbol of Scientology and Dianetics, which persists to this day.

Critics of Scientology often use the Xenu story against it. Scientology has tried unsuccessfully to keep the Xenu story confidential. Critics claim that revealing the story is in the public interest, considering the high price required to reach OT III level. Scientology only teaches this doctrine to members who have contributed large amounts of money to the organization.

Scientology avoids mentioning Xenu in public statements and has made considerable efforts to maintain confidentiality, including legal action based on intellectual property rights and trade secrets. Despite this, much material about Xenu has been leaked to the public.