The Book of Creation, by Nisut Mark James Top CHAPTER 1. In the beginning, We were. Male and Female, Two-in-One. King and Queen, Priestess and Priest, Husband and Wife, Sister and Brother — We were all of these things in our eternal One-ness. He was the First, I am the Last. I was the Alpha, He is the Omega. We were at the beginning, and We will be at the end. All things came to be through Us, and all things will come to be through Us. And so it is true that you should sing: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord! God of power, God of might! Heaven and Earth are full of Your glory, Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the Highest! Hosanna in the Highest! But now I tell you that you should also sing: Holy, Holy, Holy Lady! Goddess of mercy, Goddess of peace! Heaven and Earth are full of Your beauty, Shekinah in the Highest! Blessed is She who comes in the name of the Lady; Shekinah in the Highest! Shekinah in the Highest! In the beginning, when Elohim created Heaven and Earth, the multiverse was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered it as if it were an abyss. A mighty wind swept over the abyss. The wind was Pneuma, the Breath of Elohim. Then El, God, said: "Let there be light," and there was light. El and Elat saw how good the light was. Elat, Goddess, separated the light from Her darkness. El called the light "day," and Elat called the darkness "night." Thus evening came, and morning followed — the first day. Then El said: "Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other." And so it happened. El made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it. El called the dome "the sky." Evening came, and morning followed — the second day. Then Elat said: "Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear." And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. Elat called the dry land "the land," and the basin of the water She called "the sea." El and Elat saw how good it was. Then Elat said: "Let the land bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on Earth that bears fruit with its seed in it." And so it happened: the land brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on Earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. El and Elat saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed — the third day. Then El said: "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon Earth." And so it happened: El made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and He made the stars. El set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon Earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. El and Elat saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed — the fourth day. Then Elat said: "Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky." And so it happened: Elat created the great sea monsters and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems, and all kinds of winged birds. El and Elat saw how good it was, and They blessed them, saying: "Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the land." Evening came, and morning followed — the fifth day. Then El said: "Let the land bring forth all kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds." And so it happened: El made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and all kinds of creeping things of the land. El and Elat saw how good it was. El said to Elat: "Let Us create beings which can love Us. Some can dwell here in Heaven with Us, but most will be able to pass between the realms." So El made all of the Angels, and appointed Elat the Queen of Angels. And Elat made all of the fae and nature spirits, the Elementals, and appointed El the King of Elementals. And El chose Lucifer to be the Guardian Angel of Earth, and Elat chose Michael to be the Guardian Angel of Heaven, and the two were the greatest among the Angels. Then Elat said to El: "We have created beings to serve and love Us, but they are not like Us. Therefore, let Us make humankind in Our image, after Our likeness. Let them be kings and queens over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground. Let them be partners with these Angels and Elementals we have created."
Elohim created humankind in Their image; El and Elat blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the land and protect it. Be kings and queens over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on land. Have fellowship with the Holy Angels, and with the Elementals We have created." They also said: "See, We give you every seed-bearing plant all over the land and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, We give all the green plants for food." And so it happened. Elohim looked at everything They had made, and They found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed — the sixth day. Thus Heaven and Earth and all their array were completed. Since on the seventh day El and Elat were finished with the work They had been doing, They rested on the seventh day from all the work They had undertaken. And They knew each other; the Two became One. From Their union came the Son and the Daughter, Twins. El and Elat rejoiced, saying:
These were with us from the beginning;
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; And:
"Glory be to the Mother, and to the Daughter, and to the Holy Soul; So Elohim blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it They rested and were together. On the seventh day, They formed Their Children, who live and reign with Them now and forever. On the seventh day came the completion of all things in the Holy Name of Godhead: YHVH. On the seventh day the Godhead was One, Two-in-One, Three-in-One, Four-in-One, and Six-in-One. The Holy Star of King David, the Holy Quaternity, the Holy Trinity, the Holy Trinity, the Holy Duality, and the One God — all completed on the seventh day! Keep the Shabbat, all you faithful!
CHAPTER 2 What bothered Lucifer more was that the humans, Adam and Eve, favored the Son and the Daughter over him! The humans, whom he had loved, liked these newcomers better. Lucifer told all of this to Michael, and talked to him of a plan to overthrow the Son and the Daughter. So Michael went to El and Elat, and to Their Son and Daughter, and he told them all that he knew. And a great war broke out in Heaven, between the Son with His Angels of Light, and Lucifer and his Angels of Darkness. Lucifer was cast out from Heaven. The Daughter told him: "From now until the end of time, you will be known as Shaitan, the accuser, for you will accuse many of evils you propagate." And so it was that Michael became the greatest Archangel, Guardian Angel of Heaven and Earth. Shaitan, who had been Lucifer, wanted to get even with the Son and the Daughter, and with El and Elat for allowing his expulsion. So he took the form of a serpent — which he knew the humans would trust as a wise creature — and he went to the Garden of Eden, where the humans lived. And he waited by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which the humans were not allowed to eat from. One day Adam and Eve were picking fruit in the Garden, and they happened upon the Tree of Knowledge which sat next to the Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowledge was the Throne of El on Earth, and the Tree of Life the Throne of Elat on Earth. The humans had been forbidden the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge because it would taint them, drive them further from the perfect nature of the Godhead and the Angels, and closer to the nature of Shaitan. They did not need the fruit from the Tree of Life, because they were promised eternal life as long as they did not eat from the Tree of Knowledge. El and Elat had promised to give them the knowledge of all things good, but they could not eat from the Tree of Knowledge because it would teach them about evil as well. Shaitan came down from the branches of the Tree of Knowledge and said to Eve (with Adam in earshot): "Did the Creators really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the Garden?" Eve replied: "We can eat of the fruit of any of the trees; but we're not allowed to eat from the Tree of Knowledge in the middle of the Garden, otherwise we will die." "You most surely will not die!" Shaitan replied. "El and Elat know well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know what is good and what is bad." Eve saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she gave some to her husband who was with her, who knew full well the command of the Godhead not to eat of it, and who had heard all that Shaitan had said to Eve. They realized that they were naked, and they felt shame, so they covered themselves with fig leaves. When they heard El, Elat, the Son, and the Daughter descending to the Garden, they hid from Them. El called to them and asked, "Where are you?" Adam answered: "We heard you coming, but we are afraid, because we are naked." "Who told you that you were naked?" Elat demanded. "No one told them, my Lady," Shaitan said, descending once more from the Tree of Knowledge. "They have eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, which You have commanded them not to eat from. Therefore, by Your word, they must die. Their souls are forfeit to me. When their bodies decay, I will devour their souls." Ignoring Shaitan, the Daughter cried out: "You have eaten, then, from the tree of which We have forbidden you to eat!" "It was Eve, who you put here with me," Adam said. "She gave me the fruit from the tree, so I ate it." "But you knew well our command," El admonished. Then He turned to Eve. "Why have you done this thing?" "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it." El turned to Shaitan, and made him assume his form as an Angel. Adam and Eve were astonished that Shaitan, who had previously been their friend, would do such a thing to them. El said to Shaitan:
Because you have done this, you will be banned from all the animals, And so the Godhead banished Adam and Eve from Eden, so that they could not eat from the Tree of Life and have eternal life before they were ready. For if they had become immortal without learning from their mistake, they would have become like evil gods — more evil than Shaitan, and also more powerful. By Nisut Mark James Top
Katia writes: A journalist friend in a Patterns of Mythology class took years ago, wrote a short paper on the Wiccan Creation myth. Her name is Delani Bartlett, and she was raised Jehovah Witness but turned Pagan when she became an adult. You'll be happy to know that she and her mother escaped from Jehovah's Witnesses when Delani was a teenager, and my friend is now happily married (Pagans call it a Hand-fasting, I think) and raising a little Pagan family. She discusses here the Creation chapter of Starhawk's book The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. Read thru it, it's not too long, and it's way cool stuff. There is some spiritual Physics, Yin & Yang, and even X and Y chromosomes being manifestations of the balance between God and Goddess: ************************************************************ The creation myth of the Faery tradition of Wicca, as retold by Starhawk, is interesting for two main reasons: first, it is strikingly close to scientific theories of creation, and second, it describes the creation of the universe as the result of love between two feminine forces. It is only as the creations burst forth from the Primal Mother that the secondary Goddess, Miria, is pushed further away from the Primal Mother and masculinized. It is Miria/God's longing for the Primal Mother that draws Him to Her and defines the earthly wheel of the year (the changing of the seasons and, by implication, the human life cycle). "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." (Starhawk, p.31). The description of the void before creation as being a "curved mirror" is remarkably similar to scientific theories that before the big bang, all dimensions existed at the same time, in the same space----in other words, a compressed, curved reflection of itself. Next, we have the unique idea of creation born out of the love of two feminine forces. "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 in the single song of all that 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." (Starhawk p.31). Again, the idea of creation as sound waves, spheres and circles is fairly well known among modern physicists. All matter is constantly in motion. And all things, from galaxies to microscopic algae, move in cycles, yin/yanging around and around. It is only the interplay of yin and yang, or cyclical movement, that creates/destroys. This is echoed in the modern theory of entropy. The rest of the myth describes Miria's separation from the Goddess, and the three stages She goes thru to become God. The concept of the masculine as arising from the feminine is also recognized by modern biologists---the X, or female, chromosome, is present in both men and women. X chromosomes contain more genetic material than Y chromosomes. DNA present in the mitochondria of animal cells (including humans) are passed on unchanged from mother to child, but only females can pass it on to the next generation. The myth goes on to describe how the God is eternally drawn to the Goddess and how His longing (to return to His source) produces the changing of the seasons. She gives birth to Him at the Winter Solstice, initiates Him to sexuality in the spring and summer, and He sacrifices Himself with the grain of fall so that life may go on. In this myth, the Goddess is the Primal Source, both womb and tomb, from which all creation is born and to which all creation must return in death. The God is closer to us humans in that He, too, goes thru the human life cycle: birth, growth, sex, and death. This defines and validates humanity's place in the cosmos---neither at the center nor outside of it. We are part of everything, but, like everything, we must yield to inevitable Death. Hope, or at least comfort, is found in the fact that He always returns, just as spring always follows winter, so we humans might return as well. Thus, the concept of yin/yang, death/rebirth is an ancient one in Faery Wicca oral tradition. ******************************************** Comments on the above - Faery Wiccan Creation Myth, by Dr. Katia
Miria, the Goddess' Name?
It's so linear, though. Why does one thing have to come "before" the other? Who says time moves in a linear path, plodding along with befores and afters. Let's get into physics here!
The Over-Mind
Did the Goddess Create the Universe? by Dr. Katia
It seems more balanced to think of God and Goddess as a team, equal partners in Creation. Kabbalah, that cool system of ancient Jewish mysticism, has a nice Creation myth that almost exactly mirrors human biological conception. Yes, complete with sperm meeting egg! The two of them decided to create together. The Goddess-Creatrix, formed a "cosmic egg" for the God-Creator to fertilize. She chose a spot within Herself-Universe and pushed away the light, that sometimes pesky masculine glaring stuff that was everywhere without limit! Kabbalah calls that ubiquitous primal light, Ain Sof Aur ("Light without Limit" in Hebrew). She pushed it away in one area of herself, and made a round egg-like space. It was a void, an emptiness waiting to be filled, full of dark mystery and power. "And the earth was without form and void." Darkness and mystery are both feminine attributes. Then She turned to God her lover, her spouse, and said okay, give me what you got! Let there be light. He then shot rays of light, which surrounded the black empty egg space like sperm bombard the outer shell of a human egg. Only one ray of light pierced the cosmic egg to fertilize it, just as only one sperm is allowed to pierce the human egg. The cosmic ray went right to the center of the dark space and life was born into the Universe. It became the Tree of Life, overflowing from that original cosmic egg down into the different levels of manifestation, filling one by one the ten Spheres or "fruits" which hang on the Tree of Life. Kabbalah is very fond of the Tree of Life and bases its whole system around it. By Jason Collins, a member of GoddessChristians discussion list. It came to him, he says, almost like automatic writing after pondering the possibility of an egalitarian, totally equal, God and Goddess Creation story. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is in response to the Goddess creation myth we read on the Goddess-Christians e-mail list. This is only my opinion, and was typed out without any editing, in stream-of-thought, so let me know if you don't catch a connection or something. One hundred percent Equal Goddess-God... How about this?: In the beginning, there was the Light. For that matter, there was always the Light. The Light is the Ineffable. The Light is all things real and all possibilities, mind and consciousness and Spirit itself. The Light, being of beyond infinite love, since infinite is such a limiting word for the Light, decided to share that love with a Child. And thus the Spirit of Light was born. This Child has all the attributes of the Parent, in smaller terms, as any Child does. This Child was created Infinite, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent, and Perfect. The Child loved the Parent fully, as the Parent loves the Child infinitely. Yet the Child was created of Spirit, and was Spirit. The Child was all Spirit, but not All Light. So the Child is the Light that came from the Light, or the Light from the Light. Yet this Child of Spirit grew lonely as there was nothing and no one else of spirit. So the Child asked the Light what to do, and the Light responded, "The One shall become Two." And thus were born the Goddess and God, the Feminine and Masculine. And they praised the Light, and Loved the Light. So the Goddess and God played with each other (No dirty thoughts now!) like any other children do, but eventually wanted to play with something. So they created the Realm of Spirit (Heaven). They created all the Angels and demons and all the beings of energy in the world. Just like children, they played through their emotions, and did not know any wrong or evil. Yet they created protagonists and antagonists, and they took turns playing each. The God and Goddess were having so much fun with this creation, that they started specializing according to their nature. The Goddess created faeries and pixies and all sorts of protective, nurturing spirits. While God created a group of "Archangels" to have fun with. Then the Goddess and God joined together (in the Pagan way!) and together created the entire universe in a Big BANG! (What a Beltane!) And then they shaped the worlds, and populated it with all sorts of creatures. Then the Goddess and God thought, "What if we created a being of Spirit, like our Angels and Fae, but in physical form? Would they eventually figure out their true nature?" Being curious Children of the Light, they breathed life into the first humans, forming them from spirit and then matter. They were well pleased, and watched humans learn and grow over lifetimes and centuries and millennia. And solar systems were formed and collapsed, and They created new beings on new planets, always with Love. By this "time", the Goddess and God were quite wise in watching the beings they created, energy and matter. The Light did not change, but the Goddess and God grew to know these mortal forms of spirit well. They decided, "We shall not stop until every being of matter has realized he/she/it is of Spirit". So then they brought life to Earth. By this time, the Archangels that God had created were already feeling a little neglected. Most of them enjoyed helping God guide "His" people back to Spirit. Yet not all of them did. Archangel Lucifer was asked by God to serve Man. Lucifer said he was better than them and that he would not. So God said, "Ok. You don't like Man. Do you love me?" Lucifer said, "Yes, with all my heart". So God said, "I am curious. I want to know if Man truly loves me, or does so only because he feels he must. Go into the world, and try to persuade Man from loving me. You have no power over them, except what they believe. And Lucifer agreed. Meanwhile the Goddess was busy with her tree faeries and water faeries and witches, having a wonderful time, when she spotted a snake in the garden. There were Adam and Eve, possibly the first on Earth, maybe not. Definitely not the first anywhere. Eve wandered over to the Tree of Knowledge, where the serpent waited. The serpent said, "Eve, there is no Goddess. There is only One God. And that God loves Adam more than he does you. He is stronger than you. Let him take care of you." And Eve was confused. Then Adam came along, and the Serpent said, "Adam, There is only One God, and that God is Wrathful." Adam said, "God is not Wrathful, and Eve told me of a Goddess, who created all things feminine." The serpent replied, "But Masculine is better. The feminine must subjugate herself to you. There is no Goddess." Eve and Adam said, simultaneously, "That is not true. We were created from One. THEY told us so." The Serpent saw that he was going nowhere. Neither of them would be torn from their love for the God and Goddess that easily. Then the Serpent had a brilliant idea. An insidiously brilliant idea. He asked Adam and Eve, "Which is better? This fruit or that fruit?" They both looked at the Serpent quizzically. "Which one tastes better?", said the Serpent. The Serpent offered both fruits to Adam and to Eve, and they both liked a different fruit. So the Serpent said, "Which one is better?" Adam said, "I like them both, but I like this one better." And Eve replied inversely. The Serpent insisted, "No, which one is absolutely better?" Adam and Eve thought silently for a moment. The Goddess and God have been speaking to them through their hearts all this time, but the Serpent's strange words were beginning to confuse them, and they were beginning to doubt. Eve said, "Neither of them. Everything is as it should be." Adam nodded affirmatively. "WRONG!", said the Serpent. "You are newcomers to this life. I've been here a very long time, slithering on my stomach. Everything has a place, and everything is either good or bad, better or worse. So one of you two has to be right about which fruit is the best and the other must be wrong. That's how this place works." Being innocent, pure, but still very new, Adam and Eve were a bit naive, and wondered if the Serpent was right. Then the Serpent said, "You both say there is a God and a Goddess, right?" They both nodded yes. "Then let's see who answers the challenge. If God responds, then Adam's fruit is best. If the Goddess responds, then Eve's fruit is best." They nodded, not knowing the Serpent was laying a trap for them. The Serpent proclaimed, "God and Goddess, hear me. Which fruit is better? Adam's or Eve's?" Lightning struck from the sky, and a loud thunder, but it was only close enough to cause a fruit to fall from one of the two trees they were standing by." The Serpent then said, "This is the fruit of Adam, and there is no other, therefore the Goddess does not exist, and this fruit is best." Eve's head droops down low, and Adam looks solemn. The Serpent continues, "Let me tell you what God expects of you. He told me himself." As the concept of "Good", "Bad", "Evil", "Better", and "Worse" were fed into the minds of Adam and Eve, their energy vibrations became lower and lower until they could not see themselves as Matter AND Spirit, but just Matter, just Flesh. So instantly they became aware that they were naked. And they were ashamed, because the Serpent had told them about such things as indecency. So then God looks for them, finds them, but sees them trying to hide. He asks, "Why are you hiding from me?" They reply, "We're naked." He asks, "Who told you?" Adam says, "The Serpent." God smiles. The first stage towards Reunion is complete. He smiled at all his creations that were good. Lucifer was good for tempting them, and they were good for being led into their necessary growth, for they did not have free will before, but now they did. And they believe in right and wrong. He smiles, not showing it. He says, "You are aware now that because the Serpent deceived you, you will have to face something called Death." Adam asks, "What is death?" God says, "Do you really want to know?" Adam shakes his head lightly. God says, "You see that scorpion beside you. Step on it hard." Adam does so. "It does not move. What did I do to it?" God says, "You have ended its life. It was very poisonous, so had you not, it would have ended yours." "Eve, She who is Nameless grants you a precious gift. Yet it comes with a heavy price. It is called childbirth. It will allow you to have children. You must grow your own food now. The land will no longer support you. Your consciousness has become too full of lack. Things shall remain as they are until you remember what you have forgotten, and forget what you have learned." God then "leaves". Eve asks, "What did that last part mean?" Adam replies, "I don't know. Who is 'She who has no Name'? The Serpent says, "Nobody. Nobody at all." So the story goes as you are familiar with it, up until the time of Moses. God plans a little "coincidence", and instead of being killed, Moses is raised by the Egyptians. Everything continues to the point where Moses goes up to get the stone tablets. God indulges their quest for how he wants them to live. Yet He sees that the Goddess's simple creed "An Harm Ye None, Do What Ye Will" isn't enough for these guys. He also sees that they are worshipping idols made from their own imagination, that have nothing to do with Oneness or Love. So, knowing that the Goddess and He were One, but Two, and knowing that they would not understand that yet, he sent them the 10 commandments. And thus Judaism is born. After a few centuries, or maybe a few hundred, God saw that they took His rules way to far, misunderstood some, and added a few of their own. So he consulted with the Goddess as to the best plan. They needed a Prophet that would show them the way to God. But they needed more than that, and so God and the Goddess put their plans into action. Jesus came to teach in the cities of Palestine, and many other places. Along the way, he gathered many disciples, male and female, and a few special Apostles, including Judas Escariot, Thomas Judas, Thomas the Twin, Peter Simon, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and especially Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw the radiant spirit in Mary the first time he saw her, though she did not see it herself, so he made sure to ask her to join his group, and, led by Spirit (of the Goddess), she did. Jesus loved Judas Escariot like a brother, and likewise for Judas. Judas would do anything for Jesus, anything to save his life. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), that is exactly what he did. Judas' attempt to have Jesus committed into an Asylum for his own good led to what Jesus wanted all along. A chance to prove that the God and Goddess love mankind very dearly. After Jesus' resurrection, Jesus explained the Mystery of the Ineffable to his disciples, and the first one to understand was Mary Magdalene. You see, there is one difference between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Jesus was the physical form of God, son of the Light, coming into the world having some remembrance (if not full) of who he actually is. Mary Magdalene was the physical form of the Goddess, daughter of the Light, coming into the world not remembering who she is. This is why Jesus said, "And greater things shall ye do than I have done." Which is harder, achieving what Jesus did while knowing, or achieving what Mary did while not knowing? ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
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