I think calling your Creation ideas a myth might not be useful also. Because your Creation Story is how you think you came about as a spirit here on earth. How did you get here from wherever you came from. Of course if you believe you are ONLY a human body here on earth that might also help you write in that vein too. However, defining your existence from your own experiences in this lifetime I find to be very empowering. Why?
Because most of your life people are telling you what to believe. And if you are able to free your own mind and to think for yourselves then you begin to be able to define what is actually going on and where you came from too which is very empowering or can be if you are brave enough to do this.
So, writing your own personal Creation story might be important to your own psychological and physical and mental survival on into old age.
If you go through life as a slave to other people's beliefs and don't allow your own beliefs to flourish then you will die a slave maybe not physically a slave but you will die a slave to others beliefs that may not be your own. And often these beliefs were forced down your throat as a child. Why not free yourself to be able to form your own thoughts and your own beliefs in the Sight of God?
This idea first came to me when I started to study all the different creation stories of every tribe I studied in Anthropology not only here in the U.S. but in all nations on earth originally.
What I realized as I studied this was how very important and personally empowering it is for individuals to write down their creation story experience. Why is this?
Because when someone does this it permanently changes their life for the better and often creates a better future for their whole family as well as themselves.
My future totally changed starting in 1980 when I first wrote about Saint Germain (ARCANE). It took me to doing a vision Quest with a Blackfoot Sioux medicine man in 1983. It took me to meeting my first Tibetan Lama around 1980 in Ashland Oregon. It took me to India and Nepal with my family for 4 months from December of 1985 until April of 1986. It completely changed my life and spun the Dharma wheel in all our lives and gave us all a new and better future ongoing.
by God's Grace
So, I recommend people write down their personal Creation stories even if only they read them to empower themselves and their children and friends into much better lives than before over time.
By God's Grace
Writing a Creation Story experience is sort of like writing your own Bible that comes from your soul and the angels around you directly.
By God's Grace
This is incredibly powerful and catapults your soul and the souls of your family forward into the arms of God as a personal experience!
When I was studying anthropology at UCSC in Santa Cruz California I began to see as I studied tribes of people all over the world how they each had their own Creation Stories. It wasn't that any of their stories were either right or wrong it was that they were just like the major religions of the world telling their creation stories. So, I came upon the idea that I began to believe that everyone needs to write down their personal creation story or stories and thereby BE their own religion so to speak.
This is useful because it doesn't really matte whether you believe in God or not what matters is that you believe in something or else you wouldn't still be alive today even if it is only believing in yourself or someone you love like a parent or grandparent or religious figure or something. Maybe you believe in Taylor Swift because she is a good performer. My wife and our adopted Daughter almost went to Edinburgh, Scotland and my Adopted daughter had already bought tickets for this when she wound up getting pregnant for the 2nd time and eventually had another little boy.
So, if she hadn't gotten pregnant the two of them surely would have gone to Edinburgh, Scotland for this concert of Taylor Swift's.
The point is: "Whatever your present beliefs are sometimes writing these beliefs down will help you survive your life better."
For example, when I began writing at age 8 when my 16 year old male cousin died in a car accident it was very serious business for me because I really had no one to talk to much about my cousin dying. Even when I was 50 in 1998 when another male cousin died because he was upset because he worked for Boeing in Seattle because one of the planes he helped build (or more than one) crashed in New York or other places on September 11th 2001, so he was dead within a couple of weeks of this. So, this was difficult for me to deal with too.
The point is writing down your beliefs in any given moment at any age helps you to navigate your life better. Even if it is telling a story about what you believe can be really important.
Eventually even though I started writing about Arcane (Saint Germain) in one of his incarnations in 1980 it wasn't until 1998 and 1999 while I was preparing to die that I realized that these were actually about past, present and future lifetimes that my soul remembers simply because a soul doesn't naturally live in time or space (but can while clothed with a human body here on earth).
So, writing about what you presently believe (even though this often can evolve and change through your life) might be helpful in better navigating your life and being successful in life.
What is being successful in life?
I think it's about being happy enough in your life to actually choose each day to stay alive.
People think that life just goes on and on and on.
Nope!
We choose each day each moment whether we will continue to live on or not.
This is the real truth of life even though many don't want to face this.
Because I faced this every day for about 4 or 5 years from ages 21 to 25 I fully get this.
However, once my son who is now 51 was born I decided to stick around and raise him right.
Now he has his own wife and 11 year old son in Oregon.
So, life goes on with us or without us!
It's each of our choice to live on one day after another.
I choose life because I'm happy with my life.
I never expected to be this happy at age 77.
This is a really big surprise to me especially after 21 to 25 years old!
It can be a very personal thing that you never share with another human being.
It can be a very public thing like in a Blog or a Video Log (Vlog).
But, if you can it's good to describe what you believe is reality for you.
Where did you come from?
Where did the world come from?
What is your best guess?
What has experience taught you?
What have your Dreams and Lucid Dreaming Taught you?
Defining what you believe is true now and always and forever is useful to you in your life.
And you can add to it when life gives you more visions and dreams and experiences as you meet
people and traveling all over the world or into space and visit other planets or stars in the future (or the past, present or future) in various ways.
Your very own Creation Story will empower you because it is your personal religion.
Public religions mostly for social intercourse of people communing with each other.
They really aren't what most people believe in their heart of hearts.
So, writing down or blogging your true beliefs about your history now, in the past and in the future
will empower you forward in your lives ongoing.
You don't have to stop going to your church if you don't want to.
You don't have to even believe in God if that doesn't work for you.
However, it is important to empower yourself for a long life as a human being if you don't just want to accidentally die tomorrow just because you don't value yourself and what you actually believe enough today.
I think the "Or more" is appropriate here simply because we have 8 billion people on earth. Therefore it is theoretically possible that we also have 8 billion Creation Myths and I greatly encourage people to write down their Creation myths for themselves and their children and generations to come. Why? Because why should you believe what someone thousands of years ago thought? Why not form your own educated opinion of what you think and you believe instead. People in the past are just like us and not really different. So, why not write down what you believe happened instead of just listening to other people's ideas?
A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony,[2] a symbolicnarrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it.[3][4][5] While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths.[6][7] In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally.[8][9] They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.[10]
Creation myths often share several features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions.[11] They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily.[12] They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore ('at that time').[11][13] Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context.[14]
Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions;[4] found throughout human culture, they are the most common form of myth.[8]
A "symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as
understood in a particular tradition and community. Creation myths are
of central importance for the valuation of the world, for the
orientation of humans in the universe, and for the basic patterns of
life and culture."[15]
"Creation myths tell us how things began. All cultures have creation
myths; they are our primary myths, the first stage in what might be
called the psychic life of the species. As cultures, we identify
ourselves through the collective dreams we call creation myths, or cosmogonies.
... Creation myths explain in metaphorical terms our sense of who we
are in the context of the world, and in so doing they reveal our real
priorities, as well as our real prejudices. Our images of creation say a
great deal about who we are."[16]
A "philosophical and theological elaboration of the primal myth of
creation within a religious community. The term myth here refers to the
imaginative expression in narrative form of what is experienced or
apprehended as basic reality ... The term creation refers to the
beginning of things, whether by the will and act of a transcendent
being, by emanation from some ultimate source, or in any other way."[17]
Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined the word myth in terms of creation:
Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place
in primordial Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words,
myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality
came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a
fragment of reality – an island, a species of plant, a particular kind
of human behavior, an institution.[18]
Meaning and function
In Daoist creation myth, "The Way gave birth to unity; unity gave birth to duality; duality gave birth to trinity; trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures." (Daodejing, 4th century BCE)[19]
Creation myths have been around since ancient history and have served important societal roles. Over 100 "distinct" ones have been discovered.[20] All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how the world formed and where humanity came from.[21] Myths attempt to explain the unknown and sometimes teach a lesson.[22][23]
Ethnologists and anthropologists[which?] who study origin myths say that in the modern context theologians try to discern humanity's meaning from revealed truths and scientists investigate cosmology with the tools of empiricism and rationality, but creation myths define human reality in very different terms. In the past, historians of religion and other students of myth thought of such stories as forms of primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or logical sense. Today, however, they are seen[by whom?] as symbolic narratives which must be understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles Long
writes: "The beings referred to in the myth – gods, animals, plants –
are forms of power grasped existentially. The myths should not be
understood as attempts to work out a rational explanation of deity."[24]
While creation myths are not literal explications,
they do serve to define an orientation of humanity in the world in
terms of a birth story. They provide the basis of a worldview that
reaffirms and guides how people relate to the natural world, to any assumed spiritual world, and to each other. A creation myth acts as a cornerstone for distinguishing primary reality from relative reality, the origin and nature of being from non-being.[25] In this sense cosmogonic myths serve as a philosophy of life – but one expressed and conveyed through symbol rather than through systematic reason. And in this sense they go beyond etiological myths
(which explain specific features in religious rites, natural phenomena,
or cultural life). Creation myths also help to orient human beings in
the world, giving them a sense of their place in the world and the
regard that they must have for humans and nature.[3]
Historian David Christian has summarised issues common to multiple creation myths:
How did everything begin? This is
the first question faced by any creation myth and ... answering it
remains tricky. ... Each beginning seems to presuppose an earlier
beginning. ... Instead of meeting a single starting point, we encounter
an infinity of them, each of which poses the same problem. ... There are
no entirely satisfactory solutions to this dilemma. What we have to
find is not a solution but some way of dealing with the mystery .... And
we have to do so using words. The words we reach for, from God to gravity,
are inadequate to the task. So we have to use language poetically or
symbolically; and such language, whether used by a scientist, a poet, or
a shaman, can easily be misunderstood.[26]
Mythologists
have applied various schemes to classify creation myths found
throughout human cultures. Eliade and his colleague Charles Long
developed a classification based on some common motifs that reappear in stories the world over. The classification identifies five basic types:[28]
Creation ex nihilo in which the creation is through the thought, word, dream, or bodily secretions of a divine being.
Earth-diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world.
Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a series of worlds and metamorphoses until reaching the present world.
Creation by the dismemberment of a primordial being.
Creation by the splitting or ordering of a primordial unity such as the cracking of a cosmic egg or a bringing order from chaos.
Marta Weigle further developed and refined this typology to highlight nine themes, adding elements such as deus faber,
a creation crafted by a deity, creation from the work of two creators
working together or against each other, creation from sacrifice and
creation from division/conjugation, accretion/conjunction, or secretion.[28]
An alternative system based on six recurring narrative themes was designed by Raymond Van Over:[28]
Primeval abyss, an infinite expanse of waters or space
Originator deity which is awakened or an eternal entity within the abyss
The myth that Godcreated the world out of nothing – ex nihilo – is central today to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides felt it was the only concept that the three religions shared.[29] Nonetheless, the concept is not found in the entire Hebrew Bible.[30]
The authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not with the origins of matter
(the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with
assigning roles so that the cosmos should function.[31]
In the early 2nd century CE, early Christian scholars were beginning to
see a tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence
of God, and by the beginning of the 3rd century creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology.[32]
Ex nihilo creation is found in creation stories from ancient Egypt, the Rig Veda, and many animistic cultures in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and North America.[33]
In most of these stories, the world is brought into being by the
speech, dream, breath, or pure thought of a creator but creation ex
nihilo may also take place through a creator's bodily secretions.
The literal translation of the phrase ex nihilo is "from
nothing" but in many creation myths the line is blurred whether the
creative act would be better classified as a creation ex nihilo or creation from chaos. In ex nihilo
creation myths, the potential and the substance of creation springs
from within the creator. Such a creator may or may not be existing in
physical surroundings such as darkness or water, but does not create the
world from them, whereas in creation from chaos the substance used for
creation is pre-existing within the unformed void.[34]
In creation from chaos myths, there is nothing initially but a
formless, shapeless expanse. In these stories the word "chaos" means
"disorder", and this formless expanse, which is also sometimes called a
void or an abyss, contains the material with which the created world
will be made. Chaos may be described as having the consistency of vapor
or water, dimensionless, and sometimes salty or muddy. These myths
associate chaos with evil and oblivion, in contrast to "order" (cosmos)
which is the good. The act of creation is the bringing of order from
disorder, and in many of these cultures it is believed that at some
point the forces preserving order and form will weaken and the world
will once again be engulfed into the abyss.[35] One example is the Genesis creation narrative from the first chapter of the Book of Genesis.
There are two types of world parent myths, both describing a
separation or splitting of a primeval entity, the world parent or
parents. One form describes the primeval state as an eternal union of
two parents, and the creation takes place when the two are pulled apart.
The two parents are commonly identified as Sky (usually male) and Earth
(usually female), who were so tightly bound to each other in the
primeval state that no offspring could emerge. These myths often depict
creation as the result of a sexual union and serve as genealogical
record of the deities born from it.[36]
In the second form of world parent myths, creation itself springs
from dismembered parts of the body of the primeval being. Often, in
these stories, the limbs, hair, blood, bones, or organs of the primeval
being are somehow severed or sacrificed to transform into sky, earth,
animal or plant life, and other worldly features. These myths tend to
emphasize creative forces as animistic in nature rather than sexual, and
depict the sacred as the elemental and integral component of the
natural world.[37] One example of this is the Norse creation myth described in "Völuspá", the first poem in the Poetic Edda, and in Gylfaginning.[38]
Emergence
In
emergence myths, humanity emerges from another world into the one they
currently inhabit. The previous world is often considered the womb of
the earth mother,
and the process of emergence is likened to the act of giving birth. The
role of midwife is usually played by a female deity, like the spider
woman of several mythologies of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Male
characters rarely figure into these stories, and scholars often
consider them in counterpoint to male-oriented creation myths, like
those of the ex nihilo variety.[21]
Emergence myths commonly describe the creation of people and/or supernatural beings as a staged ascent or metamorphosis
from nascent forms through a series of subterranean worlds to arrive at
their current place and form. Often the passage from one world or stage
to the next is impelled by inner forces, a process of germination or
gestation from earlier, embryonic forms.[39][40]
The genre is most commonly found in Native American cultures where the
myths frequently link the final emergence of people from a hole opening
to the underworld to stories about their subsequent migrations and
eventual settlement in their current homelands.[41]
The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation
myths. In these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal (most
often a type of bird, but also crustaceans, insects, and fish in some
narratives)[42] into the primal waters to find bits of sand or mud with which to build habitable land.[43] Some scholars interpret these myths psychologically while others interpret them cosmogonically. In both cases emphasis is placed on beginnings emanating from the depths.[44]
American anthropologist Gladys Reichard
located the distribution of the motif across "all parts of North
America", save for "the extreme north, northeast, and southwest".[46] In a 1977 study, anthropologist Victor Barnouw surmised that the earth-diver motif appeared in "hunting-gathering societies", mainly among northerly groups such as the Hare, Dogrib, Kaska, Beaver, Carrier, Chipewyan, Sarsi, Cree, and Montagnais.[47]
Similar tales are also found among the Chukchi and Yukaghir, the Tatars, and many Finno-Ugric traditions,[48] as well as among the Buryat and the Samoyed.[49] In addition, the earth-diver motif also exists in narratives from Eastern Europe, namely Romani,[50] Romanian,[51]Slavic (namely, Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian), and Lithuanian mythological traditions.[52]
The pattern of distribution of these stories suggest they have a common origin in the eastern Asiatic coastal region, spreading as peoples migrated west into Siberia and east to the North American continent.[53][54] However, there are examples of this mytheme found well outside of this boreal distribution pattern, for example the West African Yoruba creation myth of Ọbatala and Oduduwa.[55][56]
Native American narrative
Characteristic
of many Native American myths, earth-diver creation stories begin as
beings and potential forms linger asleep or suspended in the primordial
realm. The earth-diver is among the first of them to awaken and lay the
necessary groundwork by building suitable lands where the coming
creation will be able to live. In many cases, these stories will
describe a series of failed attempts to make land before the solution is
found.[57][58]
Among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the earth-diver cosmogony is attested in Iroquois mythology: a female sky deity falls from the heavens, and certain animals, the beaver, the otter, the duck, and the muskrat dive in the waters to fetch mud to construct an island.[59][60]
In a similar story from the Seneca,
people lived in a sky realm. One day, the chief's daughter was
afflicted with a mysterious illness, and the only cure recommended for
her (revealed in a dream) was to lie beside a tree and to have it be dug
up. The people do so, but a man complains that the tree was their
livelihood, and kicks the girl through the hole. She ends up falling
from the sky to a world of only water, but is rescued by waterfowl.
A turtle offers to bear her on its shell, but asked where would be a
definitive dwelling place for her. They decide to create land, and the toad
dives into the depths of the primal sea to get pieces of soil. The toad
puts it on the turtle's back, which grows larger with every deposit of
soil.[61]
In another version from the Wyandot, the Wyandot lived in heaven. The daughter of the Big Chief (or Mighty Ruler) was sick, so the medicine man
recommends that they dig up the wild apple tree that stands next to the
Lodge of the Mighty Ruler, because the remedy is to be found on its
roots. However, as the tree has been dug out, the ground begins to sink
away, and the treetops catch and carry down the sick daughter with it.
As the girl falls from the skies, two swans rescue her on their backs.
The birds decide to summon all the Swimmers and the Water Tribes. Many
volunteer to dive into the Great Water to fetch bits of earth from the
bottom of the sea, but only the toad (female, in the story) is the one
successful.[62]
Womack 2005, p. 81,
"Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and
its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral
traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions."
"Creation Stories". Signs & Symbols – An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings. DK Publishing. 2008. p. 157. ISBN978-1405325394. For many they are not a literal account of events, but may be perceived as symbolic of a deeper truth.
"In
common usage the word 'myth' refers to narratives or beliefs that are
untrue or merely fanciful; the stories that make up national or ethnic
mythologies describe characters and events that common sense and
experience tell us are impossible. Nevertheless, all cultures celebrate
such myths and attribute to them various degrees of literal or symbolic truth." (Leeming 2010, p. xvii)
Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes. Ancient Civilizations. US History.org - Ancient Greece: "Myths were used to help explain the unknown and sometimes teach a lesson."
Culture, Religion, & Myth: Interdisciplinary Approaches.
Cora Agatucci. Central Oregon Community College. - " A mythology or
belief system often concerns supernatural beings/powers of a culture,
provides a rationale for a culture's religion and practices, and
reflects how people relate to each other in everyday life. "
Tristam P. Coffin, ed. (1961). Indian Tales of North America: An Anthology for the Adult Reader. New York, USA: University of Texas Press. p. 3. doi:10.7560/735064-003. S2CID243789306. The
most common Indian myth begins with a primeval water, out of which some
animal brings up a few grains of sand or mud which a culture hero then
develops into the world
Reichard, Gladys A. "Literary Types and Dissemination of Myths". In: The Journal of American Folklore 34, no. 133 (1921): 274-275. https://doi.org/10.2307/535151.
Barnouw, Victor. Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977. pp. 59 (map 2), 57, 60.
"King's Crown Story". The Minneapolis institute of Art. citing Lloyd, P. C. "Sacred Kingship and Government among the Yoruba". Africa. 30 (3): 222–223.
Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indians. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard university press, 1929. pp. 14-15, 278.
Barbeau, Marius. Huron and Wyandot mythology, with an appendix containing earlier published records. Ottawa, Government Printing Bureau. 1915. pp. 303-304.
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