#origin myth

[nickysfacts]

The Ancient Egyptians were number 1 and the proof is in stone!𓉶

☀️⛰️☀️

[shelleysworldbuildingproject]

The Myth of Creation and the Three Realms

Most accounts of the Myth of Creation begin with the Dreaming, the first realm. The Dreaming is a plane of pure potential, of dreams and nightmares. Dreams need dreamers, however, and so the second realm, the Sprit Realm, was created. The spirits dreamed, and those dreams became reality.

This state of creation lasted for many ages, until the Spirit Realm became truly endless in its expanses. However, this state could not continue indefinitely. One dream, in this age of boundless imagination, was different than the rest--the dream of Mortality, of impermanence. No one truly knows who or what conceived this dream, but it was so powerful and profound that, when made real by the Dreaming, it spawned the third and final realm--the Mortal Realm.

The creation of the Mortal Realm came with many wonders: Galaxies and solar systems, stars and planets and moons, and our world, the world of Nairos. A new age of creation began, one where spirits traversed the realms and wandered this strange new world, leaving it shaped and changed in their wake.

It is said that spirits of flame and stone burrowed into the world's core and created land from the flow of their magma. Spirits of the wind and sky took the vapors from volcanoes and filled the sky with breathable air. The Queen of Storms brought down the first rains, filling the oceans, seas, rivers and lakes. The Lord of the Sun and his siblings, the Morning and Evening Stars, calmed the harsh rays of the sun and stars so life could foster. Spirits of nature filled the oceans and lands with plants, and bestial spirits bred the first animals.

The world was brimming with life, but aside from the visiting spirits, sapience, the ability to think and reason, was not found. The arrival of humanity changed this. Like the realm we inhabit, no one knows who or what spawned the first humans. There are many origins for humanity; some that tell of powerful spirits molding the first people from clay or stone, others that say humans evolved independently of outside interference, and some even claiming the Dreaming itself created humanity, that we were the last dream made real.

In any case, this much is true: The world of Nairos fostered us, and we flourished in turn; Growing and spreading and quickly coming to rule this world of ours.

Notes: So this is my first actual post! The basic cosmology of my setting. As you can probably tell, I took a lot of inspiration from Unsleeping City and Worlds Beyond Number for this one. As I go along I'll make it more original, but I'm working with the bare-bones right now. Let me know if you have any feedback!

[troger]

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

A cruel deity spied on everyone from a shitty patch of the sky, where it was more mud-colored than that celestial blue-black that helps our stars to stand out. He was a He, and he saw all of the people as an Us, and so he was bitter and wrathful when he realized his loneliness. He saw the mighty garden, he saw how fertile the soil was, and how varied the garden culture was, and he just twisted even tighter in his knobbed and dry identity. He sent down a bad pod to shove itself and burrow into the garden, and while one man was harvesting more than he needed one day, he held the extra in his hands and he turned his eyes to the side, towards something that whispered to him. It was the imposter pod. It had become a plant. Think of it like this: the story is not that a woman named Eve ate an apple, but that a man bent down, his hands filled with the weight of having more than his share. This made-up ancient man who I am putting in this useful story did not walk toward the community, but instead opened his mouth, and the pod plant slithered right in. The vine sprouted greed and loneliness and panic in the man. The vine said, "You should have it all. It should all be you. Everyone else is trying to make you less of you and you need to stop them." The first man with the root of the alien vine in his body went out and opened his mouth again in front of others, and the vine shot into every single person that he spoke to, and they all took the vine and the lie into themselves.

Jenny Slate, “The Root: A Made-Up Myth,” Little Weirds

This is the best origin myth I’ve ever seen. Please read “Little Weirds” or listen to her audiobook, it’s such a comforting, original, and lovely work.

[imperium-romanum]

For you were (not) slaves in Egypt: The ancient memories behind the Exodus myth

***

The Passover narrative is one of the greatest stories ever told. More than any other biblical account, the escape of the enslaved Hebrews from Egypt is the foundational story of the Jewish faith and identity, one that all Jews are commanded to pass on from generation to generation.

Also, it never happened.

For decades now, most researchers have agreed that there is no evidence to suggest that the Exodus narrative reflects a specific historical event. Rather, it is an origin myth for the Jewish people that has been constructed, redacted, written and rewritten over centuries to include multiple layers of traditions, experiences and memories from a host of different sources and periods.

Continue reading

[nemfrog]

The god shu separating Sibu, the earth god, and Nuit, goddess of the sky. The dawn of civilization : Egypt and Chaldæa. 1894.

[lifeinpoetry]

the girl who spent

days making birds from lighting & clay to feel less alone became a god.

— Alfredo Aguilar, from “Origin Myth,” published in The Shallow Ends