You've just entered the theater of an alien sky.
If the words and images seem strange to you, there's a reason for this.
Our world was once a vastly different place.
To experience this won't hurt you, and there is nothing to fear.
Remembering the "First Time"
Numerous mythic traditions say that from primeval chaos
a pillar arose to separate a created world into upper and lower divisions.
By following the ancient stories of this cosmic pillar,
we are led invariably and perhaps surprisingly
to another archetype called the "Beginning of time."
In our previous episode, we noted the role of the Egyptian pillar God, Shu,
whose upraised arms separated the all-encompassing primeval unity, Atum,
into regions above and below.
Across the land of Egypt, the creation texts identify the event as the Zep Tepi,
the "First Time"... "...When the gods inaugurated the beginning of time."
We also observed this idea attached to the Sumerian and Babylonian God, Enlil,
called the "Great Mountain" or "Pillar of the Sky."
Like the Egyptian Shu, Enlil divided a pre-existing unity
into two regions - one above, one below.
The word for that original unity was "Anki,"
a combination of the very words for above and below, "An" and "Ki",
a remarkable counterpart to the story of Egyptian Shu.
And every New Year, the Babylonian calendrical rituals
looked back to this event as the "Beginning of Time."
By comparing the ancient traditions, we discover a complex of connected themes.
The mythic archetypes include: undifferentiated watery chaos in the beginning;
emergence of a cosmic pillar from these untamed celestial waters;
identity of this pillar with the first activity of the cosmic warrior;
role of this pillar god in separating primeval formlessness
into visible regions above and below;
role of a revolving crescent in the polar opposition of these two regions;
a central star around which the crescent revolved;
and the beginning of time-keeping in these very events.
In our reconstruction, we relate this story directly
to the emergence of the Polar Configuration -
a pillar rising along the Earth axis and identified with the first activity of the planet Mars;
a central star at the summit identified as the planet Venus;
and an illuminated crescent on the planet Saturn,
this crescent visually revolving around the central star as the Earth rotated on its axis.
Once recognized, the consequent mythic archetypes are as impossible to deny
as they are impossible to explain through natural phenomena occurring today.
From this new perspective, the arrival of the revolving crescent
and the polar opposition of that crescent in the daily cycle
meant exactly the same thing as the primeval differentiation of day and night.
The subject is the first timepiece in the sky.
And as we expand our field of view, the details of these archetypes
and their connections to each other become ever more clear.
The mythic world egg
Chinese traditions declared that in the beginning Heaven and Earth,
meaning the regions above and below, were joined together like a chicken's egg
but later separated.
Or particularly, the Yukagir describe the upper region of the egg
as a prominent arc with the ends turned down
while depicting the lower region as a prominent arc with the ends turned up.
That depiction offers a surprising agreement with the reconstruction we presented here,
with no plausible explanation in currently observed phenomena.
In the Chinese silk manuscript, it was the ancestral Pangu
who separated the original unity into above and below,
using his own body as a pillar to force apart the two regions.
Cross-cultural investigation confirms this unique archetype,
the role of a cosmic pillar (something never seen in our own time)
to a universally remembered event.
For the Vietnamese, it was the ancestral giant Kong
who separated above and below, placing a pillar between the two.
Japanese creation accounts say that an original unified sphere called "Inyo"
was divided into two parts, "In" and "Yo."
These twin powers were born from formlessness or chaos
at the beginning of time, emerging as opposites around a central axial column.
This column named "Ame-no-Tokatachi-no-Mikoto"
was the "heavenly august pillar" or the "heavenly eternally standing deity."
Japanese creation mythology identifies the pillar god as
"The prop supporting heaven and separating heaven and earth."
In later variations on the story, the two divisions were popularized
and artistically stylized as the dualities Yin and Yang.
In Hindu creation accounts, it was the prototypical warrior Indra
who divided the original monad into regions above and below,
the god himself standing as a pillar to hold the separation in place.
In later times Vedic astronomers had good reason to name the celestial pole
as the "Pole of Indra," honoring Indra as the god who "propped up heaven from earth
at the beginning of time."
The beginning of time - the language is remarkably consistent.
Based on the archetypal context, we can say with utmost confidence
that the words mean literally "before which no time-keeping was possible."
We see the same memories across the South Pacific
where a great warrior, the son of heaven,
is said to have divided an undifferentiated world into the primal pair.
For example, the Maori of New Zealand recounted how the legendary warrior Tane,
called the "Prop of Heaven," separated an original unity
into the first parents, Ranginui and Papatuanuku.
The Maori remember this event as the emergence of light and dark:
"Darkness was made manifest and so was the light" -
from a primeval haze/chaos at the beginning of time.
And so the Hawaiian myths make clear that the original male and female powers,
named Ao and Po, first appeared within the primeval waters at the "beginning of time."
This was when the creator god separated Ao and Po,
bringing the first day and night and making possible the world as we know it.
The global repetitions of the theme are nearly endless.
Like the Egyptian warrior Shu and the Mesopotamian warrior Enlil,
the Maya warrior Tepeu is said to have first separated above and below,
typically mistranslated as the separation of heaven and earth.
The Moseten tribes of Bolivia recall a huge serpent,
taking the form of a pillar to hold apart two regions, above and below.
While the New Hebrides version says it was an eel
that arose pillar-like from the primeval chaos
to divide an original formless power into divisions above and below.
But again the translators render above and below as heaven and earth.
Adding a somewhat comical texture is the North American warrior-trickster Coyote,
said to have been present at the creation to have raised a great mountain
and even said to have helped in the separation of heaven and earth.
This universal idea deserves much greater attention
from students of the ancient languages and cultures.
An entire complex of mythology traces to the activity of a revolving crescent
above a cosmic pillar, taking us back to the earliest ideas of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
This collective memory could not be accidental.
The revolving crescent was the decisive agent in the separation of above and below,
since its revolution was the archaic cycle of day and night
as the Polar Configuration grew bright then dimmed.
Here was the universal beginning of time-keeping
well before the counting of months or years under the present arrangement of the sky.
Such memories coming down to us from every corner of the ancient world
can only reinforce our conclusion
that the mythic archetypes originated in an unfamiliar world.
As we explore the ancient context, letting words mean what they say,
the implications become ever more clear.
The global archetypes would not even be possible
without the visible towering forms anciently revered on every habitable continent.
Always look for the underlying form!