Origins: Navajo Creation Myth

*NOTE: This is not to be marked! I posted this during the holidays for fun since it’d be boring if our blog didn’t have anything new in it for two weeks!*

Darkness surrounded the atmosphere and nothing existed. No air for the earth to live on, no such thing as heaven or hell, no creatures that dominated the world. Suddenly, a voice spoke out to this darkness that was filled with love, power, and understanding. Light shone and blazed from each end of the emptiness. Slowly, as each day passed, creatures, land, sea, and sky were created lovingly as it made into existence. Finally, man was made and out of him a woman who became his wife and helper as they both took care of the newly made world that they lived in.

That was just an example of a creation story (that is accurate according to my personal belief) and there are just so many others that lay hidden in people’s traditions. Aboriginals’ stories are quite interesting and it made me wonder of how closely related most of these stories are to one another. In fact, the Bible seemed to be copied in many other historical documents/ belief systems of ancient times! There seemed to be a creator or a flood in every myth around the world similar to that of the flood mentioned in the story of Noah. It made me realize just how close we really are despite the large geographical differences that separated people hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years ago!

The Navajo’s creation myth is strangely close to the Bible’s Book of Genesis. A long time ago, Begochiddy, the Great God, created four worlds in which the first creatures came out. These people were not described as the people we know today for they were insects and animals of many kinds. First Man, First Woman and Spider Woman (she taught the people how to weave) came out of three of these worlds into the ‘Glittering World’ (the fourth world) and they build and met in a Hogan (house) to arrange the world that they were to live in. By this time, Begochiddy had already created the humans in whom he breathed into (earth people) and who occupied the earth’s soil. The Great God was glad that he created these things for it was all good.

The ‘Holy People’, or the other gods of the world, began to place sacred stones and mountains to mark their territory. As they painted the sky and organized the sun and moon into place, the Coyote (Child of Dawn Light) was mischievous as he spattered the stars randomly into the night after being impatient from the long tedious process of organizing the world. The Coyote was also responsible for unleashing monsters into the world after kidnapping a Water-Monster child and hidden it in his lair.

These monsters, storms and floods which drowned the world claimed many lives of the earth people. If it were not for Ever Changing Woman who married the Sun and bore twins, the earth should have surely perished. ‘Monster Slayer’ and ‘Child Born of Water’ killed off the evils of the world and were renowned as legendary heroes of the day. The ‘Holy People’ created clans of people then after the monsters were killed and rid of and three other groups of people joined these clans as they were created by the Ever Changing Woman. They together lived in harmony and peace for many years to come.

There were many other interpretations of the Navajo myth, but this is the one which grabbed my attention. My interpretation is actually a combination of two resources but the ending, I researched on the net. In many ways, this myth is very close to what we learn in school. Some great God created the world, created men, breathed into them and took charge of what he created. It was different this time because there were other worlds, other gods, and other methods of explaining an evil spirit (in their case, it would be monsters and in our case, it would be demons). When I think about it, I realize just how close these people would get to the truth. I also begin to understand why these myths always contained a sort of Creator. Look at the world, at nature, at the complexity of human character and we would truly see God’s glory in all its majesty.

*Yeah, I hope I got most of the Navajo myth (or belief) correct since the net didn’t have much on this topic... Sorry for any mistakes I may have made! Anyway, hoped that you enjoyed this myth, that is, if you haven’t known it already :)*