Creation Stories

Where did all this come from? Well you know you opened your computer to read this blog. You planted your garden from seeds you either gathered or bought, were born to your parents. Everything began somewhere, didn't it?

But what about all of this? What do you think about how the universe began and an even tougher question-- why? Next comes: why do you know the stories you do about creation? For most it will have come through parents, maybe Sunday School, friends, reading books, and what it is will have been much influenced by what community you grew up in. Some have had personal experiences, but often those are influenced by what they were expecting to have.

If for creation, you believe in science and have accepted evolution as a sole explanation, you are still left with 'how did the gases get there?' Nothing comes from nothing except something had to-- no matter what religion or science you espouse. No matter how you reason through things, you are back to a mystery. [My friend reminded me that more and more science is creating things out of 'nothing' but anything in this universe is using what is already here as the starting blocks. What about when 'nothing' was here?]

For those who use the Bible as their total reference for truth, it doesn't tell them where God came from nor how He (using he but understanding in Scripture, God is not man or woman in the human sense. Since I don't plan to say she/he/it every time I write something, I'll alternate) got here or there or wherever anything is-- including us. (With how easy it is to go in circles, it's not hard to see why people don't try to reason far when looking at the subject of existence itself.)

The Bible says He just was... or rather they. Because as well as Scripture not having god as male or female; it also doesn't have god as one entity. We are told there can only be one god in places like the Ten Commandments yet in Genesis it says-- Let Us make man in our image. What is this 'us' business? For Christians it would be Father, Son and Holy Spirit but that still left a problem until they coined the term (which is not actually in Scripture) Trinity... and left it a mystery. Can't have multiple gods... or can we?

Most of what we know spiritually has come through human interpretations and humans vary a lot for how effective they are at that interpreting. If you believe the Bible is literally the word of God, you would believe She didn't allow for error-- except ever read different translations today that change meanings totally to suit the political times? Guess God doesn't care about translations? Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux holy man, said it well-- he wanted to be a hollow bone for God, a conduit for truth who didn't let his humanness get in the way. We, who wish to share spiritual truths or learn them, do our darnedest to do that, but we are in the end using human vessels-- with all the good and bad that carries with it.

I have a good friend who has experienced many different things than I have spiritually. Through teachings from tribal elders when he was a child, books he read, and finally his own exploration via out-of body travel, to go beyond the physical limits, he found answers that are outside the box many will probably have heard or even be comfortable with-- until you think that whatever you believe, it's all a mystery if you try to understand it beyond the child level.

He and I have discussed such things many times through the years, and he has shown great patience with me as I ask questions again and again that he had answered but I didn't 'get.' For the two of us, if it hadn't been an internet friendship, we could have sat around campfires discussing these things with the smoke rising in the black night sky (maybe we did in some forgotten past). I have had some of my best conversations on spiritual truths with the night sounds and a fire to stare into as each in the group shared their ideas and even sang them.

The last few weeks I've had a lot of questions; and what he gave me back, I not only found fascinating, but decided I wanted to share with others. So for the next three blogs, which will be clearly labeled Creation for those who do not want to consider such right now, my blog will be his words. (I asked his permission as my interpreting it only gets me more confused.)

I am not putting this out to convince anyone. I do so because it's good for us to consider different things, and alternate views of creation aren't what we hear much-- especially not from someone we trust as I do him. What he has told me is very different than what I grew up with, and yet it fits with a lot of what I have been learning as I get into my elder years (and have heard from other intuitive friends). What he believes and has been taught might disturb or might intrigue you to explore further.

He has basically challenged me and would you also to find truth for ourselves-- not rely on any book or anyone else's experiences. He says we all can and should have been taught how to do this in our own cultures at the earliest age of comprehension. We should not depend on others for knowing what is true. There are keys to the universe and how it works, and we can find them and use them.

Some years ago, I explored some of this and came to a roadblock in my ability to go beyond the feeling that life is a mystery that it exists at all. For the last few years, I have been content to just be where I am. Exploring my personal options and choices, looking at what I am doing or didn't do, has been tough enough frankly. But maybe it is now my time to once again look outside my box and see what is there.

So if you are interested in such, pretend for the next three blogs that we are around a campfire, the night is dark, an owl hooting in the distance, and we are listening to someone talk about the structure of this universe and its reason for being-- as best that person understands it.

The tepee (tipi, teepee) is another of my computer paintings. I didn't use it as a symbol here because my friend got some of his information from tribal elders, who lived in houses like ours (although even today when I have seen powwows or encampments at places like Bear Butte in South Dakota, there will be the circles of tepees... of course also usually trailers).

However, I use it because I believe spiritual truths are to be shared communally and a tepee seems a good symbol for that. This painting also shows the way man at one time was very connected to nature by living closer to it. Beyond the small community of people were physical dangers and an unknown cosmos. Stories were exchanged, told and retold to educate people because it was a life or death matter in the physical sense as well as giving reason to existence-- something all men struggle with if they think on it at all.