Yet Another Creation Myth

In the beginning there was nothing.

Then, for no reason in particular, there was no longer nothing and darkness reigned instead. This wasn’t much better.

Out of this darkness was born a child. It was at first completely content to just think and be, but eventually, over millennia, it grew bored. Then it was lonely. Then it became sad.

Utterly alone in the deep darkness, the child cried quietly to itself. But when at last it opened its eyes, it saw to its amazement that its tears had drifted away until they were everywhere, and they shone bright and white like diamonds in the black.

The stars had been born.

The child was no longer alone and it played with the shining tears and moved them around until they formed shapes. These were the constellations. The child named the shapes and named all of the stars and loved them so dearly that eventually, they became aware and alive.

But the stars, though they were born of love and shone brightly and beautifully, had no hearts. The child gave them love, but they wanted to be worshipped.

Eventually, one star said: “I will create a thing that is lesser than me and give to this thing life so that it may honour me.”

So the star asked the child for an eyelash which the child willingly gave, and the star fashioned it into a rose. The rose was beautiful, though of course not so beautiful as the star, but it was cold and alone and soon its delicate red petals fell and it withered and died.

“Fool,” said a second star. “Living things must have a place to live and such a small thing as that cannot survive adrift in the darkness.”

So the second star asked the child for a lock of hair and a shard of bone, and the child gave these willingly. The star wove the hair into a platform and carved the bone until it was the shape of an animal and then made it alive. It had made a strange creature that looks like a wolf, but has the tail of a cat, the antlers of a deer and the wings of an eagle.

But so pleased was the second star with its creation that it celebrated with other stars for many hours and by the end, the small platform with the first creature on it had drifted away into the darkness. No one had heard its howls, because they had been talking too loudly.

-

A third star had watched the first two clumsy attempts to make life with interest, and had thought a great deal.

Quietly, it asked of the child a drop of blue blood from its veins, a lock of hair, an eyelash and a shard of bone.

The drop of blood it hung in the emptiness and wove from the hair random shapes which it placed upon the liquid in random places to make dry ground to alternate with the seas. From this it raised trees. Then it carefully carved the shard of bone into a wolf, a cat, an eagle and a deer, and placed these onto the ground. Lastly, it fashioned the eyelash into a rose and planted this upon the ground also.

The star put life into its creations- a little into the rose, some into the tree and more into the animals. Then it moved back to admire its work. It noticed that some of the blood had congealed into tiny pieces, and these received life too. These were the fish.

Only then did it show its world to the other stars, who were more than a little envious, but praised the star.

But the child, who had been watching the whole thing with interest, said:

“Little star, you have forgotten, these little beings which you have made, you made with hearts, so that they may be alike to me. Therefore, they need company, just I did before I had all of you stars. Otherwise they will wither away and die of loneliness.”

And the child gently reached down and more of each animal sprung from the earth and many more species of plant raised their heads and opened their leaves and the earth was made full with life and the seas teemed with movement.

And the child smiled and the star shone with pride and the other stars were jealous but said nothing. They would make their own worlds. Never mind.

The world was beautiful, but still it lacked one thing. The plants turned their faces to the sky but could not sing praise to the star. The animals enjoyed the pleasures of the land but could not worship its maker, because they had not the cleverness with words to do so.

So the star thought and planned and asked of the Child a tooth.

The Child had begun to grow weary of the stars’ fancies, but gave the tooth with the warning that this would be the last gift.

The star, remembering what the Child had said about companionship, split the tooth in half and made two humans. It gave them upright bodies that they might look up to the sky and see it more easily, and larger brains and cleverer tongues that they might praise it eloquently. Then, it gave them a tiny piece of its own light, that they might be gifted with creativity and the love of making beautiful things.

And it set them free on their new Earth.

-

The Earth flourished and to its credit, the star tended its creation well and with care. But there was a problem.

The living creatures and plants had been made from bone, blood and hair. Cut off from the Child, they began to wither and die. The star could find no way to stop this, no way to reverse it and save its creations. So it decided to save life as a whole rather than the individuals, and separated each species into male and female, that they might have a way to reproduce and live on in their children.

-

The Child felt sorry for the little beings that were dying, so at the moment of their death, it invited them back into itself, to be part of the Whole again.