The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.  Music provided by Joseph McDade.  Here’s your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to the ancient tradition. I’m your host,  Jack Logan.

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Welcome, welcome. Today’s episode is titled The Whole Between Worlds, which is pretty interesting. If you’re new to the program, we welcome you. Glad to have you along with us. Just so you know, we’re gonna talk a lot about things which we’ve discussed at length in other episodes. So if you find yourself a little bit lost or you just want more depth of understanding to some of the things we’re talking about, it’s worth going back and listening to some of those earlier episodes. All right, so today,

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We’re going to continue where we left off in our last episode. In terms of the chronology of the podcast, the earth has been fully formed at this point, but no human beings have appeared on earth yet. So we asked the question, how did we human beings get here? And if we look through the ancient records, so we look at the ancient texts and the oral traditions, what did they tell us about how we got here and what can we learn from them?

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So in our last episode, we found that the vast majority of the human origin accounts fit pretty nicely into six categories, four of those we covered in the previous episode. So today we’re gonna cover the fifth category and then in our next episode, we’ll cover the sixth. So as we’ve been going through these accounts, we’ve found that the agents provide a pretty consistent explanation for how we human beings came to be and how we got here. An explanation that…

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It’s pretty stubborn. It persists from continent to continent and historical period to historical period. And the answer that they give us is that like on earth where human beings are created by other human beings, that the first humans were created by other beings, but that these beings were exalted, supreme beings whom the ancients referred to as God or as a divine pair, God and his wife. Now, the second thing that they tell us, which

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We’re going to talk about more in today’s episode is that the first human beings came to earth via or through the earthly sacred center. They tell us that these human beings first appeared on earth right  in the center of the world, which in ancient Egypt was marked by the primordial mound, the first land to rise up out of the primordial waters. Or among the Hebrews, the ancient Hebrews was marked by the Garden of Eden, which Ezekiel referred to in Ezekiel chapter 28.

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verse 14,  as the, quote, holy mountain of God. So  it’s also portrayed as an elevated hill just like in ancient Egypt, from which  there were four rivers that flowed to the cardinal points, north, south, east, and west, and in the center of which stood a tree or trees. As we saw in our last episode, the Haudenosaunee Indians tell us that a similar tree

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stood in the very center of Skyworld and that when this tree was yanked up, it created a hole in Skyworld through which Skywoman fell. And where did she land? Well, she landed directly atop a giant turtle’s back, which is the Haudenosaunee symbol for the Primordial Mound where Tonkwai tells us stood another tree.

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This is a little bit off topic, but an interesting aspect of this account is that the Haudenosaunee people tell us that after Sky Woman landed on top of the turtle’s back, the hallowed center, she performed a sacred dance  and a song, a sacred song. And then after she did this, the Haudenosaunee tell us, quote, the mud spread until it covered the entire turtle’s back, expanding Turtle Island.

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to its present proportions. In other words, this  sacred dance and sacred song that Sky Woman sang actually helped further the creation, because as she danced and sang, the earth began to fully form, expanding from the turtle’s back to the size of the earth that we see today. We haven’t talked too much on the program yet about the important role that the dance and the song played in the creation of the earth, but the notion that a sacred song

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with a repeated chorus helped initiate the creation is actually quite widespread. It’s closely connected to the notion of divine utterance. It’s not the focus of today’s episode, so unfortunately we’re gonna have to come back to it in a future episode. I just wanted to flag it for you while we were here so that you didn’t miss it. I also wanted to point it out, because towards the end of today’s episode, we’re gonna read another account where it shows up again.

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but it’s in a slightly different context and cultural form. Now, before we jump into the next category of human origin accounts, I wanna mention one more thing.  While I was going over some of my notes for today’s episode,  I reread through some of the accounts I had of the Waru first man, Okonorote, who we talked about in our last episode, who  accidentally created a hole in the world above the sky when he shot an arrow at a bird and missed. Now, if you recall,

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After Akona Rote created the hole, he looked through it and he saw the earth below and he wanted to go to earth. So he made a rope and he climbed down to this world. In another recounting of Akona Rote, this one is found in Oxford University’s series, Myths and Legends on page 39 of the book West Indian Folktales, which is part of that series, as retold by Philip Sherlock, who grew up and lived in Jamaica and he

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traveled around the wider Caribbean and he later became the vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies. Keep in mind that this is a recounting or retelling. It’s not a verbatim English translation of a particular elder or storyteller. Sherlock cold the folk tales in the book from a lot of different sources, which included some of the elders and indigenous storytellers, but then he retells it in a more literary form.

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I’m not gonna read the entire account, just the description of what existed in the sacred center of the world beyond the sky. Listen to where Akonorote finds the hole in the world above the sky and what’s near it. On page 41, it reads, quote, with the skill of a hunter, Akonorote noted that the hole  lay at the feet of a gentle hill. So where does he find the hole?

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at the base of a hill. So here’s the hill motif again, but remember this hill is in heaven. With the skill of a hunter, Aconorote noted that the hole lay at the feet of a gentle hill under the shelter of two cedar trees. So where does the hole in the world above the sky sit? It sits directly beneath not  one, but two  cedar trees. Now listen to this quote.

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under the shelter of two cedar trees that joined hands above it. Here in this indigenous Venezuelan account, just like we saw in the North American Haudenosaunee account, the hole in heaven  is directly connected to the tree that sits in the center of Skyworld. But the Juaros tell us that there wasn’t just one tree there. They tell us there were two trees in heaven.

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and they tell us that these two trees were holding hands. And what the Warus have preserved in this account is quite incredible. And we’ll talk about it a lot more in our next episode, especially when we talk about the Garden of Eden in the Judeo-Christian account. When we recognize that from at least as early as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, that the ancients used trees to symbolize royal divine beings, then it’s…

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It’s pretty easy, isn’t it, to decipher the tree symbolism in the Waru account. The two cedar trees that a Konorote sees in heaven represent the king and queen of heaven. As we’ve learned on this program, the ancients used symbols precisely because they had the power to convey multiple layers of meaning  all at once, especially spiritual meanings for which there were no words or word-for-word equivalents in earthly language. The whole

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And Sky World is actually a great example of this. So on one level, the hole, because it sits right beneath the two trees holding hands, could symbolize a vaginal opening. So when a kona-rote comes through this hole to earth, it could symbolize that he is the divine  offspring, the literal divine offspring of the king and queen of heaven. On another level, this hole can take on cosmic significance.

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as an opening to a cosmic conduit or a channel between heaven and earth, which in this account is symbolized by a rope. And it’s through this rope that communication and transit between worlds is possible. And on yet another level in the Judeo-Christian tradition, for example, this hole can symbolize a rip  or a tear in the veil

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that Jews and Christians teach separates heaven and earth, and which was represented by an actual cloth curtain in King Solomon’s temple, and which was also present in the second temple known as Herod’s temple, which was  built after the Babylonian exile. In the Christian New Testament, in Matthew chapter 27, verses 50 to 51, Matthew tells us that after Christ died on the cross, that the veil

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in the temple ripped in half, creating a giant hole. The text reads, and this is the King James Version, quote, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. In other words,

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Christians tell us that Christ, who in the Judeo-Christian tradition  is understood to be a king,  a cosmic king, as well as a god. So we have a royal divine figure here. So tree symbolism should come to mind. By way of his sacrifice was the one who opened the hole between heaven and earth, thereby creating a conduit or a channel by which heaven and earth could now be linked.

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And don’t forget in the Christian tradition, the whole Christ opened between worlds was symbolized by a ripped veil, which hung like a curtain between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the temple, which was located in one very specific spot. It was located in the temple that sat atop the temple Mount. And where did Jews tell us this temple stood?

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They tell us it stood atop the very center of the world. In the Midrash it states,  as the navel is set in the center of the human body, so is the land of Israel, the navel of the world, situated in the center of the world. And Jerusalem in the center of the land of Israel, and the sanctuary, the temple, in the center of the land of Jerusalem, and the holy place in the center of the sanctuary, and the ark in the center of the holy place,

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and the foundation stone before the holy place because from it the world was founded. And we haven’t talked about this too much yet, but the foundation stone is also the altar stone. And it’s upon the altar stone that Christ sacrificed himself in the center in which Matthew tells us, then opened the conduit or the hole between heaven and earth. Like I mentioned in the last episode, the entire

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ancient world, the entire ancient world  is unanimous in its declaration that it’s in the temple that sits atop the center of the world, which for the Jews was Mount Moriah, or the ancient Egyptians was Heliopolis, or the ancient Mesopotamians was in the temple in Nippur, that we find an opening between heaven and earth, an opening that links heaven and earth together. It’s no wonder then when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed,

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that the Jews mourned its loss and  many of them continue to mourn its loss because the loss of the temple also signified the loss of the link between heaven and earth. With the loss of the temple, the link was gone,  the whole was gone. But as Christians teach when Christ was sacrificed, the link between heaven and earth was restored, the whole was restored. Now,

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These are just a few examples. There’s probably a lot more layers of meaning to the whole between worlds than I just covered. I hope you’ll take some time and reflect on it, ponder its symbolic significance. But overall, I hope you can see that the symbol of a whole in Skyworld isn’t just a simple image. I hope you can see that this  single symbol has the ability to embody multiple layers of meaning,  be they personal, physical, spiritual, theological,  or even cosmological.

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What’s truly fascinating to me is how strikingly similar the beliefs about this whole are around the world. There’s a general consensus in its location. The ancients tell us the whole was located in the center of the world  or in the temple that sits atop the center of the world. There’s a general consensus in its characteristics. The ancients tell us the whole represented a liminal space where

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communication and transit between worlds was possible. And of course, they associated the whole with a tree, which we know in this program is tied directly to kingship. Consistencies like this between religious traditions, it’s not only remarkable. It suggests that the religious traditions of today are largely the descendants of a single,  very ancient religious tradition.

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I like how Richard Heinberg in his book, Memories and Visions of Paradise says it. In this passage, he’s talking about the parody in  creation myths, but what he has to say doesn’t apply just to creation myths. It applies here too to origin myths and the whole between worlds. On page 30, he writes, quote, not only are there but a few basic themes expressed

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through  all of the hundreds of the world’s apparently independent mythologies. But even these few themes tend to flow together as tributaries in the description of the one universal creative process. As we gain familiarity with the mythic archetypes of creation, we see ever more clearly how all proceed from a single source. What a particular myth might expand

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especially on one episode in the great story, we are nearly always able to recognize other episodes and elements  latent in its seemingly unimportant details. It’s when we see the story as one whole that all the elements and episodes make sense.  I totally agree with him. This is so true. I hope you’ve been seeing that on the program.

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One of those seemingly unimportant details in human origin accounts is the tree. Before I leave the account of Okonorote, I want to make one last point. In this  same account, when Okonorote descends to earth on his rope ladder, listen to what he does when he gets to earth. On page 42, it reads,  as soon as the ladder had been made fast, Okonorote climbed down, descending first through the dark hole.

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whose sides were smooth and damp, and then beyond towards the savannas, the ladder swaying, but holding fast. So after half a day, he came to the trees and finally to the floor of the forest. Having tied the end of the rope ladder firmly to a tree, he moved out onto the savannas where the animals were grazing. So what does a Konorote do? uh

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when he lands on earth. Well, he ties the rope ladder to a tree. Yes, a tree. And we, of course, are not at all surprised by this because this is  the theology of the ancient tradition.  One has to ask though, what did Okonorote attach his rope to in the world above the sky before he began to climb down? Well, it should come as no surprise to you.

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either that in another variant, Okonorote ties his rope ladder around one of the cedar trees that shelters the sky hole. So  when we combine the variants,  the rope ladder Okonorote descends is attached to a tree in the world above the sky and to a tree below on earth, connecting heaven and earth together. Again, the fact that this rope is directly connected to the tree is

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completely consistent with what we would expect and completely consistent with what the ancients taught. And as I’ve driven home many times on the podcast,  this very important tree is always located, always located in the center of the cosmos or the geographic center of the earth, which clearly conveys the notion that Okonorote, the Waru first man, entered this world, the earth, by way of or through the hallowed center.

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we can find the same idea conveyed in the creation account that’s told by the indigenous Tohono O’odham peoples of what is now the New Mexico region of the United States. This account is found on pages 19 and 21 of a book titled of Earth and Little Rain, which was written by Bernard L. Fontana, an American anthropologist who spent a lot of time

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in the New Mexico region among the Tohono O’odham people. In this book, this account is written in italics, which signifies to us that it’s an English translation of a verbatim account that was given to him by a Tohono O’odham Indian.  In this account, the earth is not fully formed yet. The creator, who’s also referred to as a medicine man, begins the creation. And after the creation, when sky comes down to meet earth, a being named

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E E Toi, which rendered into English means elder brother, comes to earth and creates human beings out of clay. The account reads,  then the sky came down and met the earth. So there’s the primordial union of heaven and earth. And the first one to come forth was E E Toi, our elder brother. The sky met the earth again and buzzard came forth. Elder brother, earth magician,

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and coyote began their work of creation, each creating things different from the other. So here we see three beings helping create the earth. Elder brother created people out of clay and gave to them the crimson evening, which is regarded by the Papagos, which is just another name for the Tohono O’odham people, as one of the most beautiful sites in that region.

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The sunset light is reflected on the mountains with a particular radiance. Now listen closely to what Elder Brother tells the newly created humans. Elder Brother told the Papagos to remain where they were in that land, which is the center of all things. So here we see the same thing. Here the Tohono O’odham peoples.

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of the American Southwest tell us that when human beings were created, their elder brother who came from heaven told them to stay right where they had been created, which was, quote, the center of all things. He told them that they’d been created in the center and that they should stay as close as possible to the center. Here again, we see a direct connection between the origin of human beings and the earthly center.

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The account goes on, quote, and there these desert Indians have always lived. They are living there this very day. And from his home among the towering cliffs and crags of Babokivari, the lonely cloud-veiled mountain peak, their elder brother, Iitoi, spirit of goodness, who must dwell in the center of all things,  watches over them.

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Note in this account how the Tohono O’odham Heavenly Elder Brother watches over them from the top of a mountain, Mount Babokivari. The text says, and from this home among the towering cliffs and crags of Babokivari, the lonely cloud-veiled mountain peak, their elder brother,  Iitoi, Spirit of Goodness, now listen to this, who must dwell.

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in the center of all things, watches over them. Again, we’re not at all surprised by this. When we know from our understanding of symbolism in the ancient world  that God always dwells on the top of a mountain peak, this mountain, of course, is symbolic of God’s throne seated atop the primordial mound. Now, some later peoples,  when the symbolic meaning was lost,

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believed that God literally lived on the top of an earthly mountain. The notion that God dwells on the top of an earthly mountain is symbolically akin to the notion that God dwells at the top of a conorote’s rope. As we’ve learned, both of these symbols, the rope and the mountain, which is symbolic again of the primordial mound, mark the center of the

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For the purposes of this episode though, this account attests that the human beings who live on earth were first created  in the center or came out of the center and that God or elder brother commanded them to stay as close as possible to this sacred center while they lived on earth, which the Tohono O’odham people have done ever since. All right. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the fifth category of human origin accounts.

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that we find around the world. So this category consists of what are known as emergence myths. In these accounts, humans or ancestral beings emerge into this, the present world, from a prior world. So this is another attestation of a pre-earth existence, which is generally symbolized by a cave or a dark contained or enclosed space. And this is on purpose because it’s meant to represent the notion of a womb.

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which should remind you of the cosmic egg. The previous world from which one is born or emerges into this world. In these accounts, rather than descend from heaven, human beings come from a previous world and ascend into this world through an opening in the previous world, which tends to be symbolized in these accounts by either the mouth of a cave or an actual hole, above which

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is a ladder or a tree or a reed, which should definitely catch your attention. So whether human beings descend from heaven to earth or they ascend from another world to earth, you should easily see how both of these types of accounts are using the same symbols. A hole in the previous world, then an ascent or descent to earth via a conduit of some sort, a rope or a ladder or a reed.

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all of which again are being used symbolically. You should see how both of these types of accounts are telling us essentially the same story of how we human beings got here. So in these emergence accounts, the act of emergence  usually marks a transition from a less complete existence, sometimes described as a larval state, to a more complete existence, which is something that was attested to in episode number 64.

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attestations of a pre-earth existence in this Zuni account. When the Zuni tell us that human beings were like tadpoles in the previous world and that quote, everywhere were unfinished creatures until many among them sought to escape to this present world so that they could grow. Emergence myths like this are especially prominent among indigenous peoples of the Americas where

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Many traditions describe ancestors emerging from lower worlds into their current homelands, which are clear cultural expressions. They’re especially concentrated among the indigenous peoples who live in the southwestern region of North America, among the Navajo and among Puebloan peoples like the Zuni, Akoma, Hopi, and Tiwa peoples. But we also find them in Mesoamerica among the Maya.

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and in South America among the Inca where humans or ancestors emerge from sacred openings like a cave or a spring or a lake or earth openings and these are called pacarinas which is the Quechua word the early Andeans used to describe the place of emergence or the place of origin. On a symbolic level  these sacred openings represent the liminal boundary between worlds.

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where beings moved from an earlier, unfinished state into the present world. So let’s take a look at two specific accounts. Let’s travel to Peru. One of the best documented Andean emergence accounts is the Inca royal origin story, where the Inca’s ancestors, we’ve talked about them on their program,  Manco Capac, the first Incan king, and Mama Okio, the first Incan queen.

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from whom all Incan kings traced their legitimacy and authority, emerged from Lake Titicaca. So note the connection between emergence and royalty here. In this account, Lake Titicaca functions as a pacarena, the sacred place of origin. The earliest surviving published account of Monco and Mama’s emergence comes from Comentarios Reales de los Incas.

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which was written right after the Spanish conquest by Garcilaso La Vega, who  was actually a direct descendant of the Royal Inca line through his mother, but his father was Spanish. There’s actually a huge sports stadium named after him right in Cusco. In English, Garcilaso’s book is called  Royal Commentaries of the Incas. Now I’m going to be reading from Harold V. Livermore’s English translation.

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which is considered the most authoritative and accurate English translation that’s out there. I’m going to read the parts that are relevant to human origins in the Sacred Center, but we’re definitely going to return to this account down the line because it contains several other important stubborn bits which are pretty relevant to the ancient tradition. Garce Lazo obtained this account from his uncle, his Incan mother’s brother, and he states that on page 14.

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His uncle gave him this account when he asked about the origin of the first Incan king. In this account, the earth has already  been populated with human beings, but these human beings are brute-like, uncivilized beings. So God places a, quote, son and daughter of his own from heaven on earth in the lake known in Peru as Lake Titicaca, which you should definitely associate with the primordial waters. All right.

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It’s out of this sacred pakerina that God’s special son and daughter, his children, emerge. God gives the man and woman known among Peruvians again as Manco Capac and Nama Okoyo, a golden rod. And he tells them to travel the area around Lake Titicaca, thrusting the golden rod into the earth until they find the place where it sinks.  And where the golden rod sinks, God tells them that they’re to build their home.

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and established the Incan kingdom. This account is found on pages 42 and 43 of Livermore’s English translation. All right, with that, let’s read the account and see what happens when Monco and Mama thrust their golden rod into the earth. And again, this is Garce Lasso’s Incan uncle recounting the origin of the first Incas. The account reads, quote, our father, the son, this is S-U-N, who’s the Incan sun god.

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Seeing men in the state I have mentioned, so we’re talking about the brute-like state of humans, took pity and was sorry for them and sent from heaven to earth a son and a daughter. Our father the son  set these two children of his in Lake Titicaca, 80 leagues from here, and bade them go where they would. And wherever they stopped to eat or sleep, to try to thrust into the ground a golden wand

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half a yard long and two fingers in thickness, which he gave them as a sign and token. When this wand should sink into the ground at a single thrust,  there our father the son wished them to stop and set up their court. And court here refers to setting up a royal court  as the royal children, the prince and princess of their father, the son, they’re gonna set up his royal kingdom.

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You’re gonna hear them referred to in royal terms throughout the rest of the account. When our father, the son, had thus made manifest his will to his two children, he bade them farewell. They left Titicaca and traveled northwards, and wherever they stopped on the way, they thrust the golden wand into the earth, but it never sank. The first settlement they made in this valley, said the Inca, was in the hill called Guanacaure.

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in the south of this city. There they tried to thrust the golden wand into the earth and it easily sank in at the first blow and they saw it no more. Then our Inca said to his wife, our father the son bids us remain in this valley and make it our dwelling place and home in fulfillment of his will. It is therefore right queen and sister that each of us should go out and call together these people so as to instruct them and benefit them

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as our father the son has ordained. So where does the golden rod sink in? It sinks in a hill in a sacred valley that we know today as Cusco. And what do the people in the surrounding areas of Cusco do when they learn of this? They build a temple. The text reads, quote, our first rulers set out from the hill of Juana Calre

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each in a different direction to call the people together. And as that was the first place we know they trod with their feet. And they here is Monco and Mama. He’s talking about their feet. And because they went out from it to do good to mankind, we made there, as you know, a temple for the worship of our father, the son, in memory of his merciful beneficence towards the world. We know the hill, Juana Calre today as

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Cusco. And Cusco, of course, became the imperial city of the Incan Empire. In remnants of the temple that they built, the Temple of the Sun, known as Coracantia, which in Quechua means golden temple, they are still visible today. If you visit Cusco, which I haven’t hoped to someday, you can take a tour of the temple site. I’ve seen videos of it and the precision of the masonry is absolutely jaw-dropping.

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At one time, the walls of this temple, Coroacacho, were covered entirely in gold, sheets of gold. Now, what you may or may not know, I believe I mentioned it on the program before, is that this city was named Cusco because the Incas taught that the hill of Guanacare sat atop the center of the world. In Quechua, the name Cusco means  navel or center.

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and they use it to refer to the location of the city as the navel or the center of the world or the universe. The Incas  built roads that extended outward from the center of the temple in all directions, which look like numerous beams emanating from the Golden Temple, like the beams of the sun. On page 184 of the article, Ritual Pathways of the Inca,

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Published on pages 183 to 205 of the journal Latin American Antiquity, volume three, the author Brian Bauer, a renowned professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago writes, and this is found on page 184, quote,  the Inca divided the Cusco Valley and by extensions their immense empire into four regions or suyus.

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from which the empire gained its name, Tehuantinsuyu, the four parts together. So note here, like we see elsewhere, Cusco sits where the four parts come together. The imperial city of Cusco was visualized at the center of these four parts and was perceived by the Inca as the center of the Andean cosmological order. In Garcelas’s Incan account, the Incan god, father of the son,

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gives Monco, his princely son, the first Inca, a golden rod, a royal rod, so that he can locate this  place, the sacred center of the earth, so that Monco will know exactly where he should build the Sun God’s earthly kingdom, which of course can only be built in  one place, atop the very center of the world, the holiest place in the world.

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In fact, we’ve talked about this previously on the program as outlined in Gio Woodengrin’s, what I consider awesome article, The King and the Tree of Life in Ancient Eastern Religion. The royal rod was understood in the ancient world to symbolize a branch  of the sacred tree and it represented God,  the sacred tree, bestowing his power and authority to the earthly king, who in this Incan account is the sun god’s  son, S-O-N.

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Along these same lines, the golden rod as a branch of the sacred tree is also meant to be understood  as a tree. So when Monkho thrust his rod into the earth, it not only  divines the center of the earth, it also for a moment stands like a tree, just like Tonkwai’s piece of straw placed upright in the center of the turtle’s back, in the center of the world before it disappears.

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There’s more to the symbolism of the golden rod than the notion that it represents a branch of the sacred tree or a miniature version of the tree that stands in the center of the world. You might have to think about this a little bit because I haven’t fully laid out this aspect of the king on the program yet, but the golden rod is also a symbolic representation of the earthly king himself and his role on earth.

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as the earthly representative of God, or in this case, the Incan sun god. I’ll spell all of this out. The king is the tree in coming days. Just note that in this Incan account, Monkho is the royal son of God, the golden rod, the sacred center, building a temple atop the sacred center, kingship, queenship,

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and building the seat of the royal Incan Empire atop the center. All of this, every bit of this is ancient tradition theology nestled  in the Andes Mountains of South America, no less. Now for the purposes of today’s episode though, in this Incan account, the first Incan king and queen, Monco and Mama, the son and daughter of God, the Incan sun god are sent directly from heaven to earth

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where they first appear in Lake Titicaca. Now, even though this account doesn’t describe the two of them coming out of the Sacred Center, we do see that the very first thing the Sun God commands Monco and Mama to do is to seek out and find the center and build their home in the Incan kingdom there, which links the emergence directly to the center. Okay, my favorite emergence account comes from the Hopi Indians.

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of what is today Northeastern Arizona. The account that I’m going to read is very special. It was only told among the priests of the One-Horned Fraternity in the village of Shungopovi. Edmund Nkwapdewa,  a Shungopovi man and a member of the One-Horned Fraternity,  is the one who recounts this story, which was preserved by the Museum of Northern Arizona.

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Since North American Indians didn’t develop a written language, this account was passed down orally until it was written down in a little book called Truth of a Hopi, which was written by Edmund Nkwapdwa. It was first published in 1936. The Hopi people, which according to the Hopi dictionary, which was produced by the Hopi people themselves, and which is described by them as the first true dictionary of Hopi,

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defines the word Hopi on page 99 as, quote, behaving one, one who is mannered, civilized, peaceable, polite, who adheres to the Hopi way. In this account, the Hopi, before they come to earth, live in a world before this one, another attestation of a pre-earth existence. While in that world, divisions between peoples begin to erupt.

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and a chief by the name of Ya’ihihua calls together a council of wise men. They decide that they must leave the world that they’re in and find a better world above. And they pray for guidance and they ask for a way out of the world that they’re in.  Several attempts are made to find a way out. That it’s not until they obtain the help of a chipmunk that they’re able to find a way to enter the world above, this world.

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Now pay close attention to what the Hopi do to prepare for their emergence in this world, as well as the means by which they emerge into this world. The account is pretty long, so I’m only going to read the sections that are relevant to today’s episode. Just know though that the whole account deserves a dedicated episode. There’s some really interesting things in it. So I’m going to do that. I’m going to post a recording of it along with some commentary.

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on our sister podcast, The Ancient Tradition Audio Rit, probably in the coming week or so. If you want to give that a listen, you can find The Ancient Tradition Audio Rit anywhere that you get your podcasts. All right, after  much trial and error, with not much success at finding a way out, a young boy suggests to Chief Yahi Heehwa that he knows of a chipmunk that could possibly help.

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So I’m going to pick up right there on page 18, reads, and this is the little boy speaking to the chief quote, I know a little creature, Kuna, which is a chipmunk who lives on the nuts of the pines. Okay. I want to point out that the chipmunk here in this account is symbolic. The hope he chose a chipmunk here because in real life chipmunks have the ability to scurry up and down trees. So it’s referring to a being that has the ability

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to do that. I think he knows how to plant and grow those pines and he may have some seeds. If he would come and plant and grow us one of those tall trees, it might reach the sky so that we may climb up on it. He lives in the rocks and pines. Very well said the chief, let us call him. At this he turned to the mockingbird and asked him to sing his calling song for the chipmunk.

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At the altar, the mockingbird picked up his rattle and started to sing. It was not very long before the chipmunk appeared over the rocks with his usual chip chip voice. And when he did come up, he ran in front of the altar. Why do you call me and what do you want? He asked. It is because we are in trouble. We need your help. I am ready, he said. As you are noted for your tree planting,

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and know how to make them grow so fast. We’d like you to plant one for us that will reach up to the sky and into the new world. We’ve been here many days trying to find out how we can get up there. Yes, said the chipmunk. I do know how to plant trees, but I cannot be very sure and promise you that I could make it grow up to reach the sky. But for your sake, I will try. So let us pray to our gods who really have power.

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They filled up their pipes and smoked again to carry their earnest prayers to the gods. After this was done, the little chipmunk reached into his bag for his tree seeds. This he said is a spruce. We will try it first. He put it in his mouth and sang four of his magic songs. Note the use of prayers and quote magic songs here to help the tree grow. From here,

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The chipmunk tries to grow a spruce, but it doesn’t grow tall enough. So then he tries to grow a fir pine, and then he tries to grow a long needle pine, but they don’t grow tall enough either to reach the next world. So he’s on the verge of giving up, but a thought comes to him,  and he remembers the bamboo tree. The account continues, quote, the chipmunk left them and went to the place where the bamboo tree grows.

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There he took a little shoot of a bamboo plant, and with this he brought a tiny pinion shell full of water. These he set on a small basket tray and smoked his pipe over it, which was his earnest prayer. Now, he said, this being the last plant I know that will grow high, we must give all our hearts to our gods that they may believe and answer our prayers  and make this tree grow up through the opening in the sky.

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when all their preparations were made and their sacred cornmeal was thrown up toward the sky, the two birdmen, so notice we have birdmen here, so think avian symbolism, started to sing their magic songs and the rest  all joined with them. So note here how everyone joins in on these prayer songs. Because by that time, they knew the songs so that they could follow along with them. After the songs were ended,

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the little chipmunk ran up the tree. And when he got to the top, he pulled on it and ran back. He was always keeping time with the singing. And he knew just when to run up the tree. And he just kept his performance up till the tree was high enough and still they were singing. So note in this account that it’s the prayers and the singing and the chorus of the singing that helps this tree grow.

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By this time, the chipmunk’s so tired that he can’t keep running up and down the bamboo to see if it’s grown enough to reach  this world, so he asks for the help of some birds. Quote, now these birds made their trip up into the sky to the top of this tree four times. Toward the last, it was only the Shrike that could go up. When he came down, he told the people that the tree had gone through the opening.

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Now the chipmunk was very glad that he’d gone through. And of course, you know that he was overjoyed. Then the chipmunk told them that it would be rather impossible to climb up on the tree. And he’s talking about climbing the exterior of the tree. He told them that this tree was hollow inside and he started to gnawing on the bottom of the tree to cut an opening in it.

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So note here again how the opening is right at the base of the tree. Now listen to this part. While he was gnawing away,  all the men circled around the little fire and started their prayers again by smoking.  See what’s happening here? In the world before this one, the hope he tells us that the elders formed a circle around the ceremonial fire and prayed so that an opening in this world would be created. I continue.

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quote, after all this was done, the chief said that as it was rather late in the day, they would start their prayers and songs for the people at dawn. Now they were all very anxious to see the morning come. So you can just see how excited that they are to come to this world. And before it did come, the chief had appointed two birds, the eagle and the swallow to be put on the lookout so that no

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wicked people might pass. Okay, this part of the account is pretty interesting. As you seek to decipher this, keep in mind that birds are generally used symbolically, as I’ve mentioned. So again, we’ve got some avian symbolism here. So here the chief places two birds outside the opening of the base of the bamboo tree to keep the wicked people in the pre-earth world from coming into this world. The account continues, quote,

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Now on this day, before they started out, the chief said to the wise men that they must give an order for some kind of guard that would hold back the bad people and the witches and wizards that would try to steal their way into the reed with the rest of the people. So what’s said here is quite fascinating.  Remember the opening at the base of the bamboo symbolizes a liminal space where in this case one can cross from the

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pre-earth world into this world. And here the Hopi tell us that in the spiritual realm, these liminal spaces are guarded.  Not everyone had or has the right to come into this world. What the Hopi attest to here, that liminal spaces are heavily guarded, is actually widely attested to in the ancient world. It’s another powerful stubborn bit. And when we get into how the heavens are structured, we’re gonna cover that in depth.

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I continue. So the chief told the wise men to take the pajos, which are prayer sticks, for each four directions. So there’s the cardinal points. These were to represent the closing of all the different trails from all directions. When these were made, he sent out the one horned society or priests who were supposed to guard the north and west. And the two horned priests

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to guard the south and east. Now, keep this little section in your back pocket, because note here how the chief sends priests to guard the four cardinal points. This is also another stubborn bit that we’re going to see show up  all over the world. And we’re going to talk about that more down the line too. When they got to the four directions, they made four lines out of sacred cornmeal about six feet long.

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And on both ends of the lines, they set a pajo, a prayer stick, falling backward, not toward the bamboo. Whoever steals their way into the bamboo and crosses this line will perish, which means that they will drop dead. Of course, many people tried to cross from different directions and were found dead. The cardinal points, of course, designate

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Both the bamboo sits in the center of the pre-earth world, but it also represents geographic totality. by placing priests to guard the cardinal points, this symbolically means that every possible road to the bamboo tree was guarded so that no unauthorized person could try and steal their way into the opening of the bamboo tree that leads to this world. I continue.

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Whoever came to the bamboo by the set path came safely to the chief to join in going to the upper world. Okay, so what’s said here is also pretty interesting. Here the Hopi tell us that in the pre-earth world there was a quote  set path that one had to follow if they had the desire to come into this world. If they didn’t follow that path and they tried to cross the sacred cornmeal line without following that path,

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die. Now listen to this, before the good people enter the opening at the base of the bamboo tree, the council of wise men perform a ritual.  In this ritual, the cardinal points and the song are pretty prominent. I continue. The time came for them, and this is the council of wise men, to sing their calling songs. And before they started to sing, they renewed their altar

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on which they had laid their prayer offerings. They made four of these prayer offerings and they set them up on four sides of the tree to hold it up.  So note here how prayer offerings are placed at the cardinal points around the tree, clearly delineating that the tree stood in the hallowed center of the pre-earth world  and their prayers, their prayer offerings are what are keeping

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this tree up. I continue. When they started to sing, they had to sing around the altar. So where did the wise men in the pre-earth world sing? They sang around the altar. I continue. And the two birds were watching the opening at the bottom of the tree. So in case the wicked people should start to come through, they could drive them away.

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The two birds were appointed because they had sharp claws. I love  the symbolic imagery here. The birds that guard the opening of the bamboo tree have, quote, sharp claws. This is the Hopi way of telling us that the birds who guarded the tree were very powerful beings. I continue. When they, and again, this is the Council of Wisemen, started to sing their calling song,

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being a magic song, it took effect. And they found the names of men who were in this ceremony following one another because the calling song as it began named  all the wise men who were serving in the ceremony. So here the Hopi tell us that before the people came through the bamboo tree, the council of wise men performed a ceremony around the altar where they prayed and sang a quote,

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Magic song. Now, I’m not exactly sure what significance the naming of the wise men in the ceremony has, but right after it, the Hopi tell us, quote, the people were coming up  one after another, that is  one family after another. He’s talking about them coming up to the tree, they come up to the tree in family groups. So I wonder if the names of the wise men  is in some way connected to the people gathering in family groups.

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around the tree. I continue, quote, when the people were gathered there, the chief had his prayer offering ready.  And at the foot of the tree, he set his little prayer offering down in front of it. Now what you’re going to see later on in the podcast, not today’s, but down the line is that the altar is always in front of the tree. Here we see right before the chief enters the hole,

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At the base of the bamboo tree, he makes another prayer offering  and he places it directly in front of the hole. Have you noticed just how many prayers the Hopi offered up and sang in proximity to the hole at the base of the bamboo tree? It was their prayers that opened the hole. This is symbolically akin to the prayer offerings given on the altar of incense.

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that stood directly before the veil leading to the Holy of Holies in King Solomon’s temple. I continue. Then with his sacred cornmeal, he made a line pointing into it. So he’s talking about pointing into the hole. And then he walked in and his family followed and the rest of the royal families came after him.

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So note here how the first person to pass through the hole at the base of the tree was the chief,  which is roughly the Native American equivalent to a king, after which the account tells us he was followed by his family, and quote, the rest of the royal families. So the reference to the families who came through the bamboo tree as royal families is in  no way trivial. It’s core.

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the ancient tradition theology. It continues, quote, it took them quite a long while and the chief was rather anxious to get up to the top. And after a long time, they finally came to the opening. When he crawled out of the tree, the rest followed. And as some of these people came out, they started to sing the same songs that they were singing down at the bottom.

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Note here how the Hopi tell us that  one of the very first things that people did when they came into this world was perform the same ceremonies they performed in the pre-earth world.  They quote, started to sing the same songs that they were singing down below. It’s statements like this that it’s pretty clear that the Hopi religion is understood to have originated or existed  in the pre-earth world.

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that it’s not an invention of this world, that it’s an eternal religious tradition. From this account we see, like Barry Pritzker, an American anthropologist known for his work on Native American cultures, says on page 26 of his book, The Hopi, that it was, quote, the people with good hearts  who made it to the fourth world, which is this world.  After Chief Yaheehiwa,

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emerges from the top of the bamboo tree, which opens as a hole to this world, we learn that he was greeted by one of the most important figures in the Hopi religion, Masao, the god of the earth and the god of the underworld. In other words, they tell us that God and men talked and walked with one another in the beginning. And we’re gonna talk more about the interactions that took place between the chief

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and the god Massau in an episode that’s coming up very soon. Before I close out this section on the Hopi and this episode, I want to make a couple more points  about this account. The first is that the Hopi story of the emergence is  so important to the Hopi people that their most sacred religious meeting place, which is called Akiva, K-I-V-A,  and which is a subterranean ceremonial chamber, was

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specifically designed to symbolize the pre-earth world from which the Hopi people emerged into this world. Now, in the center of each kiva floor, the Hopi place a small hole, which is called a sipapu  or a sipaapuni. It’s closely related to the Hopi word  sipna, which means  navel.

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The Hopi dictionary tells us what the Sipapu symbolizes on page 504. It says it symbolizes, quote, the hatchway from which the Hopis believe they emerged to the fourth world, which again is this world, the earth. The structure and function of the Kiva symbolizes this passageway. It is a fact that we emerged from the Sipaapuni. So the whole

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we find in the center of each Hopi Kiva floor. And yes, it’s almost always placed in the very center of the Kiva floor. Symbolizes the whole between worlds. It marks  the emergence point. And it should also not be lost on you that as a dark  subterranean chamber, similar to a cave, that the Hopi Kiva architecturally and symbolically takes on the notion of a womb too. And the passageway

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Between worlds, the bamboo tree  or umbilical cord  is represented by a wooden ladder that rises directly above the sipapu. At the top of this ladder is a hatch that  literally opens into this world. So  every time a Hopi elder climbs up this ladder and exits the hole at the top, he’s symbolically reenacting the emergence of human beings into this world.

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that the Sipapu and the ladder are centrally placed in the Kiva should not be lost on you either as it represents the central location of the place  of emergence into this world. To really drive home this point of the hallowed center, the Hopi also build a fire pit. It’s usually placed right by the Sipapu, but it’s usually offset a little bit so that people don’t get burned  when they climb up and down the ladder.

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This conveys like the fire altar in Hindu weddings, the glorious character of the hallowed center, which was also conveyed by the Inca when they built a temple of gold, the blazed like the sun in Cusco to mark the center of the world and or the center of the universe. So I hope you can see how the Hopi Kiva architecturally is a microcosm of the macrocosm. I hope you can see how the Hopi people embed profound

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cosmological teachings right in their most important architecture. This is one of the reasons I love sacred architecture because as they say, sacred architecture is theology in stone. You just have to understand the symbols to know how to decipher the theology. All in all, the emergence myths of the Inca and the Hopi and others like them attest that there is a hole in the center of the pre-earth world

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the world that preceded this one, through which we human beings traveled until we came through the whole on this end in the center of this world, attesting that there is a whole between worlds. A whole which the Hopi tell us we prayed like crazy to have built  and to come through. That’s it for me.

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If you’d like to see pictures of the Incan temple Korokancha or a diagram of the interior of a Hopi Kiva,  you can find them on the webpage for this episode, which is found on our website, theancienttradition.com under show notes. If you’ve never checked out our website, now’s a great time to take a look. There’s a lot of great pictures and diagrams there. In our next episode, we’ll check out the last category of human origins, the category which  I personally find to be the most

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fascinating and intriguing of all human origin accounts, it should be a good one. With that, I’ll leave you with the ever instructive words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.