Primordial Void Concept & Theory
Primordial Void (Creation)
We all have created something before. We forget about our creations, sometimes we end up not pleased with our creations, or we feel like it was a waste of time and on the contrary we sometimes end up loving our creations because it feels like it’s our best work and seek to do it again the same way. We are creators. It gives us pleasure, ego, love and hate. Us knowing the ways of creation makes us the way we are, after all we ourselves are products of creation. Creation comes in all aspects, for example we create ourselves or self worth on our own, we collaborate to create things outside of us, shoot even our organs in our bodies have to work together. It is impossible to create without help of another form down to the wood and metal that helped you build the foundation to a house. Life is collaboration without one there would be none. Why do we have such desirable conditions? How was this all created and why was this all created? We all have our own views on why, either way there will probably always be a why, but there had to be nothing at first right. So what made this? We don't even remember our own beginning. Why? There are some stories of people I have heard where an individual does remember their past life, but it has to be more important than to the senses. The ancients had a more spiritual ideology of creation and we still do now, but we just kind of still go off of their ideology in all aspects. Let's go through some of the creation myths and see if maybe we can find something to bring enlightenment to this subject.
Egyptian myth
The ogdoad which are forces of chaos set way for the creation of Atem. Atem arose from primeval waters on the mound called benben and created offspring by using his bodily fluids, also removing his eyes from the feeling of loneliness. Soon Tefnut and Shu ran away and out of sadness Atem created humans from his tears. Soon they returned with their offspring Geb and Nut. Atem separates the Geb and Nut who are the representation of the sky and the earth.
Greek myth
From the forces of chaos arose Gaia “the earth”, Tartarus “the abyss beneath earth”, Eros “love” and Nyx “darkness”. Gaea gave birth to Uranus, the sky, out of loneliness and they created offspring which became the titans, cyclopes and hecatoncheires and then the titans bore the gods. The titan Prometheus soon creates humans from clay and Athena breathes life into them.
Babylonian creation myth
In the beginning there was only a formless cosmic vast ocean, a mixture of fresh and saltwater. The freshwater was Apsu the primordial father representing order and the saltwater was Tiamat the primordial mother representing chaos. Their offspring was Lahmu and his female counterpart Lahamu representing mud and landforms.
Their offspring was Anshar and his female counterpart Kishar and they represented the framework for heaven and earth. Their offspring was Anu the god of the heavens the supreme god and Ea/Enki the god of freshwater, magic and wisdom. Ea/Enki bore a son with Damkina whose name was Marduk, god of storms. Marduk soon kills Tiamat and splits her body to form heaven and earth resulting from the elder gods waging war on the younger gods. This results in Marduk becoming the chief god and gives all of the other gods roles and establishes the calendar and time. Soon after Marduk asked his father Enki to create humans using the blood of Tiamat’s general and second husband Kingu by mixing it with clay.
Sumerian creation myth
In the beginning there was only the primeval waters Nammu, the formless chaotic ocean.
The cosmic mountain arises from Nammu and the other primordial deities Anu the god of the sky and Ki the god of the earth were created, but they were not yet separated.
Anu and Ki soon create Enlil the god of air from their union and Enlil splits them apart allowing life to exist. Enil becomes the supreme god soon after. Enki the god of magic,water and wisdom is created from Anu or Ki alone, not in their union, and he fills the world with purpose. The gods work together to establish a cosmic order and once the world is finished the lesser gods complain about their hard labor roles refusing to continue the harsh work. Resulting in Enki creating humans from clay and godly essence.
Olmec creation myth
There was only a primordial waters of chaos and then the first gods were formed. The feathered serpent who shaped the earth, the maize god linked to creation of humans, the olmec dragon linked to caves and rivers and the jaguar deity linked to weather. Humans were sculpted from sacred corn and divine energy and maintained the balance of the cosmos through ritualistic offerings done by shamans who could travel between worlds.
Mayan creation myth
In the beginning, there was only sky and sea no earth, no sun, no moon, no humans.The first gods were heart of sky (Huracán) and heart of earth, along with other creator deities like Gucumatz (the feathered serpent). They spoke together and decided to make the world and living beings.
On the first attempt the gods shaped humans from mud/clay, but these beings were weak and fragile. They dissolved in water and could not hold their form and were destroyed. On the second attempt, the gods carved humans from wood. These people could walk, speak, and multiply, but they had no soul, no understanding, and no gratitude toward the gods. They mistreated animals and forgot their creators. Some were turned into monkeys, which is why monkeys look human-like in maya belief they are “failed humans.” Finally, the gods tried again using maize (corn), the sacred food of the maya. From white corn they made the flesh, and from yellow corn they made the blood. They ground the corn into dough, mixed it with water, and formed the first true humans.
Norse creation myth
In the beginning there was only a vast void called Ginnungagap. On each side of the void was Niflheim the realm of ice and primordial waters and Muspelheim the realm of fire. The cosmos emerges when these two meet. As the two realms merged Muspelheim started to meet Niflheim and from the ice the first giant Ymir emerged who was nothing but chaos. Ymir was male and female able to reproduce on one's own and other giants emerged from the sweat that Ymir produced. A giant cow also emerged from the ice named Audhumla and this was Ymir's food source, as Ymir would drink the milk from the cow. Audhumla would lick the salty ice blocks for nourishment and in this act the first god Buri emerged. Buri had a son named Borr and he married the daughter of a frost giant named Bestla and they had three sons Odin, Vili and Ve, the first true gods of Norse mythology. Odin, Vili and Ve grew older and saw that Ymir affected the cosmic order negatively and killed Ymir. After killing Ymir they used Ymir’s flesh to create the earth, bones for mountains, blood for the waters, skull as the heavens, brain for clouds and eyebrows served as midgard the human realm. They used sparks of fire from Muspelheim to create the stars, sun and moon. The world tree Yggdrasil was created from the death of Ymir and the nine realms were formed. After shaping the realms they used two tree trunks to create humans “Ask” became the first man and “Embla” became the first woman and the gods placed them in Midgard to sustain harmony.
Orisha creation myth
In the beginning there was only the sky and the primordial waters. Only Olorun the supreme god and Olokun the god of the waters existed. The rest of the Orisha is said to be more so an outflow of Olorun’s power. Olorun wanted life to be able to thrive so he sent the Orisha Obatala to create the earth. Olorun gave Obatala a bag of creation containing a hen, sand palm nut and a chain. Obatala climbed down the golden chain from heaven to the watery chaos. When he reached the bottom, he poured the sand from the snail shell onto the waters. He then released the hen, which scratched and scattered the sand until it spread into a wide mound of dry land. The palm nut was planted, sprouting into a great palm tree, symbol of life and sustenance. This first patch of land became ile-ife and after the land was established, Obatala received a new sacred task to make humans. Obatala took clay from the earth and began molding it into the shapes of men and women.
Shinto creation myth
At first, the universe was just a formless chaos, a swirling, shapeless mixture of heaven and earth not yet separated. Within this formless void existed only silent stillness, a vast, undefined space sometimes compared to an egg. Over time, the lighter, clearer elements drifted upward, forming Takamagahara (the high plain of heaven). The heavier, murkier elements sank downward, forming the early earth, still unstable and watery. Many generations of kami emerged after the first, until finally the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami appeared. The older heavenly deities commanded them to complete the creation of the world, which was stil formless. They gave the couple the Ame-No-Nuboko (heavenly jeweled spear).
standing on the floating bridge of heaven, Izanagi and Izanami lowered the jeweled spear into the swirling waters below. When they pulled it back, drops of salty brine fell from the spear and solidified into the first island Onogoro-Shima (“self-formed island”). After their union they gave birth to Japan and after the islands, Izanagi and Izanami gave birth to many other kami (gods), each representing natural forces. In shinto, there is no single myth where humans are sculpted or directly created but are thought to be descendants of kami.
Bible creation myth
God creates light, separating it from darkness.
Day 2
God separates the waters above from the waters below.
Day 3
God gathers the waters below into seas, and dry land appears.
Day 4
God creates the sun, moon, and stars to govern day and night and mark seasons and time.
Day 5
God fills the seas with fish and the sky with birds.
Day 6
God creates land and human beings. He blesses them, commanding them to multiply and rule over the earth.
Day 7
God rests, sanctifying the seventh day as holy (the origin of the sabbath).
Scientific
The big bang theory is where stars formed and died, producing heavier elements (like carbon, oxygen, iron) through nuclear fusion and supernova explosions. Basically chemistry sparked off life and evolution gave rise to humans.
Chaos and Order Theory
All seem to have a beginning with nothing just blank space whether chaos or darkness. Imagine not being able to see where you are going, most likely you would get injured or frustrated causing yourself more distress. Imagine a dark world with no light, even with just you alone in that world it would be only chaos. Also it seems that chaos makes room for creation because without chaos how would we have order. Order doesn’t last forever, soon chaos comes creeping back in like a thief in the night. The only difference in the thief and chaos is chaos is always there, it never leaves. It’s like a thief who sits in your house that you are aware of and when everything is going fine the thief steals your car the morning you absolutely can not miss or be late for work or the appointment you have. Chaos is like a precondition that has to be there for order to reveal itself, which makes complete sense because no chaos means no lessons, appreciation or love. It's not necessarily even an opposition to order more like a foundation. Same for darkness, no darkness means no need for light, but it doesn’t work in a vice versa sense. This can be seen as a universal law being that it is not understandable to the eye or sense only to the mind. Universal laws do not involve humanistic motivations but cosmic principles. The simple similarity of darkness and chaos forming order and creation could demonstrate a valid belief of higher entities beyond what we could imagine. It doesn’t prove gods in the anthropomorphic sense, but it demonstrates the plausibility of higher realities, dimensions of intelligence so vast they manifest as the very laws of existence. If darkness (the unknown) and chaos (unformed potential) reliably give rise to order and meaning, then the unknown itself possesses creative intention giving notion to the existence of a meta-order or a law that governs the birth of order from disorder. That meta-order transcends human intellect thus “higher entities” become a rational metaphor for cosmic intelligence. Water also seems to play a big role as if it had always been. Throughout every story the waters are there in the beginning and even in your beginning you are in water before you are born. Water also seems to have roots linked to chaos because both can destroy and also renew. Lands forming seem to establish order. Lands form from water and order forms from chaos. Humans were the last creation which makes sense based on human dependency to live giving way to the belief that humans are a part of maintaining cosmic order. It seems that we need chaos. Whatever you might be going through right now might be considered chaotic. Heck, I consider my whole life to this point pretty chaotic and I am sure you well to a certain extent. Chaos has a universal pattern but the process of chaos could be different for everyone. Either way stay strong through your chaos because it will eventually form order. I often think about where I was and where I am now and how there is so much more that I am able to deal with and not panic or become frantic about. I can literally say I am an example of being able to learn and establish balance and order from the chaotic events in my life. Knowing that chaos isn’t something that goes away is so important. Knowing that it just lies dormant for a time of harmony in your life it doesn’t ever disappear is so important. You may know someone who is not here anymore and it seemed like they were never able to escape the chaos. That might seem like something that was unbeneficial, but on the contrary it was beneficial. See your chaos can also help bring harmony to other people's lives because we have a tendency to learn from others rather than ourselves sometimes. The focus that we have on others does help us but it can deflect you from the chaos that you cause to yourself. It's natural not to pay attention to your own chaos because it seems so small and just a characteristic of your ownself when you're looking at everyone else and judging the characteristics that they show in their chaos versus what you show in your. So, learn to embrace the chaos and welcome it because it is here regardless of what you think because chaos is not your enemy, chaos is just the beginning.