Mythical and Cosmological Creation Symbols

By

Ivar Nielsen

Comparative Mythologist & Natural Philosopher

nielsen.ivar (at) gmail.com

Website - http://www.native-science.net/index.html

Thursday, March 3, 2016

The Myths of the Milky Way and its Creation

ABSTRACT

Stories of Creation are found in cultures all over the World, but what do they really
tell? Do they speak about a creation of the entire Universe and of a beginning? Or do
the “just” speak of the creation of our Milky Way galaxy and of an eternal creation? It
is my firm conviction that the latter is the fact. Ancient myths explains the pre-
conditions and factual creation of our Milky Way, but our ancestors also knew of other
“Islands floating or sailing in the Cosmic Ocean”.

CONTENTS

BASIC MYTHICAL AND COSMICAL SYMBOLS OF CREATION

MYTHO-COSMOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS AND EXAMPLES

THE MILKY WAY COSMIC MOUNTAIN

EGYPTIAN CREATION STORY

THE MOTHER GODDESS

THE FATHER GOD

CELESTIAL MOTIONS AND LIGHT CHANGES

BASIC IMAGES OF CREATION

CONCLUSIONS

BASIC MYTHICAL AND COSMICAL SYMBOLS OF CREATION

01. All gaseous and metallic elements in Cosmos = The Primordial Waters/”Chaotic”
Conditions/Primordial Deities/Giant Gendered Deities.

02. These are set in swirling attracting and repulsive motions by electric currents and
magnetic fields.

03. The First Fiery Light = The Milky Way center and Central Light.

04. The Milky Way center = The Cosmic Mound/First firm Land/Cosmic Womb/Tree of
Life and Knowledge.

05. Milky Way arms = Milky Way Rivers.

06. Milky Way contours as observed from Earth = The secondary Milky Way deities of
both genders/The Heavenly River/The Flood/World Serpent/Giant Outspring of the
Primordial Giants.

07. Southern hemisphere Milky Way crescent contours = The Under-World/Mother

Goddess/Southern Heavenly Ship/Female Animal Symbols/Anthropomorphic Symbols.

08. Northern Milky Way crescent contours = The Over-World/Father God/The Northern
Heavenly Ship/Male Animal Symbols/Anthropomorphic Symbols.

09. Sun = The Secondary Light.

10. Planets = Wandering stars.

11. Earth = The World Axis/Pole Star/Pole Wheel/Circled Symbols/Ladder to Heaven.

MYTHO-COSMOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS AND EXAMPLES

THE MILKY WAY COSMIC MOUNTAIN

An example of the Milky Way Mountain, or Mound, could be Mount Meru -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Meru#Hindu_legends

Quote:
“Mount Meru of Hindu traditions has clearly mythical (Edit. and cosmical) aspects,
being described as 84,000 Yojan high (which is around 1,082,000 km (672,000 mi),
or 85 times the Earths's diameter), and having the Sun along with all its planets in the
Solar System revolve around it as one unit”.
Disregarded the given numbers, this speaks without any doubts about the Milky Way
central bulge around which the Solar System orbits.

EGYPTIAN CREATION STORY

As an example of the numerous global Stories of Creation, the Egyptian telling in the
Ogdoad, works very fine. Link -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogdoad#In_Egyptian_mythology

Quote:
“The eight deities were arranged in four male-female pairs: Nu and Naunet, Amun and
Amaunet, Kuk and Kauket, Huh and Hauhet. The males were associated with frogs
and females were associated with snakes. Apart from their gender, there was little to
distinguish the male gods and female goddesses; indeed, the names of the females
are merely derivative female forms of the male name. Essentially, each pair
represents the male and female aspect of one of the four concepts of primordial
chaos, namely the primordial waters (Nu and Naunet), air, invisibility, and hidden
powers (Amun and Amaunet), darkness and obscurity (Kuk and Kauket), and eternity
or infinity (Huh and Hauhet)”.

My comment: The gendered deities represents “opposite but complementary qualities

and elementary stages” which corresponds to the electromagnetic polarities and
forces of creation. As Huh and Hauhet represents Eternity and Infinity, states the
Universe to be eternal – but filled with conditions which changes forever between
assembling and dissolving and re-assembling. A kind of “Steady State Universe” which
contradicts the Big Bang theory.

“Together the four concepts represent the primal, fundamental state of the beginning.
They are what always was. In the myth, however, their interaction ultimately proved
to be unbalanced, resulting in the arising of a new entity. When the entity opened, it
revealed Ra, the fiery sun, inside. After a long interval of rest, Ra, together with the
other deities, created all other things and brought order to the universe”.

My comment: “Beginning” does not mean a beginning of the creation a large, but of
the formation of the Milky Way galaxy, the ancient known part of the Universe. The
“arising of a new entity” speaks of a central function, which can be connected to a
galactic Bennett electromagnetic Z-Pinch and a nuclear formation, which is mythically
described with “the fiery sun”, Ra, who logically is not the Sun, but the Milky Way
central light as “Ra” has a complex connection to the Egyptian Milky Way goddess
Hathor, as described below.

THE MOTHER GODDESS

One clear connection between a prime deity and the Milky Way Mythology is the
Egyptian goddess Hathor. Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor

Quote:
“The Ancient Greeks sometimes identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite, while in
Roman mythology she corresponds to Venus”.
My comment: All prime goddesses from all over the world belongs to the southern
contours of the Milky Way where the Milky Way center also refers to the mythical
term, the Cosmic Womb from where everything in our galaxy is created.

“Hathor had a complex relationship with Ra. At times she is the eye of Ra and
considered his daughter, but she is also considered Ra's mother. She absorbed this
role from another cow goddess Mehet-Weret ("Great flood") who was the mother of
Ra in a creation myth and carried him between her horns”.

My comment: (There is possibly a mix up of mythical names between Ra and Atum-

Ra). Atum is a primeval deity who creates Ra as it is said in the Ogdoad. Then Ra =
the Milky Way fiery central light, creates Hathor. Here we also have a mythical
connection to the Milky Way, which also is described as The Great Heavenly River
(Flood Myth) in some cultures. (The Flood Myth deals with the Milky Way River
running OVER and up in the Sky, and NOT a divine flood revenge ON the Earth)

“Hathor, along with the goddess Nut, was associated with the Milky Way during the
third millennium B.C. when, during the fall and spring equinoxes, it aligned over and
touched the earth where the sun rose and fell. The four legs of the celestial cow
represented Nut or Hathor could, in one account, be seen as the pillars on which the
sky was supported with the stars on their bellies constituting the Milky Way on which
the solar barque of Ra, representing the sun, sailed”.

My comment: The Milky Way contours have cultural mythical descriptions of both
animals and humanlike beings and even anthropomorphic symbols. Again, the
Wikipedia author confusion between Ra as the sun takes place, where the correct
interpretation and connection should be to the central Milky Way Light.

The “solar barque” cannot be connected to the Sun at all. It is impossible to imagine
such an imagery by looking at the Sun. The barque itself is constituted by the
crescent and revolving contour of the Milky Way and has nothing to do with the Sun.

THE FATHER GOD

As an example: Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_%28mythology%29

Quote:
“Saturn (Latin: Saturnus Latin pronunciation: [saˈtʊr.nʊs]) is a god in ancient Roman
religion, and a character in myth. Saturn is a complex figure because of his multiple
associations and long history. He was the first god of the Capitol, known since the
most ancient times as Saturnius Mons”.

My comment: All visible prime male deities belongs to the northern hemisphere Milky
Way contours.

Comparative Mythologist and other scholars have great difficulties with placing the
prime deities. Mostly, these prime deities are in different encyclopedia ascribed to the
Sun, Moon and to the Solar System planets, whereby all kind of contradictive
interpretation of both the myths and their astronomical connections takes place.
An example:
A discussion on “Saturn the Ancient Sun God” Link -
http://qdl.scs-inc.us/2ndParty/Pages/7285.html

Quote:
“Indeed, the consistency with which early astronomies identity Saturn as the former
creator-king is extraordinary. The Zoroastrians of ancient Persia knew Saturn as the
heaven-sustaining Zurvãn, "the King and Lord of the Long Dominion." The Iranian
god-king Yima, a transcript of the Hindu Yama, founder of the Golden Age, was also
linked to Saturn. The Chinese mythical emperor Huang-ti, first in a great dynasty of
kings and mythical founder of the Taoist religion, was identified astronomically as the
planet Saturn. Even the Tahitians recall of the god Fetu-tea, the planet Saturn, that
he "was the King."

My comment: Of course can the prime male deity in all cultures be compared as the
author does here. But then the author concludes all these cultural deities to be
connected with planet Saturn, which logically cannot be the fact.

Planet Saturn is obviously not the prime deity of creation who creates everything in
the ancient known world if taking the mythical context seriously. This is more logical
to connect the myth to the Milky Way and to the creation as such.

Another example:

Quotes from “THE MYTH OF THE CENTRAL SUN”, By David Talbott. Link:

http://qdl.scs-inc.us/2ndParty/Pages/8709.html

# 1: “Nothing misrepresents original meanings more profoundly than the common

translations of Egyptian texts relative to the daily cycle of the sun god. In the
language of the Egyptians themselves, the god does not rise and set, but grows bright
and dims. He shines brightly, then his light recedes”.

# 2. “What, then, of the famous Assyrian and Babylonian god Shamash, the sun god
whom we now recognize as Saturn? A remarkable fact is that Shamash "comes forth"
(shines) and "goes in" (declines, diminishes) at one spot, the "firm," "stable" or
motionless station of supreme "rest".

My comments to #1-2:

This is not a misrepresenting of the original meaning. This is a plain misinterpretation

and lack of astronomical observation routines by the author himself. Several issues
are wrong:

1. It is not a myth of "the central sun" since it deals with the central celestial pole.
2. It is logically not a "sun-god", because the mythical figure does not rise and set as
the Sun.
3. It is not planet Saturn assumingly hovering close over the celestial pole, since the
myths speaks specifically of a male gendered god figure in itself, which periodically
appears and disappears.
4. It doesn´t deal with the "daily cycle of the Sun", but with the annual cycle of the
Earth´s orbit around the Sun.
5. It deals with a male looking gendered figure, which is moving around a stationary
celestial location where it grows lighter and dimmer.
6. It deals with a still familiar Sky imagery, which anyone can observe at the right
seasonal period with natural eyesight powers.

All these mythological/astronomical/cosmological confusions takes place all over,

included in different encyclopedia´s where scholars just copy and repeat what former
authors didn´t observe for themselves in the Sky.

The Mythological and Astronomical explanation is:

As the Earth orbits the Sun, the celestial imagery of the night changes throughout the
seasons because of the changing altitude of the Sun. All stars but the brightest ones,
grows dimmer and disappears as the Sun ascends, and for some 3-4 months in the
summer season, the stars, the constellations and the contours of the Milky Way
disappears until the Sun descends later in the season.

This astronomical fact is embedded in the cosmological myths and it gives origin to
the global mytheme of "The Departure and Return of the Celestial Deities". This
explanation fits logically with the mythical description in the quotes above.

Just by taking the mythical context of the Saturnus God for granted, anyone who goes
out in the night and watch the celestial imagery at a favorable season, can conclude
which celestial figure we are talking about: The crescent Milky Way figure which is
revolving around the celestial pole, growing dimmer and lighter as the Sun ascends
and descends throughout the year.

Star Atlas. The God Saturnus/Shamash etc. etc. revolving at his celestial station
growing lighter and dimmer as the Sun ascends and descends in the annual cycle. A
celestial figure, which moves around the stationary celestial pole which is growing
dimmer and lighter, is of course the Milky Way figure which is invisible 3-4 month in
the summer period.
This is the essence of "my theory". I´m just holding onto the mythological and
cosmological heritage and factual contexts of the ancient myths, which I´m sure is
not the case in the "catastrophic planetary interpretation".

When thinking of the excellent universal cosmological context of the scientific part of
the EU, it is very restrictive for this theory to have a mytho-cosmological
interpretation, which deals only with planetary matters, especially when the
interpretations are inconsistent and misunderstood, as shown here.

The mentioned global mytheme of the “Departure and Return of the celestial deities",
also partly concerns another global mytheme, “The Dying and Rising deity” as
discussed here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying-and-rising_god

As the celestial imagery seemingly revolves around the Earth celestial pole, the
human imagined figures are seen: 1 Standing, 2. Flying = Ascended to heaven. 3.
Diving = Descending toward the Underworld. 4. Lying dead. 5. Standing up again –
and so on. These cardinal positions are also described with different suitable attributes
in the global myths.

- From the Wiki-discussions, one can see which huge difficulties scholars have
interpreting the mytheme because of lacking astronomical observation routines and
lacking skills of connecting the Myths of Creation to the correct celestial objects and
their motions.

A celestial figure, which moves around the stationary celestial pole which is growing
dimmer and lighter, is of course the Milky Way figure which is invisible 3-4 month in
the summer period. Read the following explanation.

CELESTIAL MOTIONS AND LIGHT CHANGES

When dealing with interpretation of the Mytho-Cosmological tellings and Stories of

Creation, it of course is important to include the entire ancient world picture of the
Milky Way and follow the celestial motions and the light conditions, which affects the
celestial imagery throughout the year.

As the Earth rotates, the objects in the Sky seemingly revolves around the Earth and
as the Earth orbits the Sun, different Earthly and celestial light conditions occurs
throughout the seasons. These two motions gives origin for the numerous cultural
celestial creation myths of the cosmos.

Except from the brightest stars, the other stars, constellations and the contours of the
Milky Way are difficult/impossible to observe for 3-4 month of the summer seasons
opposite on the two hemispheres. The Earth´s annual orbital motion gives origin for
the global mythic telling of “celestial deities of star constellations and Milky Way
contours, which disappears and returns” i.e., the celestial objects grow lighter and
dimmer as the Sun seemingly ascends and descends during the seasons.

BASIC IMAGES OF CREATION

1. Milky Way Center = First Central Light. 2. Milky Way Rivers. 3. Solar System.

Galactic Bulge = Cosmic Mound/Cosmic Womb/Tree of Knowledge. The Solar

System orbits the Milky Way center and it is of course an integrated part of the
galactic formation = creation.
The unfolded contours of the Milky Way. Northern and southern hemisphere. The
orange swirl marks the Milky Way center in the Sagittarius constellation.

Northern and southern hemisphere Milky Way contours provides the primary deity
symbols of the creation. Star constellation Ursa Minor (left) marks the celestial pole.
When observed revolving around the celestial poles, the myths of both hemispheres
speaks af a “dying and rising deity”. Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying-and-
rising_god

The crescent northern (left) and southern Milky Way figures as observed in the Sky.
The Earth marks the celestial pole axis on both hemispheres and the orange figure
marks the galactic center in the star constellation of Sagittarius. The mythical symbol
of these two images is described as the “Heavenly Marriage”.

The Milky Way contours as naturally observed from the hemispheres. If imaging the
entire Milky Way contours observed around the Earth, this describe the myth of flying
Serpent.