There is truth in Myth

When I was about twenty-five, I was in touch with the Hopi by post – yes the Royal Mail UK (no email back then).

I don’t now recall how this happened exactly but never mind how. I think it had followed on from some previous Art College project about lost civilisations and ancient symbols.

The Hopi myths has always stayed in my mind.

Hopi legend tells that the current earth is the Fourth World to be inhabited by Tawa’s (god) creations.

The story states that in each previous world, the people, though originally happy, became disobedient and lived contrary to Tawa’s plan.

They fought one another and would not live in harmony.

The most obedient were delivered (usually by Spider Woman) to the next higher world, with physical changes occurring both in the people in the course of their journey, and in the environment of the next world.

In some stories, the former world was then destroyed by a great flood along with their wicked inhabitants, whereas in others the good people were simply led away from the chaos which had been created by their actions.

This was the third destruction of humanity for disobedience to natures laws.

It’s called the Fourth World because in the stories there had been three worlds before.

There are two main versions of the Hopi’s emergence into the present Fourth World.

The more prevalent one is that Spider Grandmother caused a hollow reed (or bamboo) to grow into the sky, and it emerged in the Fourth World. The people then climbed up the reed into this world, emerging from the ‘sipapu’. The location of the sipapu is given as in the Grand Canyon.

The other version (mainly told in Oraibi) has it that Tawa destroyed the Third World in a great flood.

Before the destruction, Spider Grandmother sealed the more righteous people into hollow reeds which were used as boats.

On arrival on a small piece of dry land, the people saw nothing around them but more water, even after planting a large bamboo shoot, climbing to the top, and looking about.

Spider Woman then told the people to make boats out of more reeds, and using island “stepping-stones” along the way, the people sailed east until they arrived on the mountainous coasts of the Fourth World.

That’s the version that stuck in my mind

Little children are often told the story of the sipapu, and the story of an ocean voyage is related to them when they are older.

The name of the Hopi Water Clan (Patkinyamu) literally means “a dwelling-on-water” or “houseboat”.

Upon their arrival in the Fourth World, the Hopis divided and went on a series of great migrations throughout the land.

Sometimes they would stop and build a town and then abandon it to continue their journeying.

They would leave their symbols behind on the rocks to show that Hopi had been there.

For a very long time the divided people wandered in groups of families, eventually forming clans named after an event or sign that a particular group received upon its journey.

These clans would travel for some time as a unified community, but almost inevitably a disagreement would occur, the clan would split and each portion would go its separate way.

But, as the clans travelled, they would often form large groups, only to have these associations disband, and then be reformed with other clans.

These alternate periods of harmonious living followed by wickedness, contention, and separation play an important part of the Hopi myths.

This pattern began in the First World and continues throughout mythological history.

In the course of their migration, each Hopi clan was to go to the farthest extremity of the land in every direction. Far in the north was a land of snow and ice which was called the “Back Door”, but this was closed to the Hopi. However, the Hopi say that other people came through the Back Door into the Fourth World. “Back Door” could refer to the Bering land bridge, which connected Asia with North America.

The Hopi were led on their migrations by various signs or were helped along by Spider Woman. Eventually, the Hopi clans finished their prescribed migrations and were led to their current location in north-eastern Arizona. Most Hopi traditions say that they were given their land by Masauwu, the Spirit of Death and Master of the Fourth World.

So, today I was thinking about all this and I wrote a short poem ~

In the Fourth World

Atlantis, Mu, we deny they existed,

Legendary civilisations,

Lost forests,

Old pastures beneath the oceans,

Inundated by ancient flood.

 

Imagine,

all the species gone

since the time we began to explore

in lands beyond our own.

Many more in the last twenty years

with names we don’t even know.

 

Lost tribes.

The silenced forest peoples.

Add their names.

Remember.

They are legion,

in long queues behind our lives.

 

Yes! We face Armageddon

Unless we change.

Only the few will remain.

Take a warning away from this day.

 

People in future times

will say we didn’t exist.

We will become a myth,

a sad story of greed and grief

and the crime of disbelief.

We will become a myth.

We will become a myth.

 

 

 

 

 

#ExtinctionRebellion