Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Pagan Blog Project-E is for Egg Creation Myths

Pagan Blog Project- E is for Egg Creation Myths

The egg has long been a symbol of life and creation. It is a symbol of the mysteries of all life. The egg represents wholeness and fertility. The egg white represents the purity of the young goddess and the golden colored yolk stands for the young god. The outer shell binds them together as one.

Most myths involve the cosmic or universal egg. These eggs contain the seeds of possibilities of life and the hatching of these eggs allows these possibilities to manifest.

The ancient peoples revered the egg as a very powerful symbol of life. This is evident in many of their cr
Cosmic Egg
eation myths. Today I will retell three of this myths. I first learned of this myths as a child and have become reacquainted with them during my mythology studies. I do not know the origination of these myths (as to what particular texts they may come from). I am hoping they are covered under the fair use act. (If not, please let me know!). I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. These three are my favorites.

The Chinese God Pan Gu: This myth as far as I can tell comes from Taoist monks. The universe began as an egg. After a while Pan Gu was born inside it. Once he was ready to come forth into the world, the egg broke into two halves. The top half was the sky and the bottom half was the earth. As he grew taller, each half grew thicker and separated from each other. Through the years Pan Gu grew stronger and stronger, but eventually he fell into old age and died. At his death his eyes became the moon and sun. His hair became the stars, his breath the wind and his body settled in as the earth.

The next myth is the one of the Egyptian God Ra or Re. In the beginning there was nothing but darkness. In this darkness was the primordial waters called the Nun. These waters expanded through the universe, nothing else existed. One day an egg appeared within the waters. It contained the god Ra. Once the egg hatched the god burst into the universe and became its ruler. He then gave birth to Shu (dryness) and Tefnut (moisture) who then gave birth to G
Pan Gu out of his egg
eb (earth) and Nut (the sky). From these gods came the ruling body or the Ennead of the Egyptian Pantheon. And so the world began . . .

The last myth I would like to retell is that of the Greek God Eros. As with the other myths, this one starts out again in total darkness. Only a bird with black wings lived at this time. Her name was Nyx. One day Nyx laid a golden egg. She took very good care of it and sat on it for a very long time. Finally it was ready to hatch and Eros was born. When he emerged, half of the shell lifted into the air and became the sky. The other half fell down and became the earth. The sky was named Uranus and the earth was named Gaia. And thus the creation of man and the world begins.

There are many other egg creation myths out there. Which is your favorite?

Blessings,
Annette aka Autumn

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