*** answer this discussion for two students
Creation & Consciousness Discussion
Hello Class!
Let us examine these myths and their relation to consciousness.
- Are there similarities between the creation myths/legends? What parallels did you note? Please describe.
- What questions do you think the people during the era were trying to answer? Do you believe this question was conceived by their conscious experience? Why or why not? Please use examples when possible.
- Do you see influences or similarities in these myths/legends with your personally learned myths/legends of creation?
- Do your personally learned myths/legends influence your consciousness? How so? If not, how has your conscious experience altered your thoughts/perceptions of your personally learned myth/legend?
Example1
1. The creation myths both share similar upbringings in myths. The Norse creation myth and the Aztec myth both share a mutual upbringing of the world’s being built upon a monster. The Aztecs had certain gods who had attacked a monster, which created the world. The Norse Myth is just as similar to a set of brothers defeating a monster for the flesh was created to create the world. Both of these myths say that the worlds are made up of reincarnation, and it is now being recycled for a new world.
2. I think the people during this era were asking many reasonable questions. I think the genre of questions consisted of why certain planes or certain areas existed in the midst of their universe or void. The Norse had to think about how their world was able to exist, and the Aztecs had questioned whether their world could exist as well. I agree that the questions they were asking were conceived by conscious experience because of their actual lives. These people had lived amongst what they had said or written about, not fake, made-up concepts.
3. I believe I can see a similarity between these myths and my own learnt myths that it is written with perception, and it had to have come from one’s conscious mind. I believe we all tend to ask ourselves questions of why things had to happen or how, no matter the creation myth.
4. I believe my conscious experience has altered my thoughts on certain creation myths by the simple tasks or simple things I tend to learn to break those myths or legends. The myths and legends I had intaken when I was a kid, to now perceiving the world as I do doesn’t align, and it is crazy to realize how different it can alter it. A lot of the creation stories I have heard growing up, I don’t align myself with because of how my conscious experience has been.
Example 2
1. Are there similarities between the creation myths/legends? What parallels did you note?
One of the parallels I noted was the splitting of a being to create the heavens and the earth. Both Aztec and Norse myths had this aspect, and along with the Mesopotamian creation myth, that makes three creation stories where this has occurred! There’s also the parallel of the blood becoming the oceans/seas with the Mesopotamian myth, but that’s another discussion. There’s also the similarities of there not being a “nothing” and then a “something” — both befores to Aztec and Norse myths already existed, and from them came the gods/world we know. The cycle of creation-destruction-rebirth is also something I noticed in both stories.
2. What questions do you think the people during the era were trying to answer? Do you believe this question was conceived by their conscious experience? Why or why not?
I think a lot of mythology has to do with two things: agriculture and the life cycle. The growth of crops must have seen a miracle to ancient cultures, and they likely tracked their cycles closely. They noted when the cold came and likely tried dozens of ways to “bring back” the sun and kept doing what “worked”. They needed explanations and reasons for why the crops would stop growing, or the world grew cold, and in looking for those explanations came the stories of gods. The life cycle is also something I think influenced the creation of mythology. Humans desperately, even to this day, yearn to know what lies beyond. We’re inherently scared of death because it is the unknown — imagining what could come after, an “after-life”, gave a sense of ease to people who needed it. And then of course there’s the pure existence of birth. Imagine early people watching women get pregnant and give life, something only the powerful gods were said to be able to do! There’s a reason there’s so many fertility gods, goddesses, and celebrations! All this to say, I absolutely think the questions that needed answering were conceived by the conscious experience. These people lived and saw and experienced, and in doing so, they wondered. They needed answers. Humans are rational beings, and they need reasons — if they can’t find a reason, they’ll make their own.
3.Do you see influences or similarities in these myths/legends with your personally learned myths/legends of creation?
I was raised Christian, and so my most well known creation myth is the one in Genesis. Some similarities I see are humankind being made from some sort of organic, earthy material, such as clay or wood. There are many cycles of creation and destruction in them all as well.
4. Do your personally learned myths/legends influence your consciousness? How so? If not, how has your conscious experience altered your thoughts/perceptions of your personally learned myth/legend?
I suppose it does affect my consciousness, whether I’d like to admit it or not. Like I stated above, humans are scared of the unknown, of death. And I, surprisingly, am human. I like to imagine an afterlife of some kind, a place where I’m reunited with my loved ones and my ancestors, a place where I can finally find peace, and that hopeful thinking persists despite my rational brain deciding that all of this is just made up stuff in our brains to help us cope with existence. I’ve experienced too many things that cannot be explained in regards to the afterlife for me to say with 100% certainty that it’s all in our heads. Maybe growing up with an idea of Heaven, or simply an afterlife of some kind and/or spirits due to a very “spirit centric” grandmother, has influenced these events. But I won’t know until it’s eventually my turn to jump ship.
Example 3
1. I see a few similarities between the two stories. They both focus on the sun and the moon and what they both represent. For the norse the sun is so important due to the brutality of their winters that they see their gods at representations of the sun and its glory. Odin the king of the gods and Baldr the shining hope of the goods whose death leads to the destruction of the world, and to its rebirth with him at its helm to make a better world. While on the other side the moon was the representation of Baldr’s death as it caused mayhem in the world of the gods as the constant moon of the harsh winters of the north causes them. In the Aztec story, the pull and push of the sun and the moon is what leads to the fifth age being complete enough to last. They are also both have pure untainted realms that existed before the creation of the Earth. The Aztec myth has a sky realm where the father and mother god live, and the Norse has a realm of water and fire that clash in a realm of nothing that eventually leads to the spawn of existence.
2. I think the people of this era were trying to answer the question of how the Earth and humans came to be. They also wanted anexplanation for things that occurred naturally and assigned many of these actions to gods who fuel these phenomenoms. I believe it was conceived by their experience as they didnthave the ability or technology at the time to explain the things happening around them at the time, so they made their own. They said that Nanahauntal became the sun and food came toTonacatepetl instead of the natural phenomenathat we now have the science to understand. They also used the stories to push morals they believed were right like with Nanahauntal who was originally chosen to become the moon because of his ugliness, but he became the sun because the original god chosen was too much of a coward and hesitated.
3. I see a few similarities with Christianity which is a environment kind of raised in. My family is not very religious, but my dad’s side is Catholic,so I have some familiarity. They all share an idea of a Male god in charge of everything else. Catholicism has God, the Norse have Odin, and the Aztecs have Tonacatecuhtli.
4. I would say no as I didnt grow up very religious. Ive started going to church recently and I have been enjoying it, but I dont think the morals of it will affect mine.
Example 4
1. One noticeable similarity between the Aztec’s and Norse ‘s creation myth is that it took multiple gods to create the world. For example, In the Aztec’s creation myth, two gods, Tecciztecatl and Nanahuatt, were sacrificed in order to create the Sun and Moon. It was also mentioned that multiple gods were needed to sacrifice their blood in order to create a path for the Sun to travel throughout the sky. An example from the Norse mythology about the creation of the world is that the god, Odin and his brothers, killed Ymir and used his body to create the world.
2. I believe that people during the early ages asked questions about the nature of the Earth and why/how nature works the way it does. Because people during these early time periods lacked an understanding of the world and how it works, they looked for these answers through stories, gods, and deities. For example, in Norse mythology, the belief of frost giants and mountain giants came to be in order to explain the harsh, cold environment man faced in this region. This shows us that these myths were contrived out of peoples’ own experiences in order to explain how the Earth affected them in both positive and negative ways.
3. I have not personally learned much myths/legends of creation to notice any similarities and influences between the Aztec and Norse creation myths.
4. Other personally learned myths/legends does not really influence my consciousness because I know that the mysteries faced back then can now be answered with today’s science. Because of this I view myths/legends as a way to understand what our ancestors believed as well as simply enjoying a good story. However, I find that myths that teach important life lessons are more influential because it can still be applied to our lives in the present.