The following paper was delivered in 1996 by the author to members of the Order of Dionysis and Paul. It is presented here for the benefit of those who, for various reasons, missed it the first time.
'In the Beginning', what happened?
It has been thought by many in the scientific community that the 'Big Bang' is what happened. Which means that the Universe came into being, born out of a super-dense fireball or cosmic egg at a specific moment, estimated to have occurred some fifteen plus billion years ago. The evidence for this was established in the 1920's, when it was noticed by astronomers that all galaxies seemed to be moving away from us. In fact it was noticed that the further away the galaxy the faster it appeared to be moving away from our own. The implication of this phenomenon gave rise to the notion that the Universe is expanding, and it followed, that if it is expanding then it must have begun its expansion at some point in time and from a common source. Einstein's equations demonstrated that this common source must have been a single point, otherwise known today as a Singularity. His equations further demonstrated that there must have been an instant when individual stars were merged, together with all Space, Time, and Energy, in one huge cosmic egg. That at a certain moment this super-dense fireball exploded sending unimaginable amounts of energy and matter out from its centre, which, as it moved away from that centre began to cool, and in doing so precipitated the large masses of matter and gas we call galaxies, hence the term 'Big Bang'.
Now it is generally accepted in the scientific community that this moment of Creation, this 'beginning', could only have occurred 'but once'; from which point the evolutionary process of development by accident began; a chemistry of blind unconscious matter becoming whatever it becomes purely by chance. How such a belief can be substantiated has yet to be made clear, for it is impossible to be certain about events that occurred long before humanity could have existed. Inevitably then we can only see these events through a mind's eye conditioned by beliefs and assumptions, around which we generally make the facts fit. Thus our present theories about Creation are, perhaps unconsciously, forming the basis of future myths.
Over the last century or so the consensus of scientific opinion has evolved around the concept that this Universe happened by accident, but there are now signs that this entrenched viewpoint is changing. Some scientists[1] are beginning to assert the idea that our Universe is a fully conscious entity that was to all intents and purposes 'born'. The begging question is of course; of what, or from what, was it born? In the scientific circles of the 1930's the moment of 'Creation' was likened to that of an egg hatching. This concept was far from being new; in fact it has a very long track record, for as we shall see, although the emphasis was different, many of our ancestors saw the birth of Creation in very much the same way.
According to Hindu tradition, The Laws of Manu,[2] state;
He thought deeply, for he wished to emit various sorts of creatures from his body; first he emitted the waters, and then he emitted his semen in them. That semen became a golden egg, as bright as the sun with his thousand rays; Brahma himself, the grandfather of all people, was born in that egg. 'The waters are born of man,' so it is said; indeed the waters are the children of the primordial man. And since they were his resting place in ancient time, therefore he is traditionally known as Narayana. The one who is the first cause; unmanifest, eternal, the essence of what is real and unreal, emitted the Man, who is known in the world as Brahma. The Lord dwelt in that egg for a whole year, and then just by thinking he himself divided the egg into two. Out of the two fragments he made the sky and the earth and the atmosphere in the middle, and the eight cardinal directions, and the eternal place of the waters. And out of himself he grew the Manas (mind-and-heart), the essence of what is real and unreal, and from the Manas came the sense of 'I'..."
In Egyptian mythology there are several different accounts of Creation, each established by the succession of different cults that became politically dominant during the long period of Egyptian civilisation. The first was the Heliopolitan cosmogony, which taught that the first event in the creative process was the emergence of Atum out of the chaotic wastes of Nun; whose name means something like the 'Completed One', and who was later identified with the sun-god Ra. It was taught that Atum was Self-created, and in the further acts of creation was often referred to as the 'Great He-She' or Father-Mother God. Atum gave birth to his son Shu (the Life-principle) and his daughter Tefnut (the principle of world order) via his mouth, which has a particular significance for those who have the eyes to see. Shu and Tefnut were the parents of Geb - the Earth and Nut - the sky, his sister and wife. These in their turn were the parents of four children; Isis, Osiris, Nephthys and Set.
The second was the Memphite cosmogony, established in the city of Memphis
The third was the Hermopolitan cosmogony, established in the city of Hermopolis, which taught that the world originated in a cosmic egg laid by either a celestial goose known as the 'Great Cackler' or, according to another version, was laid by an Ibis - the bird sacred to Thoth. This egg contained the bird of light, Ra, who was to be the creator of the world. Another version tells of the emergence of a Lotus flower out of the Ocean. When its petals open the calix of the flower bears the divine child who is Ra. There are other Egyptian cosmogonies that also bear examination. However, they are at best variations of the themes expressed above; the exception being that of the Theban cosmogony that replaces Ptah with Amon, who is associated with the invisible dynamic power of air, from which it is said he created himself.
Generally speaking the Ancient Egyptians imagined that in the beginning the Universe was filled with a primordial ocean[3] called Nun. This ocean was thought to fill the entire Universe. It was believed that the primeval spirit formed out of this primeval watery abyss an egg, from whence issued the light of day in the form of Ra[4], the god of the Sun, or Atum who created all life in the world.
From ancient Greece
"Chaos[6] was and Night[7] and black Erebos[8] at first and broad Tartaros[9], but there was no earth nor yet air nor sky. Then in the infinite bosom of Erebos first of all black-winged Night bore a wind-sown egg, from which in the circling seasons came Eros[10] the much desired, his back gleaming with twin golden wings, swift as the whirling winds. He mingled in broad Tartaros with winged and gloomy Chaos hatched out our race, and brought us first to see the light. Before that there was no race of the Immortals, until Eros mingled all things together. Then from their mingling with each other was born Heaven and Ocean and Earth and the deathless race of the blessed gods. Thus are we far the oldest of the gods. . ."[11]
Is it possible to know when something like the above is, or is not, an allegory rather than a tale? Who are we to say, for instance, that the creation myths outlined above refer to 'primitive' perceptions of events in mundane terms? We have difficulty enough knowing whether the ideas that were current in the scientific circles of the 1930's were considered as metaphors or not! So to speculate about these so called myths in terms of our current model of the Universe does neither culture any justice, because their cosmological models were not based on the same principles as our own scientific model; thus without a shift in the way we perceive the world it would be almost impossible to evaluate them properly. The difficulty lies in the conflict between the rationalist type of character as portrayed by the 'Evolutionist', and the idealist type of character as typified by the 'Creationist' outlined in part one; where it can be seen that the attitudes and beliefs of the two factions outlined therein will not willingly or easily be reconciled, which thankfully is not here our main concern!
Current scientific thought accepts as gospel the 'Darwinian' theory that Humanity, like every other life form, evolved from the single cell. Thus the modern creation myth, as defined by Hawking and his fellows, follows the same pattern of thinking in terms of a linear process of development; yet though it may appear to be both obvious and logical it is not necessarily true, that in both cases is a matter of belief.
Comparing the creation myth of Ancient Egypt with the current myth it is possible to see many similarities. But the most significant factor from our point of view lies in understanding that our ancestors recognised consciousness to be the substrate of existence, not energy or matter. Consider the following:
That is to say, I formed myself out of the primeval matter,
And I formed myself in the primeval matter,
My name is Osiris who is the primeval matter of primeval matter."[12]
The same appears to be true for the Ancient Greeks. The beautiful account of the act of Creation, in The Birds by Aristophanes, also tells of the emergence from primal matter of a self-creating god.
"Chaos was and Night and black Erebos at first and broad Tartaros, but there was no earth nor yet air nor sky. Then in the infinite bosom of Erebos first of all black-winged Night bore a wind-sown egg, from which in the circling seasons came Eros[13]...
As I understand it, the most significant difference between the understanding of our ancestors and that of our own civilisation is that modern science is based upon the fallacy that consciousness is an effect of the chemistry of matter, whilst the science of our ancestors was based upon the understanding that matter is an expression of consciousness, an understanding implicit in the last quotation.
What our culture considers to be science excludes consciousness, what our ancestors understood to be science was knowledge of consciousness, thus, where science believes that we are evolved apes, our ancestors believed that we are spiritual beings deriving from a divine source. Modern science teaches that the 'Big-Bang' theory explains the beginning of the Universe. Our ancestors understood the beginning of the Universe to be the emergence of consciousness itself.
What science teaches us about existence is that it is all about developing the gene pool, and that in all probability individual life ends at death; that at best the meaning of our existence is either in fulfilling the ideals of Epicurus or in the sacrifice of the individual for the good of the community, or perhaps, in the personal aspiration to create the Darwinian 'superman' of Nietzsche.
What our ancestors taught concerning existence was that our sojourn here on Earth is temporary, that our real estate transcends the mundane world, and that our evolution is an evolution of consciousness, necessitating a corresponding evolution of form, and that the meaning of our existence is to be found in the conscious awareness of, and involvement with, the underlying substrate of our being which is consciousness itself - that is to say, God.
What science teaches us today about the stars mainly concerns material events such as seeking evidence to support the 'Big-bang' and other related theories. The scientific disciplines employed include Astro-physics and Astronomy. What our ancestors taught as Astronomy was a science of Cosmic Consciousness, and its influence upon human existence. This astral science was not merely an intellectual exercise in theoretical cosmology. It was deeply rooted in the understanding that human consciousness is of the same substance and nature as the stars, and unto them it is destined.
The ancient Greeks taught that Dionysos was the son of Zeus by Persephone. His wife Hera resented Dionysos and sought to destroy him. This was accomplished with the aid of her own children the Titans, who, with childish toys, lured him away from his seat to a place of ambush, where they tore him apart and ate him. Upon discovering this heinous crime Zeus destroyed the Titans with his thunderbolts. They were burnt to ashes, and from these self-same ashes the race of Humanity sprang up. Thus were our ancestors recognised that Human nature consists of the dark destructive nature of the Titans, and the light creative and divine nature of Dionysos.
This dual nature of humanity is clearly expressed in the polarised beliefs of the Creationist and Evolutionist; the former expressing something of the Dionysian nature, and the latter expressing something of the Titanic nature. Therefore it is probably true that human nature is partly ape, and as such has evolved just as Darwin and his successors have described. However, this aspect of human nature is destined to return to the dust whence it came. However, there remains a certain something, defined long long ago, by the followers of Orpheus thus:
“I am a child of Earth and of starry Heaven; but my race is of Heaven alone.”
Thus, we can leave the sons and daughters of monkeys to tilt at their windmills, for it matters little what they decry, because we know in the very depths of our being that our ancestors were not primitive fools, they merely had different standards based upon a model of the Universe very different to our own. Their legacy is not merely a collection of redundant ideas summed up in what we culturally refer to as myths, legends, fables and folk-tales, nor did they define Truth ‘once and for all’ fixed in one 'factual' form. Doubtless, their interest was the same as ours is today: to understand the nature of consciousness and the purpose of our existence beyond the parameters of the mundane world. In short, to heed the maxim - KNOW THYSELF.
In this one thing there is a commonality of purpose that crosses the barriers of time, and, consequently, a common vision and understanding which leads to the self-same principles and perceptions. Through the continuity of this profound aspiration the legacy of our ancestors is no mystery. It speaks eloquently to an eager and willing audience. It matters little if the majority of our peers deny or belittle such wisdom, it exists anyway, forever available to those with an open mind, and, even if that legacy were to be destroyed the wisdom therein would still be accessible - such is the power of Consciousness.
The pathway to that wisdom, a wisdom we often refer to as spiritual enlightenment, starts and ends with self. What then is self? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Why is it here? Such questions, although important, are by definition intellectual enquiries. Alas, the answers cannot be found through the same means. You can rationalise the question but you cannot rationalise the answer, which in the final analysis is a matter of experience.
Experience starts with self. If you deny self you create a dynamic contradiction, because you accept self sufficiently to deny the self, which can generate serious disturbances within the deeper waters of consciousness. Alternatively, if you accept self you are in danger of succumbing to the illusionary aspect of becoming a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, etc. Self proposes and creates Materialism, Atheism, Heaven, Humanism, Nirvana, Theism, Hell, Religion, Samadhi, Chaos, Nothingness, Order, Annihilation etc. Those of our ancestors who had taken the path of spiritual enlightenment knew this, and they left those who follow the wise instruction KNOW THY SELF because whether one accepts the ‘self’ as the ultimate reality or merely as a transitory illusion, one must deal with it!
There is only self. There is only not-self. Two propositions! Who is it that says these things? Only the self. Self perceives self; self denies self; self elevates self; self seeks self. #brothermarcusodp
[2] In the Hindu tradition Manu is believed to be the originator of the human race, and who framed a code of living and government, which are more correctly known as teachings rather than laws.
[5] of the teachings of Orpheus, a pre-Pythagorean reformer (7-8th. Cen. BC
[6] Originally this word meant the ‘yawning’ or Abyss.
[7] Nyx.
[8] Darkness.
[9] The darkest part of Hades, which eventually came to be the place of torment and punishment for sinners.
[10] God of Love.
[13] sometimes referred to as Thanes.
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