In the beginning there was darkness and water, where Io lived alone and inactive. In order to become active, Io uttered words calling on darkness to become “light‐possessing darkness.” So came light. When Io called for the light to become “dark‐possessing light,” darkness returned. Day and night had been born. Io continued creating with words—the “ancient and original sayings, which caused growth from the void” , Io called on waters to separate and the Heavens to be formed:
From the conception the increase,
From the increase the swelling,
From the swelling the thought,
From the thought the remembrance,
From the remembrance the consciousness, the desire.
The word became fruitful;
It dwelt with the feeble glimmering;
It brought forth night;
The great night, the long night,
The lowest night, the loftiest night,
The thick night, to be felt,
The night to be touched, the night unseen.
The night following on,
The night ending in death.
From the nothing the begetting,
From the nothing the increase,
From the nothing the abundance,
The power of increasing, the living breath;
It dwelt with the empty space,
It produced the atmosphere which is above us.
The atmosphere which floats above the earth,
The great firmament above us,
the spread out space dwelt with the early dawn,
Then the moon sprang forth;
The atmosphere above dwelt with the glowing sky,
Forthwith was produced the sun,
They were thrown up above as the chief eyes of Heaven:
Then the Heavens became light,
The early dawn, the early day, the mid-day.
The blaze of day from the sky.
The sky which floats above the earth,
Dwelt with Hawaiki,
And produced the islands of Taporapora,
Tauware nikau and Kukupara,
Wawautea and Wihi te rangi ora . . .
Then Io became the Gods. In this becoming was the creation of polarity. Light and Dark, Male and Female. The first of Io's spirit children were Rangi and Papa - Sky and Earth - Ether and Matter
Then from Rangi and Papa came Tane, Rongo, Tu, Rehua, Tawhiri Matea, Tangaroa and Haumia
It was Tane who first felt desire for a woman and began to search for a wife. His mother instructed him in fashioning a female from earth. Then Tane breathed life into Hine-hauonè, the earth-formed-maid, and mated with her. Their child was Hine-ata-uira, maid-of-the-flashing-dawn (alias Hine-titama), and Tane also took her to wife.
One day, while Tane was absent, Hine began to wonder who her father was. She was disgusted and ashamed when she heard that her husband was also her father, and she ran away. When Tane returned he was told that she had gone off to the spirit-world, and he quickly followed after. But he was stopped from entering by Hine herself, in her new role as goddess of the underworld. “Go back, Tane”, she told him, “and raise our children. Let me remain here to gather them in.” So Tane returned to the upper world, while Hine remained to welcome her children into the spirit world.
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Polynesian - General:
Ku (Tu) the Creator began to chant over the great watery chaos,
Things born from darkness are darkness;
Things born from light are lightness
And as the chant continued Po (the earth) was born, and Ao (the sky) was born
And from the watery chaos Ku chanted out Kanalos the great squid (sea god), and Kane (human) and Hina (earth mother).
Kane made many animals, many plants and fresh water in many forms. But he wanted to have a being which looked and acted like him. So he took some soft red clay from Hawaiki (home land) and created Hine-hau-ona (earth born woman). Kane and Hine-hau-ona had a child named Hine-titama (dawn woman).
Then Kane did great wrong. He mated with Hine-titama (not telling her who he was) and as soon as she did learn it she went screaming to her mothers domain Po ( earth, the land of the Dead) Hine-titana cried out "you have broken the cord to the earth", and henceforth Kane could not touch the earth.
And so it is that humans live on the earth, and when they die they return to Po, the land of dreams, lovemaking, and spirit, so they can never be touched by Kane.
Very nice articals. Thank you.
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