CONSOLIDATED AUSTRALIAN & MELANESIAN COSMOGONY

CONSOLIDATED AUSTRALIAN & MELANESIAN COSMOGONY

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

In this portion of the cosmogony articulations, a consolidated report on the Australia cosmogony is shared.

The folk beliefs about the ‘sun’ and ‘moon’ endowed with consciousness signifies the role in antiquity of the ‘solar pitris’ and ‘lunar pitris’ (pitris = fathers) in evolving Terrans. Theos Sophia was clear in the thesis that nature unaided cannot evolve humans.

Standard archetypes such as ‘sky’, ‘sea’, ‘water’, ‘egg’, ‘fire’, ‘space’, and so on. The faint knowledge of man evolving first as shadowy/etheric is reflected in the myths. From there on, divine intervention took place so as to improve humans to make them more morphous, bio-physical, intelligent, endowed with speech, more agile than the phlegmatic predecessors.

[Philippines, 30 June 2011]

Source: http://www.oldandsold.com/articles29/mythology-20.shtml

From a consideration of the cosmogonic myths of Australia here outlined it would appear that a number of conclusions are justified. It has already been pointed out that a broad distinction may be drawn on linguistic grounds between the northern and central tribes on the one hand and those of the remainder of Australia on the other. Unfortunately, we have no myth material from western Australia, so that nothing can be said of its relations to the remainder of the continent. It is fairly clear, however, that the linguistic divergencies between the northern and central portions as contrasted with the southern and eastern districts are paralleled by differences in mythology. In the former region we find scarcely a trace of any myths of the source of the world or of a creator deity. The origin of mankind is either a coming up out of the ground or a spontaneous beginning as embryonic or amorphous beings, who are made human by one or another group of totem ancestors. The sun and moon are regarded as persons who, like other early mythical beings, emerged from the ground and later ascended to the sky, and knowledge of fire is said to have been taught to the ancestors in the underworld. In the southern and eastern portions of the continent we find, on the other hand, more or less definite tales of a creator-being and of a creation, together with myths of the origin of man-kind. Here the sun is often regarded as an actual fire kindled by an egg cast into space; here the sea (or water) is said to have been in the beginning either concealed or swallowed; and here a variety of origins are given for fire, its ownership by, and theft from, animals or birds being perhaps the most characteristic. Comparison with adjacent areas leads to rather contradictory results. In some particulars the northern and central type shows relationship to the largely hypothetical Papuan stratum in Melanesia, although some of its most characteristic elements, such as the origin of man from embryonic beings, have thus far not been reported from the Melanesian area. On the other hand, the southern and eastern type reveals points of similarity with the Melanesian stratum in Melanesia, although from the geographical stand-point, and known historical relations this would hardly be expected. On the basis of the cosmogonic myths alone these suggested resemblances are uncertain at the best; and we may, therefore, turn to the remainder of the mythology and see whether the same cleavage and the same affiliations occur there also.