Non-Western Cosmologies

Most people associate “dreaming” with an unconscious state that serves no apparent purpose except to access a realm of fantasy and unreal actions.  However, the Aboriginal people of Australia believed that the Earth was actually created in a dream-like state.  Despite the fact that the Australian indigenous population is dwindling, a small percentage of the remaining Aborigines still believe in the creation legends that have been passed down through Aboriginal culture for an astonishing 50,000 years.  While the average creation story normally includes a primordial creator and a blend of religious and scientific concepts, the Australian story strays from the norm.  They do not believe a God (or multiple gods) created the earth and thus are not devoted to Him like the Hebrews, Christians, Greeks, and Norwegians.  And just as every cosmological creation story has unique elements that reflect their respective culture, the Aboriginal one is a mythological tale involving a combination of dreaming spirits, a gargantuan lizard, water-loaded frogs, and obedient animals like those below in Figure 1. Apart from a few select resemblances to other creation myths, the Australian creation story stands on it’s own.  It is a truly unique interpretation of how the Earth was created because of its original “Dreamtime” characters and dream-like state, mythical qualities, and stark contrast to the religious beliefs other non-western cosmologies have regarding creation.

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From black holes, to the theory of everything, present day scientists such as Stephen Hawking are continually trying to find answers behind how the universe and humanity came about. In the west, the science of cosmology has gone through many transformations throughout the course of history, tracing back to the ancient Greeks of the period 423-323 BC.  Although western cosmology is what we have come to know, during the ancient times, creation stories from many other cultures were created and passed down from generation to generation.  These cultures provided their own theories of the origins of the universe.  One culture in particular, Babylonia, had a cosmology with many comparable features to ancient Greek cosmology as well as unique qualities.  The Babylonians (1792-1595 B.C.) and the Ancient Greeks both viewed the sky and stars as incredibly important and used them to help shape their culture, religion, their idea of the cosmological structure of the universe.

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As far as mankind can recall, everyone has lived under one sky, the same sky. But, not every observer sees the sky exactly the same as the next person; rather, they see the sky differently leading to numerous ideas and philosophies being created. The ancient Chinese cosmology of the 3^rd to 5^th century AD and medieval European cosmology of the 3^rd to 15^th centuries are two forms of cosmology that greatly differed. Unlike European cosmology, which explained the position of the earth relative to the other planets, Chinese cosmology only positioned China and the Earth in the structure of the universe.  Moreover, while European cosmology acknowledged a creator-creation relationship with God, Chinese cosmology did not believe in such a relationship. Instead, Chinese cosmology revered the emperor, known as the “Son of God,” who performed “astronomically timed rituals” to maintain the balance between heaven and earth (North 137, Krupp 193). Despite the vast differences between cultures and time periods, these two ancient cultures still share similarities such as: a set of twelve symbols to represent the cycle of the year, a belief that irregularities in the sky are omens, and a theory that the universe is fashioned from certain elements. Even though medieval European cosmology came after ancient Chinese cosmology, it is interesting to note that the Chinese were more advanced when dealing with cosmological aspects.

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Various civilizations around the world viewed the outer universe and night sky as a home after leaving their lives on earth. The Chumash, a Native American tribe, were some of the first people to inhabit North America. Their rich spiritual heritage has been documented through their magnificent petroglyphs and legends. The Chumash credited the existence of the universe and night sky to many of their gods and mythical heroes.  The cosmos was a place that held powerful gods, feared demons, and admired heroes. The famous Chumash legend “Sparks of the Sun” tells the tale of how light is shone on Earth. The Sun carries a torch across the sky and, at the end of the day, throws the sparks into the heavens, creating the stars. This is only one example of the many beautiful Native American legends that illustrate their culture. The Chumash religion and creation stories differ greatly from Christianity, whereas their methods of practicing cosmology share some similarities.

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Growing up in America, one would presume that we would be more exposed to the cosmologies and creation stories of the people that lived here before the influence of Europe  took hold of the land. Americans today are almost all educated under the ideas of Judaeo-Christian traditions, and learn little about the cultures that existed here before the Americas were colonized. Research reveals some striking similarities and some noteworthy differences between the way that the origin of the universe was explained by indigenous tribes and the way that it is explained by Judaeo-Christians.  The fact that the Western thinkers and the indigenous tribes of America had no knowledge of each other’s creation stories and cosmologies makes one wonder how certain aspects of their stories can be almost identical, such as the world being wiped out by floods to leave a clean slate for new creation. Specifically with the Chumash tribe of Southern California, there are some peculiar congruities with Judaeo-Christian beliefs, but also some evident incongruities.

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Ask Westerners about the religion of the ancient Egyptians, and they will probably say that Ra, the sun god, was their supreme deity. It will be unlikely that they will mention other gods, and may even believe that Ra was the one and only god of the Egyptians. However, a closerlook reveals that multiple gods played a number of roles in Egyptian cosmology. Ra did play a vital role as the sun god in the Egyptians’ model of the universe, but he did not make up any tangible element of the universe’s actual structure as other gods and goddesses did. There are also conflicting creation stories, which challenge whether Ra was the sole creator of the universe, or a god that was created as a part of a longer lineage. Also, although his importance can be seen in the living world, another goddess, Maat, had more power than Ra when it came to the afterlife: a significant aspect of Egyptian cosmology. Finally, the Egyptians developed their time keeping structures, such as their calendar and clock, based on the moon, the stars, and the Nile River instead of the sun. If Ra really was as important as Westerners believe, surely these systems would have been sun-centered, right? These details of Egyptian cosmology clearly question the common Western belief that Ra was the most important of the Egyptian gods.

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To the average American, Islamic and European cultures may seem distant and unrelated. In the middle ages in particular, one may jump to the conclusion that Islamic culture lacked science and innovation and came from a completely different religious background than the west. However, when comparing Islamic and European cosmologies, prominent similarities and an intertwined tangle of influence become apparent. This comparison is effectively illustrated through the examination of Islamic and European creation stories and the progression of astronomical thinking in these cultures.

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When facing the task of comparing and contrasting two cultures as vastly different as the Mayan and Christian, it is necessary to examine and analyze several key facets of each culture. Studying the symbolism seen in the religions, the architecture of each culture and the anecdotes surrounding creation and construction can help us to gain valuable insight into both cultures and consider the possibility that western culture is viewing Mayan cosmology through a stilted and Christian cosmological lens.

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There are three noteworthy categories within Mayan religion and cosmology to both the Mayans themselves and to the scholars that study them: the creation of the cosmos, the destruction of the cosmos, and the gods worshiped. These are the building blocks to the religion and the beliefs displayed in the Mayan book the Popul Vuh, which dates back to around 1550 (Weor).  When comparing the Mayan culture with western cultures, these topics allow understanding of how each relates to and opposes the other.  With the similarities that are present in each creation and destruction story, as well as the characteristics of the gods, it is clear that there must be a universal cosmology in every culture and religion naturally throughout the world.  This paper will focus on the Quiche Maya, who inhabited the highlands and currently reside in present-day Guatemala and parts of El Salvador and Mexico (Penprase 123). The Quiche culture iscompletely reliant on the creation myth and structure depicted in the Popul Vuh, which is their sacred text.  In this sacred book, there are four sections to explain the cosmos.

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In the midst of modern-day science and research, the twenty-first century still feels the effects of the historical Greek and Norse cosmographies. However, the cosmologies and their respective influences to contemporary culture vary drastically. While both their cosmographies incorporate mythological deities, the progressive cosmological model of the Greeks formed the structure for modern cosmology whereas the Norse universe still lives on to this day through fan-fiction and pop-culture. The geographies and landscapes of the Norse and Greek appear to be key factors in the development of their cosmologies.

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Zeus and Odin, a `lineage of powerful gods and goddesses, a universe created out of beings…all of these are connections between the Norse Cosmology and the Greco-Roman Cosmology. These powerful and pivotal societies shaped the ancient world and our current world in so many ways. Through their similarities and differences they created beliefs that governed societies and changed their futures and ours. Norse and Greco-Roman Cosmology and Mythology are both apparent in our modern day society and pop culture. Norse and Greco-Roman cosmologies seem to surround our lives in many way, like in some of our most popular motion pictures, Thor or Hercules. What many don’t understand about Norse cosmology is the immense amount of detail and descriptive stories that delve much deeper into the roots of the history, and have inspired so much more than the Greek mythological cosmology.

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