I'm relating what is written in the "Book of the Hopi" by Waters as suggested by Kenuchelover, but realized jesterday at work that I made a major mistake about calling the "shilds made of hide", "ships." They Hopi talk about creative powers of good and evil in connection with these shilds, and with their "creative powers" the people flew through the air to the big city, and so fast nobody knew where they came from. I likened these "shilds of hide" to thoughts or maybe relationships, and that was my mistake in the sense that these shilds were made of "hide." The explanation may come later in the book, if at all. When they say that "with their creative powers they flew through the air", what else could it be but thoughts, and cities and islands in myths or legends figure for a person many times. If I read 10% Hopi then the book of the Hopi is only 10% true. As far as I read it looks to me that the content alternates between abstract and the spirit world, and the physical world. The "shilds of hide" or "protective shilds" they made for themselves may be the skin which will come up in the "Creation of man." So I agree "no interstellar ships" which I didn't mean to begin with - but the creative power of thoughts. Much of it is my interpretation and analogies, without the latter we have only Taiowa and Sotuknang said and did this, but no meaning.

Concerning the destruction or ending of the second world Topka I translated from the German site. I wrote:

"The second world called 'Topka' was destroyed by ice. At that time the earth turned over several times and the poles reversed completely, not only half, because it would have caused to much damage which was not the intention of the creator. When the ancestors of the Hopi were safely underground (with the ant people I read later in the book) Sethhuknang, the creator god of twins, ordered them to leave their position at the poles where they kept the world in equilibrium, upon which the earth convulsed like drunk and turn over twice. Mountians fell into the sea with a terrible noise, oceans and seas flooded the lands, and the earth froze as it whirled through cold and lifeless space."

The Book of the Hopi

SPIDER WOMEN AND THE TWINS

"Sotuknang went to the universe wherin was to be Tokpela, the First World, and out of it he created her who was to remain on that earth and be his helper. Her name was Kokyangwuti, Spider Women.
When she awoke to life and received her name, she asked, "Why am I here?"

"Look about you," answered Sotuknang, "here is the earth we have created. (Implying his Uncle Taiowa and himself) It has shape and substance, direction and time, a beginning and an end. But there is no life upon on it. We see no joyful movement. We hear no joyful sound. What is life without sound and movement? So you have been given the power to help us create this life. You have been given the knowledge, wisdom, and love to bless all the beings you create. That is why you are here."

This is analogous to Eve, the helpmeet of Adam and "mother of all life" of our race, who has been given the power to help create life, knowledge and wisdom from the tree of knowledge and the tree of good and evil, being taken from "the rib" of Adam, waking up and wondering why she is on earth. Obviously, one could not take this rib story literally but rather as essence of Adam who was an androgyn before the devision of the sexes which happened in the "First World", meaning we don't generally speak of worlds before "east in Eden." Before that was Eden, which, according to Sotuknang here,had shape and substance etc., but no life - no man to till the earth. So according to the Hopi also, there were two creations.

Continuing from the book of the Hopi:

Following his instructions, Spider Women took some earth, mixed it with some tuchvala (liquid from the mouth: saliva), and modeled it into two beings. Then she covered them with a cape of white substance which was the creative wisdom itself, and sang the Creation Song over them. When she uncovered the two beings, twins, sat up and asked, "Who are we? Why are we here?"

To the one on the right Spider Women said: "You are Poeqanghoya (the o is an Umlaut but my alt function doesn't work sometimes) and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it. Go now around all the world and put your hands upon the earth so that it will become fully solidified. This is your duty.

Spider Women then said to the twin on the left, "You are Paloengawhoya and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it. This is your duty now: go about all the world and send out sound so that it may be heard throughout all the land. When this is heard you will also become known as 'Echo,' for all sound echoes the Creator."

The Hopi tell this so beautifully, all sound echoing the Creator, the creative "word" re-verb-eraring thoughout all nature, for all things, including our body, which appear solid are vibrating relationships of matter.

"Poeqanghoya, traveling throughout the earth, solidified the higher reaches into great mountains. The lower reaches he made firm but still pliable enough to be used by those beings to be placed upon it and who would call it their mother.

"Paloengawhoya, traveling throughout the earth, sounded out his call as he was bidden. All the vibratory centers along the earth axis from pole to pole resounded his call; the whole earth trembled; the universe quivered in tune. Thus he made the whole world an instrument of sound, (thank you Hopi) and sound an instrument for carrying messages, resounding praise to the Creator of all.

"This is your voice, Uncle," Sotuknang said to Taiowa. Everything is tuned to your sound." (Including that of the birds singing jubilantly outside at the moment.)
"It is very good," said Taiowa.

When they had accomplished their duties, Poeqanghoya was send to the north pole of the world axis and Paloengawhoya to the south pole, where they were jointly commanded to keep the world rotating. Poeqanghoya was also given the power to keep the earth in a stable form of solidness. Paloegawhoya was given the power to keep the air in gentle ordered movement, and instructed to send out his call for good or for warning through the vibratory centers of the earth.

"This will be your duties in time to come," said Spider Women.

"She then created from the earth trees, bushes, plants, flowers, all kinds of seed-bearers and nut-bearers to clothe the earth, giving to each a life and name. In the same manner she created all kinds of birds and animals-molding them out of the earth, covering them with her white substance cape, and singing over them. Some she placed to her right, some to her left, others before and behind her, indicating how they should spread to all four corners of the earth to live."

And if we add her placing them above and below her, we can say: we are on the beautiful pollen path of the Hopi.

"Sotuknang was happy, seeing how beautiful it all was-the land, the plants, the birds and animals, and the power working through them all. Joyfully he said to Taiowa, "Come see what our world looks like now!"
"It is very good," said Taiowa. "It is ready now for human life, the final touch to complete my plan."

The biblical God also saw that his creation was good.

The point I have in mind is a parallel to the paragraph up top of what the German said about the destruction of the second world Tokpa. On page 16, it is written:

"So again, as on the first world, Sotuknang (whom the German called Sethhuknang) called on the Ant People to open their underground world for the chosen people. When they were safely underground, Sotuknang commanded the twins, Poeqanghoya and Paloengawhoya, to leave their posts at the north and south end of the world axis, where they were stationed to keep the earth properly rotating.

The twins had hardly abandoned their stations when the world, with no one to control it, teetered off balance, spun around crazyly, then rolled over twice. Mountains plunged into seas with a great splash, seas and lakes sloshed over the land; and as the world spun through cold and lifeless space it froze into solid ice.

This was the end of Tokpa, the Second World."

According to this account given in the Hopi book, the German, with the exception of the words of the earth not turning over only half causing to much damage which was not the intention of the creator, related the story correctly, whatever his source.


Whether Frank Waters made it all up, or, as Kenuchelover said, missinterpreted much of what
White Bear told, I wouldn't know. But from what I read so far in the book, the gist of their creation story, and creation and nature of man, is the same as so may another creation story and the evolution of mankind. The Hopi speak of "creative powers" and other things in an allegorical sense as there were no twins, people, stationed on the poles holding the earth in balance, literally.

The "Creation of the Four Worlds" are not myths as we think of myths being a phantasy of some mind, and the ground I stand on has become firmer because the Hopi, like myself, have no conflict between creation and evolution. All the heated arguments at present between Creationists and Evolutionists is but so much sound and fury signifying nothing.

My love to the Hopi and all Natives

Charlotte