In the beginning…

We have always had a need to try and understand how the world came to be. The most recent theory is called the Big Bang. A great nebula broke with an unthinkable force and matter was cast all through the universe and in the midst of this was what came to be earth…

Before science took over the wonderment of how, people used storytelling to explain their world’s existence. Today the most prominent mythology in existence says that: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the deep…” That’s how Genesis begins.

Most mythologies start with a god. The Egyptians said that in the dawn of time Ra created himself. He was alone, and from his saliva, he created the air, Shu, and Tefnut, moisture. When Shu and Tefnut united, Geb and Nut was created – the god of the earth and the goddess of the sky.

In the beginning, the Norse said, there was no earth, no ocean, and no sky. Just Ginnungagap. South of Ginnungagap was the realm of fire, Muspell, with dancing flames. North of Ginnungagap was the realm of ice, Niflheim, cold and covered with snow. Slowly between them, the air got milder and the ice closest to the warmth began to melt and the drops fell onto the giant, Ymir. And from him the worlds of was created.

For the Chinese at the beginning of time everything was chaos. The chaos formed an egg and within this egg was Yin and Yang. The enormous forces within the egg exploded and the heavy matter fell downwards and created the earth and the light floated upwards and became the sky. And in between earth and sky was Pangu, the first living creature.

For the Aborigines the earth was a desolate plain. It was dark. There was no life, no death. The sun, the moon, and all the stars slept underneath the earth where the eternal forbearers also slept, until they tore themselves away from their eternity and broke through the surface. This is the beginning of what the aborigines call the Dreamtime.

The Persians starts with two twins. The wise Ahura Mazda lived in the light, and his twin brother, Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, lived in the dark. Between them there was only air. Ahura Mazda created time, and the world began.

It starts with chaos or darkness, from a word, or from music, from one single divine beginning,from a nebula, from ice, from fire, from a god's sweat or saliva, from an egg... The earth is created in many ways, but they often originate in the different peoples natural surroundings. From what is known...