I had a dream once that I met God. The almighty himself, blessed me with his presence and offered me some words that would stay with me to this day. I did not talk at all during this entire meeting, I was just simply in awe. Then he showed me three silver globes that were floated above what we were standing upon. Each globe he said would show me three ways the earth would be destroyed and cleansed again.
First one was by fire, the entire world was burning. The Second one was by water, the earth flooded and people drowning all over. The third and final was by ice, the earth blanketed with ice and snow. God asked me which of the three would I choose. I looked them all over again and I told him I would choose the third; cleanse the earth by Ice.
In the Navajo creation stories, it tells of three previous worlds that were each destroyed in their own unique ways. But the one that seems to ring across in unison across all cultures is the tale of the "Great Flood". Almost every culture in the world has a tale of some sort of flood that reshaped the world on a cataclysmic scale.
According to the Navajo creation story, the Third World, from which we came is when the Great Flood took place. The story goes that the Coyote stole the water monsters baby, and when she found out she began to cry and became furious. She began flooding the world and unbeknownst to the people at the animals was the reason why this was happening. They all gathered at the highest point they could find and there they stood as they watched the waters rise. First Man then saw something poking through the sky and he asked one of the birds to go and see what it was.
The bird went to investigate and saw that it was a root that was sticking through the sky and he followed the root through. He came out of the ground of the Fourth World and that's how we came into the world we are currently in.
The story of the Great Flood has been around years before it was even mentioned in the Testaments of the Holy Bible. The Story of the Deluge actually pre-dates the story of Noah and his ark. The earliest record of a flood is mentioned in Sumerian Creation and the story of a Flood is found on a clay tablet, that was excavated in Nippur: this tablet is most often reffered to as the "Eridu Genesis".
In the Sumerian texts it talks about Enki, the God of Wisdom, who overhears from the other Gods of their plans to flood the earth. So he goes to inform the hero Ziusudra of the plans and instructs him to build an ark. This story is strikingly similar to the one that is told in the Biblical version of the Flood in Genesis, where Noah is contacted by God and instruced to build an ark to save his family. The Ark had to be big enough to house two kinds of every animal in the world.
In the Hindu Mythology there is also story of a flood, which can be found in the book of "Satapatha Brahmana" it mentions the puranic story of a Great Flood. The story tells of the Matsya Avatar of Vishnu cautions Manu, first man, of the impending flood and also tells him to build a huge boat.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh (who was told be 2/3 divine 1/3 human), more specifically in Tablet Nine of this epic poem opens with Gilgamesh roaming the wild, grieving for his good friend Enkidu. Fearing his own mortality, he decides to seek Utnapishtim and learn the secret of eternal life. And the story mentions that Utnapishtim and his wife were among the few survivors of the flood mentioned and are the only humans to have been granted immortality by the Gods.
In the famous Greek philosophers Plato's "Timaeus", Timaeus says that because of the Bronze Race of Humans constant need to make war this angered the mighty Greek God Zeus. Zeus then decided to punish humanity by creating a flood. The Titan Prometheus knew of his plan and told the secret to Deucalion, advising him to build an ark in order to be saved. After nine nights and days the water started to recede and ark landed on Mount Parnassus.
This Petrogylph supposedly depicts the Sipapu of Hopu Legends. |
According to the Mayan Mythology told in the Popul Vuh, the Gods attempted to create creatures who would worship them three times before finally succeeding in creating a race of humans that would pay proper homage to their creators. Just like most American Indian mythologies of North America, the Mayans also believed that three previous worlds were also destroyed in their own various ways. The Mayan flood myths recorded by Diego de Landa and in the Chilam Balam of Chumayei holds that the only survivors of the flood were the four Bacabs who took their places as upholders of the four corners of the sky.
I mean, one could go on and on about cultures from all around the world and even civilizations who tell stories of a grand flood. But the most important part of all this is the face that how could so many cultures from all around world, who had no possible way of communicating thousands of years ago, tell such similar stories about a grand flood that was used by the Gods to purify the earth from its wickedness.
A scientific mind would ask, how would all this be possible? But one has to remember that there was once an Ice Age, and the biggest question that came from that is where did all the water go after the majority of the Ice melted?
Aerial View of the Grand Canyon. |
The Great Flood is a story that is prevalent around the world. So there is a type uniformity to this myth. Every dominant religion in the world has a flood story in their creation stories. Plus, almost all American Indian and Indigenous tribes from all around share this same belief.
Check this link for Scientific research results of a Flood investigation:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2000/sep/14/internationalnews.archaeology
Check this link for flood stories from almost every culture in the world:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html
Next...Atlantis??