In the earliest days of great story tellers a group of boys threw rocks at hungry Coyote while he was snooping through the camp, chasing him away in pain. Coyote was so angry with this disrespectful misbehavior he stole one of the true stories of Creation. After a very long time Sun Hair Medicine Woman set food and water offerings out every night for Coyote and sang a request for the return of the legend. She did this every night, seven nights for each boy that threw rocks. At last Coyote came to Sun Hair in her dreams and returned the legend. And this is it just as it was originally told so long ago.

The Creation of Santa Fe

and

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains

The Missing Legend Revealed

Before our beginning Father Tawa the Sun dreamt his self-existence as insufficient to satisfy his ever expanding intelligence.

He had a long dream about creation and concluded in waking that there would be no point to creation without a partner who will always unconditionally love him, yet sometimes disagree and cause the both of them to think carefully -- because careful thought is the golden ladder by which all life rises to the next level of existence.

“A commitment between me and another must be part of the spiritual journey,” he reasoned, and so he created a partner who often juggled logic and emotion in a constant search for ultimate balance and he called her Earth Mother. She was the one of many arms and legs so she could juggle and balance her many thoughts and creations.

It was an interesting marriage, and many were the times she took creations that Father Tawa-Sun made and gave them life. One class of many creatures to which she gave life looked something like her and the people Father Sun had created called them “spider.” Later when the people saw Cloud Carries Thunder as it lowered to the earth and saw Earth Mother emerge from it they called her “Earth Spider Mother.”

Earth Spider Mother saw they were frightened but she called to them with a calm song and told them, “I am your mother here to teach you the ways of life so that you may live and be many years on the lands.”

She did this for many people showing them where to go to find water, how to take enough from the land to live and be thankful, and how to return to the world what they had taken when their time of years closed.

All the people followed her ways and did as she required of them but Great Chief Hopi wanted more.

He came to Earth Mother on his hands and knees and kissed the ground where her feet stood and then rose and made an offering saying, “I want to walk with you, become your friend, be raised as your son and learn your ways of wisdom from the beginning of lives to the end of all life, from before there was anything to when everything will end.

"Dearest to my heart, Great Earth Mother please let me walk with you and become like you, and when my days come to their end make me one with you, a part of you for all the days and nights, so long as there is anything to think.”

None of the other people had asked for such friendship. No others ever said they wished to lose themselves and have oneness with Earth Spider Mother.

She was so moved she first laughed and the earth rocked and jiggled, and then she cried and there was thunder and rain, and then at last she smiled calmly. As she smiled the sky lightened and the breeze galloped on seven white stallions, carrying the scent of earth's sweetness.

Through the sound of the wind She said, “Yes, I will be your mother and you will be my son.”

Earth Mother touched Hopi and a change came over him. That same day a warm soft honey-flower breeze blew across the tribe and there was great happiness among the people of Hopi.

All of this remember, was long ago, when the sky was black before Sister Moon showed her face.

For more than a year Hopi walked with Earth Spider Mother and learned her ways, listened to her words, held to her as she slept, listened to the whisper of her dreams, and knew her mind from the time before Beginnings.

After more than a year together Earth Spider Mother added magic feathers to Hopi's head-dress and lifted Hopi into the sky in Cloud Carries Thunder just as Father Tawa-Sun was coming over the hills.

Tawa knew the oneness Hopi wanted but this was a great gift to request. Tawa was not ready to adopt this man-boy into his family without testing to be sure he was worthy of Tawa’s attention.

Without a word he threw two spears high across the sky. They crossed before the light of the distant waning moon, turned smoothly, and came back toward Hopi. First Hopi thought his time was ended and then he remembered that in this life we only get what we really expect, and so he expected rightly and the arrows became white cranes and flew away together.

Father Tawa-Sun was so impressed with the right thought displayed by Hopi that he accepted Hopi as his son and told him, “You will give the world seed for many perfect children and from them will come many peoples. To them you will teach wisdom and how they may protect themselves from the Evil One and his degeneration.”

And so it began. Hopi and his first son Zuni lived a span of many lives on the land and both were -- for too many years to count -- young, strong, irresistibly handsome and attractive to young women.

Those so many years while fire keepers guarded through darkness watching for Sister Moon and Father Tawa-Sun, Hopi and Zuni pleased many beautiful women and every time one of these fortunate women worshipped The Creator with her sweet cries of pleasure The Creator placed another star in the sky.  

These beautiful women produced many even more beautiful children, and the children were born especially wise. Many could see colors and taste earth and sky when they heard words.

When the fire was burning, while the drums beat and the people sang, these beautiful children saw rainbows and smelled crushed berries.

When they grew up they were the healers and the art makers and their children also, and their children’s children too.

Earth Spider Mother was pleased with the work she had done and the raising of Hopi and his developing people. It was coming time for her to go back to Father Tawa-Sun, but she wanted to leave something more by which the generations would remember her.

Earth Spider Mother gathered the wise elders with Hopi and Zuni and while the back of Tawa was red across the edge of the world she said, “Of all the peoples yours is spiritually the strongest and wisest. Because you have disciplined yourselves to think carefully and live peacefully I would create for you an everlasting gift. In your wisdom consult together and decide what gift I might create."

After two moons and a time and a time, the consultation among the people, with the bear, the coyote, the birds, the snake god, and the beloved spirit of the gurgling waters, they came together again each to represent their desires.

“We do not know exactly what we want” their speaker said. We are three groups each concerned for your land and the future of the people. We do not live long but we want to pass something better to those who come after our times end.

The Elder Chief of the elderly people said, “We ask for warmer weather and healing sun because as we grow older the cold chills our bones and pains our heart with sadness.” 

The Wise Medicine Woman speaking for the young women said, “We wish for cooler weather because we are so hot before and during child birth and again when the time to close our womb comes.

A child in bright colors came forward and said,

“We children wish for better conditions to support our bodies so the insects and the mice will not bring us pains and diseases. The mouse often takes life away from us when we are too young, and the biting insects find great pleasure in our discomfort and sometimes after their biting comes ghastly disease.

"We beg you to please help us.” And all the children repeated, "We beg for your kind help our Mother of Creation."

Earth Spider Mother was silent for a while and then said, "I have heard your words and now I must think carefully." She disappeared into the night sky and consulted with Father Tawa and Sister Moon. Sister Moon experienced a change, and Great Green Sea Turtle from the emptiness beyond the edge of the world was called to carry a great weight. 

As the Autumn season closed and the last of the gatherings and garden crops were brought in under the harvest moon, through three-days a deepening darkness lowered over the land. All of the people gathered together, held one another close, and fell into a deep dreamless sleep where there was no night or day, no lover and no future.

While they slept Great Green Sea Turtle and Earth Spider Mother were busy working. Great Sea Turtle carried dense dark grounds from the sea and dust from Sister Moon. 

Spider Earth Mother pressed the land aside and it bent like heavy skin around the face of a smiling

sun-weathered old man. Then Great Sea Turtle deposited all the load on his back and Spider Earth Mother packed it into its present form. 

Rains came and plants grew and when there had become enough life force for animals to live again, She and Father Tawa-Sun woke the people from their death-sleep. 

The Chief looked at Sister Moon and said, "Oh Ho! There are new dark places on the moon. Now She looks like a face! What happened to Sister Moon, I wonder?" 

The people went to the east and discovered now they were higher in

the sky, and the rest of the world was far below them.

They turned to look north and west and saw the purple distant land was rippled like the hide of an old smiling sun-weathered chief. Young men traveled to the ripples and found mountains that went on and on as far as they could imagine.

Looking up at Sister Moon they saw where Father Tawa-Sun took some of Her scarf before piling it up on the back of Great Green Sea Turtle.

Today in Santa Fe if you dig deep enough you will find shells and minerals from the bottom of the sea. Scratch the surface of the earth and you find dust as dry as the scarf over the moon.

Santa Fe Summer is warm but not too terribly hot. Winter is cooler, but not as cold as those times endless centuries past. The weather is dry so the mouse and the bugs prefer the lower lands and cause less trouble for the little ones.

This is the land of Our People and how it came to be the plateau we call Santa Fe and the mountains your people call Sangre de Cristo.

StephenNewdell

September 24, 2011

Peace

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