2001-11-07 02:16:34 -- http://www.atlan.org/articles/navajos/fig4.gif

The Dual Creations
Throughout the whole world, traditions tell of two basic types of Creation Myths. In one, the Ancestors fall down from Heaven above, and civilize the semi-bestial humans, with whom they breed the new humanity. In the other, as with the Amerinds, the Ancestors come from the Netherworld, and effect what amounts to a second Creation which is in all respects the dual of the former one.

This dual Creation and, indeed, Dualism in general, derives from Hinduism and seems to form the base and essence of the Urreligion ("Primordial Religion") postulated by certain anthropologists of note. We encounter this Dual Creation even in the Book of Genesis. There, the first Creation — attributed to Elohim — is told in chapter 1 of that book, whereas the second one, attributed to Jahveh, is narrated in chapter 2, as the reader can verify for himself.

The language in both passages is (purposefully) obscure, but is unmistakably dual. The god of Gen.1, Elohim is clearly Celestial. But the one of Gen.2, Jahveh, starts his Creation from below, as "the mist that came up from under the earth". In other words, the spirit ("mist") of God ascends from below, together with the subterranean waters and, certainly, followed by his hosts (or people), much in the manner of the Indians.

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