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Ojibwa Creation Story
Native Legends and Myths
The creation story of the Ojibwa begins with nothing because in the beginning there was nothing. There was nothing but an all consuming dark void.
Nothing... except... possibility.
What I mean is this - although there was nothing, it was possible that there might be something. And if one thing was possible then everything and all things were possible.
The greatest possibility was that everything that we know and everything that we don't know could exist. It could all be. A human mind is not capable of envisioning and creating that much possibility.
It takes a being with unfathomable powers to envision the possibility of EVERYTHING and then to bring it all into existence. Some people call the being God. Some people call the being Allah.
The Ojibwa call this being Kitchi-Manitou - the Great Mystery.
Human beings always personify their deities
Nowhere on this world has the human mind been able to comprehend everything in the universe. The distinctions fall quickly into the abstract. If I traveled too far down the road of possibility, for example, we'd soon get lost in the morass. This is why people the world over have always personified their deities. It brings the concept down to the level that a mere mortal can understand.
Human minds have made up stories about what this being thinks, how he acts, what he likes, what he doesn't like. Then they make up more stories about what that means, and what we should do about it. Then someone else makes up more stories about the consequences of not doing anything about it...etc. etc.
Once the stories make it to book form, the collection becomes known as The Word of God or The Word of Allah and the stories are TRUE! The Ojibwa didn't develop a system of writing so that's why you, dear reader, might have not given our stories credence.
So over all the years, over the entire world, people have been making up stories about a divine being. And of course our egocentric minds are sure that OUR story is true and that the stories of others are myths.
But... back to the Ojibwa creation story.
Kitchi-Manitou had a vision (see the personification?). Because he was so all-mighty he could see everything that was possible in the universe.
Sorry to interrupt again, but I have to clarify something else.
A vision is the ability to envision, to see what's possible. It's not necessary to climb to the top of a mountain in the pouring rain and starve yourself to have a vision...or in the case of Moses, wander around the dessert for more than a month without eating or drinking. Visions may occur under those circumstances...they probably do...but consider that a vision may be something as simple as suddenly seeing a new solution, a new possibility for yourself and others.
So back AGAIN to the Ojibwa creation story...
Kitchi-Manitou had a vision. He saw in his mind all the suns and the moons that we know and all that we don't know. To our sun he gave the power to heat and light the earth. To our earth he gave the power of growth and healing. To the water on the earth he gave the twin powers of purity and renewal. To the wind he gave the power of the breath of life itself.
Kitchi-Manitou saw that on this world there would be seasons and patterns of existence. There would be life and death. There would be joy and sorrow. Some creatures would walk, some would fly, some would swim. He perceived their feelings and their needs, now and forever, and he envisioned how making one life interdependent on the next could provide for those needs.
And then from nothing, Kitchi-Manitou created this world, the universe and everything in it that we know and everything that we don't know.
And because you and I and all others things - both animate and inanimate were created by Kitchi Manitou from nothing but his knowing that it was possible- we will always be part of his spiritual essence.
That is how I was told the universe came to be. It was created because Kitchi Manitou knew it was possible that it could be.
