Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

The Tlingit Indians, once spread widely on the northwestern coast of North America, now mainly live in southeastern Alaska. According to the Tlingit, all living things, including humans and animals, have souls. The souls are designated the “inhabitants” (qwani) of certain kinds of bodies. Bears are called xuts, and the souls of bears are called xuts qwani. Anthropologist Frederica de Laguna, in an article called “Tlingit ideas about the individual” (1954, p. 179), says, “The physical body of an animal at times seems to be a covering for the soul or spirit, with which, however, the latter remains closely associated after death, as long as the flesh is ‘fresh,” or even longer.” Even the souls of animals are said to have human forms. The animals display these souls to each other in the wild, away from humans. Sometimes, however, animals also appear to humans in humanlike form, but de Laguna says it is not clear, from the myths, if the animal body transforms into a human body or the humanlike animal soul emerges from the animal body. The souls of the animals respond to human actions, punishing humans for wantonly harming animals and rewarding them for acts of kindness. De Laguna (1954, p. 179) says, “No sharp distinction separates animal from human souls, though the former would appear to be the more powerful.”

Plants as well as animals have spirits. If the Tlingit cut a tree for building a house or boat, they have to offer respect to its spirit. Even things we normally regard as lifeless have spirits.Emmons (1991,p.288) says,“Natural phenomena and inanimate objects all possessed something which made itself felt or became visible under certain conditions. The wind, whirlpool, thunder and lightning, or a glacier, were controlled by spirits.”

Emmons (1991, p. 288) provides a more extensive account of how the Tlingit view the soul and its relationship to the human body: “As explained by an old native of the Hootz-ah-ta tribe, the Tlingit recognize three entities in man: (a) the material body; (b) the spirit, a vital central force through which the body functions during life and which, leaving the body, causes death; and (c) the soul, a spiritual element that has no mechanical connection with the body, and is eternal, dwelling in spirit land or returning from time to time to live in different bodies.” The Tlingit also recognize a person’s mind, thoughts, and feelings as a kind of inner self (Emmons 1991, p. 289). Altogether, this is strikingly similar to the distinctions made between body, mind, vital force, and soul in our template Vedic cosmology.

The Tlingit also recognize a “a personal guardian spirit, Ka kin-ah yage or Ka-hen-a yake, ‘up above spirit’” (Emmons 1991, p. 368). This guardian spirit guides and protects a person. Sometimes the Tlingit will pray, “Watch over me carefully, my Spirit Above.” The Spirit Above resembles the Supersoul of the Vedic cosmology. The Supersoul, or Paramatma, accompanies each soul in the material world, overseeing its activities and guiding it according to its own desires.

According to an individual’s mode of death, there are different kinds of afterlives. There is a heaven for people who die of old age or disease. There is another such heaven for those who die from violence. Those who go to these heavens become the northern lights. They are then called “the people above.” De Laguna (1954, p. 191) says of departed persons, “They may appear after their funeral to greet their friends, on other occasions they prophesy war or that a relative will die by violence.” People who drown or become lost in the forest remain on this earth. They wander around as land-otter people. The Tlingit believe in reincarnation, although de Laguna noted (1954, p. 191) that in addition to the reincarnated self “there apparently remains a ghostly counterpart to be fed at potlatches, a dangerous presence still associated with the remains of the corpse, or something that may still be embodied in the form of the landotter or in the northern lights.”

The reincarnated self is the soul. Emmons (1991, p. 368) says: “After death, the ‘soul’ or ‘shadow’ (now a ‘ghost’) travels to a land of the dead, the place depending on the manner of death, and it may later be reincarnated in a living person.” The Tlingit believe the soul in a human body can only return to another human body, usually in the same family or clan (Emmons 1991, p. 288). The return of a human soul to a human family group is recognized by announcing dreams and birthmarks. Citing a Tlingit informant, Emmons (1991, p. 288) says: “A . . . woman during pregnancy had dreams of her [maternal aunt], a woman of high caste who had many perforations in the rims of her ears—a sign of her social standing. The child, when born, had a number of scars and holes about the edges of the ears, which at once indicated that the spirit of the aunt had returned and entered the child.” Another informant told of how a famous warrior returned in the body of his grandson. This warrior had suffered a fatal gunshot wound, the bullet entering the left breast and exiting through the back. The man’s grandson had two large birthmarks in the same places as the entry and exit wounds (Emmons 1991, p. 288).

Kan (1989, p. 110), making use of a report initially recorded by de Laguna (1972, pp. 767–769), tells of a Tlingit man named Askadut who recalled a rebirth experience. In his past life, he had died. He recalled seeing his body during a wake held by his relatives in his house. He tried to reenter his body but could not do it. The body was then cremated, and he journeyed to the land of the dead. After some time, he left there. He followed a river until he found a suitable tree on its bank. He sat beneath this tree, leaning against its trunk for nine days, after which the bank caved in and he fell into the water. Kan (1989, p. 110) says, “The next thing he saw was his own sister holding him as her newborn infant.”

The principal deity of the Tlingits is Yehl, the creator of the world. Frances Knapp and Rheta Louise Childe (1896, p. 153), commenting on the attitude of the Tlingit to their chief deity, stated: “He was their popular hero, and represented their ideal of wisdom and cunning. It mattered not that he was lazy and a glutton, or that he gained all his victories by fraud and knavery. Nor did it in the least conflict with their sense of the proprieties, that he should be a notorious thief and liar. They delighted in his cool impudence, his mad-cap pranks, the practical jokes he was continually playing on other spirits, and the miraculous means he employed to escape from the snares of his enemies.”

Kanukh, the war god, was born before Yehl, and thus his descendants, the warriors of the Wolf family, consider him to be superior to Yehl. The god Chetl usually remains invisible, but reveals his birdlike form in storms. At such times, his eyes flash with lightning and his wings send forth sounds of thundering. His sister Ahgishanakhou rests beneath volcanos, supporting the earth on her shoulders, while waiting for her brother to finally come and relieve her of this duty. In addition to these main gods, the Tlingit also believed in three kinds of lesser gods called Yekh: gods of the air (Khikyekh), gods of land (Tahkiyekh), and gods of the sea (Tekhiyekh). Disguised as birds or beasts, they would come near human settlements (Knapp and Childe 1896, pp. 153–154).

The Tlingit religion is shamanistic. The shaman is called ichta, and his function is to communicate with spirits and influence them on behalf of the Tlingit people. Ethnologist Aurel Krause says (1956, p. 194), “For each spirit the shaman has a special mask, which he uses when he appeals to that spirit. The conjuring of a spirit consists of a wild dance around the fire during which violent contortions of the body take place. The shaman cures the sick by driving out evil spirits, brings on good weather, brings about large fish runs and performs other similar acts.”

Ethnologist John Reed Swanton reported (1905, p. 465): “All kinds of tales are related of the power of these shamans. Thus it is said that some United States marines were going to cut the hair of a Sitka shaman, when his spirit came into him so powerfully that the arms of the big marine who was about to ply the shears were paralyzed and those of the other marines dropped to their sides.” According to Swanton (1905, p.

466), the power of a shaman would usually pass to one of his nephews after his death. The shaman’s chief spirit would tell the shaman shortly before his death where his body should be taken and what his clan should do. After this happened, the clan would gather in a house, and the successor shaman would invite a spirit to come in. When the spirit came in, there would be singing during which the new shaman would fall into a trance. And when he was awakened by the clan, the clan had a new shaman.

During sickness, a person’s “spirit” (not the soul, but the vital force that causes the body to function) may leave the body, causing a dangerous situation. During such times, a shaman can summon a spirit helper to catch the spirit and bring it back to the body, thus restoring health, or ending the threat of death (Emmons 1991, p. 288).

Ojibwa Cosmology

The Ojibwa Indians, also known as the Chippewas, live on the northern shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior in Canada. According to the Ojibwa, a human being is composed of a material body (wijo), a shadow (udjibbom), and a soul (udjitchog). After death the material body decays and disappears (Jenness 1935, p. 18).

The shadow is associated with the brain, but it also operates outside the body. It assists the soul in perception and knowledge. The shadow appears to correspond to the mind element or subtle material body of our model Vedic cosmology. The Ojibwa believe a man’s shadow goes before him when he walks. Sometimes the shadow, moving ahead of a hunter, will cause his eyes to twitch, signalling that it has seen game (Jenness

1935, p. 19). Animals also have their shadows, which act in a similar fashion to protect them. But sometimes the animal shadow will fail to perceive an approaching human as a threat, and the human will kill the animal. On the other hand, the shadow of an animal, such as a deer, may become aware of a hunter and correctly perceive its intention. The deer’s shadow then constantly watches the hunter, and therefore the hunter will never be able to approach the deer closely enough to kill it (Jenness

1935, p. 22).

If someone feels he is being watched, even though no one is visible, this is the shadow giving a warning to the soul. The shadow might also give a young Ojibwa a sensation that he will soon be visited by a manitou, or supernatural being, allowing him to make the proper preparations (Jenness 1935, p. 19). The shadow of a baby is especially sensitive and active. It moves beyond the body to observe and learn many things over wide distances, although the body remains stationary and quiet. Sometimes the baby smiles or laughs inexplicably. In such cases, the baby’s shadow has apprehended something that gladdens its soul. Ojibwa parents are very protective of the baby’s shadow. Rocking the baby’s hammock carelessly may cause a disturbance to the shadow. The Ojibwa also believe that if the baby’s father tortures an animal, the shadows of the baby and the father will suffer (Jenness 1935, p. 20)

At times, the shadow, which is normally not seen, becomes visible, taking the same form as the body (Jenness 1935, p. 20). This accounts for people seeing apparitions of someone who is in fact at a distance of many miles. The Ojibwa believe that a person’s health requires a balance between body, shadow, and soul. Persons intent on harming others may employ witchcraft to disturb this balance. Sometimes the shadow may split in two, with one part pulling one way and the other part pulling in another. When this happens, the soul remains detached, waiting for a decision, while the body, under stress, falls victim to disease. If the conflict is not eventually resolved, the person dies and the shadow haunts the grave as a ghost (Jenness 1935, p. 20). Jenness says (1935, p. 19), “The shadow is slightly more indefinite than the soul, and the Indians themselves often confuse them, attributing certain activities of phenomena now to one, now to the other.”

About the Ojibwa concept of the soul, Jenness (1935, p. 18) says: “The soul is located in the heart, and is capable of travelling outside the body for brief periods, although if it remains separate too long the body will die. . . . For the soul is the intelligent part of man’s being, the agency that enables him to perceive things, to reason about them, and remember them. . . . Besides being the intelligent part of man the soul is the seat of the will.”

A skilled medicine man can take a sleeping person’s soul out of the body. Sometimes the intention may be innocent—to converse with the soul in the medicine man’s tent before an audience of spirit beings and then let it go back to the sleeping body. But the intention may also be to kill the body by keeping the soul too long away from it. An Ojibwa said, “I had a lucky escape once. I was only sixteen years old. A conjurer drew my soul into his conjuring lodge and I knew at once that he wanted to kill me, because I had made fun of his son who was a ‘humpy’ [hunchback]. I said, ‘I’m going out.’ But the old man said, ‘No! You can’t go.’ Then I saw my own head rolling about and the people in the lodge were trying to catch it [The “people” were the guardian spirits, pawáganak, of the conjurer—superhuman entities]. I thought to myself that if only I could catch my head everything would be all right. So I tried to grab it when it rolled near me and finally I caught it. As soon as I got hold of it I could see my way out and I left. Then I woke up but I could not move my legs or arms. Only my fingers I could move. But finally I managed to speak. I called out to my mother. I told her I was sick. I was sick for a couple of days. No one saw my soul go to and fro but I knew where I had been” (Hallowell 1955, p. 175, his insertions).

After death, the soul journeys to the west, to the land of souls. The land of souls is ruled by Nanibush, a great Ojibwa culture hero (Jenness 1935, p. 18). The soul is driven on its journey to the land of the dead by a supernatural being called the Shadow Manitou. The Shadow Manitou normally sleeps, but when an Ojibwa becomes very ill the person’s wandering soul disturbs the Shadow Manitou. The Shadow Manitou walks around the wigwam of the Ojibwa but leaves no tracks. It tries to drive the soul to the land of the dead. If it does so, the body dies (Jenness 1935, p. 42). A good medicine man, if he acts quickly after death, can sometimes bring a soul back from the Land of the Dead. An Ojibwa Indian said, “Once I saw Owl do this. Tcètcebú was very ill. By the time Owl arrived where her father was encamped, she died. Owl tied a piece of red yarn around the girl’s wrist at once [to enable him to identify her quickly in a crowd] and lay down beside her body. He lay in this position a long, long time. He was still; he did not move at all. Then I saw him move ever so little. The girl began to move a little also. Owl moved more. So did the girl. Owl raised himself up into a sitting posture. At the same moment the girl did the same. He had followed her to the Land of the Dead and caught her soul just in time” (Hallowell 1955, pp. 174–175).

Some authors, such as Vecsey (1983), have interpreted the distinction between shadow and soul given above as a dual soul concept. According to Vecsey (1983, p. 59), the first researcher to record this was Schoolcraft (1848, p. 127). An Ojibwa informant told Schoolcraft that one soul left the body during dreams, while another soul remained within the body to keep it alive. Following Hultkrantz (1953), Vecsey

292 Human Devolution: a vedic alternative to Darwin’s theory

(1983, pp. 59–63) says this about the two souls: “Located in the heart of each person, but with an ability to move about both within and without the body, the ego-soul provided intelligence, reasoning, memory, consciousness and the ability to act. It could leave the body for short periods of time, but lengthy separations resulted in sickness and permanent separation meant the body’s death. This soul, the seat of the will, experienced emotions. Each person possessed one, receiving animation from it. The traveling soul, sometimes called a free-soul, resided in the brain and had a separate existence from the body, being able to journey during sleep at will. . . . It [also] perceived, sensed, acted as the ‘eyes’ of the egosoul, seeing things at a distance.” The free-soul corresponds to the shadow mentioned by other authors, and the ego-soul corresponds to the soul proper. In terms of Vedic concepts, the free-soul can be identified with the subtle material body (mind), and the ego-soul can be identified with the atma (conscious self).

According to the Ojibwa, not only humans but also animals, plants, and even water and stones possess bodies, shadows, and souls. They all have life, although varying in form and powers (Jenness 1935, p. 20). Nanibush, the great hero, would speak with the trees in their language, expressed in the sound of leaves moving in the wind. Jenness (1935, p. 20) said one of his Ojibwa informants told him, “Once when a man was walking along a flower cried to him ‘Do not step on me,’ for flowers are like little children.”

The souls of witches can take on the forms of dogs or owls, and souls of animals can take on human forms (Jenness 1935, p. 27). Vecsey (1983, p. 60) says: “As souls traveled they could take other appearances, depending on their power. They could appear as plants, animals, and other forms; therefore, metamorphosis was an aspect of Ojibwa metaphysics.” Sometimes humans were cursed to take on the forms of animals. In one case, the transformation of human forms into animal forms was arrested, resulting in an unusual type of creature. The Ojibwa Jonas King explained (Jenness 1935, p. 43): “Long ago the Indians discovered a sturgeon in a spring. Their elders warned them not to touch it, but some one imprudently cooked it and a number of people joined in the feast. When the hunters returned to the camp that evening they found all their relatives who had eaten of the sturgeon being rapidly transformed into fish. Some had changed completely, others remained half-human still; but all alike were struggling towards the water, or weeping near the shore with the water lapping their shoulders, while their unchanged kinsfolk strove in vain to draw them back. The medicine-men called on their manidos [manitous] for help, but the utmost they could accomplish was to check any further transformation.” These half human, half fish creatures are called mermaids and mermen (dibanabe).

An Ojibwa named Jim Nanibush told Jenness (1935, p. 21): “The tree does not die; it grows up again where it falls. When an animal is killed its soul goes into the ground with its blood; but later it comes back and is reincarnated where its blood entered the ground. Everything, tree, birds, animals, fish (and in earlier times human beings also) return to life; while they are dead their souls are merely awaiting reincarnation. My uncle lived four or five lives, 500 years in all. But there are two very hard stones, one white and one black, that never die; they are called meshkosh.” Another Ojibwa, Pegahmagabow, said, “Sometimes a tree will fall when there is not a breath of wind. Its soul dies, just as the soul of a man dies and goes to the land of the west. But whither the tree’s soul goes no one knows” (Jenness 1935, p. 21).

The animals have their own societies, organized much like human societies, complete with leaders, called bosses. The Ojibwa James Walker said, “Before the white man reached Georgian Bay a certain Indian gathered many beaver, otter, and other skins, which he kept in his wigwam in the woods. One still night he heard the crashing of a tree, and then a wailing of many voices ‘Our King has gone!’ When morning came he found that a giant white oak had fallen, being rotten at the base; the white oaks around it had bewailed its fall. He gathered up all his furs, laid them over the trunk as in burial, and returned to his wigwam. Night came, and as he slept he dreamed that a manido visited him and said, ‘You have done well. Now take your furs again and travel east. There you will find a man who will give you clothing of a new kind in exchange for them.’ The Indian travelled east and discovered French traders on the St. Lawrence River. He was the first Ojibwa to see or trade with white men” (Jenness

1935, p. 23).

As in our template Vedic cosmology, the Ojibwa cosmology has a multilevel universe. Jenness (1935, p. 28) says, “Even today some Indians believe there are six layers of worlds in the sky above and correspondingly six beneath; others assert that there are only two, one upper and one lower.” Souls of animals go to Bitokomegog, a level below the earth of our experience. The number of animals on earth is tied to the number of animal souls that come up from the lower level. If there are many, the number of animals increases. If there are few, the number of animals decreases. The number of souls that come to earth is determined by the bosses of the animal species (Jenness 1935, p. 23).

Theresa S. Smith, in her study of Ojibwa cosmology (1995, p.44), echoes the theme of this chapter: “The notion of a multileveled world is not exclusive to the Ojibwe. Every shamanic society, from Siberia to Oceania, has shared this intuition of a many-storied universe. Like players in an intricate game of ladders and chutes, shamans travel routes mapped by myth and vision to power realms both above and below the sensible world. And returning from their travels they add their testimony to a continually growing corpus of descriptions regarding the structure and character of multileveled reality. Among the archaic traditions of the world—the Mesopotamian, Indian, Greek, and Japanese for instance—a hierarchy of worlds was the norm. Even contemporary non-shamanic world religions retain earlier cosmographies as symbolic expressions of sacrality both in and beyond this earth. . . . This means that contemporary people—including the Ojibwe—informed by a scientific understanding of cosmology, still find the hierarchical universe to be a resonant image.” The researchers and informants cited by Smith (1995, pp. 44–46)

speak of a cosmos divided into three regions: upper, middle and lower. The upper region, inhabited by the Great Spirit Kitchie Manitou, the Thunderbirds, and various manitous, is divided into several levels. The lower region is also composed of several levels. Between the two is the earth of our experience, which is described as an island (Smith 1995, p.

47). Directly below the earth is the realm of underwater and underground creatures. Below this is the “mirror world,” a place where night comes when it is day on earth. This place, described as “peaceful and abundant” (Smith 1995, p. 46), is the destination of souls of the dead. Below this is a place of constant darkness.

The gods and the spirits of the Ojibwa are of many kinds. One kind is similar to the fairies and brownies of Celtic mythology. They are called invisible people, and they are of two types—one with no name and the other called bagudzinishinabe, little wild people. Whoever sees either kind gets the blessing of a long life. The no-names hunt with foxes instead of dogs. “We see the tracks of the foxes, but not of their masters, except those they made on the rocks before the Indians came to this country,” says Jenness (1935). “At that time the sun drew so close to the earth that it softened the rocks, and the feet of these invisible people left marks on them. When the sun withdrew the rocks hardened again and the footprints remained petrified on their surfaces.” The little wild people are the size of children. Although mischievous they are not truly harmful. They are responsible for poltergeistlike effects, such as throwing pebbles onto the roofs of wigwams (Jenness 1935).

Above these are the manitous. They can be male or female, and display human attributes. Usually, they are invisible to humans of our kind, but they may become visible in any form they choose. The manitous possess different degrees of power (Jenness 1935, p. 29). “Highest in the scale of these supernatural beings,” says Jenness (1935, p. 29), “is KitchiManido, the Great Spirit, who is . . . the source of all the power inherent to a greater or less extent in everything that exists.”

According to W. Vernon Kinietz (1947, pp. 152–153), the Great Spirit, Kitchi-Manitou (or Kijai Manitou), creates heaven, earth, and the lands from which the white people came. In these areas, he creates humans, animals and other things appropriate to each place. He rewards the virtuous and punishes the wicked. Kinietz (1947, p. 153) says, “Wiskendijac is next in power: he is said to be the Creator of all the Indian tribes, the country they inhabit and all it contains . . . The last of the deities is called Matchi Manitou, or the ‘Bad Spirit.’ He is the author of all evil, but subject to the control of Kijai Manitou.”

Some modern researchers have tried to depersonalize the manitou concept, but even their accounts cannot avoid personality. Johnston (1995, p. 2), for example, says Kitchi-Manitou refers to “the Great Mystery of the supernatural order” and that it “cannot be known or described in human corporeal terms.” Yet he goes on to say (1995, pp. 2–3), “According to the creation story, Kitchi-Manitou had a vision, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, sensing, and knowing the universe, the world, the manitous, plants, animals, and human beings, and brought them into existence. The story represents a belief in God and in creation, an explanation of the origin of things; it also serves as an example for men and women to emulate. Following the example set by Kitchi-Manitou, every person is to seek a dream or vision within the expanse of his or her soulspirit being and, having attained it, bring it into fulfillment and reality.” Each person must therefore go on a quest to discover his or her own dream or vision, along with the talent or ability to fulfill it. Stressing the personalistic nature of Ojibwa cosmology, Smith (1995, p.48) says: “The

. . . [Ojibwa] . . . experience of the world, whether awake or in a dream, is an experience of a world controlled by the actions of persons, human and otherwise. The levels and directions are not ‘animated’ or ‘anthropomorphized’ by humans who, in a purely cognitive exercise, posit souls and spirits and ascribe them to things in the world. Rather, the cosmos is experienced as a place literally crowded with ‘people.’”

Besides the manitous mentioned above, there are other manitous who control various natural powers. For example, there is a chief manitou, who, assisted by various subordinate manitous, controls the winds and breezes (Jenness 1935, p. 34). Another group of manitous controls the thunder. After the Great Spirit, the thunder manitous are considered the strongest. The subordinate manitous have souls, like human beings and other living things (Vecesey 1983, p. 61).

Some Indians have supernatural powers obtained from the manitous. An Ojibwa named Pegahmagabow said: “Long ago the manidos or supernatural powers gathered somewhere and summoned a few Indians through dreams, giving them power to fly through the air to the meetingplace. The Indians (i.e., their souls) travelled thither, and the manidos taught them about the supernatural world and the powers they had received from the Great Spirit. Then they sent the Indians to their homes again” (Jenness 1935, p. 29). One type of especially empowered human is the wabeno, a kind of medicine man who specializes in curing diseases with plant medicines. According to the Ojibwa, the first wabeno, Bidabbans (Day-dawn), got his curing powers from the moon god (Jenness

1935, p. 62).

Human beings and manitous are sometimes threatened by supernatural water serpents, whose boss is called Nzagima. The Ojibwa Pegahmagabow said that Nzagima has seven heads (Jenness 1935, p. 39). Vedic histories describe how a many headed water serpent called Kaliya entered a sacred river, the Yamuna, and was driven away by the Personality of Godhead, Krishna, who danced on the serpent’s heads (Shrimad Bhagavatam 10.16). The water serpents led by Nzagima can travel beneath the surface of the earth and sometimes take away the souls of humans. “So if lightning strikes a tree near an Indian’s wigwam it is the thunder-manido driving away some water serpent that is stealing through the ground to attack the man or his family,” says Jenness (1935, p. 35). According to the Ojibwa elder John Manatuwaba, the serpent manitous live under the earth and jointly control the lives of plants and trees (Jenness 1935, p. 40). This resembles the Vedic accounts of a race of serpents (nagas) who live in subterranean heavenly planets (Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.11.11).

Another malevolent being is the windigo. A human who in the hard times of winter resorts to cannibalism to avoid starvation becomes a windigo. Windigos are gigantic in size and possess supernatural powers. In winter, the windigos roam about seeking victims to eat. They are indestructible by ordinary means. Sometimes an Ojibwa will cut off a windigo’s head but it will grow back. A good medicine man using the right methods can, however, actually destroy a windigo (Jenness 1935, pp.

40–41). The wolf is considered to be the dog of the windigo (Jenness 1935, p. 25). The world of the Hopi is full of spirits, including a sun god, moon god, and star gods. Atmospheric gods control the rain, wind, lightning, thunder, and rainbows. In certain springs live serpent gods, who control the supply of water (Talayesva 1942, p. 17). But in the beginning, there was only Taoiwa, the creator, who existed in Tokpela, a realm of endless, timeless space. In order to bring about the finite creation, Taiowa manifested Sotuknang, unto whom he said, “I have created you, the first power and instrument as a person, to carry out my plan for life in endless space. I am your Uncle. You are my Nephew. Go now and lay out these universes in proper order so they may work harmoniously with one another according to my plan” (Sproul 1979, p. 271). Sotuknang manifested seven universes for habitation by the living entities he would generate. In addition to these seven worlds, he manifested his own realm, and, of course, Taiowa had his realm. Then from Sotuknang came Kokyangwuti, the Spider Woman, who from the earth created humans of different colors. Sotuknang then gave them the powers of speech and wisdom, along with the power to generate offspring. He said to the humans, “With all these I have given you this world to live on and to be happy. There is only one thing I ask of you. To respect the Creator at all times. Wisdom, harmony, and respect for the love of the Creator who made you. May it grow and never be forgotten among you as long as you live” (Sproul 1979, p. 272).

A highly visible and famous part of Hopi religion is the Kachina cult. Kachi means “life or spirit” and na means “father,” so Kachina literally means “life father” or “spirit father” (Dockstader 1985, p. 9).The word kachi can also be taken to mean “sitter,” and thus a Kachina can be taken to be a supernatural being who sits among the Hopi, listening to their petitions for material and spiritual blessings. Dockstader (1985, p. 9) says that the Kachinas “have the power to bring rain, exercise control over the weather, help in many of the everyday activities of the villages, punish offenders of ceremonial or social laws, and in general act as a link between gods and mortals.” Their main function is to take messages from the Hopi to their gods. Today masked people take on the role of the Kachinas in ceremonies, and the Hopi accept that they to some extent have the same supernatural qualities as the original Kachinas. According to Dockstader (1985, p. 10), the Hopis held that “the Kachinas were beneficent spirit-beings who came with the Hopis from the Underworld, whence came all people.” According to one view, they remained with the Hopis for some time, giving them many benedictions. Then, after the Hopis began to take them for granted, the Kachinas returned to the Underworld. Before leaving, they instructed some good young men how to dress themselves as Kachinas and perform the rites. “When the other Hopis realized their loss,” says Dockstader (1985, p. 11), “they remorsefully turned to the human substitute-Kachinas, and the ceremonies have continued since that time.”

In the cosmology of the Hopis, we find key elements of the template Vedic cosmology. In both there is a distinction between an ultimate high god and a creator god, or gods, responsible for manifesting the forms of humans and other creatures. In both, there is a multilevel universe.

The Lenape or Delaware Indians are Algonguins. They believed in many gods, mani ‘towuk, but among the mani ‘towuk, one was supreme. He was called Gicelemu ‘kaong, which means “creator” or “great spirit.” All of the other mani ‘towuk were his servants. Through them Gicelemu

‘kaong manifested the earth and all of its creatures. The Lenape directed most of their worship to the agents of the great spirit, considering them more closely involved in their daily life. The great spirit lived in a distant place, the twelfth and highest heaven above the earth (Eliade 1967, pp.

12–13).

Lenape chiefs would recite this prayer during ceremonies held in the tribal Big House: “Man has a spirit, and the body seems to be a coat for that spirit. That is why people should take care of their spirits, so as to reach Heaven and be admitted to the Creator’s dwelling. We are given some length of time to live on earth, and then our spirits must go. When anyone’s time comes to leave this earth, he should go to Gicelemu`kaong, feeling good on the way. We all ought to pray to Him to prepare ourselves for days to come so that we can be with Him after leaving the earth . . . When we reach that place, we shall not have to do anything or worry about anything, only live a happy life. We know there are many of our fathers who have left this earth and are now in this happy place in the Land of Spirits . . . Everything looks more beautiful there than here, everything looks new, and the waters and fruits and everything are lovely. No sun shines there, but a light much brighter than the sun, the Creator makes it brighter by his power. All people who die here, young or old, will be of the same age there; and those who are injured, crippled, or made blind will look as good as the rest of them. It is nothing but the flesh that is injured: the spirit is as good as ever” (Eliade 1967, p 160). The parallels with the Vedic cosmology are striking. In Bhagavad Gita (2.22), the body is described as a garment for the soul. The purpose of life is characterized as journeying to the realm of God. The Bhagavad Gita (15.6) specifically says that the realm of God is luminous, but without the light of the sun or moon.

The Lenape Big House is a model of the universe. “The centre post is the staff of the Great Spirit, with its foot upon the earth, its pinnacle reaching to the hand of the Supreme Deity. The floor of the Big House is the flatness of the earth. . . . The ground beneath the Big House is the realm of the underworld while above the roof lie the extended planes or levels, twelve in number, stretched upward to the abode of the Great Spirit, even the Creator” (Speck 1931, pp. 22–23). The Big House also included a White Path, corresponding to the Milky Way, the path by which the soul goes to the spiritual realm of the Great Spirit.

The supreme being of the Omaha Indians is called Wakonda. The process of humans coming into being expressed by the Omaha Indians is similar to the concept of human devolution expressed in this book. An Omaha Indian informant said, “At the beginning, all things were in the mind of Wakonda. All creatures, including man, were spirits. They moved about in space between the earth and the stars (the heavens). They were seeking a place where they could come into bodily existence.” First they went to the sun and moon, but these were not fit places for them. Then they came to the earth, which at first was covered by water. When the water receded dry land was revealed. The Omaha informant said, “The host of spirits descended and became flesh and blood. They fed on the seeds of the grasses and the fruits of the trees, and the land vibrated with their expressions of joy and gratitude to Wakonda, the maker of all things” (Eliade 1967, pp. 84–85).

Cosmology of the aranda People of Australia

The Aranda are one of the aboriginal peoples of Australia. They believe that in the beginning there were great personalities called Numbakulla. The meaning of this word is “always existing” and “out of nothing.” The greatest of them, according to the members of the southern, central, and northern groups of aboriginals, is the Numbakulla who came out of nothing at Lamburkna, in the south. He created the land and water, and established the main features of the landscape, such as mountains, rivers, hills, and deserts. He also brought into being plants and animals. He also established totem places (knanikilla), which he would use in the future in populating the earth (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 356).

Below Numbakulla in the Aranda cosmology come gods and goddesses of nature. The sun goddess is called Alinga or Orthika. She is said to have come out of the ground at a place near Alice Springs, along with two woman associates. The eldest of the women carries a young child. The sun goddess leaves them each day and rises into the sky. At night the sun returns to the spot where it rose (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 496). The Water Men (Atoakwatje) supply water to earth from the clouds, wherein they dwell. The moon god, Atninja, is regarded as male and is therefore sometimes called Atua Oknurcha, big man. There is also an underworld.

Returning to his tmara marakirna (great camp) at Lamburkna, Numbakulla carved a cavelike storehouse in the rock and surrounded it with gum tree boughs. He did this in preparation for the creation of the first ancestors of humans. The process begins with the making of churingas, objects imprinted with signs associated with totem groups. When Numbakulla later made the churingas he would put them in the rock cave (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 356). The time and place associated with Numbakulla, the original ancestor, and his various first creations is called alchera. The cave where the churingas were to be stored was called the pertalchera, the rock of the alchera (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 357).

Before the churingas could be made, Numbakulla had first to make the ilpintiras, the signs that would be imprinted on the churingas. On the floor of the pertalchera, Numbakulla painted a churinga-ilpintira, a sign for the churinga of a totem group, or knanj. This first churinga-ilpintira was for the achilpa knanj, or wild cat totem. He painted another achilpa churinga-ilpintira on the ground outside the pertalchera. In the center of it, he raised a pole called kauwa-auwa. Numbakulla then made the first churinga for the achilpa totem. He did this by marking a rock or other object with the achilpa churinga-ilpintira, the sign of the wildcat totem. He placed in this first achilpa churinga the kuruna (soul or spirit) of the first Achilpa man, and placed this churinga on the churinga-ilpintira in the Pertalchera cave. Out of the churinga came Inkata Achilpa Maraknirra, the first Achilpa man, who was called inkata (leader) and maraknirra (very great).

Numbakulla then manifested many more kurunas, souls, from within himself. Each kuruna was connected with an original churinga, one for each knanj (totem group): achilpa (wildcat), erlia (emu), arura (kangaroo), etc. Numbakulla gave these original churingas to Inkata Achilpa Maraknirra, and also taught him the ceremonies for each totem group. Inkata Achilpa Maraknira carried the original churingas to the totem places (knani-killa) previously designated by Numbakulla. In each original churinga there was the kuruna of an inkatat oknirra, a headman, as well as many additional churingas and kurunas. These original churingas are called churinga indulla-irrakura. After the headman for a totem group appeared from a churinga in a specific place, he would make use of the churingas and kurunas in the churinga indulla-irrakura to make more people. He would also use churingas and kurunas stored in his own body (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 361).

The origin of males and females is explained as follows. The original stone churingas of the totem groups were split in two, making pairs. These pairs were tied together. Spencer and Gillen (1927, p. 359) say, “One Churinga of each pair had an atua or man’s spirit, the other an arragutja or woman’s. Each Churinga had also an aritna churinga, or sacred name, associated with it and its Kuruna and all these names were given, originally, by Numbakulla. Later on, the Kurunas emanated from the Churinga and gave rise to men and women, each of whom bore as his or her sacred name, the one given to the Churinga by Numbakulla.” Neither Numbakulla nor the original Achilpa Inkata Maraknirra, or the first forefathers of the totem groups had mates, but all subsequent kurunas were manifested in male and female pairs (Spencer and Gillen 1927, pp.

361–362).

A child is born after a kuruna enters a woman. The kuruna will have existed previously in another body, and the old men of the totem group have ways of telling which kuruna has reincarnated into the group (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 103). About the birth process, W. E. H. Stanner says in his paper “The Dreaming” (1956), “The means by which, in aboriginal understanding, a man fathers a child, is not by sexual intercourse, but by the act of dreaming about a spirit-child. His own spirit, during a dream,

‘finds’ a child and directs it to his wife, who then conceives. Physical congress between a man and a woman is contingent, not a necessary prerequisite” (Lessa and Vogt 1958, p. 515).

The churinga from which the kuruna (soul) of the child came remains in the pertalchera of the child’s original totem group. A double of the kuruna, called the arumburinga, remains with the churinga in the pertalachera. The arumburinga can travel outside the pertalchera and sometimes goes to visit its embodied kuruna double. The embodied kuruna is called ulthana. At death, the ulthana kuruna goes to the churinga in the pertalchera in which it was originally placed in the original time, alchera (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 103).

The relationships between soul, body, and churinga are complex, as is the language related to these relationships. The word aradugga (or aradukka) refers to the physical birth of a child from the womb. The word knailjalugga refers to the kuruna or soul coming out of the churinga. In the birth process, a kuruna leaves the churinga and enters the body of the woman who is to be its mother. In the body of the mother, the kuruna receives its own body, which is called mberka (Spencer and Gillen

1927, p. 358). The kuruna is said to be small, like a tiny pebble, and colored red.The body of the child within the womb is called ratappa (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 363).

At the end of a person’s life, two spirit brothers called Inchinkina, who normally exist as stars in the heavens, come down to earth to hasten the person’s death (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 429). Another evil spirit called Eruncha sometimes helps them. If the dead person tries to rise from the grave, Eruncha forces him back (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p.430).

The embodied kuruna soul (called ulthana) remains with the body of the dead person for some time, watching over it in its burial mound until the final burial ceremony is performed. Sometimes the ulthana is with the body in the grave, sometimes it is observing the relatives of the deceased, and sometimes it is visiting with its spirit double, the arumburinga, which stays with the person’s churinga in the pertalchera (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 432).

For the Australian aboriginal, existence between birth and death is just a transient phase. A. P. Elkin, in his book the australian aborigines (1964), says, “Found by his parent in a spiritual experience, he is incarnated through his mother and so enters profane life. But a few years later, through the gate of initiation, he partially re-enters the sacred dreamtime or sky-world which he has left for a season. After passing farther and farther into it, so far as the necessities of profane life allow, he dies, and through another gate, the transition rite of burial, he returns completely to his sacred spirit state in the sky, the spirit-home . . . perhaps to repeat the cycle later” (Eliade 1967, p. 162).

Similar beliefs are found among the Ngaju Dayaks in nearby Borneo. Hans Schärer, in his book ngaju Religion: the Conception of God among a South Borneo People (1963), says, “Man originated from the godhead. The godhead has guided him through the various stages of life until his death, until he returns to the godhead and is given new life and a new existence in the Upperworld from which he once departed and from which there will be no more separation” (Eliade 1967, p. 170). Schärer adds: “This idea has nothing to do with any Christian influence; it is an ancient Dayak concept which is understandable in relation to the primeval sacred events and the mode of thought connected with them” (Eliade

1967, pp. 155–156).

Cosmology of the Easter islanders

The Polynesians of Easter Island regarded the Great God, Etua, as superior to other gods and goddesses. The particular personal name of Etua was Makemake. He rewarded good and punished evil, and spoke to people through male and female priests. Thunder was the expression of his anger. The Easter Islanders did not have in their system an equivalent to the Christian devil. Makemake was seen as the creator of the heavens and earth. The Easter Islanders offered Makemake the first products of the land. He was honored in the form of wooden images, but was not directly worshiped (Métraux 1940, p. 312).

Métraux (1940, pp. 312–313) records an account of the appearance of Makemake from a skull: “There was a priestess watching over a skull on a rock in the bay of Tonga-riki . . . One day a wave came and took the skull that was watched on the rock in front of the bay of Tonga-riki. The wave swept away the skull from above; it floated. The eyes of the priestess saw the skull. She leaped to take it, she swam behind the skull which floated ahead. She arrived in the middle of the sea, she was tired, she landed on the island of Matiro-hiva. Haua saw this woman who was a priestess. He asked: ‘where do you come from?’ ‘I am pursuing my skull.’ Haua said: ‘It is not a skull, but the god Makemake.’ The priestess stayed.” Later, at the suggestion of Makemake, all three (Haua, Makemake, and the priestess) went back to the people of the priestess and taught them to utter the names of Haua before taking food.

Makemake did not have a female consort, but other gods did have consorts and children. By the will of Makemake, the first man and first woman sprang up from the earth like plants. They were known as Tive and Hiva. They and their offspring had souls that lived forever. These souls could travel outside the body during dreams, and could be victimized by evil spirits (Métraux 1940, p. 312, 315; Routledge 1919, p. 238).

The lesser gods of the Easter Islanders were known collectively as akuaku. They had residences at various places on the island, and existed in relationship to the local residents. The gods were of different kinds. Métraux (1940, pp. 316–317) says: “They were supernatural beings who belonged to a certain district or family. A few of them were real gods, others were demons or nature spirits, and others were spirits of deified dead. All lesser gods are now grouped under the general term akuaku, which is applied also to the spirits of the dead when they appear as ghosts. . . . it is difficult to distinguish between minor gods who were worshipped and legendary characters who were endowed with superhuman power but who never functioned as actual gods. . . . akuaku were both male and female. They were often represented as human beings, who might have been mistaken for ordinary creatures had the story teller not classified them as akuaku or tatane. They married ordinary men or women, had children by them and died. They could even be killed if their adversary was strong enough or sly enough. At times their supernatural power manifested itself in the ability to fly through the air and change rapidly from one place to another. Some akuaku were embodied in animals, in natural or artificial things, or in phenomena. . . . Spirits embodied in things or phenomena bear the names of their material representation. . . . Thus, Te Emu is a ‘Landslide’; Mata-vara-vara ‘the Rain-withheavy-drops’. Men are indebted to the minor gods or demons for many important discoveries and improvements in their culture. The art of tattooing was introduced by the sons of two akuaku—Vie Moko (The Lizard Woman) and Vie Kena (The Gannet Woman). The female akuaku, in the form of birds, taught men to extract dye from turmeric (Curcuma longa). The first bone fishhooks were made by Ure, a capricious and strange character of Easter Island folklore. An akuaku bird (the frigate) brought a new kind of yam as a gift to a man called Rapu.”

Some of the akuaku were inimical to humans, functioning as demons. A legendary man named Raraku killed thirty of these demons long ago, but some survived and continued to trouble the people (Métraux

1940, p. 317). Occasionally, a demon would help a human. Métraux (1940, p. 317) says: “Paepae-a-Tari-vera (Stone-house-of-Tari-vera) saved a famous warrior (matatoa), whose soul (kuhane) was kidnapped by another spirit.”

Easter Islanders worshiped the akuaku by offering them portions of food cooked in their houses. Sometimes the akuaku appeared to favored persons and spoke with them. In these communications, some times they revealed the future and other secret things. Métraux (1940, p. 317) says, “I was told by Viriamo’s son that in her youth Viriamo had been seen at night speaking familiarly with the two spirits, Tare and Rapahango. The voices of these spirits were always high-pitched and recognizable.”

The rain god was Hiro. In times of drought, the people would ask the king for help. The king would then send a priest (ariki-paka) to conduct a ceremony and make prayers to Hiro. The king of Easter Island was called ariki man. This divine chief traced his lineage to the gods Tangaroa and Rongo (Métraux 1940, p. 330). The king possessed supernatural power (mana). The concept of mana is found throughout Polynesia. In his publication Polynesian Religion (1927), E. S. Craighill Handy says: “mana was thought to come into individuals or objects only through the medium of gods or spirits. . . . The primal mana was not merely power or energy, but procreative power, derived from an ultimate source and diffused, transmitted, and manifested throughout the universe. This was the original mana which was believed to be continuously passed down through the gods, the mana atua” (Lessa and Vogt 1965, p. 258). A Maori teacher explained to Handy that the mana atua were “godlike powers” that originally came “from Io, the Supreme God” (Lessa and Vogt 1965, p. 258).

Cosmology of the Black Carib People of Central america

The cosmology of the Black Carib people of Central American countries such as Belize (formerly British Honduras) is a mixture of Christian, African, and Caribbean elements. Most Black Caribs believe that God’s throne in heaven occupies the central position in the universe. Over the throne of God the Father is the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints stand at God’s right hand, and to his left stand the angels and a group of beings called blessed souls, or gubida (Coelho

1955, p. 235).

Outside the gates of the heavenly realm of God lies Sairi, the paradisiacal realm of pagan spirits, apparently of African origin. Below Sairi are roads leading to earth. Below the earth is Hell, the residence of Satan, who like God, has assistants sitting to his right and left. Coelho (1955, p. 235) says: “On earth, places such as cemeteries, crossroads, clearings within forests, the bottom of the seas, and the tops of mountains and hills, are considered to be the abode of ‘pagan’ spirits, while churches and sanctuaries constitute the strongholds of heavenly forces, especially the centers of pilgrimage, Suyapa in Honduras, and Kaquipulas in Guatemala.” The “masters of the land,” called labureme ubau, were the gods worshipped by the vanished Indian civilizations of old and they are now thought to be “wild,” completely outside the control of the current spiritual hierarchy (Coelho 1955, p. 237).

The universe itself is a cosmic battleground, in which several (i.e., more than two) parties of combatants are constantly fighting. But the makeup of each group changes, because of shifting alliances (Coelho

1955, pp. 235, 237). In other words, there is not a fixed duality of good and evil forces. Saints, angels, and spirits have a considerable degree of independence, and don’t always use it in harmony with God’s own will. In the Carib cosmology, saints are given control of the universe on their name day. But people are often afraid of this. For example St. Francis of Gordon is feared because he loves storms and might take advantage of his day of control to cause floods (Coelho 1955, p. 237).

The independence manifested by the Carib saints, angels, and spirits has a parallel in Vedic cosmology. Vedic demigods sometimes oppose the Supreme Lord, Krishna, when he enters this world as an avatar. Once Krishna arranged for the residents of the village of Vrindavan to stop their sacrifices to Indra, the god of heaven who controls the rain. In retaliation, Indra poured incessant rain on Vrindavan. Krishna protected the inhabitants by raising with his hand a hill called Govardhan, employing it like a huge umbrella. Seeing his attempt to drown the residents thwarted, Indra came to his senses and returned to his normal position of worshipful subordination to Krishna (Shrimad Bhagavatam 10.24–25).

The gubida, who live in Sairi, are souls of persons who formerly lived on earth. Valentine (1993, p. 12) says, “The word Gubida means dead.” Sometimes called “the Carib angels,” they are officially under the command of the traditional Christian angels, like St. Gabriel and St. Michael, but they sometimes act indepedently for the welfare of Carib people with whom they had family connections during their lives on earth (Coelho 1955, p. 237). Such interactions between the gubida and their living descendants are not always favorable. According to Staiano (1986, p.

125), the gubida return to earth fifteen or twenty years after their deaths, demanding favors from their descendants. If their demands are not met, or they feel offended, they may cause illness or allow an illness to take place (Staiano 1986, p. 125).

Following Catholic teaching, Caribs believe that departed souls must spend some time in purgatory before going to the final spiritual destination, God’s paradise in heaven. Purgatory is sometimes identified with Sairi.A soul who is remembered by relatives with masses and ceremonies spends only a short time in purgatory. A soul who dies without relatives to offer such help must spend a long time in purgatory. Such souls are called lonely souls (animas solas). Sometimes, someone who is not a relative of a lonely soul will conduct a ceremony that helps the soul get deliverance from purgatory. In such cases, that soul will then act for the benefit of the person who gave it assistance (Coelho 1955, p. 237).

Pagan spirits, called hiuruha, live permanently in Sairi, as opposed to other souls who pass through on their way to heaven. The hiuruha are technically subordinate to the higher angels but, like the gubida, display some independence. Sometimes they help fortunetellers and soothsayers to understand the future and hidden things. They also help healers cure diseases brought on by spirits. Traditional healers are mostly female, and are called buyai (Foster 1986, p. 17). A woman becomes a buyai by virtue of being possessed by hiuruha, or spirit helpers. According to Foster (1986, p. 17), hiuruha are “the spirits of mediums of the past.” Generally, a medium will have a principal hiuruha. Foster (1986, pp. 17–18) states: “The medium’s possession by spirit helpers enables her to differentiate between illnesses of natural origin (lisandi ubau, ‘sickness of the world’) and those caused by the malevolence of ancestral spirits. In fact it is believed to be the spirit helpers themselves who, in their petulant voices, communicate diagnoses to the afflicted in a séance (arairaguni, ‘descension of the spirits’) held either in the cult houses (dabuyaba) or in a domestic house.” As mentioned previously, illnesses are sometimes caused by gubida, departed ancestors. Healers will therefore conduct curing rituals to placate the gubida. During these rituals the gubida responsible for the illness are summoned by the buyai to a cult house, where they make their presence known by possessing one or more of the participants (Foster 1986, pp. 41–44).

Nature spirits (kolubi) have an even greater degree of independence than hiuruha (Coelho 1955, p. 237). The nature spirits included evil bush spirits (mafia, or maboya). Coelho (1955, p. 153) says, “The spirits called mafia, who wander through the streets at night, sometimes entering the house, are responsible for domestic accidents, and may strangle people in their sleep. They also attract women coming from gardens in the hills . . . The chief is named Uinani, often identified with Satan.” One Carib informant said that Uinani is “a monster seen by the soul or spirit alone.” Sometimes it appears like an alligator, a demon, or a dragon. It generally appears at night, from eleven o’clock to three or four o’clock. Seeing the Uinani in dreams makes one ill. A medical doctor may not be able to help, but a spirit medium may deliver a cure (Staiano 1986, p. 125).

The agauima is a female evil spirit found in pools or cascades of rivers. The agauima can capture a man’s soul, bringing sickness or death. She assumes the form of a beautiful woman with long hair (Staiano 1986, pp. 122–124). She usually appears during the middle of the day, from

11:30 to 12:30, when things are calm and peaceful, according to a Carib informant (Staiano 1986, p. 124). This informant, who was sixty years old at the time, said: “When I saw her, I was quite young. She dashed herself into the bush backwards when she became aware of our presence. There were a group of us going to the river bank to do some fishing. When I saw her, I turned back at speed. The others, having become alarmed, followed me. Four days later, one of my youngest brothers died. He was only five at the time. On the second day after we returned he had fits. He had been well until then. agaiuma may be harmful to the human body and may cause death. I believe it was the effects of the haunting which caused him to die” (Staiano 1986, p. 124). An agaiuma can also appear in male form. A Carib woman said, “She can make you sick. Your illness may start with a fever or chills. She appears to a sick person in their dreams. If it is a woman who is ill, she will come to her like her husband” (Staiano 1986, p.

124). The disease brought on by an agaiuma can be cured only by a spirit medium, not an ordinary medical doctor.

Among the evil spirits is the ogoreu (Coelho 1955, p. 256). It usually appears as a blue lizard, but sometimes appears in other forms, such as an armadillo, snake, or crab. It lives in a burrow in the corner of the house. The Carib believe it must be offered milk, cheese, cassava, and manioc beer. If this is not done, the orogeu will cause accidents in the home. The orogeu attaches itself to women and will cause stillbirths and deaths of babies. Intervention by a spirit medium can prevent this. It is said by some that the orogeu will follow the woman to whom it is attached wherever she goes. If a man believes an orogeu is attached to a woman and causing problems, he may give up his relationship with her (Coelho 1955, p.152).

The duendu and pengaliba are also evil spirits, resembling the devils of Christianity. They live inside large trees and come out for a few hours at noon and again at midnight. Ambitious people will sometimes make pacts with the duendu in order to acquire property or money. For example, a duendu may reside near a cattle ranch. The duendu is fond of items such as silk, cheese, and butter. The rancher desires to prosper by expanding his herd. In exchange for the items he desires, the duendu causes this to happen (Coelho 1955, p. 154). The duendu appears like a short man with a big chest. He wears a red cap that gives him an air of authority, like an official of the Church. Sometimes a pact with the duendu requires that the soul of a family member be signed over in return for quick wealth. Similar pacts are made with the pengaliba. If it is seen that a family becomes suddenly rich after the death of a younger member of the family, people may attribute this to a deal that an elder member of the family has made with a pengaliba. The soul, or afurugu, of the victim must serve the penga-liba until the Judgement Day. In some cases, the death of the younger member may be postponed. For example, it was seen that the son of a wealthy cattle rancher mysteriously disappeared a few years after the rancher acquired his riches. In this regard, it is said that a poor old woman went to the town of Trujillo to purchase some entrails to cook for food. But she arrived many hours before the market was scheduled to open at 4 o’clock in the morning. So she was waiting for the opening of the market, which happened to be near a cemetery. At midnight she saw in the road a tall man dressed in a black uniform with golden metal insignia. He asked the old lady what she was doing. She said she was waiting for the market to open. The man said he had some private business with someone, and to get rid of the woman, he gave her some money and told her to go buy some fish in her home village. Normally, she would not have been able to afford fish, so she took the money and left. Before she left, she asked who was coming. She learned it was the cattle raiser. This incident happened a short time before the cattle raiser’s son disappeared (Coelho 1955, p. 155).

According to the Black Carib, the human soul has three parts. The first is the vital force or animal spirit (anigi). It is located in the heart. Generally, it ceases to exist at death, although it may sometimes persist for a few months after the death of the body. The anigi can be perceived in the beating of the heart, the pulsing of blood in the arteries, the drawing of the breath, and other bodily functions (Coelho 1955, p. 136). In infants, the pulsing of the blood can be seen in the veins of the head. The Carib thought the vital force of the infant was in need of special protection, and relied upon magical means to accomplish this (Ceolho 1955, p. 137).

The second part of the Carib soul is the iuani, located in the head. Whereas the anigi is material, the iuani is immaterial and normally invisible, although it can appear in dreams (Staiano 1986, p. 96). It corresponds to the soul in Christian thought. It leaves the body immediately after death. Staiano (1986, p. 96) says that “death is defined as the absence of the iuani.” The physical body itself is called ubugu (Staiano 1986, p.98). There are different ideas about what happens to the iuani at death. According to one view, at death the iuani leaves the body and goes by a long road to Sairi, crossing a river along the way. Valentine (1993, p.11) says: “This journey is a long one. It is beset with many obstacles. The spirit has to travel through deserts, wilderness, mud and rough seas. Sometimes the spirit is in the company of other spirits, but most of the time it finds itself alone. Most of the time it is wet with sweat, rain and dew; full of dust and grime. There are times when the distant lights of Seiri [Sairi] are visible. Other times, the way is total darkness, beset with many dangers and seemingly, without direction.” The length of the journey depends on the character of the soul. For souls who have manifested goodness during their life, the journey is short—about three months. Therefore, about three months after death, most families will hold a bathing ceremony for the departed soul, who thus cleansed from the journey can enter Sairi. For those who have behaved badly, the journey is longer, and through a medium such a soul will request another bathing, sometimes long after the one that was given three months after death (Valentine 1993, pp. 11–12). Sairi is the world of the pagan spirits (hiuruha). Upon entering the gate to Sairi, the soul sees a land of thatched houses and rich agricultural fields. The inhabitants greet the newcomer with food and drink. But if the time is not right for the soul to enter Sairi, a barking white dog chases the soul back across the river and the soul reenters its body (Taylor 1951, p. 107).

If the disembodied soul (iuani) remains near its home after death, it is called pantu, or ghost. In such instances, the iuani may stay for days or weeks as pantu. One of Staiano’s informants said (1986, p. 96): “When my mother died, she came back plain and walked around the house for about half an hour.” Another said that one can sometimes see the pantu moving rapidly in the light of the moon, looking like a bundle of fire. Staiano (1986, p. 125) says that the spirit becomes a pantu “only if at death it was discontented or had committed some crime or misdeed. The pantus do not cause much trouble, but the person who sees a pantu becomes disturbed. In such cases, the person will announce the problem, and others will join in prayer, causing the pantu to go away.

Another kind of ghost is called ufie. According to some, they are, like pantus, the spectres of persons recently dead, and according to others, they are not connected with the recently dead. Murderers can become ufie ghosts. Persons whose bodies thrown into the bush instead of being properly buried can become ufie. Persons who are too attached to some possession or place can remain as ufie. Such ghosts can be driven out of haunted places by an exorcist (Coelho 1955, p. 256). The ufie are normally difficult to see, but people with sufficient mental powers may be able to detect them. The ufie is seen surrounded by a thin vapor, and the ufie’s feet do not touch the ground, although they remain close to it. After some time, the feet rise higher off the ground and the ufie grows dimmer and disappears. Coelho (1955, p. 143) observes that “the proper attitude in the presence of ghosts is one of impassiveness, since any display of emotion would give the ufie an opportunity to seize upon the spiritual double of the living person.”

The spiritual double (afurugu) is the third part of the Carib soul concept. Situated between the vital air and the soul, it is “an astral body reproducing the shape of a person in all its details, but composed of a substance akin to that of supernatural entities” (Coelho 1955, p. 138). Coelho further says (1955, p. 138): “The astral body is the intermediary between the supernatural and everyday realms of reality. It possesses faculties of discernment, even clairvoyance, which enable it to know of dangers threatening the individual to whom it is attached before he is aware of them. It gives its owner warning of these dangers by well-known signs, such as itching of arms and shoulders. . . . At times the signs are not so clear, and must be interpreted with the aid of an aged person, or any one conversant with supernatural lore.”

According to the Carib, the afurugu can wander away from the body for short periods of time, while remaining connected to it (Coelho 1955, p. 138). The same is true of the subtle, or astral body, in the Vedic conception. For example, while the gross physical body is sleeping, the subtle body may remain active and leave the gross physical body in a kind of astral travel in dreams. But unless the person dies, the subtle body remains connected with the gross physical body and returns to it.

When the afurugu suddenly departs from the body, as when a person is unexpectedly frightened, the person may fall into a stupor. If the afurugu stays away from the body for long enough, the person dies, or becomes a living corpse, without normal use of the mental faculties. Separation between the afurugu and the body may be brought about by “workers of evil magic.” Sometimes the worker of evil magic will be paid by a person’s enemy to capture the afurugu and deliver it to an evil spirit, in exchange for wealth and power. Or the motive may simply be to cause the person’s downfall. According to the Carib, a person’s afurugu is particularly vulnerable to capture by an evil spirit or sorcerer when it is wandering away from the body during dreams. afurugus may be heavy or light, according to the nature of the individual. A heavy afurugu is less vulnerable to evil spirits and sorcerers than a light afurugu. Those with heavy afurugus “may abandon themselves to dream experiences, which are valued by the Black Carib as a source of prophetic knowledge and a means of communicating with the dead, through which the ancestors make their will known to their descendants, indicating processes of obtaining large catches of fish, or revealing the secret designs of enemies, or the perils that must be faced by those who embark upon long journeys” (Coelho 1955, p. 139).

A famous spirit medium named Ding, who lived in the early twentieth century, reputedly restored people to life after their afurugus had been stolen by evil spirits. An old woman said that when she was twelve she had died. Her parents summoned Ding, and he told them that their daughter’s afurugu, or spirit double, had been stolen by one of the leading evil spirits, Uinani. Ding sent six of his spirit helpers to retrieve the afurugu. They found that Uinani had closed himself up within a mountain with the girl’s afurugu and would not let them enter. Ding sent six more spirit helpers, along with some rum. With the rum, they enticed Uinani to open the way into the mountain. When he took the rum and became intoxicated, the spirit helpers took the girl’s afurugu and brought it back to her body, thus reviving her. Ding lived in the village of Kauéch, near Livingston, in Belize, the former British Honduras (Taylor 1951, p.111).

The Black Carib conception of self, composed of anigi, inuani, and afurugu, resembles the Vedic conception. According to the Vedic literature, a person has a material body that is powered by the vital airs. A person also has a soul, a unit of consciousness or spirit that survives the death of the body. A person also has a subtle material body made of the subtle material elements (mind, intelligence, ego). The subtle body carries the soul from one gross physical body to another, until such time as the soul is liberated from all contact with matter, either gross or subtle, and returns to the purely spiritual plane of existence to be with God. The higher demigods of the Vedic cosmology have bodies made principally of the subtle material elements. So it could be said that the subtle material body of a human being partakes of the nature of the bodies of the demigods.

According to Coelho, the multipart Carib soul is derived from the similar multipart soul concepts of West Africa. The Africans of Dahomey believe in a four part soul. Se Djoto is the first part. It comes from the ancestors and serves as a guardian spirit. Se medo is the personal soul, which survives death. Coelho (1955, p. 255) describes the next part of the soul as “Se lido, a particle of Mawu, the creator god, which resides in every individual.” This resembles the Vedic concept of Supersoul: every individual has a spirit soul and along with it exists a manifestation of the Supersoul, or Paramatma, who serves as a witness and permitter. A fourth part of the Dahomey soul is related to Fa, destiny personified (Coelho

1955, p. 255). This fourth part may correspond to the subtle material body in the Vedic conception. The subtle material body carries the karma of the individual. The karma stored in the subtle body determines the destiny of the soul, including the kind of physical body it will receive and the kind of experiences it will undergo.

Cosmology of the Gilyak of Siberia

The Gilyak are among the tribal peoples that inhabit the eastern most part of Siberia, including the island of Sakhalin and the coastal region around the Amur River. The world of the Gilyak is not one of dead matter. It is alive with deities. According to the Gilyak, deities are connected with each element and feature of nature. For example, in connection with mountains, there is a master of the mountains, a Mountain Man (Coxwell 1925, p. 119). Mountains are called pal. The master of the mountains is called pal-yz. Many clans of animals are subordinate to him, and he sends them to the Gilyak hunters. Without his sanction, they would not get a single animal. He lives on the highest mountain (Shternberg

1933, p. 55). In connection with the sea there is a master of the sea, a Sea Man, known by the name tol-yz, or tayrnadz. Shternberg (1933, p. 55) says, “The god of the sea, Tayrnadz, lives on the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk. He is a very old man with a white beard, who lives with his old wife in an underwater yurt. In the yurt there is a huge number of boxes with all kinds of spawn, which he throws by the handful into the sea from time to time. It is he who, at the appointed time, sends the countless detachments of salmon, without which the life of the Gilyak would be impossible; it is he who sends out the kosatki [killer whales] to establish order in the sea and drive all kinds of sea animals toward the Gilyak.” In connection with the earth, there is an Under Earth Man. These deities resemble the Gilyak in their outer appearance, but they are endowed with mystical powers, including the ability to take the forms of the animals, trees, or stones under their control. Sometimes the Gilyak may be seen worshiping these forms, but the real deities are the masters (Shternberg 1933, p. 54).

The Gilyak regard the bear as a particularly sacred animal who carries out the divine will. For example, the bear punishes evildoers during their lifetimes. The soul of a Gilyak who is killed by a bear is said to enter the body of a bear. Schrenck (1881–1895, p. 749) says, “The belief in the transmigration of souls with reference to the bear may be the basis of a number of pictorial representations among the Gilyaks—amulets or small idol-images that are worn around the neck in case of sickness. Among them one finds double figures of a human being and bear. This is ordinarily a small piece of wood which at one end branches out into two parts, one representing a human head, the other a bear’s head.”

In addition to the deities of the more important forces and creatures of nature, there are also many less important ones who watch over every aspect of Gilyak life. There are also categories of deities who are quite distant from the Gilyak, such as the sun, the moon, and “the heavenly people,” called tly-nivukh. Shternberg (1933, p. 55) says, “Out of mischievousness a heavenly man will lower a fishing rod with hooks to the earth in order to catch some Gilyak. This does not always work, however. For example, the young Gilyak, Il’k, from the village of Arkovo told me that tly-nivukh once caught his father with a golden hook, and he just saved himself by grabbing a tree, thus getting away with only a scare and a torn coat.” Another of Shternberg’s informants told him (1933, p. 363), “A certain man once met the master of the sky. He was riding on a sled pulled by wolves, but, upon encountering the Gilyak, the wolves turned upward and disappeared into the sky with their rider.”

The Gilyak also worship clan gods. The clan gods are Gilyaks who after death have entered into the association of one of the nature gods. Shternberg (1933, p. 58) says, “If, while hunting, a Gilyak was killed by a bear, if he fell prey to the waves on the water, if he was murdered or burned to death through his own carelessness, if, according to the shaman’s explanation, a woman died from a bear’s love for her, etc.—all such persons do not travel to the ordinary kingdom of the shades, but go over into the clan of the gods—masters who took a liking to them, of the mountain, water, fire, etc., and then become the smallest ‘masters’ and protect their clansmen. In this way the clan pal’-nivukh’i—forest people, tol’-nivukh’i—sea people, etc. took form. It is to these gods-clansmen that the entire clan offers sacrifices.” These departed Gilyak, having become clan gods, appear before the living in the form of certain animals. The forest clan gods appear as bears, the sea clan gods as beluga whales or killer whales (Shternberg 1933, p. 58). The clan gods act for the benefit of their living descendants. The clan gods remain in their positions for up to two generations (Shternberg 1933, p. 89). Gilyak who become clan gods are remembered through special shrines. For example, if a Gilyak drowns and becomes a clan god associated with the master of the sea, the Gilyak put at his place of cremation a boat, with all equipment for sea or river travel.

The Gilyak gods are sometimes worshiped in the form of idols. Sometimes the Gilyak wear small idols on strings around their necks. These are called sawa (Schrenck 1881–1895, p. 745). The person wearing the idol gives it a little of the food he eats by touching it to the idol’s mouth. The idols are not simply representations. The Gilyak believe that spirits reside in them. The resident spirit is known by the name kobold. Schrenck (1881–1895, p. 240) says, “If an idol is ‘heavy’ it means that its inhabitant, the kobold, is at home, but when it gets ‘lighter’ than usual, the spirit is roaming about somewhere.” The Gilyak consider fire, and the fire deity, to be the medium by which humans can communicate with the other more powerful deities. For example, the hunter offers sacrifices into fire for the Lord of the Forest, so that he will be successful in killing animals (Coxwell 1925, p. 118).

Some spirits are actively hostile to the Gilyak. These are called melk, which means, roughly, devil. Like the other deities, they are connected with elements and features of nature (Coxwell 1925, p. 120). So there are sea devils, mountain devils, forest devils, etc. The sea devils ride in boats, and if they see the Gilyak coming in boats to hunt seals, they shout, “What are you doing here?” One of the evil spirits is called Ge-nivukh. He lives in an earthen mound near Tekhrvo. He comes to the home of a Gilyak, and through the window he asks for something, gesturing with two fingers extended. If he gets something, he departs. Sometimes the Gilyak give him a coal. Not quite understanding, Ge-nivukh begins tossing the hot coal from hand to hand, saying, “It is hot, if you do not have (anything), do not give!” But Ge-nivukh is not always so easily put off. He is known to kidnap people, especially children. For a person faced with kidnaping by Ge-nivukh there is something that can be done to prevent it: “the only way is to inflict a wound upon oneself, for Ge-nivukh is afraid of blood” (Shternberg 1933, p. 321). The Gilyak believe that except for the attacks of the evil spirits, they would live forever in their earthly bodies. Sickness is interpreted as the attack of evil spirits who have invaded the body. Shternberg (1933, p. 73) says, “Just as he, the Gilyak, lies in wait for a beast and tries in every way to kill him, so an evil spirit lies in wait for the Gilyak himself at every step in order to devour him.”

The supreme being, creator, and moral authority is called Kiskh. According to the Gilyak, a sick person has offended Kiskh. This offense leaves the person subject to the influence of evil spirits. An offering is made to the evil spirit, to induce it to leave the person. The Gilyak don’t make offerings to Kiskh for the relief of disease or any other purpose. The Gilyak worshiper’s relationship with Kiskh appeared mysterious to observers such as Charles H. Hawes, who wrote (1903, p. 162): “So vague is his notion of him that he can only be said to exist in his mind as a nebulous conception.” Schrenck (1881–1895, p. 740) says: “Among the Gilyak there is an obscure and hazy conception of ‘God,’ of a supreme being, who has the attribute of the ‘Good One’ in full measure and without any admixture of evil and who is revered by human beings. But this conception is a wholly abstract, completely empty one and does not at all fit into the life, into the customs and practices of the Gilyaks; there is nothing concrete about it for them, and therefore they only know the word ‘pray,’ but not the act itself. Also, they know nothing about ‘God,’ in view of the complete emptiness of the concept, except that he is kíngulatsch, the

‘Good One.’”

Still, it appears that the Gilyak did recognize some intervention by their God in their affairs, and did sometimes give him some attention. Schrenck (1881–1895, p. 239) noted, “In one village, however, I heard that God is very angry if a shaman is put to death” and “when a Gilyak crosses a dangerous passage on his journey, he pours a bowl of spirits on the earth or in the waters: this is the sacrifice to God.”

According to some, the name of the supreme God is Kurn. The same word is also given to the universe. Shternberg (1933, p. 49) says the Gilyak regard their supreme God (Kurn) as “personal, man-like.” In the beginning there was only water, and then Kurn made the earth. Kurn then lost his reindeer, which made tracks across the land. These tracks became the great rivers. As Kurn pursued his reindeer, he waved his lash at it, and the marks of the lash on the ground became the streams (Shternberg

1933, p. 320).

The Gilyak of Sakhalin call their island mif, meaning “the earth.” They consider it to be “a living, divine creature” says Shternberg (1933, p. 49). Its head lies in the Sea of Okhotsk to the north, and its two legs, represented by two peninsulas, stretch to the south, in the La Perouse Strait. Shternberg (1933, p. 50) says: “Here is Kryuspal, a marvelous cone, one of the highest peaks of Sakhalin, which impresses everyone approaching the island from the sea with its grandeur, a lonely, stern demon of the sea . . . And even the lonely cliffs sticking out of the water all along the shore of the island—all of this is alive, gods who ran away from their clans under the influence of internecine wars. All the rest of nature is equally alive: the menacing tol (the sea), the somber forests of the mountainous island, the fast mountain rivers, etc. When cutting down a tree, the Gilyak is afraid to destroy its soul and places upon its stump a special being, the inau [in the form of a sharpened stick] . . . which returns soul and life to it. The mountains, the ocean, cliffs, trees, animals—this is only a mask under which the gods conceal themselves from the curiosity of man.”

Sometimes, a smaller killer whale (kosatka) accompanies a larger one in the sea. A Gilyak explained to Shternberg that the smaller kosatka is the sword of the larger one. It only seemed to be a kosatka. Actually, it was a sword. And as for the big kosatka, its actual form was like that of a Gilyak hunter. Shternberg (1933, p. 50) said his Gilyak informant told him that what to us seems like a sea animal is actually the boat of the Gilyak spirit of the kosatka. The kosatka is considered a sacred animal, and it is not hunted. When the dead body of a kosatka happens to wash up on the shore, the Gilyak give it a ceremonial burial (Shternberg 1933, p. 54).

According to the Gilyak, humans have several souls, of various sizes. The large souls are the same size as the human body, and a person may have different numbers of these, with those of higher rank, such as shamans, having more than those of lower rank. A person also has a number of small egg-shaped souls. These are located in the head of the large soul. When the large soul ceases to exist, a small soul expands to large size, duplicating it. (Shternberg 1933, p. 78) It is the small soul that experiences itself in dreams (Shternberg 1933, p. 79). Sometimes it is said that a person has three souls. The principal soul is called cheg:n, and the other two are called shadows, or assistants. Shternberg (1933, p. 306) says that “when the cheg:n of a shaman is wounded, the shaman dies.” If a dream is very clear and comes true, it is produced by the main soul. If it does not come true, then it is produced by one of the shadow souls.

Gilyak shamans provide a connection between the visible world and the invisible world. Shternberg (1933, p. 74) says that there are shamans “who in night visions or in a trance receive a revelation from the godprotector about their high calling.” Their primary activity is to cure diseases by driving out evil spirits. They also predict the future and perform sacrifices. They can control natural forces. For example, they can prevent rain or cause rain. They can also use their powers to cause harm to others. They can cause a person to die, or can punish a village by sending a flood (Seeland 1882, pp. 242–243). The shamans have two kinds of divine beings who serve as their assistants. They are called kekhn and kenchkh. The kekhn are the most important assistants. They help the shaman cure diseases by making a disease-causing devil leave a person’s body. They can also help the shaman retrieve a person’s soul, if it has been taken by a devil. The kekhn can take the forms of wolves, seals, eagles, reindeer, and owls, among others (Shternberg 1933, p. 74).

The shaman may cure a person in three ways. By the first method, the shaman takes help of dreams to find a cure. By the second method, the shaman drives out the evil disease-causing spirit by loud chanting and dancing. By the third method, the shaman, in addition to chanting and dancing, summons kekhn to help him (Shternberg 1933, p. 74). The chanting and dancing puts the shaman into a state of consciousness in which he can directly perceive the kekhn, his spirit helpers and protectors. “We can fully believe that he actually hears and sees them,” says Shternberg (1933, p. 75). “I hope that no one will suspect me of a partiality for the shamans, but I can calmly testify that in my presence the ecstasy of the shaman . . . brought the Gilyak to such a state that they . . . saw everything that the shaman himself saw in his trance. The shaman skillfully has recourse to first one, then another of his kekhn, depending on the circumstances. Thus, if the devil has stubbornly settled inside the organism and does not want to leave, the shaman calls on the ar-rymndkekhn, which turns into a fiery ball and makes its way into the belly of the shaman and from there to the most distant parts of his body, so that during the seance the shaman emits fire out of his mouth or nose or from any part of his body. After being thus filled with fire, he touches the sore spot with his lips and lets in fire, which conclusively drives out the devil.” In the case of a drowning, the shaman will send a kekhn after the

soul of the drowned person. The kekhn will go to the place of the master spirit of the sea, taking along a white reindeer. There the soul of the drowned man is kept in the yurt of the master spirit of the sea. When the sea spirits see the white reindeer, an animal strange to them, they come out of the yurt to look at it in wonder. At that time, the kekhn goes into the yurt and takes the soul of the drowned man, to bring it back to the world of the living (Shternberg 1933, p. 75).

The shaman, despite his many kekhn, is at times not able to help a person, especially if the person is being attacked by the very powerful devils of the mountains or seas. These devils destroy the body of the person, and carry away the soul. However, the soul, freed of the burden of the gross physical body, may be able to exercise its own powers to escape to the protection of the friendly mountain and sea deities. Afterwards, the soul may take human form and journey to Miyvo, the “settlement of the dead.” Under some circumstances, the evil spirits leave the soul of a dead person alone, allowing it to peacefully journey to Miyvo (Shternberg 1933, p. 79).

Miyvo is said to be located in the center of the earth. The residents engage in hunting an unending supply of animals and catching an unlimited supply of fish (Hawes 1903, p. 163). Shternberg (1933, p. 79) says: “There everything is as it is here: the same earth, the same sky, sea, rivers, and forest; only there the sun shines when we have night, and the moon when we have day. The dead come to life and continue to live there in the same settlements as on earth, fish, kill beasts, celebrate clan festivals, marry and procreate. Only the material status changes: the poor man becomes rich and the rich man poor. . . . Even in the new world, however, sickness and death await man. From there the soul must migrate into a third world, and so on until such time as the soul degenerates and turns into ever smaller and smaller beings, a small bird, a gnat, and, finally, ashes. Sometimes souls are born again on our planet, completing again the infinite series of transformations.” Concerning rebirth in this world, there is a legend telling of a Gilyak who died in a fight with a bear. The Gilyak body had a certain pattern of wounds on the face. Later, a boy was born to a Gilyak family, with the exact same pattern of scars on his face (Shternberg 1933, p. 368).

The souls of persons who committed suicide and persons who have been murdered go directly to Miyvo. Others must make a journey that can last several days (Hawes 1903, p. 163). After a person dies, there is a ceremonial preparation for the journey. Hawes witnessed such a ceremony for a recently deceased woman. The body was kept in a hut for four days. During this time, the woman’s soul was visiting the four principle gods of the Gilyak with the purpose of giving an account of her life and receiving instructions for the afterlife. Her relatives kept her company, remembering and reciting her good deeds and qualities. Because the god of fire serves as a channel of communication to the other gods, a fire is kept burning constantly in the hut. The body of a dead person is dressed in new garments and provided with the best nets, spears, rifles, and bows for the journey to Miyvo (Shternberg 1933, p. 80). The dead person receives a new name, and according to Shternberg (1933, p. 368), the Gilyak consider it a sin to call the dead person by the person’s old name.

Cosmology of the Incas

The main god of the Incas of South America was called Viracocha. Rowe (1946, p. 293) said that Viracocha was “the theoretical source of all divine power, but the Indians believed that He had turned over the administration of his creation to a multitude of assistant supernatural beings, whose influence on human affairs was consequently more immediate.” Viracocha dwells in the celestial region, but descends to the terrestrial region, appearing to humans in times of crisis. This is similar to the Vedic concept of the avatar, “one who descends.” In the Bhagavad Gita (4.7), the Supreme Lord Krishna says, “Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice and a predominant rise in irrelgion, at that time I descend myself.” After he created the earth, Viracocha wandered through it, exhibiting miracles and giving instruction to the people. After reaching the place called Manta, in Ecuador, he set off to the West, walking on the waters of the Pacific Ocean (Rowe 1946, p. 293).

There was a golden idol of Viracocha, the supreme creator, in the main temple in Cuzco, capital of the Inca empire. It was of manlike form, but about the size of a boy of ten years (Rowe 1946, p. 293). Temples for worship of Viracocha were established throughout the Inca empire, along with farming fields to provide income for servants and sacrificial performances (de Molina 1873, p. 11).

One prominent early historian, Garcilaso de la Vega (1539–1616), identified Viracocha with another supreme creator called Pachacamac. Garcilaso de la Vega was the son of an Inca princess and a Spanish conquistador, and therefore his knowledge of Inca religion was acquired from an Inca perspective. Pacha means universal and camac, according to Garcilaso de la Vega (1869–1871, p. 106), is “the present participle of the verb cama, to animate, whence is derived the word cama, the soul.” Thus Pachacamac means “He who gives animation to the universe”, or, more accurately, “He who does to the universe what the soul does to the body” (Garcilaso de la Vega 1869–1871, p. 106). This corresponds to the Vedic concept of Supersoul, which exists in several forms. One form of the Supersoul resides within the body of each living entity, along with the individual soul. Another manifestation of the Supersoul animates the entire universe.

The name of God, Pachacamac, was held in great reverence, and the Incas never uttered it without special gestures such as bowing, or raising the eyes to heaven, or raising the hands. Garcilaso de la Vega (1869–1871, p. 107) says, “When the Indians were asked who Pachacamac was, they replied that he it was who gave life to the universe, and supported it; but that they knew him not, for they had never seen him, and that for this reason they did not build temples to him, nor offer him sacrifices. But that they worshipped him in their hearts (that is mentally), and considered him to be an unknown God.” But there was one temple to Pachacamac in a coastal valley of the same name. Garcilaso de la Vega (1869–1871, p.

552) says, “This temple of Pachacamac was very grand, both as regards the edifice itself and the services that were performed in it. It was the only temple to the Supreme Being throughout the whole of Peru.”

According to some historians, the Incas originally worshiped the sun as supreme. But one of the early Inca rulers noted that the sun was always moving, without any rest. It could also be seen that even a small cloud could cover the sun. For these reasons he concluded that the sun could not be the supreme god.Therefore, there must be a higher being who controlled and ordered the sun. This ultimate supreme being he called Pachacamac (de Molina 1873, p. 11).

After Virococha (or Pachacamac), the god next in importance in the Inca system of worship was the sun god, the chief of the sky gods. Inca royalty were accepted as the children of the sun, and were taken to be divine beings themselves (Garcilaso de la Vega 1869–1871, p. 102). The first Inca queen was called Mama Uaco. She was a beautiful woman and also a sorceress. She could speak with demons, and she also empowered sacred stones and idols (huacas) to speak. She was the daughter of the sun and moon. Somehow, with no earthly husband, she had a son, the Mango Capac Inca, whom she married, taking a dowry from her father, the sun god. The later Inca kings were descended from her. The sun god presided over the growing of crops, and thus his worship was very important among the primarily agricultural Inca people. There was an idol of the sun in the main Inca temple in Cuzco (Rowe 1946, p. 293).

Next in importance was the moon goddess. She was called MamaKilya, “Mother Moon.” She was the wife and sister of the sun. Her movements guided calculations of time and determined the calendar of Inca festivals (Rowe 1946, p. 295). The Thunder God was the god of weather. The Incas prayed to him for rain. His form was that of a man in the sky, holding in one hand a war club and in the other a sling. Thunder was produced by the loud crack of his sling, and lightning was the flash of his shining garments. In producing rain, he took water from the Milky Way, a heavenly river, and poured it down on the earth. He was called by the names Ilyap’a, Intil-ilyap’a, or Coqu-ilya, and was identified with a constellation similarly named (Rowe 1946, pp. 294–295).

The stars were regarded as the handmaidens of the moon (Garcilaso de la Vega 1869–1871, p. 115). Among the stars, the Incas worshiped the Pleiades, which they called Collca. Certain stars presided over different earthly affairs, and were specifically worshiped for this reason. For example, shepherds worshiped the star Lyra, which they called Vrcuchillay. They considered this star to be a many-colored llama, with powers to protect livestock (Polo de Ondegardo 1916, pp. 3–4). Incas in the mountains worshiped the star Chuquichinchay, which means moutain lion. It was in charge of lions, jaguars, and bears, from which the Incas desired protection. This star is part of the constellation Leo. The Incas worshiped the star Machacuay, which ruled over snakes. According to Polo de Ondegardo (1916, p. 5), Machacuay represented the crab, corresponding to a star in the constellation Cancer. Other stars represented the divine mother (Virgo), the deer (Capricorn), and rain (Aquarius).

The earth was called Pacha Mama (Earth Mother), and the sea was called Mama Qoca (Mother Sea). They were worshiped as supernatural goddesses (Rowe 1946, p. 295). The Inca people also paid homage to many local gods, down to the level of household deities. They worshiped plants, trees, hills, and stones, such as the emerald. They also worshiped animals such as jaguars, mountain lions, foxes, monkeys, great snakes, and condors (de la Vega 1869–1871, p. 47).

Idols of the principal gods would regularly receive offerings of food and a beverage called chicha. The food was burned and the chicha poured on the ground. Wherever the god or departed soul actually was, it would receive the offering. In the case of the sun god, the Inca, the ruler, would burn the offering of food, but the chicha was poured into a large gold jar behind a statue of the sun god, and from there the chicha was poured into the hollow of a stone lined with gold. This stone stood in the plaza before the altar (Cobo 1893, p. 83).

The idols were worshiped in temples. The main temple of the Incas was in Cuzco. People came there from all over the Incan empire to worship. Rowe (1946, p. 293) says, “The ‘Temple of the Sun’ in Cuzco housed images of all the sky gods of the Inca and a host of lesser supernaturals besides; its most important image was not of the Sun but of Viracocha. The fields attributed to the Sun supported the whole Inca priesthood, not just the ministers of the Sun, and the Chosen Women served all the deities in the temples, not the Sun alone. Although a very important power in Inca religion, the Sun was merely one of many great powers recognized in official worship, and his importance was more theoretical than real.”

The Chosen Women, mentioned above, were dedicated to the service of the temple deities from childhood. They lived in cloisters near the temples of the Sun found in important towns throughout the empire. The virgins who lived in the cloister were called Mamaconas, “lady mothers.” The Mamaconas were considered to be the wives of the gods (Cobo 1893, pp. 146–147). The Mamaconas tended the sacrificial fire in the main temple at Cuzco, feeding it carved and painted pieces of a special kind of wood. Rising at dawn each day, they prepared the food for the Sun god, who was represented by a golden figure called Punchao (Cobo 1893, pp.

147–148). The figure was “a golden disk with rays and a human face” (Rowe 1946, p. 293). The figure stood facing the East, so that it was bathed with the first light from the rising sun. At this time, the priestesses offered the food into the sacrificial fire, saying, “Sun eat this food prepared for you by your wives.” The remnants of the offerings not placed in the fire were then taken by the temple priests, officials, and guards, as well as the priestesses. In the temples of the gods of the Vedic cosmology, there are daily offerings of food and drink. As in the case of the Incas, the remnants of such offerings are consumed by the servants of the deities.

The amautas were the philosopher priests of the Incas. They taught that human beings were composed of body and soul. The soul was an immortal spiritual substance, while the body was a temporary, material substance. The amautas equated the body with earth, because they saw that at death the body turned into earth. The amautas therefore called the body allpacamasea, which means “animated earth.” The human body was, however, distinguished from the bodies of animals, by adding the word runa, which refers to reason and intelligence (Garcilaso de la Vega 1869–1871, p. 126). The Incas accepted a future life. The pious souls went to reside with the sun god, whereas the impious went to a cold underworld, where there are only stones to eat.

The Incas practiced divination, consulting the supernatural to “diagnose disease, determine the truth of a confession, locate lost property, identify hostile sorcerers, choose between possible heirs, determine the most acceptable sacrifice to a deity being worshiped, and, in general, to settle any doubtful question” (Rowe 1946, p. 302). They also relied upon omens to determine their future conduct.

Divination could also be carried out by sorcerers (omo), who were in direct communication with spirits. People consulted them to find lost or stolen objects. The sorcerers could also provide information about things happening in distant places. The sorcerers called spirits by chanting spells or drawing figures on the ground. Some established communication with spirits while unconscious after drinking intoxicating beverages. Generally, they talked to spirits in the dark, and people could hear the voices of the sorcerer and the spirits (Rowe 1946, p. 302).

Zulu Cosmology

The Zulus are a Bantu speaking tribe living in the northeastern part of the Natal province of the Republic of South Africa. According to some Zulu informants, their cosmology includes not only a creator god but a more distant ultimate high god. The creator god, responsible for manifesting the visible world and the bodies of living entities, is called Umvelinqangi. The forefather of human beings is called Unkulunkulu. A Zulu informant of Callaway (1870, p.97) said that Unkulunkulu is the same as Umvelinqangi, the creator god given above. The informant said the ultimate god who existed before the creator god is simply called the King. The distinction is like that found in the Vedic system, between the ultimate god (known by names such as Krishna, Narayan, Vishnu) and the creator god (Brahma), who manifests the material planets and the forms of living things, including humans.

Sometimes it is said that the Zulu idea of an ultimate, or high, god came from contact with Christianity. But one of Callaway’s Zulu informants said (1870, p. 19), “And the King which is above we did not hear of him [first] from white men. In summer time, when it thunders, we say, ‘The king is playing.’ And if there is one who is afraid, the elder people say to him, ‘It is nothing but fear. What thing belonging to the king have you eaten?’ This is why I say, that the Lord of whom we hear through you, we had already heard of before you came. But he is not like that Unkulunkulu who, we say, made all things. But the former we call a king, for we say, he is above. Unkulunkulu is beneath; the things which are beneath were made by him.”

Callaway’s informant explained that it is the heavenly king, the high god above, who responds to sinful activities by striking one with misfortune. That is how his action is recognized. The informant said, “We know nothing of his mode of life, nor of the principles of his government. His smiting is the only thing we knew.” The heavenly king god does not come from Unkulunkulu, as everything else does. The informant said, “There is no connection between our knowledge of Unkulunkulu and of him. For we can give some account of what belongs to Unkulunkulu; we can scarcely give any account of what belongs to the heavenly king. We know much of what belongs to Unkulunkulu, for he was on this earth, and we can give an account of matters concerning him. The sun and moon we referred to Unkulunkulu together with the things of this world” (Callaway 1870, pp. 20–21).

Callaway’s informant objected to Christians who told the Zulus that the king of heaven made all things visible in this world. “We said that Unkulunkulu alone made them” (Callaway 1870, p. 21). The informant added, “And we black men, although some missionaries tell us that this king and that Unkulunkulu is the same, did not say that Unkulunkulu was in heaven; we said, he came to be, and died; that is all we said.” This parallels the Vedic conception, in which Brahma, the creator god, is mortal, and the ultimate high god, Krishna, is immortal. Apparently, Unkulunkulu has a heavenly abode. When asked about the whereabouts of the creator, some Zulu elders replied, “The Creator of all things is in heaven. And there is a nation of people there too” (Callaway 1870, p. 53).

A twentieth century Zulu philosopher, Laduma Madela, gives the following account of the creation. The creator god’s name is Umvelinqangi, which means “who created everything except the world which created him.” His wife’s name was Ma Jukujukwini. She is named after the place where creation took place, Ema Jukujukwini. At this place, the creator and his wife appeared “like mushrooms” (Bodenstein and Raum 1960, p. 169). After their appearance, they produced three children—Sitha, Nowa, and Nomkhubulwana, “the Princess who does not marry” (Bodenstein and Raum 1960, p.169). The earth is called Umhlaba. On the earth, the creator god erected four pillars. The creator god also created earths below the earth we see and heavens above the heaven we see. One of the Zulu informants said (Bodenstein and Raum 1960, p. 172), “Just as if you reach the horizon you always find another one beyond, so it is with the vault of heaven!”

A Zulu woman described Nomkhubulwana, the daughter of Umvelinqangi, as a heavenly princess (Berglund 1976, p. 70): “She loves human beings. So she opens the heaven, allowing them to see things in there. That is when the rainbow is seen. It is when she . . . lets them see it. The arches are the colours. They are beautiful having all the colours.” When the people see the rainbow, they say, “The Princess surely loves us. Now the rain will stop and give us sunshine. Then after a time she will bring rain again.”

In the early days, the first humans saw her directly. Now she is rarely seen. If she meets a man, she hides and asks him to turn his back and not look at her because she is naked. If one looks at her, one will become sick and die very soon. But she will sometimes speak, and her messages have great importance. She may tell a man in his garden, “This year you shall have food; although for a long time there has been famine, it shall be so no longer” (Callaway 1870, p. 254). She also gives various instructions, which the Zulu do not hesitate to follow. She is apparently sometimes seen by women. Krige (1968, p. 180) says, “A woman who claims to have met her this spring (1966) described her as a tall human figure in the mist near a thicket almost completely covered by a cape, greyish black in colour like the rain clouds.” She is also seen partially dressed with vegetable plants, reflecting her powers over agriculture.

The various forces of nature are also seen as manifestations of living entities. A Zulu man’s home was struck by lightning, and afterwards he claimed to have seen a lightning creature. He said (Berglund 1976, p.

39), “We were all in the house when suddenly the door was flung open and lightning came in, taking this one and that one. . . . Looking, I saw the thing. It was fearful to see and moved very quickly. But I saw it clearly. It was a bird. The feathers were white, burning. The beak and legs were red with fire, and the tail was something else, like burning green or like the colour of the sky. It ran quickly, saying nothing, simply snatching those whom it took. Then it touched the grass with its fire. It vanished through the door again.”

Concerning the origin of humans, Raum (1973, p. 76) says: “The Zulu do not consider that mankind originated by sexual reproduction but by a process resembling vegetative reproduction. There occurred a hiving-off, a division from a pre-existing entity. This entity is either called uhlanga (reed-bed) or umhlaba (earth). The agent responsible for the splitting off is Unkulunkulu.” Because humans are said to have come from a reed, reeds are held sacred and can only be cut by permission of a Zulu chief (Raum 1973, p. 76). Unkulunkulu is not directly part of any particular Zulu tribal lineage, but is the origin of all of them (Raum 1973, p. 76). It appears that there were sub-Unkulunkulus who were the creators of the members of specific tribes and races in addition to the “Unkulunkulu of all men” (Callaway 1870, p. 96).

Among the Zulu are female “diviners,” who give medicines and perform cures. They are called isangoma. In her book Body and mind in Zulu medicine, Harriet Ngubane (1977, p. 102) says: “A person does not choose to become a diviner (isangoma), but is said to be chosen by her ancestors, who bestow upon her clairvoyant powers. A neophyte learns about medicine from a qualified diviner to whom she is apprenticed for some time, but in addition some medicines are said to be revealed to her by her ancestors. I have already mentioned that the ancestral spirits do not take possession of the body, but they are close to the diviner—they

‘sit’ on her shoulders and whisper into her ears.”

The Zulus also have various categories of “doctors.” Some cure diseases with the aid of spirits. Another kind of doctor, the heaven doctor, operates on the weather and other natural forces, relying on his own knowledge of magic. Such doctors are often called heaven herds, because they herd storm clouds, with their dangerous lightning and hail, just like boys herd cattle. Eileen Jensen Krige (1968, p. 310) says, “They run out with their weapons and rain-shields and shout to the lightning, telling it to depart and go elsewhere, and whistling as cattle-herds do. No matter how old a heaven-doctor may be, he is always called ‘a young man who herds.’”

Part of the lore of sorcery and magic are “familiars,” spirits, often embodied in animals, who serve witches or wizards. The most important familiar among the Zulus is the wild cat called impaka. It can take control of dogs, cattle, snakes and other animals, inducing them to cause trouble to targeted people. Krige says (1968, p. 325), “To expel the animal and discover the wizard, a diviner will immediately be employed.”

The Zulu concept of the life-soul is connected with a person’s reflection. The Zulus hesitate to look at their reflection in a dark pool of water, fearing that a beast hidden in the pool will take it, thus depriving them of life (Raum 1973, p. 123). A pregnant woman believes she gives life to her child through her reflection. By custom, she therefore keeps a water pot in which only she can look. If someone else looks, the stranger may take away the child’s life. The reflecting surfaces of lakes and rivers are considered gateways to other worlds. One who loses one’s life in the water may find a new life on the other side of the surface (Raum 1973, p.123). The Zulu also believe that the life-soul (called iklozi or ithongo) is connected with a person’s shadow (ithunzi).After death the shadow passes some time in the bush or veld. The name for the dead is abaphansi, the people below.The departed ancestors depend on the prayers and sacrifices offered by their descendants, who in turn depend on the intercession of their ancestors. Raum (1973, p. 76) says that the ancestors “have control over the good and bad fortune of their descendants.”

Cosmology of the igbo of West africa

The Igbo people of West Africa live mostly in the present day country of Nigeria. According to the Igbo, each human being has a spirit double called the chi. Anthropologist Charles Kingsley Meek (1970, p. 55) states that the chi is a “transcendent self” and “closely resembles the Egyptian conception of the ka, which was the double or genius of a man, an ancestral emanation, apparently, which guided and protected him during his lifetime and to which he returned after death.” Conceptions of the chi vary somewhat, but Okpewho (1998, pp. 90–91) says: “It is at least generally recognized that chi is the spirit which helps the protoself negotiate a prenatal destiny before the supreme divinity; it either remains in the spiritual world to ensure the individual’s welfare as (s)he acts out his/ her choice or accompanies him/her to the world as some kind of protective spirit-double.”

The connection between person and chi is established at the time of conception. The Igbo, who believe in reincarnation, say that the chi in one life is different from that in the next. This might result in a person being rich in one lifetime and poor in another. Further describing the chi, Meek (1970, p. 55) says, “A man’s abilities, faults, and good or bad fortune are ascribed to his chi, and this explains, to some extent, the fatalistic attitude of the Ibo. If a man’s conduct gets him into trouble he excuses himself by saying (and believing) that his chi and not himself is responsible.” Animals also have their chi. When an Igbo hunter finds his arrow misses its animal target, he attributes this to the protective action of the animal’s chi. Meek (1970, p. 55) adds: “An animal may become the chi of a man, and people who behave in a brutal manner are believed to have the chi of an animal. It is said that the children of hunters are liable to have the chi of animals slain by their fathers. In this way animals revenge themselves on men.”

The chi is, however, different from the real self. According to Ogbuene (1999, p. 112), the unchanging spirit self is called mmuo—the spirit that activates all living things. For the Igbo, says Ogbuene (1999, p. 112), “Reality is the hierarchy of Mmuos—spirits, which all originate from Chukwu, the ultimate Mmuo-Spirit.” Departed ancestors are called alammuo—spirits alive in the spirit world, but dead in this world (Ogbuene 1999, p. 112). But such spirits can return to this world. Ogbuene (1999, p. 116) says: “Parents and relatives who knew a spirit in a former existence will recognize that spirit in a new incarnation and can recall the events of that spirit’s life. We believe that many children are born resembling their past spirits closely.”

The body that the soul inhabits is called aru (Ogbuene 1999, p. 164). There is also another element connected with a living thing—obi, which Ogbuene (1999, p. 164) characterizes as breath, and which Meek (1930, p. 56) characterizes as a person’s “vital essence.” Ogbuene (1999, p. 164) also recognized an element called eke, which he calls “the ancestral guardian.” mmuo, chi, aru, obi, and eke might be compared respectively to the Vedic concepts of atma (individual spirit soul), mana (subtle material body), deha (gross physical body), prana (vital air), and paramatma (the accompanying Supersoul).

The Igbo feel a close connection with their departed ancestors. The living behave as if the dead were still with them. Victor Chikenzie Uchendu (1965, p. 102) writes about the spirits of the dead: “They are reprimanded for failing in their duty to their children, by closing their eyes to the depredations of evil spirits which cause death in the family, cause crop failure, and make trade unprofitable.” In simple household rituals, they are offered ordinary foods. According to Igbo beliefs, their ancestors sometimes reincarnate again in their same families. Uchendu (1965, p. 102) notes, “Belief in reincarnation [rebirth in human form] gives the Igbo hope of realizing their frustrated status goals in the next cycle of life. Transmigration [reincarnation into nonhuman species], on the other hand, is regarded as the greatest possible punishment for the incestuous, the murderer, the witch, and the sorcerer. ‘lsdigh uwa na mmadu’ ‘May you not reincarnate in the human form’—is a great curse for the Igbo.” This corresponds with Vedic concepts of reincarnation, in which those souls who have accumulated bad karma reincarnate in lower forms, such as those of animals.

Among the Igbo, certain animals are sacred or taboo for certain kin groups. For example, at Lokpanta the leopard is sacred to the Um-Ago kinship group. Um-Ago means “the children of leopards.” The Um-Ago do not kill leopards or eat their flesh, believing that if anyone did so, that person would die untimely. Members of the Um-Ago are said to possess the ability to become leopards and act against enemies by killing their livestock (Meek 1970, p. 252).

The Igbo also have a belief in shape-changing children. If a child cannot walk or crawl by the age of three, the Igbo conclude that it is a creature that has come from a river or stream. Among one group of Igbo, the child is taken to a nearby river, along with an offering of a plate of mashed yams, whereupon, it is said, the child turns into a python and glides into the water. In another Igbo group, a ceremony for such a child takes place in the house. Sometimes the child turns into a snake, and in that case it is killed. Sometimes the child turns into a monkey. Northcote W. Thomas wrote in his anthropological report on the Igbo (1914, p. 29): “A changeling is known as nwa di mwo, and I have been seriously assured by more than one person that they have actually seen the transformation.”

The gods of the Igbo are described as follows by Charles Kingsley Meek (1970, p. 20): “Firstly, there is a pantheon of high gods, headed by Chuku or Chineke the Supreme Spirit, Anyanu (the Sun), Igwe (the Sky), Amadi-Oha (Lightning), and Ala (the Earth deity). Then there are innumerable minor deities: water and agricultural godlings; spirits which are the personification of fortune, destiny, wealth, strength, divination, and evil; spirits which are the counterparts of living human beings; and finally the ancestors, who control the fortunes of their living descendants. The Supreme Being, or it might be more correct to say the Supreme Spirit or World-Oversoul, is known as Chuku, a word which is a contraction of Chi=Spirit and uku=great. . . . In his creative aspect he is known as Chineke, or Chukwoke, or Chi-Okike.”

Ogbuene (1999, pp. 113–114), like Meek, makes a distinction between Chukwu or Chuku (“God, the big Spirit . . . the first ancestor . . . the self existent Being and wellspring of all that exists”) and Chineke (“God the creator”). In the Vedic cosmology there is a similar distinction between Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, known as the source of everything, and the creator god Brahma, who, using the ingredients supplied by Krishna, manifests the earth and other celestial bodies in the universe. Okpewho (1998, p. 90) believes that the traditional God concept of today’s Igbo has been to some extent influenced by Christian missionaries, but even Okpewho accepts there is some kind of “supreme divinity” and gives traditional accounts of humans meeting with a personal God (1998, pp. 73–74). As Okpewho puts it (1998, p. 74): “It is significant . . . that the Ijo [Igbo] imagination can conceive of an encounter with the supreme divinity.” Ogbuene (1999, p. 108) states that “Chukwu . . . is a God who acts and speaks, from whom help and assistance is sought in sacrifices.” At the same time he is indescribable, and is therefore sometimes called Ama-ama-Amasi Amasi, “One who is known but can never be fully known.” Ogbuene (1999, p. 108) says, “This is different from saying that Chukwu could be anything at all, or nothing. It is rather saying there is a reality which cannot be described; but towards which His actions point.”

Of Chukwu, Meek (1970, p. 20) says: “He is the author of heaven and earth, he sends the rain, makes the crops grow, and is the source from which men derive their chi or accompanying soul. He is the father of the gods, for some at least of the gods are said to be his ‘sons’. But he is a distant deity of vague personality, and sacrifice is seldom offered to him directly. Yet he is regarded as the ultimate recipient of all sacrifices. Thus, if sacrifice is offered to Anyanu, the officiant asks Anyanu to accept the sacrifice and bear it to Chuku.”

This relationship of the minor Igbo gods to the high god Chuku is similar to the relationship among gods found in our template Vedic cosmology. In the Bhagavad Gita (9. 23), Krishna, the Supreme God, says, “Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kunti, but they do so in a wrong way.”

According to Ogbuene (1999, p. 109), the various gods and creatures, including Chineke, are seen as simultaneously one with and different from Chukwu: “The Igbo recognizes that Chukwu is one, vast, and that He informs and unifies every other being. The so-called gods or spirits are not themselves Chukwu, but simply reflect certain aspects of His principles, ways and consciousness.” This is remarkably similar to the doctrine of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference (acintyabhedaabeda-tattva), characteristic of the school of Vedic philosophical thought to which I adhere (Gaudiya Vaishnavism). The teachers of this school explain that just as the rays of the sun are simultaneously one with and different from the sun, all souls are simultaneously one with and different from the Supreme Soul.

According to the Vedic cosmology, God, Krishna, has three features: sat, the feature of eternal existence; cit, the feature of unlimited knowledge; and ananda, the feature of ever increasing transcendental pleasure. This last feature is manifested in loving exchanges of spiritual pleasure between Krishna and His eternal associates. These exchanges are characterized as nitya-lila, eternal pastimes. Material loving affairs are considered imperfect reflections of the original spiritual pastimes. Chukwu, the supreme god of the Igbo, also displays the three features of existence, knowledge and pleasure pastimes. The existence feature of Chukwu is displayed as Okike, in which “He is manifested in the creation of everything visible and invisible” (Ogbuene 1999, p. 109). The sum total of everything that exists, material and spiritual, as well as existence itself, is called ife (Obguene 1999, p. 112). Chukwu also displays a knowledge feature. According to Ogbuene (1999, p. 110), “Chukwu is a living God who knows the secrets of all hearts.” Ogbuene (1999, p. 163) goes on to say, “The Supreme Being Chukwu is not only an ocean of consciousness [knowledge] and being [existence], but also an ocean of love and bliss. His purpose in creation is to play the game of love with Himself, through his creatures but in different capacities.”

Humans are called oke-chukwu, which means “the portion from Chukwu.” When Chukwu manifested the first humans, he uttered mmadu, “may beauty be” (Ogbuene 1999, p. 160). According to Ogbuene (1999, p.

162), the Igbo believe that “mmadu manifests the divine thought, translates the infinite into the finite, the divine spirit into sensory phenomena.” Humans are the creatures closest to God, and their relationship to God, Chukwu, is established by aja, sacrifice and prayer. “Every day, first thing in the morning, a typical traditional Igbo family gives gratitude to Chukwu in the form of prayers. This is introduced by the washing of the hands, making lines on the floor with nzu—a kind of white chalk, and sometimes painting the toes with the substance.The colour white symbolizes the pure, the unspotted, the spiritual” (Ogbuene 1999, p. 235).

The universe of the Igbo, with its multiplicity of gods and spirits, is highly personalized. Richard Neal Henderson (1972, p. 117) wrote: “Men know that there are gods, spirits and ghosts . . . and know that the agencies may act upon them directly. However, while the courses of human lives and communities are presumed to be set by these wills, they are largely unknown to men. Men therefore continually seek to bring them into personal or public awareness through acts of communication.” This communication is facilitated by “messenger spirits” such as the vulture.

The Igbo cosmology has several levels or worlds. Different accounts mention various numbers of worlds—eight, seven, or four. Henderson (1972, p. 109) states that “from the viewpoint of men occupying this one, the other worlds are all ‘lands of the dead’ into which all persons who die should subsequently be incarnated.” These other worlds are also the sources of souls incarnating into this world of our experience. The Igbo consider themselves to be in rather constant communication with these other worlds and their inhabitants, who retain an interest in the affairs of this world. Some of the dead, who have retained too much attachment to this world, remain here as ghosts. Henderson (1972, p. 109) states that “these are the ‘bad dead’ who have violated the world order.”

Final Remarks on multilevel Cosmology

Our “test drillings” in the field of cosmologies of various peoples throughout the world reveal some significant degree of family resemblance to our template Vedic cosmology. We find that humans and other living entities are possessed of souls that survive the death of the gross physical body. We find that in addition to a gross physical body, living entities have a subtle material body, through which the soul can act in ways that surpass actions performed through the medium of the gross physical body alone. We find that humans exist as part of a cosmic hierarchy of beings, in a multilevel cosmos. At the topmost level, we find a supreme conscious being, living in a purely spiritual domain. We find a creator god, who manifests the bodies and dwelling places for souls who enter the world of matter. We find that this creator god is assisted by many other demigods and demigoddesses. We find that souls can travel from body to body, and from level to level of the cosmos, by transmigration or other forms of travel.