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The Cosmic androgyny Primordial ‘Man’

Plato’s Cosmic Man

According to Plato, in his dialogue Timaeus, the Creator God wanted all things to be like himself and modelled the universe on the eternal.

Using the four elements, earth, water, fire, and air, he created order from chaos using, as his blue print, a perfect and intelligent living being. Creation, according to Plato, is to be regarded as a “blessed god”.

Wakan Tanka

Wakan Tanka (Great Holy Mystery) is the supreme being of the Lakota Indians, and is divided into sixteen aspects known as Tob-Tob (Four-four).

These are:

1. The superior gods:

   rock ‘Inyan’ (see below), Earth, Sky, and sun.

2. The associate gods:

   Moon, Wind, Falling Star, and Thunderbird.

3. The kindred gods:

   Buffalo, Two-Legged, Four Winds, and Whirlwind

4. The god-like:

   Spirit, Spirit-Like, Breath, and Wakan Power.

Inyan

According to myth, Inyan created the earth and sky from his blood, and yet he acknowledged Wakan Tanka as the source of all things. It is through these sixteen aspects that Wakan Tanka manifests himself in creation. However, Wakan Tanka is greater than his divided parts and is therefore considered to be ultimately unknowable.

Pan Gu

According to Chinese myth, in the beginning Pan Gu developed in the darkness of a giant cosmic egg. After 18,000 years the egg shattered and Pan Gu, who is depicted in Chinese art holding a hammer, emerged. The lighter fragments (Yang: the active solar male principle) of the cosmic egg became heaven, while the dark and heavy fragments (Yin: the passive shady female principle associated with the moon) became earth. For another 18,000 years Pan Gu continued to grow, pushing heaven and earth further apart until they solidified and became fixed into place. Exhausted Pan Gu laid down and died. His skull was transformed into the sky, his left eye became the sun and his right eye became the moon. His flesh became the soil, while his bones and teeth were transformed into rocks. From his hair arose the stars and vegetation, and his blood, sweat and tears produced the rivers, ocean, rain, and dew. Pan Gu’s breath became the wind and clouds, and his voice turned into thunder. The parasites that lived on Pan Gu’s body became mankind.

Purusha

Concerning ‘the living being who was slain, and whose body parts formed creation’ motif: according to the Rig-Veda, the entire universe, throughout time, is a single being known as Purusha, the Primal Man. He is ruler of immortality, and all beings, whether mortal or immortal, form his body of a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet.

“according to the Rig-Veda, the entire universe, throughout time, is a single being known as Purusha, the Primal Man. ”

‘Viraj’ (the female principle?) was born from Primal Man (if so compare Genesis 2:21-23), and from Viraj man is born again. At the beginning of time the gods sacrificed Purusha as a sacrifice to himself. The divine Vedic texts sprang into existence, along with earth and sky and space. Every living creature and the four orders of Hindu society were born from the divided parts of his body. The sacrifice of Purusha is the archetype for all Vedic sacrifice and holds the universe together. Also, along with the creation of the four Vedas and the four social classes (Varnas), Purusha is associated with the four directions of space.

Ymir

According to Nordic mythology, the first living creature that arose out of Ginnungagap ‘yawning void’ was the cow Audumla. Four rivers (compare Genesis 2:10) of milk flowed from Audhumla’s teats which nourished the frost giant Ymir. While Ymir slept (the sleeping motif yet again) he produced a sweat and a man and a woman emerged from his left hand. He also rubbed his feet together and gave birth to a son. Odin, along with his two brothers Vili and Ve, fatally wounded Ymir who bled so much he drowned all his children in a terrible flood (Universal Deluge motif). Only the frost giant Bergelmir survived the flood by taking refuge with his family in the hollow trunk of a tree (Ark motif. tree of salvation?) The three gods cast the dead giant into Ginnungagap and began to create the world from his flesh. Ymir’s Skull became the sky and was held in place by four dwarves, Nordri, Sudri, Austri, and Vestri (north, south, east, west), the cardinal directions. His teeth and bones were transformed into rocks and crags, and his hair was transformed into trees. From Ymir’s brows the gods created Midgard for mankind, storm clouds were produced from his brains, and sparks shot up into the heavens as stars.

Tlaltecuhtli

Although the Mesoamerican goddess Tlaltecuhtli (earth lord) is often depicted as female, she was also regarded to be androgynous. According to a myth concerning the creation of the world in the fifth cosmic age, the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca (the cosmic enemies of the 1st and 2nd ages of creation) saw the terrible Tlaltecuhtli walking across the primeval ocean, and were afraid. They took hold of the goddess from both sides and after a vicious ‘cosmic’ struggle, which cost Tezcatlipoca his left foot (sacred wound motif), they succeeded in tearing her body in two, creating the heavens and earth. Her hair was transformed into vegetation, her eyes and mouth were changed into fountains, rivers, springs, and caves, while her nose and shoulders became valleys and mountains.

Adam (Reversing the cosmic man myth)

In the 2nd Book of Enoch, the mythical theme of the cosmic being whose body is transformed into creation appears to be reversed and reapplied to the creation of Adam. The following translation is taken from ‘The Lost Bible’ by J.R Porter:

On the sixth day I commanded my wisdom
to create man out of the seven components:
first, his flesh from earth;
second, his blood from dew and from the sun;
third his eyes from the bottomless sea;
fourth, his bones from stone;
fifth, his reason from the mobility of angels
and from clouds;
sixth, his veins and hair from the grass of the earth;
seventh, his spirit from my spirit and from
the wind…

And on earth I assigned him to be a second angel,
honoured and great and glorious…
And I assigned to him a name from the four components:
from East (anatole) - A
from west (dusme)-D
from North (arktos)-A
from South (mesembria)-M
(2001, p.23)

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