The First Cosmology: The Magic Universe

Imagine a time before the Internet, before TV, before books, before any kind of organized society. Let's begin, say 100,000 years ago when interaction with the environment was largely sensory and survival was the top priority. This was a unique time as these early cultures were curious and motivated to explore and understand the world, mostly for survival. But at this time, no one could claim to be ignorant because everything was new and undocumented. This was a world awaiting discovery, unencumbered by previous knowledge and classification systems. This was a world to be explored and the only classification system which mattered was that which divided the animate from the inanimate. This was also a world where observational skills were necessarily keen. In a sense, the beginnings of the scientific method were occurring. Individuals would make observations and then formulate a model or explanation of that observation. That model would then, in theory, provide the individual with some predictive power related to the phenomenon they observed. If they observed the phenomenon again and it behaved differently, adjustments to the model would have to be made.

As the millenia passed, humans found the means and need to organize themselves. From this culture took root. Over time, people would notice patterns and cycles in the sky. The cycles of sunrise and sunset, lunar phases, and seasonal motions of the stars, were likely known by everyone (in contrast to today!) but different cultures had different models for these observed motions. With a growing awareness of self and a need to feel connected to the cosmos, individual cultures began to project their personality onto the celestial canopy. Certain patterns of stars took on special importance as they were endowed with human or animal characteristics. This then is the essence of the First Cosmology: The Magic Universe. Although there is essentially no written record of this, we can hypothesize its nature as follows:

It exists prior to organized culture; roughly 20,000 - 100,000 years ago.
The "Universe" is a highly local entity which you interact with on a daily basis.
Key elements in this cosmology are divided into animate vs. inanimate objects.
This is a highly behavioristic Universe where observation is the key to survival. For instance, its important to know what you can eat vs. what will eat you. Are those lights in the sky at night dangerous? Will they fall down and set you on fire? Such questions seem silly to us but remember, this is the time of no prior knowledge. In the future, as new knowledge is gained, some of the questions we ask today may also seem equally silly to those future generations.

This time can be characterized as Life confronting Life and in some sense, finds its modern day analog in the popular Star Trek series on Television. There is something fascinating about living in the world of no prior knowledge where anything can and may await you around the next corner. This journey into the unknown continues today. This is why we make large telescopes and why we have the Hubble Space Telescope. These have become our instruments of exploration now that the time of the physical exploration of Earth has long ended (save for those fascinating deep sea thermal vents with their thriving colonies of life now just being discovered).

The Second Cosmology: The Mythic Universe

This era marks a significant change in the manner of how cosmological models are constructed. This era begins at the end of the last ice age, roughly 15,000 years ago, and lasts for about 10,000 years. Prior to this, cosmological models were constructed entirely based on observations and cultural bias was not an important factor. As such, imagination and mysticism were the crucial elements in these models. While this era will retain elements of mysticism, there is a slow progression towards deterministic and hierarchical models which will culminate, about 15,000 years later, into one of the most unimaginative cosmologies of all, the crystalline sphere Universe of Aristotle.

As cultures became more sophisticated, personality began to evolve. With this evolution comes the projection of the inner self, or the innate values of the culture, onto other things. This fueled the slow evolution of this second cosmology over the next 10,000 years. During this time humans began to organize themselves and various hunter/gatherer societies arose. Over time, these societies engaged in plant cultivation and animal domestication. As the population increased, scarcity arose, which likely was the genesis of some form of primitive economics or trade. This provided humans with a completely different way to interact with each other and the world. This is likely a very important development because, ultimately, cosmological models are a manifestation of one's world view. That world view can be strongly shaped by economic considerations.

In the mythic Universe a wide range of elaborate mythologies arose. Much attention was focused on the origin or birth of objects in the Universe and the idea that higher forces were at work to create that which humans observed. Although there was wide variation in the details of various cultural mythical Universes, there seem to be four common elements that can be identified:

Demons: most mythologies have demons; possibly this represents the innate fear (of the unknown?) in humans.
Gods; most mythologies have gods; presumably these are present to provide comfort to humans as they are the primary mechanism to combat Demons.
Polarization of Male/Female elements: often this takes the form where evil demons are Male and benovalent gods are Female.
The Cosmic Womb: here the primal female gives birth to the Universe and all that is in it, whether organic or not.

The Cosmic Womb represents an original and profound idea; it is the idea that the entire Universe was created in a single event. This idea further suggests a fundamental connection between the organic and inorganic as all were created in the same place. This essential idea is not far removed from what we know today concerning the origin of the elements. That is, all elements heavier than oxygen in our Galaxy were created by supernova. Whether it's the iron in the bloodstream of humans or the iron ore in the Rocky mountains or the iron on some distant planet in our Galaxy, its origin is the same, Supernova. Thus the physical manifestation of the cosmic womb idea are supernova and it would be incorrect to say "the Earth is my mother"; supernova are all of our " mothers" as they provide the physical mechanism that has seeded the Galaxy with sufficient heavy elements to form planets upon which life subsequently evolves. This raises the possibility that other intelligent life forms are present in our Galaxy; a subject which is discussed in Chapter 6. Despite probable vast differences in the nature of these hypothetical other intelligent life forms, they are all connected to one another via the physical mechanism of Supernova.

Some Example Cosmology Mythology

To illustrate some of the common elements in the Mythic Universe we consider two documented mythologies that come from two widely different cultures.

The Legend of Edda Elish - a Sumerian myth of 5000 years ago.

In this myth we have two primary forces. Apsu represents the watery abyss while Tiamet represents the omnipresent Primal Female. They mate and give birth to Anu the Sky god. Anu and Tiamet then combine to give birth to Ea the earth God of Wisdom. Three of the four elements are represented here: earth, air and water. Eventually in this myth some 600 individual gods spring up and the inevitable argument about who gets to be head god ensues. Ea and Tiamet later begat Marduk . Marduk appears to be the Sumerian equivalent of the Terminator. He is a 4-eyed war-like demon who eventually overpowers Tiamet and slices her in half creating the Upper World where the gods live and the Lower or Netherworld where us mere mortals live. The end result is the creation of a hierarchy (upper vs lower worlds) when none originally existed.

The Legend of Elda Edda - A Norse Mythology

This particular myth begins at the Dawn of Time which is manifest by the Dance of the Frosty Maidens. Once again we have the primal female that mates with the god Ymir to begat Odin a 1-eyed god (another common element of these myths seem to be that non 2-eyed gods are bad). As in the previous myth, Odin slays Ymir and divides her body into Earth and Sky. After this division the world is doomed and all the Gods are destined to die in some cosmic cataclysm. The legend goes on to say that the Sun will become swollen and blood red (a reasonable description for a Red Giant ) and the Earth will sink into the Sun (which it will as the radius of the sun when its a Red Giant will encompass the Earth). Out of this cataclysm a new and better world will arise.

In both mythologies we see the creation of a hierarchal Universe which has an upper world reserved for the gods, and a lower world reserved for us mere (sub-standard?) mortals. Furthermore, a strong element of failure exists in these myths. The Universe is not a peaceful harmonious place, but rather a place of fierce and feuding Gods that ultimately cause some sort of cataclysm that leads to re-birth.