Chapter 13  The Hopis and the Secret of the Cosmic Cycle of Time

  I took a plane to Phoenix and then by bus I arrived at Flagstaff late at night.  The air smelled crisp and clear.  I rented a station wagon and checked into a nearby motel.  Early next morning, I started heading to Mesa where the ruins of Anasazi - the ancient one - and Hopi Indians lived. 

  The bare earth proudly displayed itself as it stretched in all directions.  A thick red hue stretched out into the horizon.  The ancient center of all ethnicity unearthed itself.  The earth smelled draft and thick.  Passing small pine forests, bare mounds of cactus mountains came into view.  The mountains formed a dark mouth about to engulf life after death.  The smooth, molten earth echoed new life as well as regeneration of the deceased.  As bizarre as the concept sounded, I thought  "This is the earth's home!"  The road extended to the east and the dawning sun slid down the long stretch.  The thick undulating oasis of an inviting yet imaginary pond lay just ahead on the road as if to tease my thirst for truth.

  I drove all morning into the sun.  Although my lips were parched, I felt I was quenching my thirst for truth.   The road now headed up a hill.  A sudden intrusion of rocky red mountains pierced an otherwise monotonous horizon.  I postulated there must be stories and legends behind every one of those mountains, denied of its own place, on the minds of deprived new owners of this vast land.  The road sign told me that I was now entering Indian reservation. 

  By now the sun was beaming straight down on me from above.  The road stretched upward into the sun.  Then suddenly a vast expanse of plateau above the flat plane of Arizona opened up.  The blue sky of Autumn blended into the red horizon that suddenly fell down into a deep cliff.

  The mesmerizing straightness and emptiness of the road in front of me was broken by a man standing on the roadside.  His thumb pointed in the same direction as the stretch of road.  As my car approached him, I noticed his stern posture and the deep, defining wrinkles of his face.  His skin was the shade of an earthen clay pot.  My curiosity for the Indian culture sent a bolt of electricity through my body as I stopped the car beside the man.  I opened the passenger door, staring into his eyes.  He climbed in and offered me a wrinkled, calloused hand, declaring, "My name is Pawatakawa.  Thank you."

  I introduced myself.  "I'm new to this area.  Are you a Hopi?"

  "I am," he answered with a booming conviction.  "What brings you here?"

  I started to drive.  "I wish to find out more about your culture.  I found reading books or seeing an exhibit in a museum about the Hopi culture rather interesting, but I wish to experience the culture first‑hand."  I turned to him and said, "This land is so beautiful out here."" 

  "We Hopis are part of this land, not merely users of the land," Pawatakawa remarked.  "When one understands this relationship, one understands the need to keep the earth alive and intact for the next generation."

  I reflected on his statement.  "Where does this relationship come from?" I asked.  "Do you have a creation myth?"

  Pawatakawa smiled, contorting his well‑grooved face, emitting a warm grin reflecting many years of acquired wisdom.  "I trust you are not like other newcomers I have met here.  Very few of the tourists are interested in discovering one's spiritual roots.  I will be very happy to share mine with you."  I hadn't asked how far he wanted to travel on the road, but suddenly this issue was not important. 

  The Hopi began, "First there was only the Creator, Taiowa." The last word he said repeated itself in my head; it reminded me of TaeUlChunSangWonGun, the name and title for the ancient creator of heaven in the TaeUlJu Chant of JeungSan Do.  "There was no beginning, no end, no time, no shape: no life,  just an immeasurable void that had its beginning and end only in the mind of Taiowa the Creator."  He spoke as if reciting a soliloquy so familiar in his heart.

  "Then he, the infinite, conceived the finite.  First he created the being Sotuknang, a man, to make the finite manifest, saying to him, '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.'" 

  "Sotuknang," I said to myself.  "This is getting interesting.  Isn't the name of the man who created JeungSan Do JeungSan-Kang?  Another word for 'Jeung' is 'Sot' in Korean which means a pot that cooks a rice-cake.  'San' means mountain in Korean I wonder what 'u' means in Hopi?" 

  He went on with his intonations of the creation story and I dared not interrupt him.  "Sotuknang arranged what is called the Nine Universal Kingdoms." 

  "Nine Universal Kingdoms!  You mean Nine Heavens," I thought. 

  Pawatakawa continued, "Sotuknang went to the universe of the First World and out of it he created a woman who was to remain on that planet and be his helper.  Her name was Kokyanwuti, or Spider Woman." 

  "Or the TaeMo Go - Ko -," I whispered quietly to myself with a big grin.

  "When she awoke to life and received her name, she asked, 'Why am I here?'  'Look around you', answered Sotuknang. 

  " 'Here is this planet that we have created together.  It has shape and substance, direction and time, a beginning and an end.  But there is no life upon it.  We see no joyful movement.  We hear no joyful sound.  What is life without sound and movement?  So you have been given the power to help us create this life.  You have been given the knowledge, wisdom, and love to bless all the beings you create.  That is why you are here.' "

  I glanced over at Pawatakawa.  He was telling the story with his hands, spinning, offering, and creating along with the characters.  After catching a breath he resumed his atonement.   "Following his instructions, Spider Woman took some earth, mixed with it some tuchvala (saliva) and molded it into two beings.  To the one on the right Spider Woman said, 'You are Poqanghoya and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it.  Go now around all the world and put your hands upon the earth so that it will become fully solidified.  This is your duty.' 

  "Spider Woman then said to the twin on the left, 'you are Palongawhoya and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it.  This is your duty now: go about all the world and send out sound so that it may be heard throughout all the land.  When you are heard you will also be known as 'Echo', for all sound echoes the Creator.'

  "Poqanghoya, traveling throughout the earth, solidified the higher reaches into great mountains.  The lower reaches he made firm but still pliable enough to be used by those beings to be placed upon it and who would call it their mother.  Palongawhoya, traveling through the earth, sounded out his call as he was bidden.  All the vibratory centers along the earth's axis from pole to pole resounded his call; the whole earth trembled; the universe quivered in tune.  Thus he made the whole world an instrument of sound, resounding praise to the Creator of all.  'This is your voice, Uncle,' Sotuknang said to Taiowa.  'Everything is tuned to your sound.'"  Then I suddenly recalled the sound of the Tae‑Ul‑Ju chant as I heard Pawatakawa's words.

  "When they had accomplished their duties," Pawatakawa continued, "Poqanghoya was sent to the north pole of the world and Palongawhoya to the south pole, where they were jointly commanded to keep the world properly rotating.  Thus the First World was created and Spider Woman brought forth the First People on earth.

  "The First People were pure and happy.  The First People understood their own structure and functions - the nature of man himself.  The living body of man and the living body of the earth were constructed in the same way.  Through each ran an axis, man's axis being the backbone, the vertebral column, which controlled the equilibrium of his movements and his functions.  Along this axis were several vibratory centers which echoed the primordial sound of life throughout the universe or sounded a warning if anything went wrong. 

  "The first of these vibratory centers in man lay at the top of the head.  Here, when he was born, was the soft spot, the kopavi, the 'open door' through which he received his life and communicated with his Creator.  With every breath the soft spot moved up and down with a gentle vibration which talked to the Creator.  At the time of the red light, Talawva, the last phase of his creation, the soft spot was hardened and the door was closed.  It remained closed until his death, opening then for his life to depart as it had come.

  "Just below it lay the second center, the organ that man learned to use by himself, the thinking organ called the brain.  Its earthly function enabled man to think about his actions and work on this earth.  But the more he understood that his work and actions should conform to the plan of the Creator, the more clearly he understood that the real function of the thinking organ called the brain was carrying out the plan of all Creation.

  "The third center lay in the throat.  It tied together those openings in his nose and mouth through which he received the breath of life and the vibratory organs that enabled him to give back his breath in sound.  This primordial sound, very much like the sound coming from the vibratory centers of the body of the earth, was attuned to the universal vibration of all Creation.  New and diverse sounds were given forth by these vocal organs in the form of speech and song;  their primary function was to use this center to speak and sing praises to the Creator." 

  "Yes, and that is what TaeUlJu is,"  I thought.

  "The fourth center was the heart.  It too was a vibrating organ, pulsing with the vibration of life itself.  In his heart man felt the good of life, its sincere purpose.  He was of One Heart.  But there were those who permitted evil feelings to enter.  They were said to be of Two Hearts.

  "The last of man's important centers lay under his navel.  It was the throne in man of the Creator himself.  From it the sound of the Creator originated.  From it the Creator directed all the functions of man."  What he had just explained was what TaeUlJu Chanting meditation was all about.  And he was much more eloquent than I could ever be about explaining TaeUlJu meditation.  A sudden surge of respect for him emerged from within me.

  "The First People knew no sickness.  Not until evil entered the world did people get sick in the body or head.  It was then that a medicine man, knowing how man was constructed, could tell what was wrong with a person by examining these centers. 

  "Thus the First People understood themselves.  But gradually those with Two Hearts increased in numbers and they forgot the commands of Sotuknang and the Spider Woman to respect their Creator.  More and more they used the vibratory centers of their bodies solely for earthly purposes, forgetting that their primary purpose was to carry out the plan of Creation.

  "But among all the people of different races and languages there were a few in every group who still lived by the laws of Creation.  To them came Sotuknang.  He came with the sound of a mighty wind and suddenly appeared before them.  He said, 'I have observed this state of affairs.  It is not good.  It is so bad I talked to my Uncle, Taiowa, about it.  We have decided this world must be destroyed and another one created so you people can start over again.  You are the ones we have chosen.' They listened carefully to their instructions.  Said Sotuknang, 'you will go to a certain place.  Your kopavi (vibratory center on top of the head) will lead you.  This inner wisdom will give you the sight to see a certain cloud, which you will follow by day, and a certain star, which you will follow by night.'

  "After many days and nights they arrived at the certain place from many parts of the world.  When the last ones arrived Sotuknang appeared.  'Well, you are all here, you people I have chosen to save from the destruction of this world.  Now come with me.' He led them to a big mound where the Ant People lived, stamped on the roof, and commanded the Ant People to open up their home.  When an opening was made on the top of the anthill, Sotuknang said to the people, "Now you will enter this Ant kiva, where you will be safe when I destroy the world.  While you are here I want you to learn a lesson from these Ant People.  They are industrious.  They gather food in the summer for the winter.  They keep cool when it is not and warm when it is cool.  They live peacefully with one another.  They obey the plan of Creation." 

  "So the people went down to live with the Ant people.  When they were all safe and settled, Taiowa commanded Sotuknang to destroy the world.  Sotuknang destroyed it by fire because the Fire Clan had been its leaders.  He rained fire upon the earth.  He opened up the volcanoes.  Fire came from above and below and all around until the earth, the waters, the air, all was one element, fire, and there was nothing left except the people inside the womb of the earth.

  "Finally, that which had been the First World cooled off.  Sotuknang purified it.  Then he began to create the Second World.  He changed its form completely, putting land where the water was and water where the land had been, so the people upon their emergence would have nothing to remind them of the previous wicked world. 

  "Then Sotuknang said to the people, 'Make your emergence now to this Second World I have created.  It is not quite so beautiful as the First World, but nevertheless it is still beautiful.  Your will like it.  So multiply and be happy.  But remember your Creator and the laws he gave you.  When I hear you singing joyful praises to him I will know you are my children, and you will be close to me in your hearts.

  "So the people emerged to the Second World.  In this world people were separated from the animals.  The people tended to their own affairs.  They built homes, then villages and trails between them.  They made things with their hands and stored food like the Ant People.  Then they began to trade and barter with one another.

  "This was when the trouble started.  Everything they needed was on this Second World, but they began to want more.  More and more they traded for things they didn't need, and the more goods they got, the more they wanted.  This was very serious.  They did not realize they were meandering, step by step, from the good life given them.  They just forgot to sing joyful praises to the Creator and soon began to sing praises for the goods they bartered and stored.  Before long it happened as it had to happen.  The people began to quarrel and fight, and soon wars between villages became commonplace. 

  "There were still a few people in every village who sang the song of their Creation.  But the wicked people laughed at them until they could sing it only in their hearts.  Even so, Sotuknang heard it through their centers and the centers of the earth.  Suddenly, one day he appeared before them.

  " 'Spider Woman tells me your thread is running out on this world,' he announced.  'Now my Uncle, Taiowa, and I have decided we must do something about it.  We are going to destroy this Second World just as soon as we put you people who still have the song in your hearts in a safe place.' "

  "So again, as on the First World, Sotuknang called on the Ant People to open up their underground world for the chosen people.  When they were safely underground, Sotuknang commanded the twins, Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya, to leave their posts at the north and south ends of the world's axis, where they were stationed to keep the earth properly rotating. 

  "The twins had hardly abandoned their stations when the world, with no one to control it, teetered off balance, spun around crazily, then rolled over twice.  Mountains plunged with a great splash, seas and lakes sloshed over the land; and as the world spun thorough cold and lifeless space it froze into solid ice.  This was the end of Tokpa, the Second World."

    I was startled when I had noticed how strikingly the axis shifting in Pawatakawa's myth resonated with the idea in the book of JeungSan Do of a three‑hundred sixty degree shifting of the earth's axis every 129,000 years in order to bring about the Cosmic Winter. I further carried out the comparison, and wondered if the statement 'the thread is running out' could signify that the Cosmic Winter time has come according to JeungSan Do.  Perhaps this was a previous Cosmic year civilization.

    "Eventually Sotuknang ordered Poqanhoya and Palongawhoya back to their stations at the poles of the world axis.  With a great shudder and a splintering of ice the planet began rotating again.  When it was revolving smoothly about its own axis and stately moving in its universal orbit, the ice began to melt and the world began to warm to life.  Sotuknang set about creating the Third World: arranging seas, planting mountains and plains with their proper coverings, and creating all forms of life.

    "When the earth was ready for occupancy, he came to the Ant kiva with the proper approach as before and said, 'Open the door.  It is time for you to come out.' "  I pictured an image of people rising out of the womb of the earth.  In The Truth of JeungSan Do book the Master Teacher claimed that there was a Womb on our planet earth where people sprung forth when the Cosmic Spring Time came.       

    " 'I have saved you so you can be planted again on this new Third World.  But you must always remember the two things I am saying to you now.  First, respect me and one another.  And second, sing in harmony from the tops of the hills.  When I do not hear you singing praises to your Creator I will know you have gone back to evil again.' 

    "So the people climbed up the ladder from the Ant kiva, making their Emergence to the Third World.  Now in the Third World they multiplied in such numbers and advanced so rapidly that they created big cities, countries, a whole civilization.  This made it difficult for them to confirm to the plan of Creation and to sing praises to Taiowa and Sotuknang.  More and more of them became wholly occupied with their own earthly plans.  It was especially disconcerting because so many people were using their reproductive power in wicked ways. 

    "Some of them made a patuwvota, a shield made of hide, and with their creative power made it fly through the air.  On this many of the people flew to a big city, attacked it, and returned so fast no one knew where they came from.  Soon the people of many cities and countries were making patuwvotas and flying on them to attack one another.  So corruption and war came to the Third World as it had to the others. 

    "This time Sotuknang came to Spider Woman and said, 'There is no use waiting until the thread runs out this time.  Something has to be done lest the people with the song in their hearts are corrupted and killed off too.  It will be difficult, with all this destruction going on, for them to gather at the far end of the world I have designated.  But I will help them.  Then you will save them when I destroy this world with water.'

    " 'How shall I save them?' asked Spider Woman.

    " 'When you get there look about you,' commanded Sotuknang.  'You will see these tall plants with hollow stems.  Cut them down and put the people inside.'

    "After Spider Woman had done this, Sotuknang let loose the waters upon the earth.  Waves higher than mountains rolled in upon the land.  Continents broke asunder and sank beneath the seas.  And still the rains fell; the waves rolled in.  Only the people sealed up in their hollow reeds were saved."  I thought to myself that this must had been when the Time of Cosmic Summer came, when the Southern civilization of Atlantis and the Mu continent sunk under the Ocean.

    "The people sealed up in their hollow reeds heard the mighty rushing of the waters.  They felt themselves tossed high in the air and dropping back to the water.  Then all was quiet, and they knew they were floating.  For a long, long time - so long a time that it seemed it would never end - they kept floating.

    "Finally, their movement ceased.  The Spider Woman unsealed their hollow reeds, took them by the tops of their heads, and pulled them out.  Looking about them, they saw they were on a little piece of land that had been the top of one of their highest mountains.  All else, as far as they could see, was water.  This was all that remained of the Third World.

    "Then Sotuknang appeared to Kokyangwuti, Spider Woman, and said, 'You must continue traveling on.  Your inner wisdom will guide you.  The door at the top of your head is open.'

    "So Spider Woman directed the people to make round, flat boats of the hollow reeds they had come in and to crawl inside.  Again they entrusted themselves to the water and the inner wisdom to guide them.  For a long time they drifted with the wind and the movement of the waters and came to another rocky island. 

    " 'It is bigger than the other one, but it is not big enough,' they said.  'No.  It is not big enough,' said Spider Woman.

    "So people traveled toward the rising sun in their reed boats.  Crossing many islands, finally they came to a great land, a mighty land, their inner wisdom told them.  'The Fourth World!' they cried to each other.

    "Soon all the others arrived and when they were gathered together Sotuknang appeared before them.  Looking to the west and the south, the people could see sticking out of the water the islands upon which they had rested.  As people watched them, the closest one sank under the water, then the next, until all were gone, and they could see only water.

    " 'See', said Sotuknang, 'I have washed away even the footprints of your emergence; the stepping-stones which I left for you.  Down on the bottom of the seas lie all the proud cities, the flying patuwvotas, and the worldly treasures corrupted with evil, and those people who found no time to sing praises to the Creator from the tops of their hills.  But the day will come, if you preserve the memory and the meaning of your emergence, when these stepping-stones will emerge again to prove the truth you speak.

    "We Hopis came to this land by sea.  The name of this Fourth World is Tuwaqachi, or World Complete.  When we landed on this new land, according to the legend, we Hopis were told by the guiding spirit of our land that there will come a time when this land will be flooded with strangers.  When that happens, we are to prepare for the coming of the Fifth world.

    "This time," I told Pawatakawa,  "Sotuknang himself was born on earth as a person to prepare the humanity for the coming of the Fifth world."

    Pawatakawa raised an eyebrow.  "Are you now telling me your  creation myth?"

    I spoke in sincerity.  "Well, I'm not so sure that mine is much different from yours," I answered.  "His name was Kang, Il-Sun or Kang, Jeung-San.  His wife was the TaeMo Go SuBuNim.  He gave us the TaeUlJu chant to sing.  It is a song about TaeUlChunSangWonGun, TaeUl Heaven - High King - or Taiowa, a song of Creation.  He told us that this time the world will see a shifting of its axis, causing volcanoes in the east and floods in the west.  Yet this time he shall harvest those who are pure at heart by afflicting this humanity with a sudden attack of diseases.  He told us to know the cure which in part involves the Song of Creation: the TaeUlJu Chant."

    Collecting his thoughts, Pawatakawa put his hands together, his fingertips touching, and took a deep breath.  "And do you know this chant?" 

  I recited the TaeUlJu several times as I drove along the flat red stretch of earth: "Hum-Chi Hum-Chi Tae-Ul-Chun-Sang-Won-Gun; Hum-Ri-Chi-Ya-Do-Rae Hum-Ri-Ham-Ri-Sa-Pa-Aha . . . ."  Wearing a smile, I turned to him and bowed my head slightly.  "Try chanting with me if you wish."  I started him off slowly, and after a few repetitions, Pawatakawa rode the rhythm of the chant.

    We then looked at each other and stopped the chant; I sensed he had something to say.  "The sound has a uniting quality to it that reminds me of our creator, Taiowa, as everything is tuned to Taiowa's sound.  I find this interesting, Kan."

    He continued, his hand gestures still offering their enhancement of the commentary.  "I sense power in your voice.  I am interested as to why you have such a conviction for the chant," Pawatakawa remarked.  "What intrigues me more is how you claim your chant dovetails with the Creation Myth of the Hopi's. In exchange for the ride, I would like to invite you to watch a ceremony of ours tomorrow.