The Moon is Like a Boyand the Sun is Like a Girl
And God created the two great luminaries… the great light… and the small light. —Genesis 1:16 Originally, the sun and moon were created of equal size, but the moon protested, and so God made it smaller. —Midrash Rabbah But He…
The Lazy Girl and the Butter-Yellow Pot
Everything is finished before it has happened, everything is finished before it has happened…. The young girl in red sang to herself. Carrying a butter-yellow pot, she shielded her eyes from the blossoming sun and looked out into the graceful…
Out of the Box: How Raven gave light to the world
Before I gave birth to the child, I lived alone with my father in a cold world of eternal night. Outside the door of our longhouse a thick blackness covered the earth. It was so dark that when I took…
Healing Water Goddesses
Water is crucial to all life on Earth, and from the earliest records of human history we have venerated its healing and regenerative powers. It is no surprise that many healing water deities are goddesses: the life-giving, wellness-nurturing properties of…
Suvannavanna Hamsa Jataka: The Golden Swan
Prologue Long, long ago, in the far distant past, the Bodhisatta was born as a swan.1 He grew up to become the leader of a great flock of swans. They were known as the Dhatarattha clan. Their feathers were the…
The Moon is Like a Boyand the Sun is Like a Girl
And God created the two great luminaries… the great light… and the small light. —Genesis 1:16 Originally, the sun and moon were created of equal size, but the moon protested,…
The Demands of the Way, by Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch
IN THE EARLY 1920S during the Bolshevik Revolution, Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch, a young officer in the army of the Tsar, settled in Constantinople. Haunted by the barbarity and violence of war,…
The Verses of Ambapali, by Margo McLoughlin
A new translation and commentary by Margo McLoughlin Ambapali | Buddhist In Vesali, in ancient India, at the time of the Buddha, a baby girl was born spontaneously at the…
The Lazy Girl and the Butter-Yellow Pot
Everything is finished before it has happened, everything is finished before it has happened…. The young girl in red sang to herself. Carrying a butter-yellow pot, she shielded her eyes…
Suvannavanna Hamsa Jataka: The Golden Swan
Prologue Long, long ago, in the far distant past, the Bodhisatta was born as a swan.1 He grew up to become the leader of a great flock of swans. They…
O My Country!, A Maghreb folktale, Retold by Anne Twitty
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. King Salomon knew the language of all living creatures, and all obeyed him, especially the birds. One day this great…
Healing Water Goddesses
Water is crucial to all life on Earth, and from the earliest records of human history we have venerated its healing and regenerative powers. It is no surprise that many…
Sarabha-miga Jataka, The Noble Stag, Retold by Margo McLoughlin
A Deer Hunt. c.1775 from Kotah, Rajasthan, India. Pigments on paper Once the Bodhisatta was born as a deer. He grew up to be a magnificent stag—a Sambar, the largest…
How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race, by Anonymous (West African)
Again and Again Anansi Tried To Climb the Tree There once lived, in Fanti-land, a man named Father Anansi. He possessed all the wisdom in the…
The Christmas Angels, by Risa Levenson Gold with Artwork by Jean Zaleski
By Risa Levenson Gold with Artwork by Jean Zaleski It was a bitter cold, rainy December twilight in Manhattan several days before Christmas. I was waiting in the persistent drizzle for…
The Awakened Eye, by Frederick Franck
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926): An Orchard in Spring, 1886 I was five years old. My mother and a friend I was expected to address as “Aunt”…
Ceremony, an Aztec myth, By Fray Juan de Torquemada and Translated by David Johnson
Tezcatlipoca from the Codex Borgia They say that after the birth of the Fifth Sun, when the Gods had sacrificed themselves to get the Sun moving…
The Thanksgiving Prayer, Adapted from the Mohawk
Illustration by John Kahionhes Fadden THE THANKSGIVING PRAYER Adapted from the Mohawk by John Stokes and David Kanawahienton Benedict The People Today we have gathered and…