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, by Nartana Premachandra
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, by Leslie Hebert
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, by Betsy Cornwell
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, by Margo McLoughlin
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 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”…
Izanagi and Izanami, a Japanese myth, Retold by Paul Jordan-Smith
Searching the Seas with the Tenkei (天瓊を以て滄海を探るの図 Tenkei o motte sōkai o saguru no zu). Painting by Kobayashi Eitaku, 1880-90 (MFA, Boston). The story of Izanagi…
The First Tears, an Eskimo folktale, Retold by Anne Twitty
Photo by Steve Halama One day First Man went out seal hunting along the seashore. He saw many seals. He chose a seal, and carefully crept…