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The Rainbow Serpent Around the World
In many parts of the world, enormous reptiles have appeared in creation and rainmaking activities. In West Africa, Mawu the supreme being creates the rainbow serpent who then helps Mawu create the rest of the world. On completion, it wounds itself up into a circle under the ocean to support the weight of the earth. As it ripples and coils, it causes the movements of water, sometimes from which it arises as an arch across the sky. In North American Indian myths, it plays some part in the creation of people and other animals and then assumes the crucial role of providing rain. When it sleeps for too long there is drought and it must be awoken with noisy dance and ceremony.

People have always sought to understand the world around them through myth and to make sense of the different things that happen. Mythologies around the world may differ in details but there are obvious common streams throughout as we seek to understand the world around us. How was the earth created? Why does it rain? Why do the stars come out at night? There are recurring symbols, such as serpents or snakes, eggs, apples, etc. featuring in mythologies all over. The landscape is said to have been created during The Dreamtime by the ancestor spirits who gave parts of themselves to form the landscape. When the eternal ancestors arose they wandered the earth sometimes in animal form, sometimes in human shape, sometimes part animal and human and sometimes part human and plant.

Everywhere they walked they left sacred traces of their presence - a rock, a waterhole etc. For example the Rainbow serpent created the rivers and waterholes as it slithered across Australia. Today it arches from the waters as a rainbow across the sky. It is not always clear whether the serpent is male or female. In Arnhem land it is said to be one form of the goddess Kunapipi. It has other names such as Yurlunggur and is on of the most famous of the ancestor spirits. In some stories it causes a great flood which washes away the world before this one.

The spirit ancestors also created the elements and natural phenomena.

Daoism, based on the philosophy of Lao Tsu, teaches that the way to eternal life is through understanding the natural laws and living in harmony with nature, in particular balancing the opposing principles of Yin and Yang. Yin represents the female principle (the dark side of the yin-yang symbol) and Yang the male (the light side). The two came together to become the first being, a giant called Pan Ku.

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