Original Myth
The Sun, the Moon, and the Great Spirit Long ago, before there was life, before there was even a planet Earth, there were celestial entities that existed in the universe back when it was a light blue. These spirits appear to humans as large masses in space, such as the other planets and the stars. Since the beginning, there were two powerful apparitions that would become rivals until the end of time, the Sun Spirit and the Moon Spirit. The Sun was favored by the other astral entities to the isolated Moon.
Not long after all of the spirits of the universe were created by the Great Spirit, their creator who cannot be seen by any life form, the Sun had become the leader of all other celestial bodies and was placed in the center of the Solar System. This angered the Moon, who despised the Sun. The Moon Spirit challenged the Sun for the position as ruler of the planets. Unfortunately for the Moon, the Sun used his superior strength to outcast the Moon to a lonely location between Venus and Mars. After 4,000 years of peace among the bodies of the Solar System, the Sun was growing old and developed a feeling that something was missing.
The Sun Spirit decided that it was time for him to create a new successor since he has aged and become weak over time. The Sun found stray meteors flying across space and summoned all of his remaining power to bring them to him. The aging Sun then smashed the colossal space rocks together to create one large mass. Afterwards, he engulfed the inanimate boulder with his life-giving fire to give it consciousness. “Who are you? Who am I? ” said the curious new planet. “I am the Sun, your creator and protector.
You are my daughter who will one day grow up to take my place as ruler of everything in existence,” said the Sun to his newborn child. “Well, do I have a name? ” the naive child asked. “I shall name you ‘Earth’,” said the Sun. For many days, the cosmos celebrated the birth of their beloved king’s child. Eventually, the news spread so far that it got to the Moon Spirit. The Lunar Spirit then schemed the perfect plan to get revenge on the Sun. The Moon waited until all of the other entities fell asleep to sneak out of his seal. He eventually found the sleeping solar king and his princess.
The Moon then kidnapped her and brought her to where the Sun had banished him. Child Earth woke up with a loud scream, constantly calling for her father. To silence her, the Moon engulfed her in such a great amount of water that she would never be able to speak again. When the Sun woke up, he looked around for his daughter; she was nowhere to be found. The King began to panic and told every spirit in the universe to look out for the young princess. Not long after, Venus confronted the Sun and said, “I know where your daughter is. She has been taken away by the twisted Moon and can no longer speak. This news made the Sun so furious, his fire grew to be so large that it gave off the largest glow anyone had ever seen. The powerful light from the glow began to illuminate all parts of the Solar System including the Moon and Earth. The Sun was now able to see his captive daughter, but had no strength left to pull her back to him. From that day on, all of the celestial entities mourned for the loss of their future queen. To show their consolation for the Sun, they all decided to use their combined power to turn space from a sky blue color to black for the second half of every day.
To make matters worse, the Moon confronted the Sun to make a proposition. “If you stand down from your position as king, I will let you have your daughter. If not, then I will force you to stand down,” explained the Moon. The Sun Spirit refused to give up his position. The Moon then declared war on the Sun, but immediately after doing so, the Great Spirit appeared for the first time since the birth of the universe. The two rivals were struck with awe. The Great Spirit refused to let the universe spiral into chaos because of the Sun and Moon’s conflict.
In order to please them both, he gave the Sun his daughter for half of a day, but when the Sun falls asleep, the Moon would take ownership. Whenever her father would leave and the Moon would come, the Earth would try to break free of her liquid entrapment, causing the tides to rise. In addition, the Great Spirit went to the Earth and planted a massive green tree on her that would grow from both the soil from the sun and the water from the moon. This Tree of Life would give birth to all life on Earth that we see today, from insects, to sea creatures, to humans.
