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Before there was land, sky, and sea, there was ice, mist, and milk. Some of the ice broke away and floated to the surface of the milk, and upon it lay the Master of Paths and Earth Mother, two halves of the same whole. Looking upon each other, and seeing that each was only a half but together they were a whole, the Master of Paths and the Earth Mother lay down with each other and were joined together. That is why men and women seek each other.
In the days that followed the Earth Mother became aware that she carried the joining within her, and so she gathered together all the ice to make a land for her children to live in. She warmed the ice with her body, and caused plants to grow upon it, and then she filled the plants with bright flowers. Every spring the Earth Mother remembers that she did this, and brings out green plants and bright flowers where the snow and ice has been.
Looking down on this land, the Master of Paths was so moved that he began to cry. As each shimmering drop fell, it became a god and flew into the Earth Mother’s world. But these gods were not of the Earth Mother, and did not belong in her world, and were rejected. They cried out to their father, the Master of Paths, who told them that if they joined themselves to the Earth Mother’s world, they would be her children, too. So the gods went forth and joined themselves to her rocks and waters, her plants and her fires, and thus made themselves complete. This is why gods are found where they are, bound to streams and groves, mountains and grassy plains, and sometimes burning as a bonfire.
The Master of Paths caught two of the fire gods, Snir the Greater and Snar the Lesser, and set them high above the Earth Mother’s land There they wander restlessly, treading the same path day after day, warming the land and giving it light. Then, so that Snir and Snar should not be lonely, he caught up two god-sized handfuls of Silver-eyed and threw them into the sky. It is their eyes that shine at night.
When the Earth Mother’s time came, she made a bed on the land, and lay down. She spread her thighs and sang, and the birth waters came out in a rush and made the sea. Then from her womb spilled every animal of the earth, from fish to bird. Each child went to a place of the land and claimed it as its own. That is why certain creatures are found one place, but not another, and why the sea tastes of salt.
At the very last, the first man and the first woman climbed from her womb. They looked upon each other, and saw that each was only half of the same whole. They went to the grass of the new world, and there celebrated the creation of the world. And that is why, to this day, men and women lie together in joy and celebration.
