Four Worlds
Hopi legend tells that the current earth is the Fourth World to be inhabited by Tewa's creations. The story essentially states that in each previous world, the people, though originally happy, became disobedient and lived contrary to Tewa's plan; they engaged in sexual promiscuity, fought one another and would not live in harmony. Thus, the most obedient were led (usually by Spider Woman) to the next higher world, with physical changes occurring both in the people in the course of their journey, and in the environment of the next world. In some stories, these former worlds were then destroyed along with their wicked inhabitants, whereas in others the good people were simply led away from the chaos which had been created by their actions.
Read more about this topic: Hopi Mythology
Famous quotes containing the word worlds:
“The ideal of men and women sharing equally in parenting and working is a vision still. What would it be like if women and men were less different from each other, if our worlds were not so foreign? A male friend who shares daily parenting told me that he knows at his very core what his wife’s loving for their daughter feels like, and that this knowing creates a stronger bond between them.”
—Anonymous Mother. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 6 (1978)
“The Lady Amelia would not for worlds have had the de Courcy blood defiled; but gold she thought could not defile.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)