A highly visible and famous part of Hopi religion is the Kachina cult. Kachi means “life or spirit” and na means “father,” so Kachina literally means “life father” or “spirit father” (Dockstader 1985, p. 9).The word kachi can also be taken to mean “sitter,” and thus a Kachina can be taken to be a supernatural being who sits among the Hopi, listening to their petitions for material and spiritual blessings. Dockstader (1985, p. 9) says that the Kachinas “have the power to bring rain, exercise control over the weather, help in many of the everyday activities of the villages, punish offenders of ceremonial or social laws, and in general act as a link between gods and mortals.” Their main function is to take messages from the Hopi to their gods. Today masked people take on the role of the Kachinas in ceremonies, and the Hopi accept that they to some extent have the same supernatural qualities as the original Kachinas. According to Dockstader (1985, p. 10), the Hopis held that “the Kachinas were beneficent spirit-beings who came with the Hopis from the Underworld, whence came all people.” According to one view, they remained with the Hopis for some time, giving them many benedictions. Then, after the Hopis began to take them for granted, the Kachinas returned to the Underworld. Before leaving, they instructed some good young men how to dress themselves as Kachinas and perform the rites. “When the other Hopis realized their loss,” says Dockstader (1985, p. 11), “they remorsefully turned to the human substitute-Kachinas, and the ceremonies have continued since that time.”
In the cosmology of the Hopis, we find key elements of the template Vedic cosmology. In both there is a distinction between an ultimate high god and a creator god, or gods, responsible for manifesting the forms of humans and other creatures. In both, there is a multilevel universe.
The Lenape or Delaware Indians are Algonguins. They believed in many gods, mani ‘towuk, but among the mani ‘towuk, one was supreme. He was called Gicelemu ‘kaong, which means “creator” or “great spirit.” All of the other mani ‘towuk were his servants. Through them Gicelemu
‘kaong manifested the earth and all of its creatures. The Lenape directed most of their worship to the agents of the great spirit, considering them more closely involved in their daily life. The great spirit lived in a distant place, the twelfth and highest heaven above the earth (Eliade 1967, pp.
12–13).
Lenape chiefs would recite this prayer during ceremonies held in the tribal Big House: “Man has a spirit, and the body seems to be a coat for that spirit. That is why people should take care of their spirits, so as to reach Heaven and be admitted to the Creator’s dwelling. We are given some length of time to live on earth, and then our spirits must go. When anyone’s time comes to leave this earth, he should go to Gicelemu`kaong, feeling good on the way. We all ought to pray to Him to prepare ourselves for days to come so that we can be with Him after leaving the earth . . . When we reach that place, we shall not have to do anything or worry about anything, only live a happy life. We know there are many of our fathers who have left this earth and are now in this happy place in the Land of Spirits . . . Everything looks more beautiful there than here, everything looks new, and the waters and fruits and everything are lovely. No sun shines there, but a light much brighter than the sun, the Creator makes it brighter by his power. All people who die here, young or old, will be of the same age there; and those who are injured, crippled, or made blind will look as good as the rest of them. It is nothing but the flesh that is injured: the spirit is as good as ever” (Eliade 1967, p 160). The parallels with the Vedic cosmology are striking. In Bhagavad Gita (2.22), the body is described as a garment for the soul. The purpose of life is characterized as journeying to the realm of God. The Bhagavad Gita (15.6) specifically says that the realm of God is luminous, but without the light of the sun or moon.
The Lenape Big House is a model of the universe. “The centre post is the staff of the Great Spirit, with its foot upon the earth, its pinnacle reaching to the hand of the Supreme Deity. The floor of the Big House is the flatness of the earth. . . . The ground beneath the Big House is the realm of the underworld while above the roof lie the extended planes or levels, twelve in number, stretched upward to the abode of the Great Spirit, even the Creator” (Speck 1931, pp. 22–23). The Big House also included a White Path, corresponding to the Milky Way, the path by which the soul goes to the spiritual realm of the Great Spirit.
The supreme being of the Omaha Indians is called Wakonda. The process of humans coming into being expressed by the Omaha Indians is similar to the concept of human devolution expressed in this book. An Omaha Indian informant said, “At the beginning, all things were in the mind of Wakonda. All creatures, including man, were spirits. They moved about in space between the earth and the stars (the heavens). They were seeking a place where they could come into bodily existence.” First they went to the sun and moon, but these were not fit places for them. Then they came to the earth, which at first was covered by water. When the water receded dry land was revealed. The Omaha informant said, “The host of spirits descended and became flesh and blood. They fed on the seeds of the grasses and the fruits of the trees, and the land vibrated with their expressions of joy and gratitude to Wakonda, the maker of all things” (Eliade 1967, pp. 84–85).
Cosmology of the aranda People of Australia
The Aranda are one of the aboriginal peoples of Australia. They believe that in the beginning there were great personalities called Numbakulla. The meaning of this word is “always existing” and “out of nothing.” The greatest of them, according to the members of the southern, central, and northern groups of aboriginals, is the Numbakulla who came out of nothing at Lamburkna, in the south. He created the land and water, and established the main features of the landscape, such as mountains, rivers, hills, and deserts. He also brought into being plants and animals. He also established totem places (knanikilla), which he would use in the future in populating the earth (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 356).
Below Numbakulla in the Aranda cosmology come gods and goddesses of nature. The sun goddess is called Alinga or Orthika. She is said to have come out of the ground at a place near Alice Springs, along with two woman associates. The eldest of the women carries a young child. The sun goddess leaves them each day and rises into the sky. At night the sun returns to the spot where it rose (Spencer and Gillen 1927, p. 496). The Water Men (Atoakwatje) supply water to earth from the clouds, wherein they dwell. The moon god, Atninja, is regarded as male and is therefore sometimes called Atua Oknurcha, big man. There is also an underworld.