Dear Reader,
Here's a tale for you. In the beginning there was nothing but Déa. She parted the waters where she might rest her feet. The music of the waves moved her to dance and she laughed with delight. From her first peal of laughter came the greater Janyati. From her second peal of laughter came the primordial gods of humanity. From her third peal of laughter came the lesser janyati and from her fourth came the spirits of the world. Déa saw her first children and laughed with greater joy. She danced the realms of existence into reality with her children dancing with her, for they were part of her light and will.
Déa cast her gaze upon the waters and saw her reflection there. Again she laughed with delight. She drew the image from the waters upon the land and the first of her mortal children was born. Déa let her child run laughing through the worlds, naming all they encountered and celebrating all the cherished life there was. The primordial gods of humanity watched the child and celebrated the child, for they were the completion of their joy.
All of the realms of creation were beautiful and filled with Déa's light. The primordial gods were pure mirrors of Déa's light and reflected it over even places that lay in shadow. There was, however, a place where there was no light. Not even the primordial gods could reflect Déa's light into this place. It moved between realms and all that existed. It had weight and was the absence of all light. The darkness had existed alongside Déa and hated her for the light she had created and the realms fashioned. It was the Snake and it moved among the children of Déa until it found the weakest of them, the first daughter.
The Snake coiled itself about the first daughter and spoke. "Child of the holy Mother, you have run through realms uncounted. You have danced in the footsteps of your Mother and the elder kin. You know much of this world but there are things that you do not know," the Snake said. The first daughter of Déa looked at the Snake with wonder. She had not seen this being in her travels, though it followed her through the realms and spied upon her.
"What would you teach me, oh Snake?" she asked cautiously.
"You do not know of the peace of rest, child," the Snake said, "Or the wonders of dreams within it."
"What manner of thing are dreams?" the first daughter asked. The Snake coiled tighter about her and lifted its head to see her more clearly.
"You must know the peace of rest before you may know the realm of dreams," the Snake answered.
"How might I know rest?" the first daughter asked.
"But embrace me and I shall give you a gift that may bring that knowledge to you," the Snake answered.
The first daughter held out her arms towards the Snake. The Snake wrapped its coils about her until the first daughter was well and truly bound. She wrapped her arms about the Snake and something of her essence and strength flowed into the Snake. As this happened the Snake's form changed until it looked to be like the first daughter. The new form of the Snake was barren, for it hadn't the light of Déa within it. As the first daughter sagged in the arms of the transformed Snake, she asked, "What of this pleasure of rest you spoke so sweetly of?"
"For you to rest, ask your Mother for there to be a time of darkness," the Snake said. The elder kin who bore the light of Déa within them drew near to the first daughter, sensing great danger. The Snake, in it transformation, robbed the first daughter of her sight of the elder kin and the high ones. The first daughter called to Déa asking her for there to be darkness as the Snake laid her upon the ground.
Déa allowed there to be a period of darkness so that her weakened child might rest. The Snake called to the waters. "Rise and return again. Let all be as it was before in nothingness," it said. The elder kin heard the Snake's words and gathered around the first daughter as the waters rose and began to flood the realms of reality, protecting the child from the waters that washed away many creatures and beings.
Déa beheld the rising waters and the Snake. She set her heel upon the Snake's head, crushing it into the ground. She cast the waters into the sky and thus came the first rain. The rain drops awakened the sleeping child of Déa. With the light of day, the raindrops split the light into wondrous colors. Déa set the great Janyati in governance of the colored rays of light and their powers. Where the world had be beautiful in perfection, it was now colored in every hue but in imperfection.
The elder kin parted, though the first child of Déa could not see her guardians she felt their presence. Déa approached her daughter. "What you have done can not be undone for it has been done in My Spirit. Henceforth, time shall be divided into day and night that you may rest. But I shall keep watch o'er you in the heavens by night and there shall be a silver light that there may never be complete darkness. By this shall I govern the waters so that the earth may never be flooded. The golden light of day will bring great goodness but shall be too great to look upon. The silver light of night, you may look upon."
The daughter grew uneasy with the Mother's words. "The Snake shall keep the form you have given it and you shall be set in governance over it. Remember, though, that it will ever attempt to beguile and destroy you as it has this night. I shall not remain as close to you as I was before, but I will still pour blessings upon you, and you may give me gifts - not in every moment as before, for you now tire, but my light shall give you guidance in this."
And then the Mistress of All Things withdrew herself into the sky until she seemed but a slender crescent of light. And the first daughter of creation fell upon her knees and wept. And these were the first tears shed upon the whole of the earth, much to the grief of the elder kin.
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