17

Maori Myth of the Overturning of the Earth Mother

There is another set of mythic themes that hold significance across various eras of ancient cosmology that we have studied. From a cosmological perspective, these themes originate with an outlook on the egg-of-the-world (defined by the Dogon as the first finished structure of matter) where it is characterized by the spiral that can inscribe its seven starlike rays. Scientifically speaking, the notion that a spiraling vortex might exist at every point in space-time is set forth in a controversial version of string theory called torsion theory. The torsion theory spirals are described as being akin to tiny whirlpools of water (with dynamics similar to those of a black hole in the macrocosm). The cumulative miniscule effects of these vortices are understood to account for the attractive force of gravity. From the Dogon perspective, these microcosmic vortices are conceptual correlates to a stellar bubble in the macrocosm, of which the spiral of Barnard’s Loop can be taken as a localized example.

One metaphoric image that is given by the Dogon priests to convey the rotation of this spiral is that of a capsizing boat, the same essential concept that gave birth to the working title of the previous book of this series, The Mystery of Skara Brae, which was originally cast as The Overthrown Boat. In that book, we argued that the eight Neolithic houses clustered at Skara Brae on Orkney Island in Northern Scotland were meant to represent an alternate view of this same structure, associated with the eight chambers of the egg-of-the-world. Traditional researchers say that the etymology of the name Skara Brae is uncertain, as is the origin of the term Scot, which defines the name of Scotland itself. A comparable Egyptian phrase, skher bari, means “overthrown boat,” while an Egyptian term, skhet, (which we take as a name for the egg-of-the-world), means “to turn upside down.”¹ The skhet is the concept we believe was represented in Neolithic times by a series of megalithic structures on Orkney Island that reflect cosmological shapes.

Meanwhile, the familiar religious lore of many ancient societies begins with tales of a Great Flood. Likewise, some of these myths imply that high levels of culture may have been previously attained by humanity in remote ancient times but were then ultimately lost to the ravages of what some cultures describe as cyclical global destruction. One possible mechanism for a cycle of destruction of this type on a global scale could possibly lie with a change in the tilt angle of the axis of the Earth. Any significant shift in the axis of the Earth would likely cause the ice caps to melt, raise sea levels, wreak havoc with the Earth’s climate and tectonics, and produce widespread flooding on a global scale. From a scientific perspective, certain anomalous evidence points to such shifts in eras past. Nonintuitive patterns of glaciation that seem to have occurred during the ice ages, the discovery of petrified primeval forests beneath the ice in Antarctica, and reports of Siberian mammoths that may have been quickly frozen at the time of their deaths would all seem to point to a rapid and significant change in the alignment of the axis of the Earth.

Given all of this, it seems significant that one Maori myth is dedicated to the notion of the Overturning of the Earth Mother. Best writes in Maori Religion and Mythology:

After the separation of Rangi and Papa, they were seen to be ever weeping and wailing for each other. All space was filled with clouds and mist; the tears of Rangi fell ceaselessly—that is to say, the rain . . . the offspring were much distressed. It was now resolved that the Earth Mother be turned over with her face down to Raro-henga, the underworld. With her went Ruaumoko, the last-born, who was still suckling the Earth Mother. This Overturning of the Earth Mother was known as the hurihanga a Mataaho. It seems to be sometimes referred to as a flood.²

In the above passage, the term raro is given in the context of the cosmological notion of an underworld. However, the Maori word raro actually means “under side.”³ The word henga refers to the hull of a canoe.⁴ From this perspective, the combined term Rarohenga implies the notion of an overturned canoe. A character mentioned in the myth, Ruaumoko, is a Maori deity of earthquakes.⁵

Similarly, if we were to examine the phrase hurihanga a Mataaho that defines the Overturning of the Earth Mother, we would see that the Maori word huri means “to turn round” or “to turn over.”⁶ Tregear tells us in his comparative Maori-Polynesian dictionary that the comparable Samoan term hurihuri means “to capsize.”⁷ He defines the Maori term hanga as a “causative prefix” that refers to a thing that has been made or accomplished.⁸ (Tregear writes “prefix,” but his examples illustrate it as a suffix.) The root anga means “in a certain direction” and might possibly imply the meaning of “opposite.”⁹ Meanwhile, the Maori term mata refers to “the face,” but according to Tregear it can also refer to an inanimate object, such as “the face of the earth.”¹⁰

The Maori word aho means “string” or “line” or can also refer to a “radiant light” (we infer “ray of light”).¹¹ Within the context of the ritual alignment of a Buddhist stupa, the axis line that delineates the four cardinal points of the Earth is defined in relation to two rays of sunlight, emitted by the sun at dawn and at dusk, and measured in relation to the shadows they cast of a vertical gnomon. Based on these definitions, we interpret the term hurihanga a Mataaho to mean “the act of overturning of the line (or axis) of the face of the Earth.” The word aho can also mean “daylight” and so on one level might imply the notion of the “overturning of daylight.” This meaning makes sense if we consider that a full reversal of the axis of the Earth would (as the ancient Egyptians claim to have experienced) cause the sun to “rise where it formerly set.”

There is also an implicit relationship between the Maori term ao and the Hebrew word aur, found in the Book of Genesis in the phrase “Let there be light.” In his discussion of the word ao, Tregear specifically cites the phrase “God called the day light.”¹² Such references serve to affirm our association of the cosmological terms aa and ao with the Hebrew god Yah.

It is an interesting point that the Maori term ao, like the Egyptian word ahau, refers to “the barking of a dog.” In prior volumes of this series and in chapter 11, we have discussed the symbolism of the V shape (<) that a dog’s mouth forms as it opens to bark, along with its possible relationship to the expansion of space as matter forms.

Best adds that the term hurihanga a Mataaho also relates to concepts of a deluge, sometimes referred to as a flood. He writes that the Maori believe the Overturning of the Earth Mother caused the rough condition of the Earth’s surface, referring to variances caused by hills, ranges, mountains, and valleys.

The episode in which the Earth Mother is overturned is also referred to as the time when Whiro descended to the underworld. The name Whiro is based on Maori roots that mean “to spin” or “to twist”¹³ and so suggests that the episode might properly relate to the spinning of the Earth on its axis. The “last-born” character named Ruaumoko of the Maori myth, who was said to have been left with his mother at the time of her overturning, is intimately associated with volcanic fire and ash, as well as with earthquakes.¹⁴ These effects represent likely consequences that might accrue from any significant change in the tilt of the Earth’s axis.

The Overturning of the Earth Mother is understood to have come out of a contest between Tane (the Earth God) and Whiro (the concept of spinning). Best tells us that this struggle was an enduring one that “took place in all realms, on earth, in the heavens, in space, and in the waters.”¹⁵ The general name for this struggle was Te Paerangi. The Maori word pae refers to “the horizon.”¹⁶ The word rangi refers to “the sky.”¹⁷ The meaning of these Maori terms together would seem to comport with an outlook that the overturning of the Earth Mother might refer to an actual overturning of the planet.

As a counterpoint to this Maori myth, Best notes that the Maori spiritual lore of the altar, called whare wananga, does not support the same outlook—that one source in which a term seems to refer to a flood is counterposed by another, where the same term seems to refer to the god Io.¹⁸ The difference in viewpoint within the Maori culture may be comparable to the one that has grown between traditional Jewish doctrine and that of the Kabbalists in modern Judaism. Many Dogon inner concepts relating to cosmological creation can be more readily seen today in the philosophies of Kabbalism than in traditional Judaism. For the Maori, the difference in viewpoint might also be reflective of the apparent reversals in symbolism that we perceive to have occurred in relation to the symbols, deities, and lore of various ancient cultures.

A second compelling mythic theme that we have pursued in recent volumes of this series and cited previously in this book is that of the notion of a sleeping or awakening goddess. This is imagery that is given in relation to the formation of matter, and it applies most specifically to an effect that is said to occur at the moment that the female and male energies of the nonmaterial and material universes come together to catalyze the processes of creation. Our discussion of the concept has been made primarily in relation to Hindu and Egyptian myths of the Seven Houses. We see overt evidence that this same outlook on creation also persisted in the Maori culture. Best directly relates his understanding that, in Maori belief, female and male principles underlie the processes of creation, and he interprets these principles as correlates to the Hindu concept.

In the Hindu version of the Parable of the Seven Houses, it is the goddess Devi who makes a visit to a series of seven houses at dawn. As she arrives at each house, she encounters a housewife who is in the process of performing a specific act. These acts can be interpreted to symbolically represent the seven stages in the formation of the Dogon egg-of-the-world. As Devi arrives at the first house, the housewife who lives there is just waking up. Metaphorically, the suggestion is that we might properly equate the initial stage of creation with an awakening.

The acts performed by the housewives within these seven houses in the Hindu parable can also be interpreted to represent a set of basic needs within the daily life of a person, and they are defined in relation to a Mother Goddess. Egyptian terms for these needs center on the phonetic root nehet and so suggest a possible origin for the name of the ancient Egyptian Mother Goddess Net (or Neith). Possible traces of this same symbolism can be seen in the Maori words nehe, meaning “ancient times,” nehe, referring to “the rafters of a house,” and nehera, defined as “the rumor of a thing done.”¹⁹

Key terms used in the telling of the Hindu myth lead us to words in the Dogon and Egyptian languages for specific cosmological concepts. The phonetics of these words suggests that we should associate this initial act of awakening with the term yah (sometimes given as aa or ao), which also happens to be the name of the Hebrew god. Our interpretive process with these myths leads us to equate Yah with the faint glow of light that precedes the first appearance of the rising sun at dawn. It is this glow that enables a waking housewife to perceive images in the material world as she begins to open her eyes. Appropriate to this outlook, the Maori term for “dawn” is ao, and the word for “radiant light” is aho.²⁰ By comparison, in the Dogon culture, the processes that create the material universe are initiated by a mythological character named Ogo.

The Maori word “to awaken” is given as whaka-ara or whaka-oro. Again, Tregear defines the term whaka as “a causative prefix,” which he remarks is “very probably a form of hanga.”²¹ As a way to illustrate how the prefix is used, he cites the Maori word atua as meaning “deity,” and whaka-atua as meaning “to deify.” The Maori term ara means “to rise up,” “to awaken,” or “to give birth to.”²² We interpret the suffix oro as a variant of the Maori term ora, meaning “life,”²³ and ori, which means “to cause to wave to and fro” or “to cause to vibrate.” Each of these meanings has pertinence to themes of creation as we understand them within the ancient system of cosmology.

Aspects of this metaphor that equate the emergence of matter to an awakening are apparent in both Hindu and Egyptian mythology, appear in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and are reflected cosmologically in various architectural forms of the Dogon, on Orkney Island, on the island of Malta, and in other locales of cosmological significance. Best tells us that, in the Maori culture, the Earth Mother goddess is “always alluded to as being in a recumbent position,” comparable to the traditional position of the sleeping goddess. One of the traditional Maori titles for the Earth Mother implies the meaning of “face upward.”²⁴

If we may take the concept of an awakening perception of reality as a cosmological metaphor for the formative processes of creation, then it makes sense that the notion of cyclical destruction might be cast in relation to a similar metaphor. From that perspective, the Maori word meaning “to destroy” is given as whaka-ngaro. The word ngaro can mean “concealed,” “hidden,” or “lost to sight.”²⁵ In Hinduism, the term Naga refers to a class of semidivine serpentine mythical beings who support Vishnu, but who can also be destructive.