CREATION

Shores, Moons and Spiders

Naima Lavender

A New Creation Story

Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi

A TEMPLE HYMN TO THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

In the beginning there was God

There was Goddess

There was The Great Spirit

There was Allah

The Universe

The All

The Us

There before there were first days

Before there were first nights

There was the every knowing of being

When Eurynome dances the serpent Orion is born

God created the world that She gave a thousand begotten suns

Yemaya is the Mother of All

The Goddess thought

and so it was

World is being born

The World is being born

The World is being born

And then there was longing

A longing to experience what will be

A longing of knowing what was already known

And from that longing came the first songs of creation

And the portal between thought and possibility opened

And the loud symphonic chorus of being arose into the then

And It is said God said

This is Good

Good as in right

Good as in more than nice

Good as in perfect

Goddess Good

God Good

Good Good

Good

When Grandmother Spider embraces the Sun

God created peace

One day Heaven and Earth can know each other

Yemaya is the Mother of All

The Goddess thought

and so it was

World is being born

The World is being born

The World is being born

And as solar systems sang their hymns

On countless worlds the waters stirred

On one world

A planet

azure

like the first waters

dark

like the first waters

gender-full

like the First Waters

God danced

Her body reverent

His body reflective

Their body the holiness of reverence

The waters in their womb stirring

They gave birth

They were nature

And Nature became their doula

Fate releases stories from their loom

Woven in hope

Spun in promise

Like Grandmother’s webs they mirror Stars

The universe sings

The First and Last Breath has a name

Heaven and Earth lay together

Yemaya is the Mother of All

The God thought and so it was

World is being born

The World is being born

The World is being born

Made from starlight

Made from sun

Made from moon beams

Made from twenty-one elements

The Universe clothes your wonder in flesh

Adorns your magic in lifetimes

Divine Hands crafting creation with thoughts

The Underworld has its place

The Heavens have their place

The Ephemeral has its place

The Eternal has its place

The wings of Angels have their place

The tears of God have their place

The laughter of Being has its place

The Green

The Water

The Flame

The Wind

have their place

The Many

The One

have their place

Gender is a construct

Science evolves each Day

The Eternal knows Her name

Yemaya is the Mother of All

The God thought and so it was

World is being born

The World is being born

The World is being born

Pleasure adorns Creation

Defiant

Deep

Splendidly dynamic

Pleasure has their place

Time has her place

Gathering the sacred robes of Fate

Her shoulders have upon them written imagination

She has God’s ear

The Goddess has God’s Ear

They write upon the parchment of time

They write countless versions of seconds

From the Garden they spring

From the Heavens they are given flesh

Star People have you returned again

Star People are you flesh once more

Star People do you hold the mirror to the refrain

World is being born

The World is being born

The World is being born

On the tablet of story the pen of God is writing

The thoughts of God tell a story

The word of God crafts a tale

Thought creates the World

World creates the Word

Word creates the World

Life Death and Rebirth are a cycle

That which cannot die will not die

That which is eternal always is

Yemaya is the Mother of All

Grandmother Spider brings the Sun

Nut and Geb hold the in-between in their embrace

The World is born

We have labored

The World is born

We have given birth

The World is born

We have willed it

The World is born

Divinity has made it so

On creativity and spirituality and curiosity

~ Ahya Simone

I must do honor to my gifts. ~ Patricia Terry-Ross

Preface:

As a creative, one thing I am so fascinated by is the process of creating something from start to finish. I often find myself finishing things and after lamenting and complaining the whole time through, not even sure about the very clear things I did to get to the other side. I’m overwhelmed by it all- tensed between listening to the pressures of the external world and heeding my internal voice.

While I believe that every human being is creative, Black trans people who dedicate a huge portion of their lives/careers to their art can find themselves having to balance these tensions more frequently and decisively. Here are a couple of thoughts to meditate on about the creative process with hopes it nourishes you in times of unrest and uncertainty. May these help you always remain true to who you are and who you are becoming.

1. creativity and its processes is a form of spirituality

As an artist, I often wonder about the links between creative energy, process, spirituality, and the role curiosity plays within that. Through my own experiences as a multidisciplinary artist, I’ve noticed several connections between creativity and spirituality as principles that I believe are very important to keep in mind. I believe that creativity is a form of spirituality because of these 3 principles:

1. They are ritual

2. They are personal and meaningful

3. They connect us to the collective

RITUAL

Whether you journal every morning with a cup of tea, practice your piano scales, go to church and pray every weekend, meditate, or doodle on a napkin- all of these are ritual- a habit that you formed to set the tone for your day or to usher in an atmosphere for your work/play. It doesn’t matter so much what it may be as long as it guides you to focus on the object of your creative desire.

Ritual is a grounding exercise, a reminder of the power of our imagination, and that we can receive from the well if only we journey towards it. Developing a ritual in your art practice keeps our dreams and spirit close enough that we can taste, reap, and sow our fruit, yet far enough to inspire us to keep getting up and journey to the Well. Ritual is the recurring daily, weekly, or monthly ask from Spirit for you to show up to the stage, whether you feel like it or not. Whether we fail or not.

PERSONAL

In addition to seeing creativity and spirituality as ritual, another link between the two is that they are personal. One of the ingredients of being creative and getting to the other side of our fears is to understand that creativity and Spirit to some extent is personal. For example, our experiences and knowledge base color our work and shape our direction in what and how we approach something and what we believe is possible for our lives. In addition to that, getting clarity on our intentions with Spirit and creativity is something we always must reckon with.

In your personal reflections, some questions may come up that may sound a little like this:

"Why do I create?

Who do I create for?

Is there something underneath my fears begging for more attention?

What do I value that I would still value if it wasn’t popular?

What would I need to say if no one else would say it?"

Or even:

What voices am I most listening to when I create and who is the meanest to me? What does that voice care most about?".

Getting clear on your intentions is like a periodic check-in on who you think you are and would like to be.

TRANSCENDENCE

One of the most important things to remember is that though creative energy and spirituality connects us with our innermost dreams and intentions, it is also transcendent. We as human beings have an existential dilemma that has not seemed to have changed since we got here. We have a need to be able to be experienced as an individual, belonging to ourselves, and yet belong to a collective- something larger than ourselves. One of my favorite manifestations of this is through vision and collaboration. Think about the music ministry in a church or worship space. I think about how every choir member has their part along with the musicians and composers. The praise dancers have their positions and uniforms- all with the unifying goal of bringing the congregation together to give thanks to God, and express joy, sadness, grief, or to raise money for the people that are dealing with housing instability etc. Using our access to creativity, and by proxy, Spirit, to connect with the collective and transcend our personal goals to bring more good to our communities can be one of the most exciting and deeply satisfying ways of tapping into creativity.

2. curiosity as part of the work and a form of manifestation.

When we understand how creativity and Spirit can be accessed through mundane and ritual practices and study, how it is personal and collective, and what intentions and desires drive us to the Well, we notice another thing that I believe is essential to this cultural work:

Curiosity, or the desire