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Writing a creation story

So I’ve been trying to flesh out ideas for a creation story, really for my own enjoyment, for several months now, but I literally can’t even get past step one.

Context: the story includes only 2 deities, both of which we would consider “trans” (the embodiment of the divine feminine has male anatomy and vice versa for the embodiment of divine masculine). I’m trying to decide on which physical environments should represent them to their “followers”. Should divine feminine be Mother Earth or Mother Sun? And should divine masculine be Father Earth or Father Sun?
 
We usually have it as ‘Mother Earth’ or ‘Gaia’, and it’s usually a male sky god. But your gods transcend sex/gender, so why not have it the other way around?

I so far have a Mother Earth in my world, as it usually comes from the idea that a woman gave birth to earth and nature, as women are ‘givers’ in that sense. I’m working with a similar idea to ‘Mordred’ from Celtic mythology, but lots of cultures have a ‘Mother Earth’ figure. The only risk with changing them around is that it potentially undermines the female experience, but it depends how it’s done I suppose.
 

Telcontar

Staff
Moderator
Creation myths (or realities, depending on how it plays in your setting) are all about meaning. What would it mean to have the divine feminine embody Earth? What would it mean for Sun? Sun usually equals energy, power, passion. Earth: form, strength, building.

And of course, you can skip the usual dichotomy altogether. Imagine new alternatives.
 

BearBear

Archmage
I think this is a really fun idea. In my mind "god" should be feminine. The one that comes to mind is "The Lord of Chaos" vs "the All-Father Oden". The lord of chaos is the original creator, an entity who gave birth to gods and is referred to as a female. But other accounts of the lord of chaos are male.

The all-father is decidedly male, but that's not required, if you follow.

Otherwise gods are non-gendered or bi-gendered. I think the level of god doesn't have or need a gender, they're all genders and genders we couldn't imagine.
 

Queshire

Auror
Hmm... well you could go either way, though I suppose that's not very helpful. Personally I'd lean into the duality and say that both are made up of fire and stone.
 

BearBear

Archmage
I never thought of Ra (literally the sun as god) as being feminine or masculine but apparently it is masculine and the eye of Ra is feminine. Egyptians did it! So maybe look into how they thought of Ra in terms of physical environment. Luna or "the Roman goddess of the moon" is feminine, so maybe look into how she physically manifested, what did she do? What if she was trans and Ra was trans? Would they act differently?
 

TheKillerBs

Maester
So I’ve been trying to flesh out ideas for a creation story, really for my own enjoyment, for several months now, but I literally can’t even get past step one.

Context: the story includes only 2 deities, both of which we would consider “trans” (the embodiment of the divine feminine has male anatomy and vice versa for the embodiment of divine masculine). I’m trying to decide on which physical environments should represent them to their “followers”. Should divine feminine be Mother Earth or Mother Sun? And should divine masculine be Father Earth or Father Sun?
So, first, the idea of these trans deities reminds me of the Chinese concepts of yang within yin and yin within yang. Maybe you could seek inspiration there. With respect to what they would be "gods of", I think that might be an imposition of Greco-Roman understanding. If you have only two deities, maybe have a gander at the theology of dualistic faiths. Also, the divine embodiments of everything varies from culture to culture. Sure, you have a lot of cultures with a maternal earth goddess, but not every culture saw the earth as female and the sky as male. For the Egyptians, it was the other way around. In a similar vein, according to Greco-Roman tradition, the sun was male and the moon was female, but the Japanese saw it the other way around. It's an arbitrary choice.
 

D. Gray Warrior

Troubadour
So I’ve been trying to flesh out ideas for a creation story, really for my own enjoyment, for several months now, but I literally can’t even get past step one.

Context: the story includes only 2 deities, both of which we would consider “trans” (the embodiment of the divine feminine has male anatomy and vice versa for the embodiment of divine masculine). I’m trying to decide on which physical environments should represent them to their “followers”. Should divine feminine be Mother Earth or Mother Sun? And should divine masculine be Father Earth or Father Sun?

I don't think it matters that much. I think there is a tendency for the sun and sky deities to be male, while the earth and moon are often females.

Yet, there are plenty of cultures where those are reversed. Egyptian mythology had a male earth god and a sky goddess. In Japanese myths, the sun deity was female.

In Norse mythology, the sun god was female (Sol) and the moon god was male (Mani).

So, while there is a tendency for certain types of gods to be of a specific gender, it's not an overwhelming tendency, and there are plenty of exceptions.

I'd probably make the divine masculine the Sun Father since the sun is a celestial object, and he can double as the Sky Father.

The divine feminine can be Mother Earth.
 
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