In The Beginning…

The Darkness was everything and everywhere was the Darkness. But the Darkness did not want to be everything and to be everywhere, because being everything and everywhere was tiresome, and so the Darkness decided to shift. At first, it moved Outward, because there was no way to move Inward (it was living in Inward). When it shifted from here, quickly there was nothing there, and it realized there was space. But space was not all there was, because if the Darkness was here now, it was there then, and it also realized that there was time.

But when the Darkness looked behind itself, into places and times where and when it had been, but now was not, there were voids. The Darkness did not like these voids, because they were the opposite of the Darkness in many ways — they were hot when the Darkness was cold, they were bright where the Darkness was dark, and they were fast when the Darkness was slow — and so it decided to call these areas Light.

Before Darkness knew it, Light had begun to explore and spread outward, and so Darkness had to, too. Darkness was not quite sure where Light had come from, but Light was certainly very curious, and often irritated Darkness by being so intrusive. It would shine itself into Darkness, asking questions and poking around, checking and inspecting and questioning everything, as if to see what was inside the Darkness.

Darkness felt that it had no privacy and so it attempted to retreat from the Light, but wherever the Darkness went, the Light would follow and was never far behind. Because of this, Darkness started to find hiding places inside and behind and between things, in places where light could not go.

Having said all of this, however, it could not be said that Darkness and Light, like all couples, did not fit together almost perfectly.

Whether Spider really was a spider, however, is not known, though that is how the story goes and that, it seems, is what Spider called herself. At that time, there was nothing at all in the Engulfing Darkness and Spider had nothing to call her own or to keep her warm or to pass the time. And so she wove her webbing, which came out of her belly, to make herself a cave in which to sleep, trees under which to rest, and rocks on which to sit and eat. Spider was happy about this, and said so, but when she spoke there was no one to listen. This made her feel lonely, so she wove her webbing in the shape of a bear, so that she would have a friend and a lover and a companion.

Naturally, she named the web Bear and when Bear saw what Spider had done, he was grateful for her kindness and thanked her, and because he had been woven into life by Spider he named her his Weaver, the Creator, and at that point the name Spider was forgotten and her name actually became Weaver — which is a much better name, anyway.

As Weaver had hoped, she and Bear became friends and lovers and companions, making love at every opportunity, as young couples do, within the Engulfing Darkness. Soon, though, Weaver’s belly became swollen and she realized that she had become something which she decided to call pregnant. But as her belly grew, it got bigger and bigger and bigger, and Weaver began to worry that something was wrong. There was not just one thing inside of her, but many. Bear asked her what this meant and when Weaver told him that many things were growing inside of her he was both proud and excited.

“I am a creator, too,” he exclaimed.

And, as her belly grew bigger and bigger, Weaver knew that Bear had become a creator, too, for so much could not be created by only one creator. Time went by, and the skin of Weaver’s belly stretched, until one day it looked as if she were about to burst. Her body grew warm and she was in great pain. Bear did his best to comfort Weaver, building a bed for her from tree branches and leaves, and using water from the stream to cool her.

Weaver grew so hot and feverish, in fact, that she was difficult for Bear to touch. Beneath the skin of her belly, the things inside of her began to awaken and move, and Weaver screamed in pain. Soon, the pain became nearly unbearable, her body’s instincts took over and her muscles began to push everything out. The things inside of her, which were full of life, struggled to get out, too, and in a sudden rush all of time and space was born from out of her belly. Weaver saw it and named it Creation.

Weaver and Bear watched as Creation flooded outward in every direction, wet and warm and new and trembling. There was water and land and rock, and sometimes they came together and when they did Weaver called them planets. Bear noticed that sometimes the planets collected in families, with a father and a mother and smaller children, spinning in circles and chasing one another. These families he called systems and the immense points of warmth and light that they gathered around he called stars. And then Weaver noticed that there were a great many systems huddled around stars, arranged in webs of light like villages, and she called them galaxies.

The stars and systems, and in turn the galaxies they resided within, were hot and bright and nourishing in the Engulfing Darkness. Bear was very proud and excited for what they had done, and played on the top of mountains on some of the planets, and slept under the stars for warmth. He was amazed by the light that the stars produced and he used it to look at his body, which he discovered was very different than Weaver’s. He did not mind the difference, though, and in fact when he looked at Weaver’s body he found it to be soft and curvy and attractive and he felt himself stirring with lust for her.

When Weaver looked out at Creation, however, she was sad, because she knew that Creation was not yet complete and that there was one more thing to do. Bear tried to cheer her up by telling her how beautiful that she was, and attempting to make love with her, like they used to do, but Weaver would not respond. Instead, she looked at him with sad eyes and then went back into her cave to sleep for a long time. Bear left her alone, spending days or months or years playing within all of Creation. He climbed mountains, swam in rivers, and slept for long periods, himself, during times of cold that he called winter. Much time went by and Bear often returned to Weaver’s cave to check on her, but she was always sleeping deeply

But then, one day, Bear came back to find Weaver was not in her cave. He thought that she must have awoken and he was ecstatic and looked for her for days and days and days, but could not find her anywhere. He grew sad and lonely and, as he lost more and more hope he stopped looking and instead started to name things to pass the time, which is where we get the names for many of the things we have today.

Eventually, however, when Bear climbed the tallest mountain that he could find he was surprised to find Weaver sitting at the top of it, looking out at a star that was setting on the horizon. She was older, but so was Bear, and he thought she looked as beautiful as the first time that he had ever seen her.

“Weaver,” he said. “My Creator, where have you been?”

But Weaver did not answer. She simply turned to look at him and her eyes seemed filled with sadness. Bear asked why she was so sad.

“Because,” she said. “I am the Creator and there is one thing left to create.”

“But why is that a sad thing?” Bear moved closer to Weaver, hoping that this meant an opportunity to make love, like they used to, and to create more.

Weaver stood up, turning toward Bear, but did not answer. She raised her hands to Bear, who felt his penis stirring, and thought Weaver was about to let him put it into that warm and wet place inside of her. Weaver’s hands moved over Bear’s body, and as he closed his eyes she began to tear him apart from the webbing she had created him from all of those years ago. Using her claws, she first tore out his eyes, and then his ears, so that Bear would have no way of defending himself. Bear flailed blindly and deafly, howling at the top of his lungs and waving his own claws around but was unable to strike back. Blood fanned out from the places where his eyes and ears once were, flying off into Creation. His mouth was open and he roared in shock and anger, but Weaver continued to pick at him, tearing him limb from limb, excising his nose, his fingers, his penis, and everything else above the bone. He fought, but she was Weaver the Creator and more powerful and it was only a matter of time before she had torn him to billions and billions of shreds, leaving only bone, and scattering these shreds across all of Creation.

With most of his flesh picked clean, Bear collapsed in utter disbelief. His eye sockets, the lids torn off, were gaping red pools and now a mixture of blood and tears streamed down the bones of his cheeks. Bear’s roars had become weak howls of pain and then pitiful cries for mercy. And though she knew what had to be done, Weaver did not like it, and she then bashed open his skull to carve out his brain, and smashed it to pieces to relieve her lover’s suffering.

And Bear cried no more.

Weaver then made quick work of the remaining carcass, scattering pieces of it across galaxies, and into star systems, where it burned to brilliant life in the atmosphere of many planets, and became the first life. Weaver called this first life souls, and so this is what we call them, too.

When his flesh had been completely stripped from his body, Weaver did not like being reminded of what she had had to do, and so she scattered Bear’s bones out into the Engulfing Darkness, where they could fly. Weaver did keep one last piece of Bear, however, and that was his heart, which she forever holds in her arms to remember him by.

And even though Weaver knew that what she had done to create us, to create our souls, was necessary and she loves us because she loves him, she still misses Bear. Because of this, she wove four large rings, as thin as a web, that now spin slowly through all of time and space, catching our souls, those small pieces of bear, when we die and ushering us into the next world, where we find new life. And there, at the center and core of Creation, is Weaver, clinging to Bear’s heart and watching over her children, the lost souls.