The Great Mystery

The creation story of the Ojibwa begins with nothing because in the beginning there was nothing. There was nothing but an all consuming dark void. Nothing... except... possibility. What I mean is this - although there was nothing, it was possible that there might be something. And if one thing was possible then everything and all things were possible. The greatest possibility was that everything that we know and everything that we don't know could exist. It could all be. A human mind is not capable of envisioning and creating that much possibility. It takes a being with unfathomable powers to envision the possibility of EVERYTHING and then to bring it all into existence. The Ojibwa call this being Kitchi-Manitou - the Great Mystery. Because he was so all-mighty he could see everything that was possible in the universe. He saw in his mind all the suns and the moons that we know and all that we don't know. To our sun he gave the power to heat and light the earth. To our earth he gave the power of growth and healing. To the water on the earth he gave the twin powers of purity and renewal. To the wind he gave the power of the breath of life itself. Kitchi-Manitou saw that on this world there would be seasons and patterns of existence. There would be life and death. There would be joy and sorrow. Some creatures would walk, some would fly, some would swim. He perceived their feelings and their needs, now and forever, and he envisioned how making one life interdependent on the next could provide for those needs. And then from nothing, Kitchi-Manitou created this world, the universe and everything in it that we know and everything that we don't know. And because you and I and all others things - both animate and inanimate were created by Kitchi Manitou from nothing but his knowing that it was possible- we will always be part of his spiritual essence. That is how I was told the universe came to be. It was created because Kitchi Manitou knew it was possible that it could be.