myths/stories

Eurynome's Story

Perhaps you, like I, like to sit around, dreaming the time away with a cup of tea, thinking about the many things I would like to create. A soft breeze seems to encourage my dreaming, my wondering, my planning. This 'dream time' accesses that intuitive, even instinctive part of us – you know, that part which just naturally creates? That restless little bit of you that simply must emerge, must create something out of seemingly nothing... That little spark that ignites, bringing new life.

But wondering and planning, though an essential part of the creative process will not make our dreams come true - that requires the breeze to become a wind which energizes into action. This part of the creative process reminds me of Eurynome, the creative goddess who rose from chaos. She is the inspiration for our light as air Windscarf, a silk fabric or crocheted mohair scarf embellished with metalic threads and Swarovski hot fix crystals – available as a kit, or, if you prefer to make it with materials you already have on hand, simply download the pdf crochet pattern.

This is is how we imagine that Eurynome would tell her story:

I am known by many, many names. One of these is Eurynome – but let’s keep it simple, so I’ll use the generic, if rather grand, “The Goddess of all Things.” I am the Creatix, the original Mother of all life, to whom, as you may well imagine, creating and creativity is not only natural, but central. My origins are tied to the very beginning of Heaven and Earth, and my story, lost in the mists of time, is told in many ways, as people have many traditional ways of remembering the story of Creation – and some pretty strong beliefs around the stories passed down from generation to generation in their families.

Knowing and respecting this, I beg of you to please indulge me today as I tell you my story in my own manner. This is an ancient, ancient story… for, in a time beyond the realm of time and imagination, it is said that I, the Goddess of All Things, who had many names, rose naked from Chaos. I quickly realized – oops! – that I had nowhere to place my feet and had to get creative, and quick! So, I divided the Heavens from the Sea.

“Well done!” I said to myself. “Lovely! ... I do like the rhythm of the waves of the sea as they rise and fall, ebb and flow… oh, but I am cold!” So, I began dancing on the waves, heading south. Oh, joy! This is how I discovered that when I set myself in motion, other things are set in motion - because, as I danced southward, the North Wind was set in motion behind me – and then it occurred to me that maybe this north wind was something with which to begin the process of creation. Besides, I was still feeling cold, so I wheeled about and caught hold of the north wind and rubbed it between my hands. As I rubbed and rolled the wind in my hands, I created a great serpent, which I named Ophion. “OK, this is fun – and now I am no longer alone!”

I continued to dance along, when suddenly, Ophion, who, it turns out, is a rather cheeky serpent – because, as happens, the north wind is a fertilizing wind – could stand it no longer, having grown more and more lustful as he watched me dance along the waves – and sensually began to coil himself around my divine legs. So, we coupled. “Hmmm, not bad at all…” I thought to myself.

At this, as you have probably guessed, I found myself with child, as they say. So I turned myself into a dove, and brooded on the waves, feeling them rise and fall, ebb and flow. It was not long before I laid the Universal Egg – some say it was silver, like the moon. I then asked the great serpent Ophion to coil himself seven times around the egg and stay with it until it hatched and split in halves. He was happy to oblige. In due time, the egg split, and out tumbled all my children, which are all the things that exist: the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, the earth with its mountains and rivers, trees and living creatures – as well as the Titans, ancestors of the Olympians. And so it began...

Somehow, through the mists of time, to most, I have simply become Mother Earth – sometimes venerated, sometimes neglected and even ravaged. And yet, always, I create life, and life springs from me. I reside within you and am the fountain of your own creativity, which, much like the waves on the sea, rises and falls, ebbs and flows – as some things turn out well, others not so well – all potential learning tools. The divine experience of creation, as you well know, passes through all levels of life. It can be a messenger. It can be a mediator of compassion. Perhaps best of all, it can be your Creative Imagination, which liberates you to a world where work becomes play.

So, tell me please: when you set yourself in motion, what wind begins to blow? And when you whirl about and catch hold of it, what do you create with it?