The first world was one of darkness, with abstract, potential forms, animated by the holy wind (all creatures have breath, the holy wind) and spirits. These air-spirit people were forced into exile by disharmonious acts, and they climbed upwards through a hole (or magic reed) into the next world. Four worlds, each lighter, more variance. Insect-people in first world. animals in the next (theories-myths vary but all are evolution-based). First man was made in the east from the meeting of white and black clouds. First woman was made in the west from the joining of the yellow and blue clouds (Alternate myth-theory, First Man and First Woman created from corn). They have children. The genders become estranged, monsters are created. Protopeople climb to the next level, the last world. The Diné people are created by Changing Woman (personification of earth, she lives in the west, her husband the sun). Hozho, unity and balance. A unifing force in both animate and inanimate objects. Emphasis on relationship to natural world.




They were beings from the First or Black World. Spider woman, who taught the Diné how to weave. From three previous underworlds, the people moved through a magic reed into this, the fourth or Glittering World. The first people were different from those of today. They were animals, insects or masked spirits (or abstract potential forms).
The first world was one of darkness. The proto-people