Warum wir auch das Missgeschick brauchen - Navajo-mythologie

Im Glauben der Navajo-indianer gibt es verschiedene Welten, die nebeneinander existieren. Koyote, der Wildhund, kann zwischen diesen Ebenen wandern. Er ist eines der ganz alten Lebewesen, die es schon gab vor all den Zeiten, an die sich der Mensch erinnern kann. Wahrscheinlich gab es Koyote schon vor Beginn unserer Welt, bevor sie der große Geist geschaffen hat und so war es wohl auch in den anderen Welten.

Götter und Menschen lieben die Ordnung, Koyote bringt die Veränderung. Manchmal weiß man gar nicht , ob er die Ordnung bewußt zu zerstören versucht, oder , ob er nur versehentlich so mir nichts Dir nichts ,so richtig ungeschickt alles wieder durcheinander bringt, was man mit Mühe vorher an seinen Platz gestellt hat. Koyote ist ein Trickster.

Am Anfang war alles grau und dunstig, es war immer währende Dämmerung nicht Tag und nicht Nacht, die Übergänge zwischen den Welten waren offen und irgendwo im Diffusen verborgen. So war es den Verstorbenen möglich ungehindert in die diesseitige Welt zu gehen und ihre Verwandten zu besuchen. Die Sterne aber, die den Verstorbenen im Dunst der Übergänge den Weg zeigen sollten, flackerten wie Irrlichter hin und her und die Toten fanden nicht zu ihren Liebsten. Und es kamen auch die bösen Kreaturen der unseligen Außenwelten, die den Menschen arg zu schaffen machten. Das war nicht gut und der große Geist des dunklen Himmels wollte endlich Ordnung schaffen.

So schied er das Licht von der Dunkelheit und teilte das Diffuse in Oben und unten und in die vier Himmelsrichtungen. Dann legte er sich all die vielen Sterne auf einer großen Decke zurecht, auf der das Geschehen all dieser Welten schon seit Urzeiten in Bildern gewoben war. Das kostete viel Mühe und brauchte lange Zeit . Als er dann endlich alles in schöner Ordnung vor sich liegen hatte, blies er den Sternen sein göttliches Licht ein und schickte einen nach dem anderen hoch an des Himmels Zenit an einen ihm zugewiesenen und so festgelegten Platz. Hier sollten die Sterne gemäß seiner Vorstellung in den Sternbildern das Geschehen auf der Welt der Lebenden in der himmlischen Ordnung wie auf der gewebten Weltendecke wiedergeben. So war jedem Lebewesen und jedem anderen beseelten Objekt auf der Welt sein Platz und seine Aufgabe in diesen Himmelsbildern klar angewiesen. Und jeder, der geschult war, diese Bilder zu lesen, könnte das Weltgeschehen so verstehen und für seinen perfekten Ablauf Sorge tragen. Das dachte der gute Geist des nächtlichen Himmels und fast wäre er mit seinem Projekt auch ganz fertig geworden.

Koyote aber, der schelmische Geist, der Unruhestifter, Wanderer zwischen den Welten, kam daher und frug den Alten, was er denn da mache. Gerne wolle er dabei helfen, die Sterne ihrer Aufgabe zu zu führen, sprach da Koyote und schnappte sich mit seinem Maul eine freie Seite der Decke, zog schnell und kräftig daran, bis alle noch darauf liegenden Sterne , ohne doch Ihr ewiges Leuchten eingehaucht bekommen zu haben, ohne Wissen über Platz und Bestimmung , unvermittelt  hoch in den Himmel geschleudert wurden und dort wild durcheinander purzelten. Manche kollidierten oder klumpten zu fernen Haufen, andere bewegten sich hin und her wie die Bälle eines Spielautomaten, wieder andere platzten auf und schufen so die leuchtende Milchstrasse.

Auweia, das ging mal wieder ordentlich schief, dachte Koyote. Am liebsten hätte er jetzt mal wieder Alles zurück auf Anfang gedreht. Also sprang er hinter den herumwirbelnden Sternen hinterher, versuchte, sie auf zu halten und doch noch ihrer vorgesehenen Aufgabe zu zu führen. Soweit er sich auch mühte, das einmal in Bewegung versetzte Chaos war wohl nicht mehr zu stoppen.

Aber gerade als er sich verschämt und verstört unten am Boden ganz klein in sich zusammen ringeln wollte, sah er unmittelbar vor seiner Nase einen hellen Stern vorbei huschen. Dieser bewegte sich genau dann immer wieder schnell ein Stückchen weiter, wenn  er gerade auf ihn drauf springen und ihn mit den Vorderpfoten fassen wollte. Ganz so als wolle er ihn foppen. Schnell wie ein Wirbelwind drehte er sich schnell das eine ums andere Mal um sich selbst. Und plötzlich schnappte er dann unvermittelt schnell nach dem zuckenden Ding und hat es auch gleich schon erwischt. Dieses versuchte aber mit jeder Drehung, die er machte, auch gleich heftig wieder, sich dem Biss zu entwinden. Wütend biss er also um so fester zu und lies nicht locker. Au, das tat aber weh!  Denn er hatte sich in die weiss leuchtende Schwanzspitze gebissen und lange vergebens versucht, sein eigenes Hinterteil zu verfolgen. 

Nun hat all dies Gerangel freilich auch nicht geholfen, die Zeit wieder zurück zu drehen und den Schaden wieder gut zu machen. Aber nun ja , vielleicht ist ja ein Eingriff in eine zu fest gefügte Ordnung auch gar kein allzu schlimmer Schaden und hat eher sogar wieder etwas Gutes in sich, wenn man daraus lernen kann. Denn eine fest gefügte Ordnung , wie die Muslime sagen, das Kismet, lässt uns gar keine Freiheit zu entscheiden, welchen Platz wir uns selber erarbeiten wollen. Und wenn man sich kein eigenes Ziel setzen kann und alles fest vorgegeben ist, dann verliert man alles Streben und selbst die Hoffnung auf einen guten Ausgang. Denn ohnedies kommt nicht auch vor dem Anfang (der Schnauze) schon das Ende (der Schwanz) und ist nicht das Ende unabdingbar fest mit dem Anfang verknüpft, wie man sich auch drehen und wenden mag. Das ist doch schon unabdingbare Ordnung genug.

In unserer Schmucksammlung fremder Kulturen haben wir Ihnen einige Designerstücke dieser Szene mit sich drehenden Schmucksteinkugeln als besonderes Geschenk reserviert.

Gods and humans love order, Koyote brings change. Sometimes you don't even know if he's trying to destroy the order consciously, or if he's just inadvertently messing up everything that you had previously put in its place with great effort, really clumsily. Coyote is a trickster.

In the beginning everything was gray and hazy, it was perpetual twilight, neither day nor night, the transitions between the worlds were open and hidden somewhere in the diffuse. So it was possible for the deceased to go into this world unhindered and to visit their relatives. But the stars, which were supposed to show the deceased the way in the haze of transition, flickered back and forth like will-o’-the-wisps and the dead could not find their loved ones. And the evil creatures from the unfortunate outer worlds also came, which gave people a hard time. That was not good and the great spirit of the dark sky finally wanted to put things in order.

In this way he separated the light from the darkness and divided the diffuse into above and below and into the four cardinal points. Then he arranged all the many stars on a large blanket, on which the happenings of all these worlds had been woven in pictures since time immemorial. That took a lot of effort and took a long time. When he finally had everything in beautiful order before him, he blew his divine light into the stars and sent them one after the other high at the zenith of the sky to a place assigned and thus determined for him. Here, according to his idea, the stars in the constellations should reflect what is happening in the world of the living in the heavenly order as on the woven world cover. So every living being and every other ensouled object in the world was clearly assigned its place and its task in these heavenly pictures. And anyone who has been trained to read these images could understand world events in this way and ensure that they run smoothly. That's what the good spirit of the night sky thought and he almost finished his project.

But Koyote, the mischievous spirit, the troublemaker, wanderer between the worlds, came along and asked the old man what he was doing there. He would gladly help to lead the stars to their task, said Koyote and grabbed a free side of the ceiling with his mouth, pulled it quickly and vigorously until all the stars still lying on it got breathed into them without their eternal glow have, without knowledge of place and purpose, were suddenly thrown high into the sky and tumbled wildly there. Some collided or clumped into distant clusters, others swayed like balls in a slot machine, still others burst open, creating the glowing Milky Way.

Wow, that went terribly wrong again, thought Koyote. He would have loved to have turned everything back to the beginning. So he jumped after the swirling stars, trying to stop them and still lead them to their intended task. No matter how hard he tried, the chaos, once set in motion, seemed unstoppable.

But just as he was about to curl up, embarrassed and distraught, very small on the ground below, he saw a bright star darting past right in front of his nose. It kept moving a little further just when it was about to jump on it and grab it with its front paws. As if he wanted to tease him. Fast as a whirlwind, he quickly turned around himself one time after the other. And suddenly he suddenly snapped quickly at the twitching thing and got it right away. With every turn it made, however, it tried again to wriggle away from the bite. Angry, he bit down all the harder and didn't let go. Oh, that hurt! Because he had bitten into the white glowing tip of his tail and tried for a long time in vain

Of course, all this scrambling hasn't helped to turn back time and repair the damage. But well, maybe an intervention in an order that is too firmly established is not too bad a damage and actually has something good in it if you can learn from it. Because a firmly established order, as the Muslims say, the kismet, leaves us no freedom to decide which place we want to work for ourselves. And if you cannot set your own goal and everything is predetermined, then you lose all striving and even the hope for a good outcome. For in any case, the end (the tail) does not come before the beginning (the snout) and the end is not inevitably linked to the beginning, no matter how one twists and turns.

In our jewelry collection of foreign cultures, we have reserved some designer pieces from this scene with rotating gemstone balls as a special gift for you.

Gods and humans love order, Koyote brings change. Sometimes you don't even know if he's trying to destroy the order consciously, or if he's just inadvertently messing up everything that you had previously put in its place with great effort, really clumsily. Coyote is a trickster.In the beginning everything was gray and hazy, it was perpetual twilight, neither day nor night, the transitions between the worlds were open and hidden somewhere in the diffuse. So it was possible for the deceased to go into this world unhindered and to visit their relatives. But the stars, which were supposed to show the deceased the way in the haze of transition, flickered back and forth like will-o’-the-wisps and the dead could not find their loved ones. And the evil creatures from the unfortunate outer worlds also came, which gave people a hard time. That was not good and the great spirit of the dark sky finally wanted to put things in order.In this way he separated the light from the darkness and divided the diffuse into above and below and into the four cardinal points. Then he arranged all the many stars on a large blanket, on which the happenings of all these worlds had been woven in pictures since time immemorial. That took a lot of effort and took a long time. When he finally had everything in beautiful order before him, he blew his divine light into the stars and sent them one after the other high at the zenith of the sky to a place assigned and thus determined for him. Here, according to his idea, the stars in the constellations should reflect what is happening in the world of the living in the heavenly order as on the woven world cover. So every living being and every other ensouled object in the world was clearly assigned its place and its task in these heavenly pictures. And anyone who has been trained to read these images could understand world events in this way and ensure that they run smoothly. That's what the good spirit of the night sky thought and he almost finished his project.But Koyote, the mischievous spirit, the troublemaker, wanderer between the worlds, came along and asked the old man what he was doing there. He would gladly help to lead the stars to their task, said Koyote and grabbed a free side of the ceiling with his mouth, pulled it quickly and vigorously until all the stars still lying on it got breathed into them without their eternal glow have, without knowledge of place and purpose, were suddenly thrown high into the sky and tumbled wildly there. Some collided or clumped into distant clusters, others swayed like balls in a slot machine, still others burst open, creating the glowing Milky Way.Wow, that went terribly wrong again, thought Koyote. He would have loved to have turned everything back to the beginning. So he jumped after the swirling stars, trying to stop them and still lead them to their intended task. No matter how hard he tried, the chaos, once set in motion, seemed unstoppable.But just as he was about to curl up, embarrassed and distraught, very small on the ground below, he saw a bright star darting past right in front of his nose. It kept moving a little further just when it was about to jump on it and grab it with its front paws. As if he wanted to tease him. Fast as a whirlwind, he quickly turned around himself one time after the other. And suddenly he suddenly snapped quickly at the twitching thing and got it right away. With every turn it made, however, it tried again to wriggle away from the bite. Angry, he bit down all the harder and didn't let go. Oh, that hurt! Because he had bitten into the white glowing tip of his tail and tried for a long time in vain Of course, all this scrambling hasn't helped to turn back time and repair the damage. But well, maybe an intervention in an order that is too firmly established is not too bad a damage and actually has something good in it if you can learn from it. Because a firmly established order, as the Muslims say, the kismet, leaves us no freedom to decide which place we want to work for ourselves. And if you cannot set your own goal and everything is predetermined, then you lose all striving and even the hope for a good outcome. For in any case, the end (the tail) does not come before the beginning (the snout) and the end is not inevitably linked to the beginning, no matter how one twists and turns.In our jewelry collection of foreign cultures, we have reserved some designer pieces from this scene with rotating gemstone balls as a special gift for you.