Human consciousness developed over thousands of generations as women and men chose one another, as families made long term marriage bonds and build communities. Our awareness and consciousness is built on the foundation of relational and community bonds and shared knowledge.
Our consciousness was born of fire, the first human tool.
Around hearth fires and communal campfires our ancestors shared meals and stories. And the fires transformed our bodies and our minds.
Our consciousness was born of language creation, from gestures and signs to words and songs and stories, told and retold generation after generation.
Feminine and masculine communication patterns, all combined through intimate knowledge and family caregiving and the training of youth to produce extraordinary complex and diverse languages around the world.
Our consciousness was born of technology, of wood and bone, of stone tools, of pots and bowls, and thread tying our clothing, our shelters, and our tools together.
Our consciousness arose through domestication, first self domestication of human beings or the taming of wild men into friendly communicative, cooperative, competitive families, clans, communities and societies. Then the domestication of dogs, and eventually the domestication of fruits and grasses into wheat, rice, corn, and apples. Finally, the domestication of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horses.
And all of this combined in ever-increasing complexity of relationships, communities, and societies until we had states and cities and religions.
Our consciousness arose from our greatest stories and ideals, particularly our ancient wisdom traditions.
We will then turn our attention to two ancient creation myths, the first from Genesis and the second from Hindu Samkhya philosophy. We will explore how to the creation of nature and human beings, the importance of male and female relational bonds, the rise of awareness and agency, and different pathways or ideals that shape our sense of human nature and the purposes of life can be understood from these different traditions.
