

The Wheel of Life

Stories describing the first humans as ants are found in various ancient cultures including those of the Dogon, the Hopi, and the ancient Greeks. I believe it also appears in Tibetan Buddhism in this close-up of one of the sections of "The Wheel of Life" recorded in 1899.

In my research, I associate the omphalos (navel) stones, like the one seen on the top left, with the Dogon anthills and the place where humans were created and regenerated. The pregnant ant-like people, and the navel or omphalos stone in this picture, indicate that these beings may be depictions of the first humans as they were described by the Dogon people.

I refer to the ant people in my books, Day of the Fish and The Master (Mistress) of Speech. In the Dogon religion, the place where the Nummos' genetic experiments occurred were underground in Earth mounds, in what the Dogon referred to as "anthills". The anthills were likewise associated with navel or omphalos stones.

Ogotemmêli described the first biological experiment, which involved a union between the Nummo and the Earth animals, as resulting in the birth of two types of Earth animal/Nummo hybrids. One offspring was born "normal" like the Nummo, meaning it was an immortal androgynous or a "twin" Nummo, and the other was born mortal and single sexed, and considered the first human.

Because the Nummo were associated with the sacred feminine, and considered the mothers of humanity, the "twin" individual was considered female. The other offspring, who was born "single" and considered defective, was a male and known as the Jackal. Although he was referred to as "the Jackal", this first single-sexed male human was associated with an ant.

There was the sense that the Nummo were able to communicate with each other and with other animals and plants on a level unknown to humans. Because the Jackal didn't have this connection, Ogotemmêli said he was "alone from birth."

As a result of his separation from the Nummo, the Jackal ended up stealing a Nummo spaceship and crashing it into the Earth, creating a worldwide devastation. The mythology hints at the fact that there were a number of male individuals like the Jackal, who destroyed life on the Earth.

One of the Dogon funeral chants refers to the destruction of the Earth by the Jackal. In the chant, the Earth animals and the Jackal are described as a column of ants.

The column of ants has got up on the roof!

The column of ants has destroyed the house!

Has got up on the roof!

It is the ants which have destroyed the father's [mother's] house!

The story of the Ant People also appears in Greek mythology, where the first humans crawled out of the Earth as an entire people, not as human beings but as ants.

it was not only the Athenians but the inhabitants of the island of Aigina (Aegina) who were said to have crawled out of the Earth as an entire people-which they did, in any case, not as human beings, but as ants.

The Hopi, who are descended from the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, also have legends involving the "Ant People". The Hopi are known for their "construction of large apartment-house complexes in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado." Like the Dogon, the Hopi describe the world as having been destroyed by fire.

On the Celtic Greek island of Aegina, where the story about the ant people was told, there exists various artifacts reminiscent of the symbolism found in the artifacts of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.

For more information on these things refer to my books, which can be purchased at right.