VThis is how the Ewe peoples of the West African coast explain the advent of the world:
"At the beginning of all existence was a Calabash. It filled time and space. It was the All. Divided horizontally in the middle, its lid formed the Sky and its cup the Earth. The Sky was male and contained Water. The Earth was female and its entrails brooded Fire. The entire Calabash was therefore the Sky, the Earth, the Water and the Fire. Life was born from the initiative of the Sky which, one day, sent its Water onto the surface of the Earth. The Earth welcomed the first Rain, which, from its freshness, made the plants germinate. These were metamorphosed, some into animals, others into men. The Sky and the Earth brought into contact by the Rain, caused Lightning to spring forth, which triggered the primordial impulse, setting in perpetual motion the Sky and the Earth themselves, as well as the Water and the Fire that each contained."
Everything that exists comes from these four elements. The four elements are of opposite polarity two by two. Bringing them into contact therefore always produces becoming, movement, life.
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