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Book of the Goddess, by Anna Livia Plurabelle, [© 2002 Anna Livia Plurabelle, All rights reserved], at sacred-texts.com


IV.

My mother was the one who told me that the girl arose;
She put her hands into the wood ashes;
She threw up the wood ashes into the sky.
She said to the wood ashes:
"The wood ashes which are here,
They must altogether become the Milky Way.
They must white lie along in the sky,
That the stars may stand outside of the Milky Way,
While the Milky Way is the Milky Way,
While it used to be wood ashes."
They (the ashes) altogether become the Milky Way.
The Milky Way must go round with the stars;
While the Milky Way feels that,
The Milky Way lies going round;
While the stars sail along; therefore,
The Milky Way, lying, goes along with the stars.
The Milky Way, when the Milky Way stands upon the earth,
The Milky Way turns across in front,
While the Milky Way means to wait,
While the Milky Way feels that the Stars are turning back;
While the Stars feel that the Sun is the one who has turned back;
She is upon his path; the Stars turn back;
While they go to fetch the daybreak;
That they may lie nicely,
While the Milky Way lies nicely.
The Stars shall also stand nicely around.

They shall sail along upon their footprints,
Which they, always sailing along, are following.
While they feel that, they are the Stars which descend.
The Milky Way lying comes to its place,
To which the girl threw up the wood ashes,
That it may descend nicely;
It had lying gone along, while it felt that it lay upon the sky.
It had lying gone round, while it felt that the Stars also turned round.
They turning round passed over the sky.
The sky lies still; the Stars are those which go along;
While they feel that they sail.
They had been setting; they had, again,
Been coming out; they had, sailing along,
Been following their footprints.
They become white, when the Sun comes out.
The Sun sets, they stand around above;
While they feel that they did turning follow the Sun.
The darkness comes out; the Stars wax red,
While they had at first been white.
They feel that they stand brightly around;
That they may sail along; while they feel that it is night.
Then, the people go by night;
While they feel that the ground is made light.
While they feel that the Stars shine a little.
Darkness is upon the ground.
The Milky Way gently glows;
While it feels that it is wood ashes.
Therefore, it gently glows.
While it feels that the girl was the one who said
That the Milky Way should give a little light for the people,
that they might return home by night, in the middle of the night.
For, the earth would not have been a little light, had not the Milky Way been there.
It and the Stars.


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