The Four Worlds of The Hopi

The First World
The First World of the Hopis was corrupted not so much by evil as by "forgetting."

The people had been instructed by Sotuknang and Spider Woman to respect their Creator, and to use their vibratory centers to help them follow his plan. But as they began to forget this, they began to quarrel among themselves. Finally, the situation reached a point where Sotuknang and Taiowa decided that the world had to be destroyed.

Sotuknang appeared before those "chosen people" who still remembered the Creator and his plan, and told them that the doors at the tops of their heads would lead them to safety before he destroyed the world.

They followed his indication, and took refuge underground with the Ant People as the First World was destroyed by fire, and a Second World was created for their emergence.

 

The Second World
The Second World was almost as beautiful as the first, with the significant difference that the animals no longer trusted humans and remained separate from them.

But here, too, people began to forget the plan of the Creator, until finally this world also had to be destroyed.

Again, those who had "remembered" were saved, and taken care of by the Ant People. Once they were safe, the twins at the poles were instructed to leave their posts so the world would spin off its axis and out of control.

As it traveled through space it froze into solid ice, until the twins took up their stations again and restored the Earth to life, creating a Third World.
 

The Third World
Now in the Third World they multiplied in such numbers and advanced so rapidly that they created big cities, countries, and a whole civilization.

This made it difficult for them to conform to the plan of Creation and to sing praises to Taiowa and Sotuknang. More and more of them became wholly occupied with their own earthly plans.

Some of them, of course, retained the wisdom granted them upon their emergence. With this wisdom they understood that the farther they proceeded on the Road of Life and the more they developed, the harder it was. That was why their world was destroyed every so often to give them a fresh start.

Some Hopi accounts of the Third World contain the tantalizing information that "flying shields" had been developed there, capable of attacking faraway cities and coming back so quickly that no one knew where they had gone.

When this world and its advanced civilization was finally destroyed by Sotuknang, this time with great floods, the people who still remembered the plan of Creation took refuge inside the hollow stems of the bamboo.

Then came their emergence into the Fourth World.
 

The Fourth World
This time, the people had to search long and hard for a place to establish themselves and start over again.

The Hopi tradition tells of endless journeys by boat, paddling uphill all the way. From time to time they would find a place to land, beautiful and bounteous, only to be told by Spider Woman that they must move on: this place was too easy, and soon they would fall into evil ways if they stayed.

Finally, completely exhausted from their fruitless efforts, the people "opened their doors" and let themselves be guided.

The water carried them gently to a sandy shore, where they were greeted by Sotuknang and given further instructions. They were to separate into different groups, each heading in different directions, to claim all the land for the Creator. Each group would have to "follow its own star" to a place where the earth met the sea.

They would complete such a journey four times in all, to cover all the four directions, before being guided back together again to settle permanently.

Before the newcomers to the Fourth World set out on their migrations, they were given a tablet [some say tablets] containing symbolic representations of their journey and final resting place, and events that would confirm their adherence to the Creator's plan.

The tablet best known today is reportedly held by members of the Fire Clan. This tablet has always had one corner missing that, according to legend, is in possession of a "lost white brother" called Pahana. Pahana's return with the missing corner will signal the beginning of a new brotherhood of mankind.

These words were spoken by Sotuknang at the beginning of the Fourth World:

"See," said Sotuknang, "I have washed away even the footprints of your Emergence; the stepping-stones which I left for you. Down on the bottom of the seas lie all the proud cities, the flying patuwvotas [shields], and the worldly treasures corrupted with evil, and those people who found no time to sing the praises to the Creator from the tops of their hills. But the day will come, if you preserve the memory and the meaning of your Emergence, when these stepping-stones will emerge again to prove the truth you speak."

The tablet given to the Fire Clan at the dawn of the Fourth World is still missing its corner....