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Studying Hopi Prophecy Part 3 – Tokpa - The Seco

Studying Hopi Prophecy Part 3 – Tokpa - The Second World

This article found online at:
http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Winter/GrandCany on/

Tokpa - The Second World

("Everywhere there are people carrying burdens; cultivating gardens; preparing meals; striking a bargain for some goods from far away; conducting ceremonial dances; playing games with either sacred or gambling intent, or both; and, in short, living their daily lives in the metropolis." The Cahokian level of civilization might be a good example of the level of sophistication that the people of Topka, the Second World, attained.)

Tokpa ("Dark Midnight"), the Second World, had been created from a world purified by fire, so it was effectively as good as new. The chosen people had lived with the Ant People, eating their stored food and learning their industrious, efficient ways until the Earth had cooled sufficiently to reinhabit. Interestingly, Sotuknang instructed the chosen people to use ants as an example of industriousness and efficient living, instructing them to "consider the ant", and study its efficient lifeways, just as King Solomon would do much later in his proverbs (Prov. 6:6-8). During this time, while the people were living with the ants and learning their ways, Sotuknang purified Earth and changed its form completely, putting land where the water had been and water where the land had been, so the wicked world that was would not be remembered in any way. After he had completed his task, Sotuknang stamped on the roof of the Ant kiva again, and let the people know that is was safe to come out.

(According to Hopi myths, the "Ant People" were allowed by Sotuknang to live on the surface of the Earth as ants, but retreated underground when floods came, just as ants do today.)

Sotuknang spoke first to the Ant People. "I am thanking you for doing your part in helping to save these people. It will always be remembered, this you have done. The time will come when another world will be destroyed; and when wicked people know their last day on Earth has come, they will sit by an anthill and cry for the ants to save them. Now, having fulfilled your duty, you may go forth to this Second World I have created and take your place as ants." Then Sotuknang said to the people, "Make your Emergence now to this Second World I have created. It is not quite so beautiful as the First World, but it is beautiful just the same. You will like it. So multiply and be happy. But remember your Creator and the laws he gave you. When I hear you singing joyful praises to him I will know you are my children, and you will be close to me in your hearts." So the people emerged to the Second World. Its name was Tokpa (Dark Midnight). Its direction was south, its color blue, its mineral qochasiva, silver. Chiefs upon it were salavi, the spruce; kwahu, the eagle; and kolichiyaw, the skunk.

The people emerged from the Ant kiva and then spread out across the face of the Earth, in all four directions, all the way to the other side of the world. However, though they were able to still communicate with each other telepathically, as they had been able to do in the First World, they still were separated from the animals. Their original close communion with nature had been shattered forever by their "original sin", never to return. Thus, instead of living off the land and being at one with nature like the animals, the people of the Second World built homes, and villages with trails between them. They created objects of both beauty and utility, and traded them with one another, all the while singing praises to the Creator, Taiowa. However, once again, all was not perfect in paradise:

Everything they needed was on this Second World, but they began to want more. More and more they traded for things they didn't need, and the more goods they got, the more they wanted. This was very serious. For they did not realize they were drawing away, step by step, from the good life given them. They just forgot to sing joyful praises to the Creator and soon began to sing praises for the goods they bartered and stored. Before long it happened as it had to happen. The people began to quarrel and fight, and then wars between villages began. Still there were a few people in every village who sang the song of their Creation. But the wicked people laughed at them until they could sing it only in their hearts. Even so, Sotuknang heard it through their centers and the centers of the Earth. Suddenly one day he appeared before them. "Spider Woman tells me your thread is running out on this world", he said. "That is too bad. The Spider Clan was your leader, and you were making good progress until this state of affairs began. Now my Uncle, Taiowa, and I have decided we must do something about it. We are going to destroy this Second World just as soon as we put you people who still have the song in your hearts in a safe place." So again, as on the First World, Sotuknang called on the Ant People to open up their underground world for the chosen people. When they were safely underground, Sotuknang commanded the twins, Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya, to leave their posts at the north and south ends of the world's axis, where they were stationed to keep the earth properly rotating. The twins had hardly abandoned their stations when the world, with no one to control it, teetered off balance, spun around crazily, then rolled over twice. Mountains plunged into seas with a great splash, seas and lakes sloshed over the land; and as the world spun through cold and lifeless space it froze into solid ice. This was the end of Tokpa, the Second World.