When the burning branch was brought into the shelter, the Tenders began to work gathering wood and stone, the first to keep the fire burning, the second to keep it from burning. From tending the fire, wood and stone came Gatherers, Workers: masons and carpenters, Builders, Architects, Constructors of Cities and Monuments.
An Old One noticed one of The Littles crawling close to the fire and pulled it back. In the Little’s hand was a piece of meat that had been burned by the heat. The meat smelled different… and tasted different and was safe to eat longer than the uncooked meat. Caring for the Littles and Feeding (nursing) were always together in the before times. Preparing the food and looking out for the next generation became joined as the hearth became the center of the home, health for the present and teaching for the future equaled survival. The beginning of Cooks/Chefs, organized education, while observing the interaction of fire and other elements of life: healers, midwives, physicians and teachers.
Some who tended the hearth noticed what was going on besides cooking and kids. They saw that not just wood, but the stones, even Mother Earth herself were changed by the fire. They saw changes in what was there and began to try adding new pieces to the mix, different kinds of stones, other wood, bones, heat (higher and lower) even water. The birthing of alchemists/chemists, researchers into the understanding of the physical world and it’s patterns. Some of these ancient Scientist/Observers saw patterns as they moved from camp site to camp site: things grew in extraordinary ways where the sky-fire had burned and where hearth fires had been before. These patterns changed where the Gatherers looked for food and as plants and seeds were carried from camp to camp some were put back in Mother Earth – Planters, Farmers and Agriculturalists.
Around a thousand hearths, the Old Ones would tell the stories of The People, accentuated with rhythmic clapping, vocalizations, hitting sticks and rocks together, with some not just telling the stories but acting them out. The start of oral tradition leading to literature, music and dance. One teller drew pictures in the ash and dirt of the fire and then another rubbed their hands and a stick in the muck and began to draw on the wall of the cave or the animal skins hanging in the shelter – Visual Artists and Historians find a place in telling the story of becoming WoMan Beings.
A few of The People focused on something other than the hearth and Mother Earth. They followed the glowing embers of the fire up into the air, guiding them back to the start of the sky-fire and the lights in the dome looking much like that first glow at the edge of the darkness. Questions: What was before The People? What else is there? What is to come? What does it all mean? The mothers and fathers of Shamans, Religious, Philosophers, Astrologists/Astronomers/Physicists and Astronauts ( the New Wanders).
Did it happen that way? Of course not! Could it have happened that way? Why not. Follow your own journey along the path of The People. Follow the glow, into the light of a Midwinter’s Night.
Comments, questions, disagreements, snide remarks and silly stories welcome.