Evidence of the Gods (4 page)

The commander, who has now awoken back to life, still sees the blackness of space around him but below him also a planet.
Nareau awoke and looked around him. There was nothing but emptiness, but when he looked down he saw a large object. It was Te Bomatemaki, meaning “Earth and sky together.”

Nareau risks a landing, and examines the ground and the composition of the air. He determines the absence of any life.
Nareau’s curiosity led him to descend and carefully set foot on Te Bomatemaki. There were no living beings there, no animals, no humans. Just him, the creator.
The initial exploration is insufficient. What do the other continents look like? So he circumnavigates the whole planet several times to assure himself that he has not invaded foreign sovereign territory.
Four times he circumnavigated the world he had found from north to south, east to west, and he was alone.

With the technology he had available, Nareau quickly found ways to water the earth. Plant seeds, of which there were plenty on board, were taken down, and finally living beings were created. A genetic seed bank is required to create life forms. That, precisely, is likely to be part of the standard inventory on an interstellar space ship. The space travelers are unlikely to be able to tell from their distant home planet which planets provide the conditions for life, but do not have life on them. But why create life at all? The space travelers must survive, replenish their food stocks. That requires food and drink—organic material.

The Biblical creation story reports exactly the same thing. In it, God collects water and creates grasses, herbs, and trees. (Genesis 1: 9–12) Only then did the animals in the water, air, and on land follow—each one after their kind. And as the crowning event, he creates the human being—in his own image.

Astonishingly, the creation story of Nareau includes concepts such as “essence of energy,” “essence of dimension,” “essence of time,” and “essence of light.” Under “essence of light,” we might imagine a photon drive which can propel a spaceship to incredible speeds. But each acceleration is tied to the “essence of dimension.” Bridging huge distances is, in turn, linked to the “essence of time” and the age—the survival—of the crew (the “essence of age”). Makes a lot of sense, actually. For millennia, we were simply unable to understand it. Looked at from the perspective of the dawning space age, the veils are lifting.

Even today the inhabitants of Kiribati fear certain locations on the islands which are deemed to be “taboo points,” because “mighty spirits” were once at work there. With the assistance of the inhabitants, I was once allowed to visit two such taboo points on the southern tip of the island of Arorae. (Arorae belongs to Kiribati. Not to be confused with the island of Aurora.) There was a square hemmed in with stones on the ground. (
Image 23
) That was supposed to be a taboo point? As I tried to step into the rectangle, my companions held me back: “No! Please don’t step in there!” When I enquired further as to why not, I was told that anyone who walked over the square fell ill. The birds did not fly over it either. Indeed, not even weeds were growing inside the square. I obeyed the warning.

The second taboo point turned out to be a low, rectangular wall. An opening had been left in the middle like a well. (
Image 24
) I looked inside, but there was no water. The native inhabitants declared that if I held my hand over it, the hairs on the back of my hand would rise. I tried it and did indeed feel something like a pulsation.

The island of Arorae is just 4 kilometers long and a few hundred meters wide. At its southern tip, weather-worn rectangular stone blocks rise from the ground. Each block has a groove on its top edge, and each stone points in a different direction. My companions enlightened me that these were “navigation stones.” (
Images 25
and
26
)

What on earth were they? Two or more were made of granite, which is not found on the island; the others showed characteristics of basalt. Each stone, I learned, pointed to a different island. The ancestors had taken a bearing on distant destinations using the navigation stones before paddling off in their decorated canoes.

In my black bag, which has accompanied me for decades, there is also a map of the Pacific region and a compass. I aligned the map and compass and stood behind the stones. One groove indicating south pointed without deviation toward the island of Niutao, 1,800 kilometers away (linear distance). Niutao is part of the Ellice Islands. A longer line pointed precisely to West Samoa, a distance of 1,900 kilometers away (linear distance) to the east of the Fiji Islands. With a third line I took a bearing on the 4,700 kilometer-distant (linear distance) Tuamotu Islands in the southern Pacific. How could that be? Did the inhabitants of Kiribati know about the compass?

As one of my companions assured me with visible pride, yes! The ancestors had received the compass and instructions on how to use it from a god. He had been so large and strong that he could pick coconuts from the crowns of palm trees and also crush them in his hand. He had also “imprinted” his footsteps in the soil as a reminder.
¹⁸
They had venerated these footprints long before the Christian missionaries arrived. I photographed them. (
Image 27
)

Evidence in stone honoring the gods exists throughout the scattered islands of the South Pacific. These structures, which are not understood, are mostly called
marae
and the reason for their existence is disputed. There is such a marae, a holy site, even on the world-famous tourist island of Tahiti. (
Image 28
) On the island of Raiatea in French Polynesia, there is a monolith in the center of the marae, which is said to be ensouled by
mana
. (
Images 29
–
32
) Mana is here considered to be a pulsation that can heal disease.

A terrible yet instructive legend throughout the South Pacific region, which is ascribed to the Maoris in New Zealand, is the story of the bird Rupe. Hina, a sister of the divine bird Rupe, is said once to have been made pregnant by a human being. He hid Hina on a distant island, in a house which was surrounded by a “protective screen.” This protective screen prevented any access from outside and made it impossible for Hina to leave her prison. As the hour when she was due to give birth neared, no one was able to assist her. In her suffering, she called out “Rupe! Rupe! Please help me!”
¹⁹
Soon there was a loud noise over the house, and the divine Rupe called to his sister, “Hina, I am here.”