Source-principle

Names that different traditions — living and ancient — gave to the single source-principle, prior to any nameable figure. Olódùmarè (Yoruba), Nhanderu (Mbyá-Guaraní), Dao (Chinese), Para Brahman (Vedanta), Ein Sof (Kabbalah), Wakan Tanka (Lakota) and so many other names for the same central reality that the Wiki, under An (Sumerian), treats as the Monad.

Tupã

Originally, god of thunder and waters in the tupi-guarani pantheon. Co-opted by Jesuit catechists in the 16th century as a translation for the Christian "God." Today, the word is used simultaneously in its traditional and catechetic-popular senses.

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Olódùmarè

Supreme deity of Yoruba cosmology, source of all àṣẹ (power of realization). Absolute creative principle from whom the Orixás emanate. Does not receive direct worship — approached through the Orixás. Living faith in West Africa and the diaspora.

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Gitche Manitou

"Great Spirit" of the Algonquian traditions (Ojibwe, Cree, Innu, Algonquin, and many others). Sacred source-principle that permeates all creation. A living faith among Algonquian peoples of northern United States and Canada.

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Viracocha

Supreme creator in the Inca and pre-Inca Andean pantheons. Emerged from Lake Titicaca; created the sun, moon, and humanity. Central figure of the Gateway of the Sun at Tiwanaku. Partially syncretized with Catholicism in the colonial period.

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Para Brahman

"Supreme Brahman" — the Absolute without attributes (nirguna) in Vedanta. Prior to any personal divinity, prior to the very subject-object distinction. Core of Shankara's philosophical Hinduism. Living faith.

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Tian

"Heaven" in classical Chinese — ordering principle sustaining the moral mandate of the cosmos. Predates the Taoist Dao; central to Confucianism and Chinese popular religion. Ritual continuity of over 3,000 years.

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Ein Sof

"Without End" — the Infinite prior to all emanation in Jewish Kabbalah. Unreachable and ineffable, it manifests through the ten Sefirot. Core of medieval Jewish mysticism. Living faith in Hasidic communities.

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Wakan Tanka

"Great Mystery" / "Great Sacred" in Lakota/Sioux cosmology. Not a personifiable deity — it is the sacred totality that permeates all. Translation as "Great Spirit" is a Western simplification. A living faith among the Sioux peoples.

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Ometeotl

"Two-God" — primordial dual principle of Nahuatl/Aztec cosmology. Prior to all individualized gods; already contains within itself the masculine-feminine polarity (Ometecuhtli + Omecíhuatl). Reconstructed from pre-Columbian Náhuatl poetry.

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Dao

"The Way" — the spontaneous principle, source of all things, in Chinese Taoist tradition. That which cannot be named or defined, yet generates and sustains all. Core of Laozi's Dao De Jing (~6th–4th c. BCE). A living faith.

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Nhanderu

"Our Father" — first-and-last deity of the Mbyá-Guaraní. Self-generated in the primordial darkness, creator of the word-soul foundation (ñe'ẽ). Cosmology narrated in the Ayvu Rapyta. Living faith in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

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