Divinity is not a strange concept to Chuuk and Micronesia. Just like other parts of the ancient world, people became curious and in effect, created their own gods. One truth which we can hold as a candle to illuminate and confirm this idea is the fact that every ancient civilization has their own creation myth. Most of these stories -- as they are, would correlate depending on the vicinity and time stamp. For instance, many old creation myths of ancient civilizations that centered in the inlands would depict their ancestry as coming from the earth or sun, the latter is especially true for regions in the Middle East where the sun reigns absolute. Regions in the remote pacific hold a similar creation myth but with the inclusion of the sea/ocean and its role in giving life to mankind.
In Micronesia, many origin stories tell of great migrations that traverse the open ocean in search of land. So it is not surprising that the ocean holds a significant role in their creation stories as well. In the Marianas, the world is said to have been created by two siblings; and in the Central Carolines, these islands were raised from the sea with ancient magic by our ancestral voyagers who arrived in the area a few thousand years prior. Usually stories of these travels and feats would be orally passed down in what seems like exaggerated storytelling. It is clear that our ancestors held quite a reverence for their own ancestors.
What we know today about the realm of divinity in Micronesia is that they did not have a concept of "God the creator", this is evident in their linguistic footprint. The closest native word they have for 'deity' is anuu, which means spirit -- and Micronesia has many spirit deities. In fact, anyone that dies, in the old religion, becomes an anuu, there was no distinction between good or evil as there is in Christendom. To them, whether an anuu was good or evil entirely depended on the deities themselves, possibily it also depends on their previous life as there are evidence of ancestor veneration in Micronesia; i.e, people being venerated post mortem because of valuable skills and renown that the living remember and continue to honor.
Micronesian deities
If we dig deeper we see that they had a central deity who was revered above all, and his name was Anuulap (Great Spirit) or Lukeilang (Central Heaven). This concept of a centralized godhead is dissimilar to that of Judeo-Christianity in that these gods or anuu do not play a significant role in the daily lives of the natives. Rather, they were viewed as spirits, or divine forces of the great abundant nature that should be revered but not the extremities that other faiths demand. Our ancestors were still free to live as they see fit, but of course with guidance from their anuus.
There are many spiritual deities in Micronesia; another one that comes to mind is Olofat "The Trickster". Olofat is said to be a son of Luk or Lukeilang, and that his trickery has no bounds. The old people would often associate him with events or scenarios that would go awry. Other supernatural deities or anuu include the famed Inemes, who if the stories are to be believed, was once a young lady from Tol. How she became the prominent figure in conjuring black magic is still mysterious. I was told that the reason her name is often spoken in these incantations is because she loves to help the people of Chuuk. I like to believe that is the case.
Ancestral Veneration
There are many oral accounts anuus who were once living human beings, but there is only one recorded account in history that I know of. It was the kid spirit "Meresepa" who, as the account tells us, was a kid who died suddenly and began to grant fortunes to his grieving parents through intermediary prayers. The story goes that the father was so stricken by his sudden loss that he prayed to his son and asked for all kinds of signs, all of which allegedly were fulfilled. The father came to posses power through his deceased son, over nature and events. He could heal the sick, predict a storm, and other supernatural omens.
This is a startling similarity to that of the "Kuman Thong" practice in Thailand, where centuries ago spiritual practitioners would dig up a dead infant's skull and care for it in their homes for good fortunes. While many ancient Micronesians did practice ancestral veneration and did keep a home for the skeletal remains of their ancestors for consulting purposes, this is perhaps one of the most extreme and only documented case.
So the godhead Luk or Anulap can be viewed as the closest representation of a creator god for our ancestors. This is why some Micronesians, especially in the outer islands of Chuuk and Yap, refer to the Christian God as Luk, being one in the same. In fact, the name Luk even made it into the Refaluwasch translation for "Merry Christmas" (Ameseighiil Raalil Ubwutiwil Layul Lugh) which means "Happy Birthdate of the Child of Lugh/Luk."
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