Awen Passes to Humanity

The first of all wise beings was of the race we now know as the Sasquatch. Nobody now living knows his name, so we will call him by the name Primus.

When the world was young, Primus beheld three rays of light emanating from the sky, and heard a word of three syllables, the true name of the hidden spirit of life that creates all things. In the rays of light and in that first word was all the wisdom that ever was or will be. Upon witnessing these rays, Primus took three staves of red alder and carved all knowledge upon them. But when other beings saw the staves, they misunderstood and worshiped the staves as idols, rather than learning the knowledge written upon them. Primus was so upset and angry at this that his heart failed and he died.

When a year and a day had passed after Primus's death, a human (whose name we also do not know) came upon the skull of Primus, and saw that the three alder staves had taken root inside it and were growing out of its mouth and eyes. Taking the staves, the human learned to read the writing on them and became famous for his wisdom. From him, the lore of the alder staves passed to other ancient loremasters and ultimately from them to the wisdom teachers of our own age. Thus the wisdom that first shone forth in the three great rays of light and the first word of creation passed through many minds and hands and now forms the wisdom of the traditions we follow today.

- adapted from the tale of Einigen the Giant 

as told by John Michael Greer in The Druidry Handbook.