The body of a snake, the spirit of a tigress, the power to create life. Meet long–haired beauty Nüwa, aka the Chinese Mother Earth. Creating animals and humans out of clay and controlling all the elements, this beloved serpent goddess had powers that equaled and even surpassed those of any male god. And, like any woman, Nüwa loved to surprise. A proto–feminist icon with a twist in the tail.

Nüwa started out as a heavenly creature. But even though the feisty goddess had a blast living in the Celestial Realm, she became curious to see the recently–created earth everybody was talking about. As soon as Nüwa felt the fresh grass beneath her feet and smelled the sweet flowers, she fell in love. Wanting to share all this beauty, she spent a few days creating a great variety of animals. On the seventh day, she saw her reflection in the water and became inspired. Using some yellow clay from the river, she started sculpting a figure in her own image. As soon as she put it down, it came to life: the first human was born! Bursting with mother love and pride, Nüwa swore to protect humankind with all her snake–like cunning and the fierceness of the very first tiger.

And so, she did. Ancient Chinese Han legends mention Nüwa braving the ferocious (male) gods of water and fire to make them stop their stupid, destructive wars. One time, the Serpent Goddess even fixed a huge hole in the heavens to protect her beloved humans. After a tribal chief had unsuccessfully challenged Nüwa’s authority, he felt so ashamed for having been defeated by a woman that he started banging his head against the Heavenly Bamboo till he tore a hole in the sky. Waters of the Celestial River came pouring out, flooding the entire earth. Quickly, Nüwa gathered stones in five different colors representing the Chinese elements – red, yellow, green, black and white – from a riverbank and melted them down. With this special, multicolored rock, the fierce goddess patched the sky and saved the earth. Those magical, multicolored sunsets we love so much? They started on that day. So, when you see one, send some love to this ancient Chinese Mother Earth. She may be busy in heaven, protecting humankind by trying to fix a recent hole: the one in the ozone layer. Perhaps this time, Nüwa could use our help.