Kore

"The Void." The primal Power of the Cosmos, the Void or Negation, yet containing the potentiality of all things afterwards to come.

One authority¹ gives the process of evolution as follows: Te Kore (the Void); Te Kore-tuatahi; Te Kore-tuarua; Kore-nui; Kore-roa; Kore-para; Kore-whiwhia; Kore-rawea; Kore-te-tamaua; Te Mangu (the Black, or Erebus). From the union of Te Mangu with Mahorahora-nui-a-Rangi (the Great Expanse of Heaven), came the four Toko (the Props).

Another genealogy of the gods, etc., gives the Kore as from the first (Kore-tuatahi) to the tenth (Kore-tuanga-huru), hundredth (Kore-tuarau), thousandth (Kore-tuamano), countless (Kore-tuatani).²

But in both the above cosmogonies, Pō (Night, or the Unseen World) precedes the Void. A third list³ is given in which God is said to have begun his chant of Creation at Te Pō, and sang; Pō begat Te Ao, who begat Ao-marama, who begat Kore-te-whiwhia, Kore-te-rawea, Kore-te-tamana, Kore-te-matua-Maku, Mahoranui-a-tea-Raki (Rangi). A fourth series⁴ commences with Kune (Conception), and after five generations or processions arrives at Pō; then, after ten begettings, Kore (Nothing) is produced, Kore-te-whiwhia, Kore-te-rawea, Ao. One of the Kore was of human form, as was also a Pō, an Ao, etc.

The series of Time-spaces, each not less than one thousand years, from the lowest point of existence upwards to unlimited time, is as follows: Te Kore; Te Pō; Te Rapunga; Whaia; Te Kukune; Te Pupuke; Te Hihiri; Te Mahara; Te Hinengaro; Te Manako; Te Wananga; Te Ahua; Te Atamai; Te Whiwhia; Rawea; Hopu-tu; Hau-ora; and Ātea.

"The World floating in space" ("Te Ao teretere noa ana") lay between the spiritual forms, Rangi and Papa, the first parents.

See further Māori heaven and Māori underworld.

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