Cosmogony is the study of the origin of the universe. Creation myths, which deal with the creation of the universe, are cosmogonies. In myth, cosmogony is typically revealed as "[t]he cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth, usually on the cosmic level. [It is a]ssociated in myth with the 'Eternal Hero,' that is, a hero who is connected with the Cosmogonic round; these myths . . . have heroes whose lives mirror the cycles of the cosmos and the world in their own existences" ("Cosmogonic Cycle"). In other words, the cycle of creation (cosmogonic cycle) is linked to the hero's story (monomyth).

In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell explains this relationship between the hero's story (the monomyth) and the cosmogonic cycle.

The cycle represents the world of time and space which is surrounded by the infinite and eternal (Campbell 266-7). In Christian teaching, this cycle can be seen in the movement from eternity in Genesis (Paradise in the Garden of Eden) through the story of humanity and the story of Christ to the end of time in Revelation and the return to the eternal state (the new Paradise) (KJV, Revelations 22.1-5).

Mircea Eliade argues that all myths are myths of creation in that they establish the rituals and institutions that define societies. Eliade distinguishes the profane (common) world of historical space-time from the sacred world of the infinite and eternal, the world of myth (Eliade, Sacred 9-10). Eliade believes that entering into the rituals associated with myth places the participants back in the actual moment of creation (Eliade, Myth 56) making them "contemporary with the cosmogony" (Eliade, Myth 58). The "repetition of the cosmogonic act" (Eliade, Myth 52) returns the participants to the "'instant' of the Creation" (Eliade, Myth 54).

For instance, in the Christian rite of baptism by immersion, the ritual is seen to re-enact the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and the believer's vicarious participation in that event (c.f., see KJV, Colossians 2.12). In the Catholic church, the communion elements are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, so that participants are, through the ritual of communion, restored in their "communion" with Christ and the sacred.

After the fall of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, there was a renewed interest and participation in organized religious services across the nation. In the face of this disaster, people felt a need for a connection with something outside of themselves, outside of the world of time and space. Myth and ritual allow people to transcend such a disaster and reaffirm their beliefs in that which is beyond this world we live in.