Elvis - A Lighted Candle

[Rainbow Light]

I have been reading a beautiful and most interesting book by an author, Marlo Morgan, called "Message From Forever" and wished to share with you some information abut the culture of the original Australian people, hope you'll find of interest also.


ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA ART & CULTURE CENTRE - ALICE SPRINGS
100% Aboriginal owned & operated
THE DREAMTIME
According to Aboriginal belief, all life as it is today - Human, Animal, Bird and Fish is part of one vast unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime.

The Dreamtime continues as the "Dreaming" in the spiritual lives of aboriginal people today. The events of the ancient era of creation are enacted in ceremonies and danced in mime form. Song chant incessantly to the accompaniment of the didgeridoo or clap sticks relates the story of events of those early times and brings to the power of the dreaming to bear of life today.




THE SACRED WORLD

The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of it's creation, and it's great stories. The Dreamtime is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence. For survival these laws must be observed.

The Dreaming world was the old time of the Ancestor Beings. They emerged from the earth at the time of the creation. Time began in the world the moment these supernatural beings were "born out of their own Eternity".

The Earth was a flat surface, in darkness. A dead, silent world. Unknown forms of life were asleep, below the surface of the land. Then the supernatural Ancestor Beings broke through the crust of the earth form below , with tumultuous force.

The sun rose out of the ground. The land received light for the first time.
Dreamtime painting by Norbett Lynch
The supernatural Beings, or Totemic Ancestors, resembled creatures or plants, and were half human. They moved across the barren surface of the world. They travelled hunted and fought, and changed the form of the land. In their journeys, they created the landscape, the mountains, the rivers, the trees, waterholes, plains and sandhills. They made the people themselves, who are descendants of the Dreamtime ancestors. They made the Ant, Grasshopper, Emu, Eagle, Crow, Parrot, Wallaby, Kangaroo, Lizard, Snake, and all food plants. They made the natural elements : Water, Air, Fire. They made all the celestial bodies : the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Then, wearied from all their activity, the mythical creatures sank back into the earth and returned to their state of sleep.

Sometimes their spirits turned into rocks or trees or a part of the landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated men. These sites had special qualities.
PHYSICAL WORLD
" OUR LAND OUR LIFE "

'We don't own the land, the land owns us'

'The Land is my mother, my mother is the land'

'Land is the starting point to where it all began. It is like picking up a piece of dirt and saying this is where I started and this is where I will go'

'The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity'

'We don't have boundaries like fences, as farmers do. We have spiritual connections'

Land means many things to many people. To a farmer, land is a means of production and the source of a way of life. It is economic sustainability. To a property developer, it is a bargaining chip and the means of financial progress and success. To many Australians, land is something they can own if they work hard enough and save enough money to buy it. To Indigenous people land is not just something that they can own or trade. Land has a spiritual value.
THE HUMAN WORLD
We are the Indigenous people of Australia. Aboriginal people are those traditional cultures and lands lie on the mainland and most of the islands, including Tasmania, Fraser Island, Palm Island, Mornington Island, Groote Eylandt, Bathrust and Melville Islands. The term "Aboriginal" has become one of the most disputed in the Australian language.

The Commonwealth definition is social more than racial, in keeping with the change in Australian attitudes away from racialistic thinking about other people. An Aboriginal person is defined as a person who is a descendant of an Indigenous inhabitant of Australia, identifies as an Aboriginal, and is recognised as Aboriginal by members of the community in which she or he lives.

This definition is preferred by the vast majority of our people over the racial definitions of the assimilation era. Administration of the definition, at least by the Commonwealth for the purposes of providing grants or loans, requires that an applicant present a certificate of Aboriginality issued by an incorporated Aboriginal body under its common seal.
Sometimes non-Aboriginal people get confused by the great range and variety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, from the traditional hunter to the Doctor of Philosophy; from the dark-skinned to the very fair; from the speaker of traditional languages to the radio announcer who speaks the Queen's English. The lesson to be learned from this is that we should not stereotype people ; that people are different, regardless of race.

Our people, of course, did not use the word "Aborigene" (from the latin ab, origin meaning "from the beginning" to refer to ourselves before the coming of non-Aborigenes. Everyone was simply a person.

[Golden Sky]

Thank you Sue! You pick good books I was especially intrigued by the part where the people turned into objects in the natural world and could be seen as sacred places by the "initiated" ones. You know Elvis liked that book The Initiation of the World by Alice Bailey, and it sounds like "initiation" means the same thing in both books. I suppose it's the acquisition of a full-blown spiritual "sight" that informs the conscious of the whole nature of things. But I don't know, I'm only guessing.

Paramahansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi says that all living objects have the potential to transform into other objects...I think it's called dematerialization (?)...but through force of habit we don't. But a tree has the potential to break its habit of treeness and re-materialize as something else, that's what he was saying. And this is how the yogis are reported to be in two places at once and so on. Have you read this book?

Thanks also for clarifying that aborigine can refer to so many types of people. I figured it was sort of like the Native Americans, but thought (maybe hoped) some of the old culture there was still intact in Australia. I know it's all dying fast here in the US. The Indian Reservation I visited in Northern Montana, just south of Canada, was very modern, even though the Native genes are very apparent in the wide faces, high cheekbones and solemn expressions. Most of the people live in trailers that were bought by the government (long apologies.) I suppose the day of the teepee is really over here, and it sounds like aborigine culture has changed likewise. Which is sad because all the wisdom has seemed to have become scarce.

Thanks for an interesting read!

Love,
Trish

[MaryInTheMorning]

You are so right dear Trish---our Sue definitely does pick good books!! Thank you so much my dear angel for recommending this great book, and posting this very interesting information about it for us!! I really enjoyed reading it, and will be looking into adding this one to my collection! I've always found Australia to be so fascinating and beautiful so this should be a really great book for me!!

[FairyTale]

A Most interesyting Book Sue, the Native People of Australia have some of the same beliefs as some Native American Tribes do, Some Tirbes also believe that The First people came from under ground. They also believe that these People made the animals and Plants to, thats why they worshiped the Plants and Animals like they did and still do.

[Rainbow Light]

You're welcome for the information, ladies and greatly appreciated your feedback! Sometimes I look at what is happening to our planet in terms of global warming, climate change and other factors and, although many of us are doing our best in whatever way we can now to be proactive in recycling and other environment-friendly commitments, feel that perhaps if we listened to the inherent wisdom of these native people of the world and what they have to offer and show us, maybe things could be different, at least to an extent?

[FairyTale]

I know the Goverment needs to doing a whole lot more in Protecting the enviroment, with stopping so much Building and taking away of the Habitat that the WildLife needs.

[MaryInTheMorning]

Sometimes I look at what is happening to our planet in terms of global warming, climate change and other factors and, although many of us are doing our best in whatever way we can now to be proactive in recycling and other environment-friendly commitments, feel that perhaps if we listened to the inherent wisdom of these native people of the world and what they have to offer and show us, maybe things could be different, at least to an extent?

I, too, feel that this is a definite possibility dear angel!

[Rainbow Light]

Thanks for your positive feedback, ladies!

[MaryInTheMorning]

You are most welcome dear angel!!

[Rainbow Light]