Wahya Circle
Tuesday Travels
World Studies 101: Australia
As we continue our travels through humanity and the seven continents, we continue to see varied belief systems. We will not cover ALL practices as there are as many practices as there are Practitioners in this world.
Today, we look at a land of many names as Aboriginals have over 200 different languages. According to the places they live, some call their land Uthuru; others, Barna; Biik in the Woiwurrung tongue; and Kurrek in the Wemba Wemba language of Victoria.
Picture: Three Sisters, Blue Mountains, New South Wales
AUSTRALIAN TRADITIONAL BELIEFS
Australia is one of the most spiritually diverse places on Earth.
As we know, the oldest belief systems in Australia lay with its Aboriginal Tribes, which number in the hundreds. Scientists believe the indigenous arrived to this land mass over 45,000 years ago. Since colonization has been recognized here, there is massive effort to conserve the native wisdom that runs deep with the tribal Elders. Many have taken it upon themselves to write “word books” or “dictionaries of language” for as many native tongues as possible. To their dismay, much of the great knowledge is dying with those that speak it as many things are lost in translation. We ask, are they sharing the Knowledge? To their offspring? To outsiders? Is the Knowledge dying with its people?
“The Dreaming” or “Dream Time” (“that which cannot be known”) is the foundation of Aboriginal practices and culture. Some of those practices date back over 65,000 years as seen in the various art across the land. It is the story of events that have happened that is seen in their art, how the Universe came to be, how human beings were created and how their Creator intended for humans to function within the world as they knew it. Some feel the word is lost in translation as it is more of a “feeling” than a “knowing” of this Way.
Dreaming for Australian Aboriginal people represents a time when the Ancestral Spirits progressed over the land and created life and important physical geographic formations and sites. The past of the Spirit Ancestors which live on in the legends is handed down through oral stories, art, ceremony and songs. (Sound familiar?) In essence, all of the natural world—animals, trees, plants, hills, rocks, waterholes, rivers—EVERYTHING – was created by Spiritual Beings/Ancestors. The stories of their creation are the basis of Aboriginal lore and culture.
Beyond the Aboriginal, the Energy flows here as evidenced by the fastest growing “book religion” in Australia being Hinduism. But, not how you would think. Australians are a very private people, especially when it comes to personal beliefs. The are many groups of varied religions throughout the vastness of the Australian landscape.
Take a moment to read about the fastest growing religion in Australia: (Good read)
Beginning Pharmakeia
BloodWood
Corymbia opaca - 'Desert Bloodwood'
A species of tree that is endemic to northern Australia, that means when geographically speaking, Australia is the only place it grows naturally. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, lance-shaped leaves, club-shaped flower buds and urn-shaped fruit. Several parts of this plant are used by Aboriginal Australians in traditional medicine.
MEDICINAL
Aboriginal tribes use oils from the leaves on the tree medicinally for coughs and colds, sore throats and other infections. (The essential oil is a common ingredient in many over-the-counter cold remedies. For modern medicine.)
MAGICKAL
Magickally, Bloodwood has the ability to utilize ALL Elemental energies. The wood itself can channel and enhance the affect of all elemental energies, but the degree to which it can do so seems to depend upon the Practitioner utilizing the wood. One’s Sun Sign is a factor in this. For example: Bloodwood enhances the ability to utilize Water energy, if you are a Pisces, that’s good! It would enhance Earth for a Capricorn, and so on. The transverse is also true. It will render magick useless for a Piscean Practitioner working with Element Fire and a Bloodwood wand. It strengthens who you are and stifles your opposite.
What would your Bloodwood stand-in channel for you?
Three Sisters, Echo Point
Syncretic Geography 101
Three Sisters
In Australia, the mysterious Blue Mountains rise high above lush rainforests and deep valleys. In the area where lived the Gundungurra people, there rises an outcrop topped by three rocky formations, known as The Three Sisters. This is the story of how they came to be there.
Long, long ago, the mystical land of Gondwana was beautiful, peaceful and untouched. To those that understand what Pangea was, this was the portion that broke off into the Southern Hemisphere into what makes up South America, Africa, Arabia, the Indian subcontinent, Australia, and Antarctica.
In Gondwana, there lived Tyawan, a Clever Man of the Gundungurra people. He had three daughters called Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, whom he treasured above all else.
In a deep hole in the valley there lived a Bunyip, a huge troublesome creature who loved to feast on human flesh, particularly that of young girls and women. Its cry was harsh and horrible and if you heard it, the only safe thing to do was run away as quickly as possible. Everyone feared the Bunyip. (Kind of like the Wendigo of North American tribes.)
If you needed to pass its hole, it was important to creep very quietly so that it was not disturbed.
When Tyawan had to pass the hole, he would leave his daughters safely on the cliff above behind a rocky wall – just in case!
One day, waving goodbye to his daughters, he descended the cliff steps down towards the path near the Bunyip’s hole. While the girls were waiting and chatting on top of the cliff, a huge centipede suddenly appeared. Startled, Meenhi screamed, jumped up, picked up a stone and threw it at the centipede.
The stone missed the centipede, but rolled over the edge of the cliff and, picking up speed, crashed into the valley below. The sound echoed all around the mountains. Birds, animals and even fairies stopped still as the rocks behind the three sisters, shook and split open, leaving them perched together on a thin ledge.
The Bunyip, angry at being awakened, roared and dragged himself through the split to see the terrified sisters cowering on the ledge. His evil eyes widened in delight at the feast before him.
Tyawan looked up and saw the Bunyip reaching for his daughters, so he pointed his magic bone at the girls and immediately turned them to stone. They would be safe there until the Bunyip had gone and then Tyawan would change them back to their former selves.
But the Bunyip, angered at being deprived of his prey, chased Tyawan through the forest and up a mountain where he found himself trapped. So Tyawan used his magic bone again and changed himself into a Lyre Bird and glided away. Everyone was safe. But then, in dismay, Tyawan realised that he had dropped his bone whilst changing.
After the Bunyip had gone back to his deep dark pool, Tyawan glided down to the forest floor and searched and searched for his magic bone ... where he can still be seen to this day, in the shape of the Lyre bird, scratching and searching the forest floors of the Blue Mountains, looking for his bone, calling to his daughters above and feeding on insects whilst he searches.
The Three Sisters stand silently watching him from their ledge, hoping and hoping that one day their father will find his magic bone and be able turn them back to Aboriginal girls.
Beginning Crystalum
Quartzite
Ceremonial Stone
Clever men and cunning women, karadji, are Practitioners of the arcane magick that is over 65,000 years old. The prefix “clever” pertaining to a karadji means much more than adroitness, neat in movement, skillful or dexterous. It was the nearest English word equivalent to that of the indigenous language, although it fails to convey fully the intellectual qualification required in order to become a karadji. Perhaps “seizing what is imperceptible” might come nearer to a description of the karadji’s inherent ability to bridge the gap between what is manifested and the Spirit-World of the Dreaming. Much is lost attempting to translate this “feeling” into “knowing”. A Stone Ally believed to enhance this ability is quartzite.
The difference between “quartz” and “quartzite” is quartz is a mineral made of the elements Oxygen and Silicon. Quartzite is a metamorphic mixture of sandstone fused under intense heat and pressure from the Earth. It has been said, “it is like comparing oats to oatmeal”. (If hat makes sense!)
MEDICINAL
Medicinally, this stone is used to stabilize positive changes by anchoring them in the fabric of your physical and subtle bodies. It helps prevent you from slipping back to your old state after you undergo any uplifting change, such as a healing therapy or spiritual experience.
MAGICKAL
It is used to improve mental and physical energy, stamina and physical strength. Quartzite enhances spiritual growth, spirituality and wisdom. Because it clarifies thought processes and emotions, it can increase inspiration and creativity. Quartzite can help you to move forward in your personal journey of healing the mind, body and spirit, as your life changes especially if you feel you need some extra support.
Deities of Earth 101
Baiame
(Bai-a-me)
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame (or Biame, Baayami, Baayama or Byamee) is the Creator God and "Sky Father" in the Dreaming of several Aboriginal Australian peoples of South-eastern Australia, such as the Wonnarua, Kamilaroi, Eora, Darkinjung, and Wiradjuri peoples.
Here is a short video of Baiame’s cave painting, one of the oldest in the world, from the University of Newcastle. There are some real nuggets of wisdom in here. Can you hear them?
(Be sure to give a “like” or comment on the efforts of the students and educators.)
Connection that are Seen
There is no “right” or “wrong’ answer. Explore that. Sit with it. FEEL. Divine. Commune with Higher Self.
Think About It
Can you see the root of even more Paths in Australian Traditional Practices? Which do you see? Is Dreamtime a metaphor for something else to you?
Tuesday WM1
General - Journal - Book of Shadows
SUBMISSION: WM1 TUE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE PRESERVES
(Due by Sunday)
WRITE ONE PARAGRAPH or more answering the following:
How do you FEEL, or what do you THINK, about the dying of Knowledge from the indigenous from not only the Aborigine, but also from around the World?
What is your thought, or feeling, on offering to preserve the Knowledge contained in the minds of the Elders?
What oral history traditions exist in your family?
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