Faith sometimes arrives without a name.

Australia who do you find in the dreamtime

I recognized my innate faith deeply when I was left watching the timeless flicker of the campfire with the dark horizon beyond that. This was my land, my place. Finding little in common with many religions I spent years looking for its purpose. I saw little that was encouraging until I began to examine Australian Aboriginal Lore many years ago.

what the dreaming holds

Dreamtime, now more often called The Dreaming, encompasses religious traditions like songs and dances, stories about grandparents or aunty, of here and now. The Dreaming teaches that time is not divided into past, present, future. Creation is an ongoing process. It is in the land. The footprints of our Creation Ancestors are on the rocks. The hills and creek beds they created surround us.

country and songlines

Country is more than land. It is everything associated with the land, its people, animals, plants, waterways, sky, ancestors and descendants. Running through Country are Songlines, dreaming tracks, routes across the continent that communicate stories, songs, dances. Passing down the songlines nurtures the spiritual connection to Country.

To begin to understand, take The Seven Sisters. The story follows pursuit across the continent, noting important landmarks and water sources. It teaches desire, appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, skills of survival on the land, changing seasons, creation. In the end, they find a safe haven in the sky as the Pleiades stars.

elders and knowing

There are about 300 different Aboriginal Australian languages. The many mobs had groups of Elders respected for knowledge of the Lore. Within everyone is the ability to be a Shaman or a Clever Man, a spiritual person with different individual abilities. Dreamtime asks a lot of you, quietly. To pay attention to the land, your country and the skies above. In the dreamtime, you find everyone.