NothingToFear
New Member
The Australian Aborigines have their creation stories, the Dreamtime. It contains so much that is personal to them, regarding the local layout of the land and so on, so is there any real, true root to it?
Australian myth truths
- Thread starter NothingToFear
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LegendofJoe
Active Member
I read a few books on Australian myths. To me it seems that the Dreamtime roughly corresponds to the western notion of "long, long ago" or "once upon a time." It was a period where the world was still sort of plastic and was coming into being. It was inhabited by beings and features that no longer exist.
Some of the stories of the Dreamtime might have some basis in reality, but I believe it is mainly a storytelling device.
Some of the stories of the Dreamtime might have some basis in reality, but I believe it is mainly a storytelling device.
Libros
Member
The Dreamtime is much more than a time, but it varies depending on the culture, for there are many distinct Aboriginal communities in Australia. One of my teachers spent fifteen years living amongst the tribes on Groote Eylandt in northern Australia. This is his attempt to explain it, for like many cultural traditions, it cannot be put into words properly. But for them it is much more than a storytelling device, although stories are greatly involved. You'll see what I mean.
Imagine having a chair in front of you. Now try drawing not the chair. You read that right. Try drawing not the chair. Everyone's perception of what to draw is different. Can it be drawn? Is it wrong to attempt to draw it? Is the chair shape a drawing of it? Is it not? This is something like the Dreamtime, although I could never fully explain it to you.
The Dreamtime was present at your creation, is still here with you, and will be here after you die. Accessing the dreamtime involves travelling along songlines, which are not precisely physical paths (although elements of the land mark them), but paths along which the creators before time walked when creating the world and are still here. The dreamtime is felt across the land and is something like a world just behind our physical vision of this world, yet it is intertwined with it instead of being a separate world. They are not like ley lines, in that they aren't centers of energy, but rather the footprints of spirits.
One of the most basic ways to properly walk a songline into the Dreamtime is by following the path of energy created by the song of a didjeridu. The proper songs of didjeridu are as fiercely guarded by their players as much as the sacred dances and drumming of some Native American groups. To many Aborigines, it is considered a terrible sin for a woman to touch a didjeridu, which would profane it and have them have to destroy it and carve a new one. Unfortunately the heavy commercialism of Aboriginal culture has turned didjeridus into secular instruments to be played by anyone, although the proper songline songs are never played outside sacred gatherings which are intensely private.
On a proper sacred didjeridu, you'll often find depictions of birds, fish, turtles, and other creatures painted against a coloured background. According to tradition, when the didjeridu was first carved and played, animals found their way along the first songline accessed by it and squirmed their way out of the Dreamtime onto the didjeridu, and that's what you see. They are living animals following the first track of the Dreamtime that was opened by that particular didjeridu, and the coloured backgroup is literally, the Dreamtime, a slice of that that you are seeing when you look upon the instrument.
Naturally such didjeridus are blessed and never shown to the public. The commercial ones are not blessed and never carved with the proper songs.
To show a different perspective, we were shown this clip of Fantasia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1z12_Ps-gk
The animated parts are something like witnessing the Dreamtime, and the various patterns that travel "on" the music are similar to the various forms blending in and out of the Dreamtime.
This is an explanation at its most abstract and, like all mystical experiences, can't be properly put into words.
Imagine having a chair in front of you. Now try drawing not the chair. You read that right. Try drawing not the chair. Everyone's perception of what to draw is different. Can it be drawn? Is it wrong to attempt to draw it? Is the chair shape a drawing of it? Is it not? This is something like the Dreamtime, although I could never fully explain it to you.
The Dreamtime was present at your creation, is still here with you, and will be here after you die. Accessing the dreamtime involves travelling along songlines, which are not precisely physical paths (although elements of the land mark them), but paths along which the creators before time walked when creating the world and are still here. The dreamtime is felt across the land and is something like a world just behind our physical vision of this world, yet it is intertwined with it instead of being a separate world. They are not like ley lines, in that they aren't centers of energy, but rather the footprints of spirits.
One of the most basic ways to properly walk a songline into the Dreamtime is by following the path of energy created by the song of a didjeridu. The proper songs of didjeridu are as fiercely guarded by their players as much as the sacred dances and drumming of some Native American groups. To many Aborigines, it is considered a terrible sin for a woman to touch a didjeridu, which would profane it and have them have to destroy it and carve a new one. Unfortunately the heavy commercialism of Aboriginal culture has turned didjeridus into secular instruments to be played by anyone, although the proper songline songs are never played outside sacred gatherings which are intensely private.
On a proper sacred didjeridu, you'll often find depictions of birds, fish, turtles, and other creatures painted against a coloured background. According to tradition, when the didjeridu was first carved and played, animals found their way along the first songline accessed by it and squirmed their way out of the Dreamtime onto the didjeridu, and that's what you see. They are living animals following the first track of the Dreamtime that was opened by that particular didjeridu, and the coloured backgroup is literally, the Dreamtime, a slice of that that you are seeing when you look upon the instrument.
Naturally such didjeridus are blessed and never shown to the public. The commercial ones are not blessed and never carved with the proper songs.
To show a different perspective, we were shown this clip of Fantasia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1z12_Ps-gk
The animated parts are something like witnessing the Dreamtime, and the various patterns that travel "on" the music are similar to the various forms blending in and out of the Dreamtime.
This is an explanation at its most abstract and, like all mystical experiences, can't be properly put into words.
Allie-Gator
Member
Wow! That's pretty cool. I've never heard it described like that. It does, in fact, make it a bit easier to imagine that way. The music acts sort of like our drums when we have a powwow. There are many types of drum songs that the Native Americans have that send prayers on their way.
Allie-Gator
Member
I would like to add, I've heard many things about Dreamtime and many ideas about it. Only a native would be able to access the Dreamtime of their line to gather with the spirits of people and animals past. To sell those secrets to outsiders would be to profane them. I wish all would be as respectful of ancient beliefs but it doesn't happen that way unfortunately.