I’m reading an article by Bill Gammage, who at the time of writing was an adjunct professor in the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University and author of prize-winning book, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia.
I first read this article years ago, and the magazine (Australian Book Review) has been kicking around among my things ever since. Suddenly I pick it up again and the timing is exquisite.
Fires are burning Australia but no one ‘sang the country’ first.
If you’re an Australian you’re aware of language like ‘the Dreaming’ and ‘Dreamtime myths’ and ‘country’ and ‘songlines’ and ‘ancestors’. When I first heard these words and names as a teenager they appealed to the creative writer in me; today when I hear them, I find myself relating to them quite differently.
I hear about ancestors singing earth forms into existence, and instead of thinking of that as a primitive cultural idea as I used to, I recognise the essence of what I believe and teach, that ‘thoughts become things’, that ‘what we think about, we bring about’.
I also find myself wondering if the ancestral creator gods that the Aboriginals talk about are the same creator gods I’ve heard Dr John Demartini talk about in his advanced metaphysical classes. (A behavioural educator with his feet firmly on the ground, Dr Demartini draws connections between ancient mystical teachings and contemporary science.)
But where the fires are concerned, what I relearnt in this article is that:
‘You sing the fire before you burn it.
In your mind, you see the fire, you know where it is going, and you know where it will stop.’
– Dean Yibarbuk
Did the indigenous Australians know where it was going and where it would stop because they were incredibly in tune with Earth, or because they were consciously intending its path? Either way, there is much we can learn from them. In fact, we should surely establish them as essential consultants where landcare issues are concerned.
I was inspired by indigenous educator Jeremy Donovan when I wrote The Hidden Order – in fact, I based a character on Jeremy’s life story (with his permission). In that story, I was deeply impressed by the ‘magic’, the creative healing power, of his grandfather.
I believe the tide is turning. The fault lines in Western power and influence are all too easy to see, and more and more people are recognising the value in simple common sense principles – like wholistic approaches to healing, respectful approaches to criminal behaviour, appreciation as a powerful transformational tool, and responsibility as the key to a changed attitude and a changed life.
As the old argument goes, you can’t measure love in any objective way, but no one doubts that it exists. It is surely time to work with the mysteries of life more consciously and deliberately.
To embark on this journey, pick up a copy of The Hidden Order and learn about universal laws, indigenous wisdom, and ‘the hidden order’ in chaos itself (in a two-for-one deal. I’m relaunching this and The Mastery Club with new covers this year so selling last stock ofThe Hidden Order at half-price or two-for-one until then! To learn more about the book: https://worqforce.net/lg/youth-fiction/the-hidden-order)
My long-time friend John McManus is creating video clips of local towns as he travels around Australia. This one, ‘Rendezvous with Reality’, makes a few very important points about the fires. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARtP_VqVVsM
Photo credit: Sascha Grant on Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-ND
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