Socyberty » Ayers Rock

The Rainbow Serpant, Dreamtime Story

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:54:35 +0000

The original people of Australia, the Aborigines hold many cultural beliefs and rituals passed down through generations, mainly by means of unfounded information. Many narrative chronicle accounts are shared and retold as part of customary tradition. Within this essay I am going to explain and retell the main elements of the ancient Australian aborigine tale ‘A Rainbow Serpent Creation Story’ which is part of the dreamtime.

The Aboriginal term dreaming is a moniker suited and utilized to consign a group or individual’s series of beliefs and mysticism. Reveries relating to an Aborigine’s country are also fitted as a specific combination of words for example ‘wombat-dreaming’ rather than ‘a dream about wombats’. The Dreamtime nevertheless, placed the basis archetype of the Aboriginal people and is the term given to the time of creation when the world began. Stories which came from the foundations of this ideology are a main part of the Aborigine heritage and transpire to ensue and are passed through generations of people. These stories of old in turn form the basis of an Aborigine’s ‘Dreaming’.

The creations tales preach and tell of many moral rudiments concerning the world of the aborigines and how they as people should take advantage and live within it. Although these stories are seen in an ancient light, some allegories live up to the present day and convey the future. It is common knowledge that different faiths and cultures hold different beliefs of how the world began and the Aborigines mode of thinking is not too far off the Pagan main set of beliefs and the basic surface Ideas of the Christians’ world creation. In general simplified terminology, the origins of the world was nonexistent, all apart from a higher force, which for the aborigines’ was the ‘Rainbow serpent’. This divinity also know to the aborigines as ‘the mother of all of us’ (a similar name to the Wiccan and Pagan creator ‘The Great Earth Mother’) then went on to create all that lives within the world and goes on to oversee what her makings accomplish. This aboriginal theory is far from some of the Western civilizations beliefs of evolution, but their beliefs seem more fitting I their natural earth bound ways of life.

The inclusive, broad-spectrum of the story is that at the time of creation the rainbow serpent voyaged across Australia and making the rivers and valleys with its elongated, momentously heavy body. Following the serpent’s excursion it went back to its hole in the ground and exclaimed loudly ‘Come out! Come out!’ Abruptly all the animals, birds and plants, which had been sleeping beneath the ground, arose and began to live on the earth.

The rainbow serpent next established the systems of demeanour, the commandments and the configurations for the civilization of all the living things on earth. An illustration of this is that, if a stipulation for a plant or an animal was not complied with, it would be turned into a stone. These stones in succession became hills and mountains.

Conversely the serpent remunerated some plants or animals by transforming them into human beings. This is how the Aborigines were crafted.

The serpent is not the only creation animal however. There are a numerous number of creatures which are reserved in the remembrance of the people.

For 10,000 years the Aboriginal people have inhabited the area surrounding Ayers Rock or Uluru as it is said in their native tongue. The Uluru is the Koori appellation for the world’s oldest and largest monolith which is the place the Aborigines name the Dream-place and in this point the creation force, power of the Dreamtime is saved. This large magnetic mound of rock holds great importance and is even located on the major planetary grid. Naturalistic elemental aspects of the landscape such as the Uluru are significantly incorporated into the dreamtime stories. The force of these factors gives the fables unfathomable implication and ethnic mannerism which subsequently helps the listening audience to develop a deeper and more constructive astuteness of the ancient beliefs of the ancestors of the Aborigines.

In conclusion the creation narratives shared and retold by the Australian aborigines show depth to their culture and give western civilizations that have parted far from their ancestral a way of insight into what their ancient and common beliefs may have been. To understand the roots of a culture also shows that the original people of Australia find comfort, in slow or stationary development, which is lost in the modern western world and keeps in touch with the actual world we live both on and in.

Famous Rocks and Rolling Stones

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:34:01 +0000

Sit back and enjoy a tour to these world famous rocks and stones, as follows:

Black Stone

Islam’s most sacred artifact, which, according to tradition, was the stone given by the angel Gabriel to Ishmael, the legendary founder of the Arab race. Known as “al-Hajar-ul-Aswad” in Arabic, it was built into the one of the outside corner of Kaaba, a pilgrimage shrine located within the courtyard of the massive “Masjid al-Haram,” the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. During the 10th century, it was taken away and shattered by an Iraqi sect of Qarmatians but was later recovered. The pieces are preserved in pitch and held together by silver wires.

Blarney Stone

A limestone situated high up on the parapet of the Blarney castle near Cork, Ireland. It was given by Robert the Bruce to Cormac McCarthy in 1314 in exchange for his support in the Battle of Bannockburn. According to legend, when this particular limestone is kissed, it will endow its kisser with the gift of persuasive eloquence. Yuck! Imagine kissing an object that has had people’s lips all over it for over 500 years.

Newspaper Rock

A flat sandstone cliff featuring one of the world’s largest known collections of petroglyphs, around two hundred square feet in area. Located in Moab, Utah, United States, this historic monument is believed to have been carved by several Native American cultures between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago.

Rock of Gibraltar

Considered as one of the Pillars of Hercules, this monolithic Jurassic limestone is situated on the south end of Europe of the Iberian Peninsula, lying at the junction of the Mediterranean and the Altantic. Also known as Mons Calpe, it has been used as a complex military fortification that spans over one thousand years of Moorish, Spanish and British history.

Ayers Rock

An enormous sandstone formation that stands 348 meters high, dominating the broad desert plains in central Australia of the Northern Territory, 400 kilometers southwest of Alice Springs. Also known as Uluru, the geological marvel is Australia’s most recognizable natural icon and holds great religious and cultural significance to the Aboriginal people of the area.

Rosetta Stone

(At the British Museum)

A black basalt stone, which discovery in the Egyptian village of Rashid somehow paved the way to the modern understanding of the once forgotten language of Egyptian hieroglyphics. It has been displayed in the British Museum in London since 1802, and contains three distinct bands of engraved inscription: hieroglyphics, demotic and ancient Greek.

Pantuo Rock

Situated in Zhejiang province atop the island mountain of Putuo, one of four sacred Buddhist site in China, is this rock that has its name in Chinese characters (literally “a huge stone on a mountain”) carved on it by a general from Ming Dynasty. It seems to be standing on top of another rock by the smallest contact point and very much likely to fall but has been firmly in place for millenia.

Stonehenge

Britain’s most famous prehistoric site that was erected using sarsens arranged in circles and has been standing in vigil on the Salisbury Plain near Amesbury for over five thousand years. How and why this megalithic monument was constructed has remained a mystery but theories abound that it was built by extra-terrestrials or the Druids, and that it was used for burial rituals or as an astronomical observatory.

Dome of the Rock

The structure sitting atop a plot of elevated platform in Jerusalem Israel identified by the Jews and Christians as the “Temple Mount”, and by the Muslims as “Haram al-Sharif” (”Noble Sanctuary” in Arabic). Inside this Islamic Shrine resides a rock in its center, on which Muslims believe was where Mohammed began his ascent to heaven, while Jews believe was where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Tarpeian Rock

The steep cliff used by the ancient Romans as an execution site from which criminals and traitors were thrown to their deaths. Lying south of the Capitoline Hill overlooking the Forum in Rome, it was named after a vestal virgin, who betrayed Rome to the Sabines in exchange for their gold bracelets but was instead crushed to death with their shields in expression of disgust for her actions.