Aboriginal Lore – The Gooyorn

The Gooyorn is often depicted as a bird, a creature of flight however the form of the Gooyorn is not what is important. What is important is that the Gooyorn are helpers. They are an assistant of the Wandjina and can take a form that best suits their needs.

The Lore of the Wandjina is the Lore in which the Gooyorn exist. It is a Lore as ancient as the land itself and quite possibly the oldest continually existing Lore or Religious following on Earth. It is the beginning in the story of the Dreamtime and as is told, the Wandjina is a creator and giver of fire or light and believed to be the most ancient Creator Spirit of the Dreamtime. The Wandjina are said to have come from the sky and therefore are often identified as the Sky people, however there are those legends which say they emerged from the sea but could this have been the means by which the Creator Spirit arrived into the country of the storyteller in the time of the Dreamtime.

Dreaming and The Dreamtime of Australian Traditional Lore

The concept of the Dreamtime is often for some a difficult concept to understand. Dreaming, that wonderful state between reality and fantasy is a place most of us know and enjoy, but the Dreamtime is a place very different. Some would affiliate it with the concept of heaven and hell when arriving at a perception of what manner of place the Dreamtime is.

The Dreamtime is a combined state of both heaven and hell, indeed the only separations made between heaven and hell are those made within the tenets of the religions scattered around the world, which is a recent development given the timeline of man.

Lore or Religion – The Difference in Traditional Australian Culture

I chose this heading pic because it has to be said that if you stand too close to the serpent, you are bound to get burnt. So what has the serpent have to do with Religion, or even Lore?

That question always amazes me and it can be simply explained to many in pointing out that there were four people in the Garden of Eden, the place where it all began in many religions. There was Adam and Eve or Man and Woman by another name, these two characters or their progeny are the two entities that most religions are singularly focused on. There was God or he who was/is the ‘superhuman’ figure or the creator (generally of some human form) and who is generally considered to be largely unreachable unless through an intermediary ie a church or prophet (or sons of God) etc and then … there was the Serpent.

Aussie Spirit Creatures – The Kitji

One of the most striking things about legends from across the world is the similarities they wear. Always of an interest to me I have now come to search for these markers in legend and lore. From serpents to dragons and the snakes of Eden, all noted as the bearers of knowledge or evil, which can often be considered the same.

The Featherfoot of Aussie Aboriginal Lore

The Featherfoot is of the Australian Kadaitcha Lore. The name is a reference to the shoes of the Kadaitcha Men of High Degree, these allow the wearer to pass across the ground unseen and unheard. They were made of feathers, blood and human hair and held mystic powers belonging to ancient tribal Aboriginal Lore.

Understood to be of use only once, the shoes remain a mystery in their construction despite samples being available. It is known that the sole is constructed of feather and blood although it is unknown how they remain together. The upper shoe is of woven hair and their construction in based in ceremony, as is their use. They were kept hidden from the eyes of women and children and commonly wrapped in skins to conceal them. These shoes were a mystic weapon of the Australian Tribal Aboriginal and one greatly respected above all others.

Ghosts, Shades and Creatures of the Underworld

As an Author much of my life has been plumbing the depths in research. Having always had an interest in the paranormal and supernatural, seeing it as an 3^rd and 4^th dimension to our lives and our world, I have  always had a drive to discover more. It is a world and history that science largely ignores but which philosophy often dabbles in.

As an Aussie I was delighted to discover as a child, the realm of the Australian Spirit Creatures and that of the Underworld, often identified as the Dreaming… an area within the realm of the Dreamtime. That Australia has an Underworld comes as a shock to many despite the fact that it is the most ancient of lands. Our continent is riddled with the caverns of the Dreamtime, places etched by water, wind and volcanism such as Jenolan Caves, Undara and the vast caverns of the Oondiri Plains to name just a few.

Touching the Dreamtime

Living in the sub-tropic coastal fringe on the east coast of Aus… albeit a sketch an a bit inland, we are busily now welcoming the arrival of spring and it is glorious. The flush of spring colour in the gardens, the fruit flowers on the mango tree promising a great crop. Soooo…. hoping the bees are busy.

While the Northern hemisphere is sinking into their winter we are busily emerging from ours and if the weather patterns are anything to go by it is gunna be a hot, wet summer. For Aussies, summer brings the Wet up north, the time of floods and cyclones of which we get the end of as they bounce down the eastern seaboard. This also brings a new step, a corner on the horizon for an author. New thoughts, new projects and new ideas particularly as you have rounded up old ones over the winter months now passed as I have.

I love the storms, adore a good electrical storm with fires the air and is a magnificent display of mother nature’s power, as much as I love a new idea or a good plot. It is the storms, which cradle the legends of the Dreamtime and there is nothing quite like sitting on the Kakadu Plateau and looking out over the vastness of the wetlands while different storms travel across the land. Yes… your view is so very vast up there in the Outback that you can watch the storms individually, they are like actors on stage yet in different plays performing for the privileged.

I adore the legends and myths of the Dreamtime, those that touch the reality of our lives and help mould who we are.