The Dreamtime

Ayres Rock - blog.mailtravel.co.uk

connecting with the dreamtime
tapping into the deepest well
of our collective memories

with eyes closed, I call up
the Ancestor Beings,
here when this world
began, with its
mountains and rivers
and trees,
its air and fire
and water

when their work was
complete, they
traveled back
into the earth
and slept

sometimes their spirits 
stayed behind
in rocks or trees,
and these became
sacred places

Today we're in
the Dreaming -
in the Now-
the only time
the aborigines
recognize

Feel the spirits
of the Ancestors,
as you chant
to the beat
of the drum

Look quickly
across the campfire
and you might catch 
their shadows,
see their kind
wisdom-eyes

Hear them say:
"Right now one 
of your eyes
is sleeping,
but one of them
is awake.

When you see
with both eyes,
we will awaken
from our dreaming
to join you,
and the world
will be made new"

The other day I was watching Julian Lennon's wonderful documentary Whaledreamers, a wonderful film about a gathering of aboriginal elders from all over the world, who gathered at  ancient headlands above the sea in Australia, where in old times, the aborigines would sing out to call in the whales, and they would come. They gathered in this spot, to perform that ceremony and, breathtakingly, in response to their eery song, the whales came. It was  uplifting, mysterious and utterly wonderful.

Random thoughts about the aborigines, the deep pain of the elders who mourn all that has been lost to their culture, and the mysterious Dreamtime, have been running around in my brain ever since.