Nature of Religion Part 2 Flashcards
(4 cards)
Include relevant terminology
What is the Dreaming?
The Dreaming is the fundamental tenet that underpins Aboriginal Spirituality that refers to their spiritual beliefs about creation and existence, all knowledge and understanding.
- Dreaming is inextricably connected to the land as the land is the physical medium through which the Dreaming is communicated since is the dwelling of Ancestral Spirits
- Dreaming is a metatemporal concept which means it incorporates past, present and future reality as a complete and present reality
It shapes and structures Aboriginal Life by regulating kinship, ceremonial life and the relationship between male and female with a network or obligations involving people, land and spirits.
What are the origins of the universe?
The Dreaming includes explanations of the origins of the universe, that is, how the world came into being through the actions of their ancestral spirit beings, the creation of the physical world and the animals and plants, which inhabit this world.
Origin stories vary and are diverse across the nations but all involve similar concepts of;
* Before the dreaming Australia was a flat, featureless plain devoid of life
* The arrival of ancestral beings created life
* Ancestral Beings bodies shaped the Earth
* Ancestral being play a significant role in forming creation
* Left their essence in everything they touch as they roam the land making the land understood to be sacred
* Those who honour the Dreaming are responsible for the humans to look after and preserve the land
In detail
Provide an example of an Origin Story
Rainbow Serpent
- Only people and they roamed a flat world.
- Rainbow Serpent, Goorrialla awoke in search of his own tribe
- On his journey he created the landscape of mountains and hills.
- People followed Goorrialla and very soon found his tribe. He danced and when it got late slept in his tent.
- Two boys came to Goorrialla looking for a place to sleep and he invited them into his mouth then snuck off for fear that he would be caught.
- When the tribe awoke the next morning, they were angry and went in search of the boys and Goorrialla.
- When they found Goorrialla they snuck up on him in his sleep and cut the boys out of his stomach. Then the boys had been transformed into parakeets and flew away.
- When Goorrialla awoke he became enraged. He began shaking the mountain, and rocks began flying towards the people.
- And the peoples as they tried to escape turned into birds and trees and animals. Eventually Goorrialla grew tired of this and escaped to the sea
What are Sacred Sites?
Sacred sights are natural landforms places were ancestral spirits interacted with creation/or reside or where a significant event occurred. Sacred sights with the landscape are and essential part of Aboriginal people’s very different kind of religious beliefs.
Aboriginal people believe that their sacred sights were created and shaped into their particular forms during the Dreaming and demonstrates imprints and physical proof of the actions of ancestral beings.
Aboriginals believe that the land was given to them by the ancestral beings and their ownership for the land is based on their spiritual identification with places such as sacred sites.
