This reviewer has had numerous experiences of spiritual energy relating to places of profound spiritual power, which belong to various groups of Australian Aboriginals. In 1988, when I took photographs of a women’s sacred place at Uluru, the negatives came out blank; I developed the negatives myself and recall thinking at that time, well, serves you right!
Back in 2005, I drove a car up to Mt Warning, Sacred Wollumbin, and the car broke down about two thirds of the way up to the lookout. I had to turn around and go back. The same happened the next week when I tried to visit. Hmm, Sacred Wollumbin did not want me there. And so it has also happened in other places associated with Australian Aboriginals, in Wauchope, NSW, and in The Olgas and in several other places.
In this land of the numbered Dreamtime, this sacred energy is real, and has power, shakti. In under the quandong tree, Minmia as written a telling account of the Creation, Dreaming, and songlines. Of particular interest is the Miwi, the kosa or birth sheath which surrounds the body and contains the emotions.
There are chapters devoted to the birthing ceremony, The Journey – Aging and Responsibilities, Intimacy with our Opponents, the Journey of the Eight Sisters and the narrative of the Breaking of Biami’s stones. Biami is the Australian word for the Creator. Australia is the name given to this land, this country by foreigners. Its real name is Dreamtime, or Alcheringa. In the cosmic scheme of things, this land and its energy is called Alchqaringha.
Minmia Invites Everyone
How can they belong to a country that they don’t know anything about? They learn about all sorts of other countries, all sorts of nations, other cultures, other traditions, even other religions but they don’t know anything about their own heritage. What’s really important for all Australians to know is that, believe it or not, if you are born of this land, you are of this land, you have a responsibility to this land and you have a right to know; colour never has had anything to do with it. Why learn about other cultures before you learn about your own spiritual heritage, history and traditions of 60,000 years?
Now it’s my job – and not only my job but also other women’s jobs – to bring back the stories and tell the teachings: about how vanity was born, how ego was born, all of these things. About why vanity and ego are opponents of ours and how we can learn to walk with them, how we can be intimate with them. A lot of the old teachers have died now and have taken the teachings with them so we need to get the teachings out to all women.
Often a picture speaks a thousand words so look at Illustration 1. This is your Miwi, better known as your spirit, consciousness or soul. If I cut you open with a tin opener and looked inside to the Miwi within,
that’s what I’d see and that’s what is on the journey. Some call it spirit,
some call it consciousness, some call it soul, and some call it essence. The body is only to assist the Miwi to physically fulfill its learning tasks. The Miwi has no mouth because our mouths get us into trouble. It’s a clear teaching to walk our talk.
I invite you to walk with me in these teachings.
Stages of Life
Of great interest in this book was the description of the various stages of life and the responsibilities which come with each stage. minmia speaks of the five life stages:
Our business is when we nurture and rear children together. Children choose their mother and father, and our business is where we clearly commit to the lore/law and take up the spiritual contract betwen the mother, the child and the father to assist each other in learing this life’s lessons, for example, greed and tolerance. Our business is to honour the sacred together, support each other in our need to do ceremony at sacred sites. While the men are off on ceremony the women feed the children and care for the men. … When the women are off on ceremony the men care for the children; the women only take the boodthoongs with them because they are tit fed. Our business is ensuring the together our children get the most important teachings they will ever receive—their role and part in Oneness.
The five stages of life given are:
- Boodthoong: from birth to three years old
- Boori: from three to between twelve and fifteen years old
- Wanai: from twelve to fifteen years old to between twenty seven and thirty years old
- Migai or Yinarr: from thirty to fifty years old
- Meemee: once you’re a grandmother or from fifty years old until you die
The beauty of Migai or Yinnar is that you are fogiven everything you have done prior to thirty years old. Nothing can be held against you, it is the lore/law. A magnificent schema of life which allows one to feel fully responsible, free and close to spirit. The stages of life described and the steps and spiritual transformations described are guilt free, and spiritually enabling.
The details:
- Title: under the quandong tree
- Publisher: Quandong Dreaming Publishing, 5 Park St, Mogo, NSW, 2356
- ISBN: 978-0-646-48348 1 (pbk)
- Contains: endnotes, glossary
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