Dreamtime
Australian creation mythology
In Australian Aboriginal belief systems, Dreamtime (also called the Dreaming) is the sacred era when ancestral beings created the world, establishing the land, laws, and customs.
It is not merely the past but an ongoing spiritual reality that connects all living things to their origins: The elders shared stories from the Dreamtime. (Lowercase dreamtime describes a state of reverie.)
Aboriginal sung navigation routes
- corroboreeAboriginal ceremonial gathering
- eldersSenior community members
- loreTraditional knowledge transmitted orally
- totemSpiritual clan symbol
kinship · Uluru · didgeridoo · walkabout · ochre · sacred sites · rock art · outback
Narratives explaining initial creation
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- primordialExisting from the start
- genesisPoint of creation
Worthy of reverence
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- reverenceProfound admiring respect
- divinitySacred nature or nougat-like sweet
cosmic · sanctity · spirit world · mystical · timelessness
songlines
Aboriginal sung navigation routes
- corroboreeAboriginal ceremonial gathering
- eldersSenior community members
- loreTraditional knowledge transmitted orally
totem · kinship · Uluru · didgeridoo · walkabout · ochre · sacred sites · rock art · outback
origin stories
Narratives explaining initial creation
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- primordialExisting from the start
- genesisPoint of creation
sacred
Worthy of reverence
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- reverenceProfound admiring respect
divinity · cosmic · sanctity · spirit world · mystical · timelessness
- DreamtimeDreaming, Tjukurpa, Rainbow Serpent, songlines, ancestor spirits
- Australasiakangaroo, koala, Sydney, Melbourne, outback
- Australianakangaroo, Vegemite, boomerang, koala, didgeridoo
- religionsChristianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism
- realmsrealm, kingdom, domain, Heaven, Hades
- Aboriginal Culturesonglines, corroboree, dreaming, totems, ceremonial practices
Dreamtimelinear time
Duration moving one direction
recorded history · modernity · the present · progress · geological time
Dreamtimehistory
Record of past events
science · empiricism · positivism · materialism · rationalism