Rainbow Serpent Dreaming – it comes to heal

Dedicated to the Lightning-Tongued Rainbow Serpent of the Deep Fresh Water in the Yarra Yarra River, who appeared to me on this day and brought its healing powers for all to share

I set off on my bike for an afternoon ride, in the fresh air and down by the river. First i pass some neighbours but don’t stop to say hi, recalling that my loyalty is to country. The reason i keep coming back to the people is to tell them the stories (although i know too that i need to make a home in society, that it’s a necessary crucible for my experiences as a conscious human being).

The it’s off down a bushy track, following the path of  enchantment. At one stage i get off my mountain bike to walk through tall grass (over 2.5m high). This overgrown track may reveal a snake if i am lucky and quiet enough. But what i find instead is an irresistible challenge – a fallen tree, across the creek. Crossing it, i remember my place in the world – walking the fine line, always honing my skills to make sure i can cross between the worlds and return with the gifts of healing and power for my people. On the other side, i see that the return trip starts out narrow, so i make extra sure i am centred, balanced, fluid enough to walk with the confidence of knowing. Just knowing; the truth, my place in it, the endless beauty of the world.

Returning through the tall grass, i figure out that if i want to see the snake i must become the snake. So basic, the elementary lesson of tracking. It must be, i laugh to myself; because I know nothing. Then, back on the river bank to pick up my bike, i bow in silent gratitude to the river. Thank you, master, for the challenge.

Following my intuition (and recent discoveries on similar rides and walks), i soon head right towards Westerfolds Park, riding alongside the Yarra River. Again i head off onto a rough track as soon as possible, this time one that leads towards direct access to the river. Not asking for anything, i just open to listen to what nature has to teach. Breath rises from around the bend downstream, blowing gently upstream and eventually caressing my face and body gently. Then, after I thank the fresh water and air spirits for their presence – and for mine – the next voice literally blows my mind, as it reveals to me healing power from the otherworld, the place within this dimension that nourishes all worlds and brings us closer to the higher, deeper truths within them.

A lightning tongue comes flashing along through the water, from the same direction downstream and directly towards me, before rising up and out of the water and into my body, at the abdomen. It speaks to me as the Rainbow Serpent and it brings me healing, as I see glorious colours rippling in the late afternoon light on the river. It shimmers through the water; in silver, in red gold, in iridescent purples, taking form sometimes in a clearly visible serpent shape; snaking towards me in diamantine patterns, while at others dispersing to snake across the river in scattered lights and colours at their own pleasure. As I raise my arms in exultation, to better receive the glowing power of the spirit, I am given to chant: Lightning-tongued Rainbow Serpent of the deep fresh water of the Yarra Yarra river, I accept your healing power. And as I accept it, and am healed by it, I promise to offer it to others; so that they may be inspired to do the same, and your honour is re-lit for the current times. We know the ‘gods,’ the archetypes, live through this kind of ‘belief’; worship, attention, re-creation giving them breath and keeping them alive. But the dreaming spirits of this country … the black fellas tell us they exist independently of human society; that they speak directly from the earth, water, air and other material manifestations of spirit for any who will quieten themselves and listen.

Time to turn this experience to ritual, so that i can recall it for healing, share it with others, keep it alive for the people. I had been praying that Pegasus would show me how he handles lightning, the thunder bolts he wielded for Zeus. I knew i had to be very well grounded to handle that kind of power; but i had it the wrong way around. Surprised, i realise now that I needed to figure out how to draw the lightning power up from within the earth, where i was already grounded, through ritual. The Rainbow Serpent Lightning Spirit of the Deep Fresh Water of the Yarra Yarra  comes up from where the river cuts through the land. This is where water rests, at the lowest point. With the Tao – and with the wound. This is where the healing power enters the body – at the deepest point, where our wound opens us out to the rest of the world, and to the otherworlds. It is perfectly safe, once the rites are performed, and the Spirit transports us into another dimension of our own experience. One that showers honour upon the earth, accepts blessings in return, and strengthens relations between. Gain blessings without end, by listening, and speaking that truth. Rainbow Serpent comes to heal.

All photos by author.

Dealing with Worldly Challenges – Ganesha & Pegasus

Most of us will recognise Ganesha, the Elephant-headed god of the Hindu pantheon. Millions of people in India and beyond pray to him every day, to help them overcome worldly challenges and to maintain peace of mind. As White Fella Dreaming is devoted to generating a spirituality for the 21^st century world, especially from a western perspective, it seemed to me important to be able to provide some uniquely modern parallel for this commonly utilised mythic imagery. But first some background, to explain my relationship to the Hindu icon.

On a trip to Varanasi I met a holy man, or guru, who gave me this mantra, which at the time I had never heard of: “Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah.” It seemed a helpful ritual, to chant this once each morning and remind myself of my access to resources helpful in situations requiring conflict resolution, healing, overcoming and other responses to obstacles that arise in everyday life. (Resources that appear within my inner world, which have arisen from my Dreaming, from a place that includes but is also more than the sum of my personal history; from the sacred, transpersonal or archetypal realms beyond …) A good mantra eases access to this realm and its sacred qualities, developing our personal relationship to the more-than-human and keeping it as operational as possible; and it also hones the mind, concentrating energy for the tasks at hand. This is all good and I did not mind accepting a practice from the Indian tradition, not as a matter of simply choosing something exotic from the spiritual supermarket of the new age, but as a way of connecting to something that had come my way along the path of discovery, something relevant at the time of its appearance (synchronicity and serendipity and all that jazz), and anyway something not that distant from my own European traditions (given the ancient links between Indo-European languages and colonising forces – bit that’s another story).

But one day in late 2013 I had a very powerful dream that superceded my relationship with Ganesha and provided me with a new way of meeting the same realm of worldly challenge and spiritual concentration. Standing at the edge of a forest, I saw Pegasus fly over [writing this sentence, lightning flashed across the sky and thunder struck in an unseasonal summer storm over Melbourne; the import of this synchronicity will become apparent by the end of this story]. His milky flanks were enormous, filling half the sky, as he galloped through the air towards the horizon ahead. Shortly after this, he reappeared, flying over our heads again, on the same direct path. However, this time he was higher in the sky and therefore slightly smaller. The third time he appeared, Pegasus was higher and smaller again (although still very large and dominating the scene). By now, he was mouthing bubbles, as if he’d hit the level of ether and was leaving the realm of oxygenated atmosphere behind (some mythic paradigms speak of a watery realm above, where the rain is kept until it is released). Now my friend, standing next to me, nudged me and said: “You believe in him, so why don’t you go to him?” So I did.

I flew up and met Pegasus at a table, where he sat opposite me as if it were all perfectly natural. By now he was a life-sized horse, white as snow. He began making a series of movements with his hooves and I instinctively attempted to mimic them, but I knew even as I did it that I was destined to forget these ritual forms. Still, I clumsily followed until he stopped and then I noticed the doses of medicine that were spread across the table in rows. He indicated that I should chew on one and swallow it, so I did. It was horrible. The texture was of moist and sandy soil, the colour was a sickly greenish blue, and it tasted exactly how it looked – like wet earth that was hard to swallow. I guess if medicine is supposed to taste bad in order to help heal, then this stuff must be dynamite. Then he gave me his parting words: you will need to initiate through your woman [anima] for around the next 5 or 6 years. Then you will be ready to do it on your own.

 

The deep wisdom and sacred nature of this dream has developed in some interesting directions for me in the year or so since then, so I will enter those into this log in a series to continue soon. But for now I just want to end by returning to the theme of this post: that Pegasus can be a portal for dealing with worldly challenge, in some very specific as well as quite general ways; and that he can help us to develop peace of mind under stressful or pressurized circumstances. And the link to the storm that burst open above my head as I wrote this? Pegasus became the bearer of lightning bolts for Zeus, in his aspect as storm god of the Greeks.

Images: 1. Ganesha by Nagaraju raveender (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons. 2. Pegasus line drawing by Pearson Scott Foresman [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. 3. By User:Fsphil (File:Pegasus vector drawing.svg) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons. 4. “Lightnings sequence 2 animation” by original data: Sebastien D’ARCO, animate: Koba-chan – original source is Image:Lightnings sequence 2.jpg, animated by me.. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lightnings_sequence_2_animation.gif#mediaviewer/File:Lightnings_sequence_2_animation.gif