Aboriginal Stonehenge: Stargazing in ancient Australia

[Apech]

"An egg-shaped ring of standing stones in Australia could prove to be older than Britain's Stonehenge - and it may show that ancient Aboriginal cultures had a deep understanding of the movements of the stars.

Fifty metres wide and containing more than 100 basalt boulders, the site of Wurdi Youang in Victoria was noted by European settlers two centuries ago, and charted by archaeologists in 1977, but only now is its purpose being rediscovered.

It is thought the site was built by the Wadda Wurrung people - the traditional inhabitants of the area. All understanding of the rocks' significance was lost, however, when traditional language and practices were banned at the beginning of the 20th Century."

 

BBC website

[manitou]

Really interesting article, Apech. thanks for posting it.

 

My personal thoughts are that we have lost so very much from the time of the Ancients. Their attunement with the creative force was ever so much with them - they lived under the stars, they slept on the ground, they were at the total mercy of the weather. Their life cycles reflected the seasons. It was all total symmetry in that sense.

 

As we have become more and more sophisticated (or removed from the Real nature of things) we've lost this nature and our brains have taken us in a different course of human development.

 

I read something one day (can't remember where) which indicated that the Ancients had the very same brain development that we have. Same size, same everything. In other words, if we were to be magically transported back to those days, our brains would have us do probably the exact same thing that they did under the circumstances. We wouldn't be any smarter at all (aside from accumulated information in our collective consciousness).It's so easy for our modern society to feel arrogant and that we have evolved so very far....and yet sometimes nothing could be further from the truth.

 

As far out in space as science has to go to understand the nature of what's around us, the other side of the coin is that we have to go just as far inside us to get both sides of the picture. Without the combination of the external and internal understanding, the delicate balance of life can't be understood. the chemistry of both must be mixed within for the full picture.

[zanshin]

People are smart in different ways. I might have same brain structure, but if was transported back to time of ancients I definitely wouldn't live any smarter and better than they, likely my brain wouldn't even work well enough to keep me alive. I think societies that live in nature are better at seeing patterns and interpreting them, in some ways modern people are more "primitive." We rely on science and technology, but we lose visual perceptual skills and the ability to interpret and intuit with our brains.

 

http://www.wiplayers.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=435:creative-thinking&catid=34:home&Itemid=113

[al.]

...

 

"It is that dimension that stretches from the near to the far, from the place where we stand all the way to the horizon, and beyond. The curious nature of this dimension is such that, unlike "height" and "width," which seem entirely objective aspects of the perceived world, the dimension of depth is wholly dependant upon the position of the viewer within that world!

 

The height of a boulder, for instance, seems to stay constant as I move around that rock. Yet the depth of the rock, the relation between the near and the far aspects of the boulder, steadily changes as I move around it. Unlike the height of a mountain range, and the width or span of a valley, the depth of a landscape depends entirely on where we are standing within that landscape. And as we move, bodily, within that landscape, the depth of the landscape shifts around us....

 

 

The belief in a purely objective comprehension of nature, in a clear and complete understanding of how the world works, is the belief in an entirely flat world seen from above, a world without depth, a nature that we are not a part of but that we look at from outside -- like a God, or like a person staring at a computer screen."

 

wild ethics

 

so, stargazing is much better for you than computer gazing!!

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

...

The belief in a purely objective comprehension of nature, in a clear and complete understanding of how the world works, is the belief in an entirely flat world seen from above, a world without depth, a nature that we are not a part of but that we look at from outside -- like a God, or like a person staring at a computer screen."

 

wild ethics

 

so, stargazing is much better for you than computer gazing!!

 

 

Certainly easier on the eyes too!

 

But i digress, i will continue doing what research i can and gain as much direction and guidance as the tao bums has to offer... (thanks anamatva!)

[Warrior Body Buddha Mind]

Im part Kuri (Aboriginal), and where my ancestor is buried lays a HUGE EMU EGG at his burial site!

[Apech]

Im part Kuri (Aboriginal), and where my ancestor is buried lays a HUGE EMU EGG at his burial site!

 

Fantastic!

 

I think its always amazing to think how much the ancients in all cultures knew about the stars and the solar system. They seem to have recorded and watched the sky for huge periods of time which mean some kind of (probably oral) transmission of knowledge and a comprehension of the universe which we can only guess at. We were so wise ... shame we lost most of it. Maybe its time to return? A kind of renaissance based on regaining their spiritual knowledge?

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I've got a couple of books on Aboriginee myths and legends. Great stories to educate kids and anyone else about life and human nature.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Legends-Australian-Aborigines-Ramsay/dp/0486427099

[Warrior Body Buddha Mind]

Definitely time to return to the ancient ways!

 

In the words of my Burning Palm teacher Grandmaster Doo Wai - " Let the Past, Enhance the Future'! So true are these words...

 

be well

Sifu Garry