Theory: We are born with anger. It’s what you do with it that matters.
“We are born ‘boss of self’. We walk our journey boss of self. So take your power, walk your talk, seek your truth and be your journey, and hopefully when you die, you die boss of self.”
In her book “Under the quandong tree” Aboriginal senior woman, educator and healer Minmia who was, “born down the line to carry traditional women’s lore/law of the Wirradjirri people”, tells the stories of the Dreamtime through the feminine perspective. Feminine and masculine must never be confused with female and male, we ALL contain BOTH. All of creation contains BOTH, and the wisdom is for men and women equally. Indigenous culture believes in the different roles of men and women, for men to be men and women to be women, endearing part of these roles as “secret men’s business” and “secret women’s business”, neither interfering with the other, but respecting one another as sacred and equal. The specific reference to masculine & feminine in the blog are my spin as they directly relate. Minmia’s teachings speak to the feminine wisdom within each of us, that is our emotional, receptive and intuitive intelligence, which is enjoying a great strengthening in this current stage of planetary evolution. With people reaching more and more to understand the energetic undercurrents of our existence, the stories of creation that come from the Dreamtime, which are simultaneously our most ancient indigenous culture, and timeless wisdom that is relevant to today, are available for us to embrace & work with to assist our enlightenment, and in turn teach others, especially our children.
With this in mind I am going to share the story of The Rainbow Serpent. It is the story of creation and is relevant to everyone regardless of your origins or culture, there are however similar stories in other indigenous cultures. Most commonly if we are aware of stories of creation we are aware from the masculine perspective, which is the action and physical, development perspective. According to The Dreamtime we have spent the last 5000 years in the masculine or physical development of evolution, or ‘Dreaming Track’, and we have now however entered into the dreaming track of Higher Spiritual Consciousness. Just looking back over history with a broader perspective we can see this is truth. The rapid development of Earth has been through industry and technology, interestingly as it is shifting to higher spiritual consciousness some of us are still squandering worse than we ever have in history. But learning is like that. Things often get worse before they get better. When we make sure we are ‘boss of self’ we take full responsibility for our contribution to all life on planet earth, most importantly the mother herself. A journey that MUST begin WITHIN and how we think and feel, as this will directly impact whether we act or react.
The Rainbow Serpent is known as the first born in the story of creation. The Dreamtime teaches that creation began in Australia. The traditional name of The Creator is “Biami“, Mother Earth is “Nungeena-tya” (nun-jee-na-tia), Sun is “Uri“, Moon is “Bahloo“, our higher self is called “Miwi“.
CREATION
Biami reached into Himself and took from His own essence and breathed life across the land and this became Nungeena-tya, the first feminine essence. He fell in love with this spirit and fertilised her seed with light. Then He sat, with sacred spear and boomerang, in front of the fire at His cave, in the most sacred place, waiting for the first born to come from Nungeena-tya, waiting for the first born to come from her womb.
The first born was the Rainbow Serpent. This giant was actually two serpents that were joined together. On realising that they were joined to each other, the serpents began desperately trying to pull themselves apart. One became enraged at being attached to his brother, he was furious and his breath became fire and so anger was born. The second one, as he watched his brother suffering and struggling, cried tears for his brother’s anguish and so compassion was born.
Immediately they were born, they started to tug and pull and tried to jerk apart, each trying to take control. They wove themselves around and in their thrashing formed the valleys, mountains, rivers and lakes that we know today. Anger’s breath became so hot and the flames so fiery that one day his breath formed a ball of fire which floated to the sky to become Uri, the sun, as we know it today.
Biami was so concerned for the suffering and destruction the serpent was causing that He tried desperately to pacify the first born by building His fire up higher and higher. And when it died down, He would build it up higher and higher; and when it died down again, He would build it up higher and higher again. Then one night a fireball from His fire floated into the sky to become, as we know it, Bahloo (the moon) – maker of girl babies. To this day Bahloo’s fire dies down and dies out and disappears and comes back to life again and again.
Biami realised the first born was destroying Creation as fast as it appeared. For as one serpent’s breath was becoming so violently hot that it scorched everything, the other one’s tears started to fill all the gullies, filling them more and more and more. So Biami, with great sadness, sent out two warriors – each armed with the sacred spear, the men’s ceremonial spear – saying, ‘You must slay the first born.’ They did and, the first born died, falling across the land, giving it all the colours as we know them today, death was born. All the colours went into the land to honour the Rainbow Serpent forever more.
Biami felt much pain in His heart, knowing that He had slain the first born and in doing so brought death upon His teaching place. He said to the rest of Creation, ‘Whenever you see the breath of fire and the tears of the first born together, look up. It’s spirit will be cast across the sky to remind us, for all of eternity, that it was the first born.’ So what happens when you’ve got sun and rain together? A rainbow – the honouring of the first born.
The seed of Creation had already been spread from Biami so all the rest of Creation was born into the chaos of the first-born. In this teaching we didn’t come from a serpent or a monkey. Biami gave us the breath of life, our Miwi, which is eternal. That is why we will be forever because we are His essence. We are also of the Earth, of Nungeena-tya that came from his essence. We all inherited anger and compassion from the first-born. And not just humanity either, but trees, animals and everything that is living struggles with this inheritance. We came after the serpent, and we were born with the serpent’s emotions. So people who’ve spent their entire lives feeling guilty about being angry, you can now toss it because it’s OK to be angry. It’s what you do with that anger that either destroys or creates.
For example, if we accept that anger is part of who we are, when we recognise we are angry we have a chance to construct, dig, build, and carry heavy burdens with the strength that anger builds within us. Likewise too much compassion, and we drown in it. To have compassion is to give, tend and nurture, but in our perfectly imperfect state, this can leave too little for ourselves and resentment grows and we become angry. So compassion can be as destructive as anger in a different kind of way. To become whole we have to constantly strive to balance anger with compassion. All the emotions were born as a direct result of these two emotions. From anger has come all the negative emotions and from compassion has emerged all the positive emotions and there lies our struggle for balance. Only when we can meet a stage in our lifetimes when our intimacy with all these emotions is complete can we then transcend them to become like our creator. Some call this ‘enlightenment’.”
What we learn here by Minmia’s teaching is invaluable for our growth. Anger and compassion are both noun & verb, as we become conscious of them they begin as concepts, but ultimately they are living breathing feelings we have within that are fuel for action or destruction depending on how we use them. Once we’ve achieved intimacy with all of our emotions it’s compassion that we are aiming for above all others, but we will never not experience anger. Healthy anger is the emotion that sets and upholds our boundaries, it is the fuel in our motion forward, the direction we are all travelling whether we like it or not. Healthy compassion comes when we are in full acceptance of ourselves and is the fuel in our ability to be of assistance to ourselves and others who are in need. Intimacy with our emotions also brings deeper consciousness, which ensures we are creating the world that we WANT to experience.
Some tips for working with anger & assisting with compassion: –
When we feel angry we can bring balance by asking ourselves internal questions like; “How can I factor in more compassion to the situation?” The compassion may be of most importance towards ourselves. If we can allow compassion to seep in and help us find acceptance for the way we are feeling we have taken the first step towards finding a resolution. Our compassion can help us to remember that anger has a positive side and with compassion’s help we can achieve our needs and desires in a much healthier, more mature and less painful way, without karmic repercussion.
If we are compassionate to a fault and being taken advantage of, or leaving ourselves feeling resentment when our giving is not appreciated, then we can bring balance by first of all asking ourselves “What are my needs?” followed by “How can I apply healthy constructive anger to the situation to help me take responsibility and ensure my needs are included?”
For more information about Minmia go to her website minmia.com.au
