From Shunned: The Hidden History of the Original Australians, written by Steven and Evan Strong. Chapter Nine: A Nation of Adams and Eves ... ... ... In the dreaming, death is a means to an end, and the opportunity to be reborn, in body and soul, into the tribe and land. A report, collated by A. P. Elkin, still remains the only authenticated testimony that describes the events involved in the making of a Clever-fella. ... This account, the only one of medicine men and their making has been published with the willing assistance of Unagarinyin elder David Mowaldjali. ... The rai (spirits of the dead) are very discerning about the type of person they consider eligible, accepting only someone who is discreet, poised, and firm; he is not a troublemaker but has good sense and is trusted by the rai. The initiate was considered suitable for elevation to the status of cleber if they were deemed to be of good character, possessed of appropriate knowledge and wore the insignia of scars which displays a proper degree of initiation. The process of further initiation, however, involved a test of fortitude and excursion into mustical realms that no one could be guaranteed to pass or even survive. There they cut him up and hung up his insides (intestines, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys). His body is dead, but his soul remains there, and on the order of the rai to look steadily at the part hanging up, he recognises them. His body is put over a hot earth-oven, with magic cooking stones in it, and covered with paper-bark. The rai then replace his insides and close up the flesh. He is told that he can henceforth travel in the air like a bird or under the ground like a goanna. Actually he is sleeping in one place while travelling in the mind, for his spirit became many. ... The death Mowaldjali spoke of is transformational, but in his case the knowledge remains intact, and the contact with the Dreaming is constant. Once permanently straddling this divide there are no questions or limitations. This type of transformation goes beyond the bounds of normal reality. ... T. G. H. Strehlow conducted an interview tih one of the last of the Western Aranda medicine men ... This Clever-fella was a person of impeccable character and dignity, and most assuredly a man of high degree, who had no understanding of what a lie was or is. Despite all the qualifications and meritorious deeds he brought to his initiation, the real and present danger was so tangible and overwhelming when standing at this acred site, he admitted to once running away in terror from the grimness of the ordeal. ... Once leaving the site the danger immediately disappeared, and only when he summoned up his courage by making his way back to this acred place, did the fear and his inner battle return. ... When the initiate returns as a fully ordained Clever-fella/woman, it is through this dream or trance experience, Mowaldjali says the trainees mind is being conditioned. He is being shown in his mind what to do. And by his total experience and training he is set aside, ordained, as we might say; he becomes an expert. The death spoken of is real in every sense, while the accompanying dismemberment could be a metaphor that describes the process by which every fibre of the postulants being is remade and reinvigorated. According to Original mythology and doctors, each organ has a spiritual allegiance which needs to be purged of all negativity. Once this is done the individual organ can regain its pristine form so that it can relay and amplify the powers and wisdom first discovered when cast into this suspended state. If the body is allowed to remain in a spiritually polluted condition, upon returning to the flesh the messages from the Dreaming will be confused: as is the norm with a large percentage of near-death experiences. For any wishing to become clever their body must be made anew, the organs revitalised, sacred objects inserted, and then, if the spirits feel the novice is of exceptional character, brought back to the material realm with one task. His or her role is to act as a beacon and conduit, to throw light for those whose vision is unclear, and give inspiration and substance drawn from the Dreaming.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 23:54:50 +0000
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