On our planet can be found locations which some people call 'power places', where there seems to exist a strong energy - a spiritual, transcendental kind of energy which one may not be able to put one's finger on, but which can definitely be felt. Perhaps these places can function as a gateway to what Carl Gustav Jung termed the Collective Unconscious with its archetypes and 'memories' which reach deep down into the whole history of humankind, perhaps even into the history of animalkind and the origins and evolution of being itself. Often one can experience a timelessness in such places, a connectedness to all, where present melts with past and future and where the normal labels and demarcations we use in everyday life carry little meaning.
One such power place is Hanging Rock in the state of Victoria in Australia. It is a sacred site for Wurunjderi, Dja Dja Warrung, and Taunarung people. I shall refer to Australian Aborigines as First Nations people, as it is the name they give themselves rather than a term Europeans came up with. First Nations people are said to have referred to Hanging Rock by the name of Ngannelong. Sacred ceremonies such as Ngargee ceremonies (corroborees), meditations and initiations have taken place there for at least 26'000 years, closer to 40'000.
First Nations people see themselves as custodians of the land: the land belongs to nobody; we can share what it gives us so abundantly and in return we should take care of it by living in harmony with nature and the other creatures who are equal beings of different form to us. In return for the bountiful gifts and life the earth grants us, we should live according to the ancient, natural laws handed down by the spirit ancestors, take only that which we need and keep the land intact for generations to come. - Their idea of living on earth is far removed from that of our modern societies, which have no compunction about ruthlessly exploiting the planet and its myriad of species for short-term greed. There was a prevalent notion held by white people which considered First Nations people to be of lesser intelligence to themselves - a primitive people. Ironically, unlike the colonialists and constant stream of new settlers from around the globe, these 'primitive people' managed to live for tens of thousands of years on the Australian continent before the arrival of white man without causing mass destruction of the land and the rapid extinction of countless species. From 1901, when the Australian constitution came into effect, till 1971, First Nations people were not even counted as members of Australia's population.
Hanging Rock is shrouded in mystery even today, not least due to Peter Weir's gem of a film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, which takes us back to Colonial Australia. It is based on Joan Lindsay's classic novel in which a group of adolescent school girls of a prestigious boarding school for young ladies and one of their teachers disappear without a trace during a picnic at Hanging Rock on a magnificent, hot summer's day - on Valentine's Day 1900. The film is an intriguing, multilayered, poetic masterpiece of the Australian New Wave Cinema, indeed of Cinema worldwide. It can be watched for free here: https://archive.org/details/picnic-at-hanging-rock-1975
And with this link you can go to a second short excerpt of my work Transfigured Moment. It features a magpie whom I recorded at Warburton in Victoria. A very special person and friend of mine lived there. He could communicate with birds and other animals. This magpie and his mate used to visit him frequently in the beautiful bush surroundings and sing for him... and for me on that particular day. Australia is inhabited by a great variety of amazing birds who produce a stunning array of songs and sounds. Magpies truly are voice gymnasts among them.
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I took this photograph at Hanging Rock.