Chapter One Introduction

Chapter One Introduction Many ordinary people, as in centuries past, still tell various stories with elements ofthe operation of grace, the inexplicable, or the mysterious, in an attempt - albeit unconscious - to define the relationship that exists between themselves and the quality ofthe numinous sensed in the world around them. Such fabulations have helped to define the infinite ways in which humankind views itself as a species, in relation to the many other (known) forms of life also in existence around them. The field of Mythology has long provided archetypes for imaginings of deities and given us fabulous creatures that have, doubtless, fired the imagination ofall the generations of humankind from before any recorded history. In one respect, these stories would seem to provide evidence of a human search for other life forms of intelligence and imagination, certain beings with whom some form of communication or communion may occur. l Usually, mainstream religions have frowned upon such communication with non- human! non-rational creatures and with the multitudes of spirits and deities that have been reported in myths and legends the world over. 2 Yet these attempts at dialogue with the unseen occur persistently in oral tales ofmany kinds. That so many ofthese stories have their origin in the human search for a deeper understanding ofthe realms ofthe unexplained, and in the mysteries of the human condition seems quite evident, as does their catalysing contribution to the growth of the great religions..) The fact that these stories ofhumans communicating with otherworldly beings do exist, and that some are believed to be true, indicates a human interest in or need for such unconventional interaction, whether for support or for special purposes such as receiving hitherto unknown information. Carl Jung himself claimed to have met an inner teacher named Philemon, and says 'Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there were things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life', quoted in Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy Jesus and the Goddess: the secret teachings ofthe Original Christians, Thorsons, 2002, p. 120. 2 It is believed that such interactions with these creatures may tempt people into some evil, or otherwise lead to their downfall, since, as the apostle Paul has said, 'even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light', Ho~v Bible, RSV, Holman, Philadelphia, 1962,2 Cor. 11: 14. 3 It may be said that it is the religious systems which have come into existence as the result of an attempt to provide some sense oforder to human affairs, acting as a buffer against the Chaos that is always perceived to be waiting beyond the daylight, ready to engulf the elements that have gone into creating conscious human Perhaps, in a sense, it might also be that the religious systems which have come into being give some greater notion oforder to human affairs, while stories about human interactions with the divine and concerning the mysterious provide a range of possible answers. The role played by these stories ofthe unusual unknown is also of considerable importance in other areas ofhuman life, for the richly textured history and cultural insights that they provide to the human mind, as it seeks even now still to make greater sense ofthe physical universe through the exploratory notions inherent in the investigations of science and philosophy. This thesis is intended to be a reflective, ifsomewhat general, study ofconcepts that occur in certain specific types of stories, those dealing with creatures and phenomena that are noted with a sense ofawe and which would appear to carry something of a mystical quality, their tellers somehow seeking to understand more fully the role ofthe spirit, ofthe numinous in particular places, and ofall aspects ofthe divine, however intuited or perceived, in the causation ofjoy and of suffering in their own lives. Countless phenomena associated with the numinosity ofotherworldly beings have been reported through the ages. Some ofthese have been considered as monsters, some as friends, and all ofthem have remained mysterious or ambiguous in their significance. Two pertinent questions flow from this: why have we as a species constructed such beings, and what have we learned about ourselves and our environment by so doing? The primary means of seeking to answer these questions is to consider some ofthese stories (the landscape/ sense of place and ofthe numinous), ofwhat may be termed 'creatures and spirits', and the manner in which they have been constructed, and to identify some ofthe purposes behind such constructions.4 To that end, newer reports of contacts and interactions between humans and other creatures or strange phenomena may be considered, as well as more traditional and older stories. civilisation. 4 A Social Constructivist approach will be helpful in studying some ofthese 'humanly constructed realities', or rather 'unrealities', Richard Hoggart in John R. Searle, The Construction ofSocial RealiZv, Penguin, London, 1995. 2 The main focus ofthe content to be studied here will be that which has to do with Australia, although some possible analogues to the core oftales in other countries and cultures will also be considered. Prehistorians currently believe that all modem humans originated in Africa,5 these subsequently spreading out into the world with their developing languages, religions and stories, all already undergoing certain often subtle/ regional variations as soon as new experience created fresh viewpoints, each group in isolation from the others.6 As these groups ofearly humans travelled they would meet others, Neanderthals and, possibly, other species.7 With these ideas may have been exchanged, thus further shaping their own views of their environment with all its diversity.8 The telling of such stories is an important means ofconstructing the reality in which human beings dwell and function. 9 As the Earth's environment has been felt to be alive with a sense of potential immanence or Presence, so has this quality been perceived and interpreted by many people as consisting ofenergies either positive or negative, benign or threatening. These energies are seen as being forces or spirits ofone kind or another, which can in some way affect 5 Stephen Jay Gould, Life's Grandeur: the Spread ofExcellencefrom Plato to Darwin, Vintage, London, 1996, p.216. 6 An example ofthis might be the proposed existence of the Proto-Indo-European language, which evolved into the various Indo-European languages including Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, as its speakers moved into different geographical regions. It has been suggested that Proto-Indo-European may have originated in Anatolia around 6,000 BC, in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Ed. Tom McArthur, entry entitled 'Indo European Languages' by Whitney F. Bolton, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992, pp. 512 - 514. Marija Gimbutas views the Neolithic Kurgan culture ofthe Volga Basin in South Russia, whose features go back to the 7th and 6th millennia B.C., as 'Proto-Indo-European', and as the invaders who put an end to Old European culture, as discussed in The Language ofthe Goddess, Thames and Hudson, London, 1989, p. xx. J.S. Ryan, on page 3 ofhis Australian Folklore and Folk Speech Study Guide, U.N.E., Armidale, 200 I, notes that the Grimm brothers aimed 'to trace preserved archaic customs and beliefs to their remote origins in order to thus trace the mental history of mankind'. It is believed by many that folk stories spread throughout the world by a process of dispersion, as the cultures evolved, where distance enabled separate development. 7 James Shreeve discusses this in The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery ofModern Human Origins, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1996, p. 112: 'Gunter Brauer's 'hybridization and replacement model' states that modem humans originated in Africa and migrated out, replacing archaic populations in Europe and Asia, but not without interbreeding with them. Fred Smith's 'assimilation' theory also suggests that the genetic change that produced modem human anatomy happened first in Africa. But this development later spread to other parts ofthe Old World through gene flow among populations, not through the replacement of one kind of human by another.' Species such as homo erectus and the newly discovered homofloresiensis will be discussed later, in Chapter Seven, Yowies. 8 A. C. Baugh and T. Cable, A History ofthe English Language, 4th Ed., Routledge, London, 1994, pp. 16 - 39. 9 Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann have discussed this concept at length in their important book The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology ofKnowledge, Penguin, London, 1966, where they consider, among other concepts, the way in which Symbolic Universes are created, 'constructed by means of social objectivations' and providing 'order for the subjective apprehension of biological experience.' Even realities of'marginal situations' are usefully incorporated 'within the paramount reality of everyday life', pp. 114- 115. 3 most/ all people's lives. When the perception is of positive energies, we find stories of such beings as angels, good fairies and light elves, and positive nature spirits associated with a particular place or event. The perception ofnegative energies in stories gives us fallen angels, bad fairies and dark elves, and negative nature spirits, these usually associated with a specific place or event. The religious idea ofour fallen nature, coupled with that ofthe inevitable punishment for sin and the experience ofbeing unable to be perfect, (i.e. free ofsin) further intensifies feats ofthe human imagination in connection with supernatural forces and events. 10 Our fear-fuelled imagination then gives us demons, vampires, and other monsters which we - as Western Christians - can then connect very easily with our traditional religious ideas about hell and damnation.

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