This excerpt was taken from The Secret Language of the Soul : A visual guide to the spiritual world, by Jane Hope, with the permission from the publisher, Chronicle Books.

When European settlers first entered the Australian heartlands, they found a featureless landscape as desolate as the surface of the Moon. The Aboriginals who inhabited this "hell on Earth" were viewed by the newcomers as a "Stone-Age race", unable to adapt to modern life. As knowledge of their beliefs and customs has grown, however, the Aboriginals are increasingly seen as a people who have retained a rare and important respect for the land, founded upon spiritual belief. Today, their relationship with the planet is studied by many who wish to connect with the Earth's primordial forces.

The Aboriginals believe that the world was initially unformed and featureless. Then, in the deep mythic past, during a time known as the Dreaming, Dreamtime or Creation period, the Sky Heroes appeared and lived on the Earth. These ancestors journeyed across the world, forming and naming every mountain, plain, river, tree, insect and animal, They also created the souls of every individual. The Sky Heroes left numinous traces of their presence in landscape, which are constant reminders of the world's sacredness. One of the most famous sites in Australia is Ayers Rock, or Uluru as the tribal people know it. This vast landmark is a monument to an epic battle between two tribes of Sky Heroes, the Liru (Poisonous Snake People) and the Kunia (Carpet Snake People). Every shape, mark, hollow and boulder was formed as a result of this battle: three rock holes show where Ungata leader of the Kunia people, died; the water that down the rock face is Ungata's blood; the severed nose the Liru warrior Kulikitjeri has metamorphosed into a boulder; three vertical gashes on the eastern rock face record the wounds inflicted on Kulikitjeri by Liru a cave complex on the rock is the womb and vulva of Bulari Minma who gave birth at the height of the battle; her child laces as the entrance as a large stone.

There are many Sky Heroes, but the most important is the Rainbow Serpent- often depicted swallowing people and then regurgitating them in a transformed state as features in the landscape. The theme of swallowing and regurgitation is symbolic of the transition from one state to another and is often built into rituals to aid the transportation of the initiate to a higher spiritual level. The holy men of the Aboriginals used to undergo terrifying and painful initiation ceremonies, in which their bodies were scarred and pierced by pieces of rock crystal.. They risked death at the hands of the spirits and went on long periods of meditation in the outback. Empowered by such spiritual practices, they were able to serve as a contact between their people and the spirit realm.

All Aboriginals, however, can connect with the spirits by undertaking the Dream Journey. The journey's origins may like in migratory hunting practices, but on a ritual level it is a way of renewing self-contact, the identity of the land being inseparable from personal identity. By visiting sacred places, known as hotspots, travelers repeat the world-creating events of the original Dreaming. The hotspots, often waterholes, mark the places where the Rainbow Serpent re-entered the Earth.

The Dreaming can also be recalled through rituals, performed on any piece of land. During these ceremonies, the men chant in a circle to the accompaniment of eerie rhythmic music. The chants invoke the names and feats of the Sky Heroes, and continue until the spiritual energy is strong. Dancers then appear and re-enact the events of the Dreaming. At this point, all the participants in the ritual are said to have become Sky Heroes and, in that joyous and ecstatic state, are able to take part in the original mythic creation of the world. In recent years environmental pressures have forced human kind to reassess its treatment of the planet. As we search for a sane and sustainable way of using resources, the ancient knowledge of the Aboriginals- that we are custodians of the Earth-is gaining recognition as a spiritually informed approach from which we can all learn.