Spiritual connection to land

[Immanenz]

It may make sense if you apply it to phobia of spiders, snakes or heights, but I don't think you can apply genetic memory to a "spiritual" attachment to an area. Personally I feel a "connection" (not spiritual though) in the city where I grew up and spent my childhood. In the city of my mother or father I feel like an alien, the landscape is different, the dialect and accent are different, the people are different.

it might be something more analogous to "introvert sensing" in connection with "introvert feeling" (the myers briggs psychological functions)- sharing some connection with your ancestors through land (visiting where they lived etc.) but also through tradition

[Aila]

"And into the forest I go,
to lose my mind & find my soul."

John Muir

[Aila]

Do you believe in it?

Family members of mine (who aren't 'spiritual' types) have often said they felt something when they visited certain historical battlefields in Europe, and more broadly parts of England/Ireland when they've been there. Certain landscapes of the British Isles are also evocative for me. By contrast I've been struck by a lack of any spiritual connection to the Australian landscape/countryside. Beyond the sights and smells I'm accustomed to and feel like home, from my perspective it feels as though the land is completely spiritually empty, as though nobody ever lived here before Whites, despite that I know it's been inhabited for tens of thousands of years. I suppose Aborigines would feel differently towards it (if they have any complex emotions), so if this spiritual connection to land exists, it's very much ethnic/ancestral based, some kind of ancestral memory perhaps.

What do you think?

It is such a long time ago when I saw the documentary “Putuparri and the Rainmakers”, that the only thing I remembered of it (& which other indigenous peoples might also be able to relate to) … was when after the rain dance, they had to split – real fast - because the rain, the thunder and the lightning will come for you …
(If you have ever experienced it, then you know it to be real)



By registering on “SBS On Demand”, I was able to watch it again and thought of this thread since the documentary gives a good insight into Aboriginal culture, art and into the connection to the land.