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The Australian Aboriginal people have the oldest continuing culture on this planet! A very child orientated culture, their ways of bringing children up were such they allowed children full expression of the range of emotions from joy to anger, with tolerance and full acceptance. This article speaks of pregnancy in particular, and generically. There were differences between different areas within Australia.

Aboriginal people believed the unborn child made their presence felt spiritually before conception - either in the form of a dream, vision, unusual occurrence, or a sickness after eating a particular food.

Mistletoe, found globally, is a fascinating symbol of co-adaptation between plants and seed spreading birds and animals. The mistletoe is a parasitic plant that attaches itself to certain trees and relies upon the mistletoe bird to eat its fruit and pass the seeds. It was believed by some tribal groups that the red flower of the mistletoe represented the blood of unborn children. If a woman wished to become pregnant, she would stand under the mistletoe so a spirit child would drop' into her. Very similar to the Western belief of standing under the mistletoe at Christmas for a kiss!

The quickening, the first movements of the unborn child felt by the mother, has significance in many, many cultures. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians and American Indians to the more recent streams of Theosophy and Spiritual Sciences believe that this is the time the spirit or soul enters the fetus. In Aboriginal culture, the location in which the quickening is experienced becomes a power spot for the unborn child within the context of the Dreaming lore.

Crow is the trickster in the Dreaming, and he brings the naughty children!

You might regard where the quickening of your child was first felt in a new light... how could this area be a power place for your child? Was it somewhere special like a place in nature? It might be a challenge to see this place as special if it was somewhere mundane, like a room in a house, or at the local grocer's. The challenge here, as we all want something "special" for our children, is to tune into the earth energies - maybe this place was a sacred place for native people of eons ago... or maybe the symbol of where is apt IN a modern context - does this place provide sustenance (the grocers!), or rest (a bedroom in the house, dreaming)... eg.

My son's quickening was in a car out the front of a newsagents in the outback country town of Tambo... so I see that as he will be involved with news or communication somehow - bringing something new in, bringing together old (rural/outback) ideas into a new format... travel might be part of his Dreaming as I was "on the road"... My sharing here is to kickstart your own little power place Dreaming for your child!

I hope this article was interesting for you. :)

Learn more about this author, Donni Hakanson.
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